Rain

The sounds of sirens mingled with stranger's worried voices as she struggled to make sense of the scene around her. A shoe -- her shoe -- lay in the intersection and raindrops clung to her fingertips before falling away. She felt a strong pair of arms embracing her, holding her as the sirens grew closer. She couldn't see his face, but she knew he was the one she had been running from when she veered in front of that car. Who was he, really? The mysterious benefactor who had been appearing and then disappointingly disappearing through most of her life...who was he? She wanted to turn to look him in the eye but she couldn't, and the rain fell softly now. Everything seemed to be slowing down. The sirens faded and she reluctantly closed her eyes, not sure whether she'd ever open them again.

Rain is a fictional story of reflection in which memories return to a coma patient as she remembers childhood challenges and setbacks, the joys of starting a family of her own, and the heart-breaking twists and turns of a too-short life. It is the story of one girl's journey through an overburdened system that largely fails her, of her resilience and refusal to give up, and her discovery that family really is forever.