Silicon Valley Sweetheart (11 page)

M
ark had been visiting
me every day since my accident. I treasured the time we spent together.

I could tell by the sound of his footsteps Mark was coming into my room. The smell of flowers told me he had brought me another bouquet. I have no idea how many bunches of flowers he’d brought, but it reminded me of the Conservatory of Flowers. He brought lilies this time. The aroma was lovely.

“Hi, Mark,” said a voice that I recognized as one of my nurses. “Another bouquet! Those are pretty flowers. We’re going to run out of places to put them!” The nurse giggled a little.

Mark pushed a couple bouquets aside to make room for the flowers.

“Thank you. It’s kind of silly. The first night I met Shirin, I tried to ask her out, and she shot me down. She said, ‘I’m a take-me-to-dinner, buy-me-flowers, and get-to-know-me’ kind of girl.’ She asked for flowers…” his voice trailed off.

“That’s very nice of you. I’m sure she would be appreciative.”

I could tell Mark wanted to ask the nurse something, but he wasn’t sure how to phrase it.

“Nurse, can I ask you something?” Mark’s voice was strangely cautious.

“Sure.”

“I was looking on the Internet and I found a lot of articles about people who were in comas who were able to hear and understand everything that was going on around them. They just couldn’t move. Do you think it’s possible Shirin knows what’s going on?”

“I don’t know, Mark. But if she is aware, I’m sure she appreciates your thoughtfulness and how much time you’re spending with her. I’ll leave you two alone.” The nurse walked out of the room.

Mark sat back down in the chair and grabbed my hand. His hands felt warm. Soft.

“Come on, babe. You can pull out of this. You’ve worked so hard to achieve your dream of going to Stanford. You’re doing it. Don’t give up now.”

Even though I wasn’t able to see him, I could feel him looking at me. It felt like his gaze was entering my soul.

Suddenly, I felt my fingers begin to twitch. Mark jumped up, shocked by my sudden movement.

“Nurse! Nurse!” he shouted. “Nurse, come quick!”

“What is it, Mark?” the nurse who had been in the room earlier asked.

“Her hand... it moved! Look at her fingers. I felt her fingers move!”

Mark sounded so excited.

I felt my finger twitch again.

“I think you’re right. There was a little twitch,” the nurse said.

“She’s waking up! She’s waking up!” Mark exclaimed with excitement.

“I need you to calm down, Mark. I’ll call her doctor,” the nurse said calmly. “We don’t know that yet. We need to have the doctor examine her.”

It seemed like it took forever for the doctor to arrive.

“Doctor, I’m so glad you’re here. I felt her fingers move!” Mark exclaimed.

“I understand you’re excited. Let me take a look.”

I couldn’t detect any positiveness in the doctor’s voice.

The doctor began to examine me.

“She’s going to be ok, right? She’s coming out of the coma, isn’t she?” Mark’s voice conveyed how much he cared about me.

“Mark, this isn’t like the movies. A person doesn’t just suddenly wake up from a coma like nothing ever happened. Coming out of a coma can be a long, slow process. Sometimes, it starts with the twitch of a finger or a squeeze of the hand.”

“So, she’s coming out, right?”

“She might be. It may also just be a reflex response that doesn’t have any significant meaning at all. If she is coming out of the coma, it can sometimes take days or weeks. And, like we talked about before, it’s possible that she may never come out of the state she is in. It’s too soon to tell.”

Mark sat back down in the chair next to me and grabbed my hand again. I could tell he felt deflated.

“I don’t care what they say. I know you’re coming out of this. Come on. You can do it! You know I’m here waiting for you.”

As he sat there watching me, I could feel my eyes begin to twitch. I knew I was beginning to come out of this.

I
opened my eyes
. I was finally coming out of the coma I had been in. The first thing I could see was a sea of flowers. I couldn’t believe how many bouquets Mark had bought. It reminded me of the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park we had gone to.

“Your eyes are open!” Mark exclaimed, lightly kissing me on the cheek.

He turned to the nurse who had just entered the room. “Nurse, she’s awake! Look, her eyes are open!”

The nurse looked at me. “Hi, I’m Theresa. I’m the nurse who has been taking care of you.” She said this as though I had no idea what had happened. “I’ll call the doctor,” she said, scurrying off.

Mark looked at me, “I can’t believe it. You’re finally awake.”

He must have seen my confusion in my face.

“It’s ok. You’ve been in an accident. The ambulance brought you to Stanford Hospital. You’ve been in a coma for the past four weeks.”

It was hard to speak at first. “You brought me all these flowers?”

Mark bent down to kiss me. “Yes, I did. You told me you were a ‘buy me flowers’ kind of girl” he smiled. “Well, here are your flowers!”

I smiled back.

It was a relief to finally be able to move and open my eyes. I felt very weak, though.

I still didn’t fully understand how I ended up in the hospital.

“What happened? Why am I here?”

“You were in a hit-and-run car accident. The police are still trying to figure out what happened… As far as the police can tell, a blue car veered into your lane. The police said there were skid marks that showed you tried to avoid the collision by veering away from the oncoming car.”

It was weird. I couldn’t remember anything about the accident. The last thing I remembered before seeing bright lights heading toward me was leaving Mark’s house after the Big Game. Some time later, I knew I was in a hospital, unable to move.

“The other car hit your left headlight and fender. The police said it’s a good thing the other car didn’t hit you head on. They think you were hit at about 55 mph. At that speed, most people don’t make it.”

So that’s what the lights were.

“I’m going to call my dad,” Mark said.

“Dad, Shirin’s awake!” I had never seen him this excited. “Yes, she’s really awake!”

“Ok. I’ll see you in a little while.”

F
red entered
my room carrying a bouquet of roses. I smiled at him when I saw him.

“I have no idea where you are going to put those,” I laughed, pointing to all the other flowers on the counter. “You’ll need to make room over there.”

Fred just smiled. “I see. There are a lot of flowers. I’ll just see if I can set them right here.” He rearranged several vases to make room for the flowers he had brought.

“It’s good to see you,” I said.

“Yes, it’s good to see, you, too,” Fred said, sitting down.

I was happy to see he hadn’t brought Brenda with him. I wasn’t sure whether I was going to tell them I knew about Brenda showing Fred the emails from my iPad. It’s unbelievable I was so stupid as to have left the message that I sent to Emily on there. I should have known Brenda hadn’t actually had a sudden change of heart the night of our engagement party when she was so nice to me. It was all an act. I should have seen she was up to something when she insisted I pull out my iPad.

Mark pulled over a chair from the corner for Fred. The two Woodham men sat down next to me.

“How are you feeling, Shirin?” Fred asked.

“Weak. But I’m very happy to be awake.”

I felt a sudden knot in my stomach when I thought about school. How was I going to pass any of my classes having missed all of this time?

“When can I get out of here? I need to get back to school.”

“Don’t worry, Shirin. You’ll be back to school when the doctor says you are ready,” Mark tried to reassure me.

“But, do my professors know? What are they going to think of me having been out this long? I’m going to fail all of my classes.”

Mark could tell I was panicking.

“Shhh... Don’t worry.” Mark tried to reassure me. “Abbey helped me speak to all of your professors. As soon as you get back, they will let you make up the work you missed.”

I sure hoped he was right. I didn’t want to miss an entire quarter of credit because of this accident.

“Shirin, I wasn’t going to share this with you, yet,” Fred said. “But, since you brought up your schooling, as you recall, I’m an alum of Stanford. We’ve been very supportive of Stanford’s engineering program. Woodham Industries has provided several large grants over the years.

I’ve spoken to the department head, and they have agreed to let you test out of a certain number of classes so that you can graduate early. I know that you’ve already mastered many of the concepts in the curriculum. I think that would be best for you.”

“Are you sure I know enough to be able to do that?”

“Yes, Shirin, I’m sure. You know far more than you give yourself credit for. But, we don’t have to think about this now. Right now, what is most important is that you get better. You need to focus on getting strong so you can get out of the hospital.”

“OK, I will.”

“I need to get going now,” Fred said. “I’m really happy to see you.”

“Me, too,” I smiled.

I’d heard about other students testing out of some of their courses. Usually, though, it was because they had taken a course at a different school, and Stanford wouldn’t accept the transfer credit. I’m not sure how many people tested for credit so they could graduate early.

That seemed tentative to me. How would my professors respond if I tried to test out and failed the test? I’d definitely have to think about that.

I
t had been
several days since I had woken up from my coma. I was ready to get out of the hospital, but my doctor said I needed to stay a few more days. Mark was attentive the whole time. He spent every minute he could with me.

We both looked up as Fred entered the room.

“How’s our girl feeling today?” he asked, kissing me on the cheek.

“Good. I’m ready to go home. How was your trip to Houston?”

“It was good. The tests went very well. Doctors are not as worried as they once were.”

“Do you know what that means?” Mark asked.

“Well, we’ll have to wait and see. The tumors are still there, but they are not increasing in size any longer, which is a good sign.”

Fred looked pensive. There was an uncomfortable silence between the two Woodham men.

“Mark and Shirin, we need to talk.”

Uh oh, “we need to talk” is never a good sign,
I thought.

Fred began to speak.

“Shirin, you may not be aware that I know you and Mark faked your engagement. I waited until you were awake to have this conversation.”

My stomach tightened as he spoke.

“Mark, it doesn’t make me happy that you thought you needed to deceive me, but after our talk, I understand why you did it.”

Mark and I both took a really deep breath.

“First of all, I wanted to let you both know that I have decided not to sell the company.”

I was a little surprised Fred wanted to have this conversation with me there. If he believed that Mark and I didn’t have feelings for one another, why wouldn’t he have this conversation privately with Mark?

“And most importantly, Mark, I forgive you.”

Relief washed across Mark’s face.

“Thank you,” Mark said, with a lump in his throat. He stood up and tightly hugged his dad.

After they had embraced, Fred looked over at me.

“I’m sure you are wondering why I am having this conversation with you both.”

I nodded.

He continued. “Shirin, I don’t know what your reasons for agreeing to this arrangement were, but I suspect you must have had a very good reason to be part of this.”

I looked down. I felt a huge pang of guilt in my stomach.

“I know I disappointed you. Please let me explain…”

Fred listened to me intently.

“Mark and I met in a nightclub my last night in New York. He asked me out, but I blew him off.

“When I got home, my uncle got so mad at me for being out late without his permission that he kicked me out of his house. He then went on to steal all the money I had in my checking account, and somehow he managed to get both my scholarship and financial-aid revoked.

“I found myself at the airport with nothing but a plane ticket to San Francisco and the clothes in my suitcases. I got on the plane not knowing what I was going to do next.”

Fred remained calm. I went on.

“And, from there, the ball started rolling. I just went along with the plan because I felt like I had no other choice.”

Tears started to well up in my eyes.

“I’m sorry. I know we deceived you, but I never meant for anyone to get hurt.”

I wasn’t sure how Fred would react. He had every right to be angry with me. I would have completely understood if he decided to fire me from my internship, and take my apartment and car away.

“Look at me, Shirin,” Fred said. I felt so embarrassed, but I did as he asked.

“Thank you for sharing that with me. I had a feeling you had a good reason to get involved. You definitely did. I’m not upset with you.”

It felt like a huge weight had been taken off of my shoulders.

Fred paused a moment to collect his thoughts.

“Mark, I believe Shirin is the best thing ever to happen to you. Since she came into your life, you have changed. For the better, I might add. If you want to keep her, you had better figure out fast what it’s going to take to get her to agree to be your wife.”

Mark didn’t say anything. He just nodded.

“Shirin, I’m not going to lie to you. In large part, my decision to keep the company was based on my hope that you will be willing to take on a major role in it. I know you think you are not ready, but your technical skills and ability to solve problems will be what keeps this company going long after I’m gone. Trust me, when it comes to engineering, you’re far, far better than you think you are.

“I’ve made this company my life’s ambition. We have many loyal employees who rely upon us for their livelihood. But, it will take both of you to keep it going after I am gone.

“Plus, for selfish reasons, it provides comfort to me to know that Mark will have someone special in his life when I am gone. I wish you could have seen how Mark was while you were in your coma. If you could have, there would be no doubt in your mind that he really loves you. I hope you will come to realize that you two are meant for each other.”

Fred’s message was a lot for me to take in. Mark showed me he really cared for me while I was in the coma. And, I did love what I was doing at Woodham Industries. At that moment, I decided I would commit to trying to make my relationship with Mark work and learn all that I could from Fred, so that when the time came, I could step up and be the force that would keep Woodham Industries going.

T
o be continued in
:

Silicon Valley Sparks

Available soon on Amazon