Oh My, I Messed Up the Story

Chapter 121: Organ Donor

Abigail Pullman had been in the middle of studying for midterms when she got the phone call that changed her life forever. Normally she wouldn't have answered but she saw the area code and figured it must be important.

She had changed her number to a local one after living in Atlanta, Georgia to attend Emory University for a couple of years. It had pained her to leave her only sister behind but Katie had encouraged her to go.

The odds of getting a half-tuition scholarship to a top thirty school were incredibly low. Katie told her to go get a great education, get a well-paying job, and buy them some prime real estate.

Abby was fairly sure she was joking but it was nice to dream. Georgia did have some great real estate for a fraction of the cost it would have been in Arizona. But Katie was a homebody; she would never want to leave their hometown of Scottsdale.

She had chosen to go to school at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, which was less than forty minutes from their apartment. Abby knew why; she didn't want to leave her behind. Their parents passed away when they were eighteen and fifteen respectively.

With a solid life insurance policy left behind and the ability to sell the house, Katie had been able to keep custody of her little sister. But it had been harder for her than she was willing to let on.

All of those health problems she hadn't fully been able to hide had hit her freshman year as she was still dealing with grief from losing her parents and struggling to deal with a moody teenage girl. One of the main reasons Abby went away for school was that she wanted to get a good job and help pay her sister back for everything she did for them.

Katie barely managed to finish school and got a crappy part-time job because of her health issues. Abby had been across the country for most of her chronic illness progression but it was still terrible watching the person she loved most slowly waste away.

Her sister had always been so vibrant and full of life with a ridiculous sense of humor. She should be running around outside somewhere beckoning for Abby to follow her lead like when they were younger, not cooped up inside a tiny apartment because of pain.

She answered the phone apprehensively, hoping that it was something as simple as Katie losing her phone and calling to let her know she wouldn't be contactable for a while.

"Hello, am I speaking to the next of kin of Katrina Pullman?" a sympathetic female voice asked.

Abby's heart stopped beating. No. No way. Katie had gotten a phone call exactly like this when their parents died. This couldn't be happening!

"Yes," she said faintly. "What happened?"

"I'm terribly sorry to tell you this but a woman we believe to be Katrina was in a terrible car accident and is currently in critical condition. She was driving her car and had her ID and credit cards in her purse. Are you able to come fill out some paperwork on her behalf?"

Critical condition. She was still alive! Abby's heart restarted. It was going to be okay. Katie would be fine.

"I'm in Atlanta at the moment but I'll be on the next flight," she promised.

'C'mon Katie,' Abby thought desperately. 'Just hang in there until I get to you. You're going to be fine.'

She booked the first flight out, not caring that it cost her nearly $300, and touched down in Phoenix around 11 PM. Despite her exhaustion she rushed straight to the ER and asked about her sister.

A man in scrubs came out to talk to her and led her quietly to an empty hallway. "Are you Katrina Pullman's sister?" he asked.

Abby nodded around the lump in her throat. This did not sound promising. Desperation made her voice crack. "How is she?"

"I am terribly sorry to tell you thisbut she lost too much blood and received irreversible damage to her brain. We couldn't do anything to help her. She was declared legally dead two hours ago."

Dead. Dead! She couldn't be! Abby had texted her this morning while she was in the waiting room for her doctor's appointment. This wasn't possible.

She sunk to her knees and couldn't prevent herself from sobbing so hard she thought she would crack in half. Her heart certainly had. Sure, she had friends at school but Katie was the only family she had left. Now she was completely alone.

Her sweet sister who pushed herself too hard despite being so sick all the time would never tease her again. Had Abby even said 'I love you' when signing off this morning? When was the last time she had said it?

After coming all this way Abby still didn't get to say goodbye. Katie had died completely alone.

She finally pulled herself together after a while to go see her sister's body. Her expression was completely blank and her eyes were closed. This thing didn't look like her sister at all.

The mortician promised to make her look pretty for the funeral. He gently told Abby that because her sister had been an organ donor that multiple people's lives were saved, as if it that was any consolation.

Katie was gone. Yet her heart, kidneys, liver, and who knows what else would live on in other people.

Abby had been totally creeped out when Katie said she was going to be an organ donor. She had shrugged it off, saying "well I won't need them anymore, will I? May as well help somebody else out."

She never would have imagined that it actually would have happened this way. Organ donation only occurred under very specific circumstances. The body had to be hooked up to a respirator when the brain died for it to even work.

Katie's body had still been alive for a little while even though everything that made her Katie was already gone. That big beautiful brain full of random facts and movie quotes had died. How could this have happened?