Lisa Heart. Swinging in the playground after another boring day of 5th grade. :Thwak:

A colorful binder is laying on top of the monkey bars.

It wasn't there before.

Lisa jumps off the swing, climbs the ladder to the monkey bars, grips from one to the next until she is below the binder.

COMA KEEPER



She grabs it and drops down to the gravel, pulls open the velcro flap and looks inside...

A binder like any other: clasping aluminum rings to hold note paper, one large zippered pocket with a clear plastic window to hold stationary on one side, two smaller pockets on the other side.

There were instructions written:

The person who's soul symbol is drawn on a page held by this binder will become comatose.

Lisa knew she had found something amazing. She stuffed the Coma Keeper into her backpack and rushed home. The house was empty, her parents still at work. She continued reading the binder's instructions on her living room couch...



Anything written on a coma page will be spoken by that person.



Above the large pockets window was written:

Any person's genetic material entered in this pocket will reveal their soul symbol.

Above the two small pockets windows was written:

Any soul symbol entered in this pocket will reveal the soul symbol of that person's biological father.

Any soul symbol entered in this pocket will reveal the soul symbol of that person's biological mother.

Lisa decided to try it. She unzipped the large pocket, pulled a hair from her head, placed it inside, zipped it up. A symbol materialized in the clear plastic window: an L with two hearts near it's base.

Lisa drew her symbol on a loose piece of note paper, folded it up, unzipped the mother pocket, placed her page inside, zipped it up. A symbol materialized in the clear plastic window: a circle and rectangle below a large triangle.

Lisa drew her mother's symbol on a loose piece of note paper, got out her mobile phone and called her mother...

Hi Lisa, how's my baby?

Fine mom. What are you doing right now?

Just in the library doing some research.

The library referred to the library of legal reference books in the law office where Lisa's mother worked as a clerk.

How about you?

Nothing much.

Lisa placed the page of her mother's soul symbol in the binder rings.

:Snap:

:Clunk:

Hey Karen, are you alright?

Someone else was in the library with Lisa's mother. Lisa wrote down on her mother's page: "I need an aspirin."

I need an aspirin.

Sure, I'll be right back.

It all worked exactly as instructed. Now for the thing that wasn't explicitly written in the Coma Keeper that Lisa had gambled her mother's life on.

Lisa had inferred that the term "held by this binder" meant that a page removed from the Coma Keeper would end the person's coma.

Lisa ripped her mother's page out.