His daughter sat by his side, holding his hand as he was lying still in his bed. “Daddy,” she said, “are you having any dreams or is everything just black inside your head? Can you hear me? Can you sense my presence at all? Do you know how much I love you?”

Tears ran down her cheeks as she remembered what a vigorous man he used to be before the accident. But now he was just lying there in a coma, his shallow breathing barely visible, his body so docile.

She pulled down the sheets to expose his upper torso and used a damp, warm washcloth on his chest and arms to clean him. Then she took some talcum powder and sprinkled it on his body.

She looked at her father, bent down to kiss him on his forehead, and thought she caught some movement on his eyelids. Suddenly his lids started to flutter and he slowly opened his eyes. He looked up at his daughter with a questioning expression on his face. She rang the call button and the nurse came in and, seeing him conscious and breathing on his own, removed the respiratory apparatus from his mouth.

He looked up at his daughter and said in a weak and raspy voice, “Hi sweetheart. I was just dreaming about you.”

Written for the Wacky Weekend Challenge (black), Ragtag Daily Prompt (vigorous), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (coma), Word of the Day Challenge (docile), Your Daily World Prompt (sprinkle), and Scotts Daily Prompt (powder). Also for the Daily Writing Challenge, where the three things are daughter, dreams, and love.