Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Chapter Three

I fail at updating. This chapter is short, but I wanted to stop at this point.


I opened my eyes and closed them, fighting against the bright light. It took a while, but I finally adjusted to the light in order to see an unfamiliar environment around me. In front of me was a plain old wall, and as I looked above, I saw a television hanging from the ceiling. I looked to my right and looked outside the window. It was a bright and sunny day, but all I could see was a bunch of buildings. I felt something digging in my right hand as I looked down and realized that there was an IV in it. I began to get nervous. What the hell was going on?

I began to notice the constant beeping as the only noise in the room. I looked over myself and realized that I was not in normal clothing. An ugly nightgown with polka dots. But as I tried to look further, a huge pressure of pain enveloped took over my head, and I immediately rested it back on my pillow. I came to the conclusion that I was in the hospital, but had no idea why and how I got myself to this place. I began to realize how sore I felt as I tried to raise my arms. I decided that I just needed to let myself rest as I sighed and closed my eyes for a second until I heard footsteps enter the room.

“Oh, honey,” the nurse said as she stopped in her tracks. “You’re awake!”
I burrowed my eyes in confusion, “Yes?”
She pressed the red button next to my bed as she began to check my vitals, “How are you feeling?”
“Sore…and my head is pounding.”
“That’s to be expected,” she replied as she wrote down on the chart. “After what you’ve gone through, you’re lucky nothing worse happened.”
“That’s the thing…,” I started slowly. “I don’t remember what happened…why I’m here.”
The nurse looked at me with a concerned look, “Well…maybe you don’t remember the exact moment, but how about this morning?”

As I thought about it, I couldn’t remember this morning. I couldn’t say where I was or who I was with. Come to think about it…I couldn’t even remember much. Where I lived. Who I knew. What I did for a living. My eyes widened as I began to panic inside, “…No..”
The nurse took a deep breath and folded her hands in her lap for a moment. Then, she lifted her head and said, “Everything’s going to be ok. You have great people in your life as well as God watching over you.” She walked over and patted my hand with an assuring smile, “Don’t worry.”

She left the room and I was even more confused and scared. I just wanted to know why I was here. Who was she talking about? All I wanted was someone to tell me everything I needed answered. I started to make sure I knew who I was. Ok, my name’s Hailey Miller and I’m twenty-two years old. One plus one is two. I rolled my eyes at myself, glad to know my IQ hasn’t been affected. As I tried to continue on, I heard a knock on the door as I stopped and looked over towards the left side of the room.

Two men entered the room. First, an older man who I assumed was a doctor with a white coat on. He was starting to bald, had glasses, and looked friendly. Finally, someone who could tell me what’s going on. As the second man came closer into the room, I realized that he was much younger. And really built. He looked at me and a huge smile of what seemed to be relief came over his face. He had a black baseball cap on so I couldn’t really see his eyes. But black hair was falling out of his cap. He was wearing a white shirt with some store logo on it and tan khaki shorts. Definitely not bad looking, but why was he here? Was he the doctor’s son? A college student shadowing around the hospital?

However, he didn’t follow the doctor. He came over to my side of the bed and raised his hand. I froze, not sure of what he was about to do. Maybe feel my forehead for a fever or something. Instead, his hand rested on my cheek. Before I could react to that, I felt his lips on my forehead as he whispered, “I love you.” He grabbed my left hand and sat in the chair next to me.

Ok, clearly I should know who this person is. I don’t think I have a brother…right? Last time I checked, I was still single. Just to be sure, I looked down at my left hand and no rings were there to prove anything. Ok, so I’m not that crazy. But as I looked towards his left hand, I noticed a platinum band.

Hailey, calm down. He could just be a good friend. There’s no way..

“It’s good to see you awake, Hailey,” the doctor finally spoke. “I’m Dr. Johnson, how are you feeling?”
“Um…okay…I think..” I replied as I slipped my hand out of the stranger’s and started picking at my nails. Damn habit, I tried so many times to stop, but my nerves were taking over.
“Yeah? How’s your head? Any pressure?”
I nodded, “It’s at the top of my head.”
“Well, that’s assumed considering you took a pretty good hit from a cinderblock,” he replied. A cinderblock? What the hell was I doing that involved cinderblock? “But overall, you barely have any injuries. Just a couple of scratches and bruises. You need to thank whoever it is up there ‘cause they must really like you.”
I slowly started to lift myself up so I could sit. Dr. Johnson looked over towards the man in the chair, “We would like to keep her overnight just to make sure nothing pops up, but otherwise, she should be fine.” He looked back towards me with a smile, “You should be home by tomorrow afternoon.”
I had had enough. “Time out. This is all a little too much for me right now. What happened? From my understanding, I got hit in the head with a really large piece of concrete and that I should be a lot worse than I am.”
“Don’t you remember?” Dr. Johnson asked. “You were at the new arena-”
“New arena?”
Both men furrowed their eyes at me. Then, the stranger grabbed my hand again and said, “You were there to go over more structural stuff about the bar, baby.”
I snatched my hand away from him again, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. And why did you call me that?”
Dr. Johnson stood next to the stranger, “Hailey, you know who you are, right?”
“Yeah…”
“Can you remember anything you did yesterday or this morning?”
“No…”
He then put his hand on the stranger’s shoulder whose face had become pale, “Can you tell me who this is?”
I looked at the man and began to cry silently, “No..”