That's weird, thought Clarissa. I didn't think heaven would be so noisy.
She was referring to the bleeps and clicks of the hospital room, though at this point Clarissa was still unconscious from the fall. That she could begin to hear the world around her meant she was coming to.
The nurse in the room was busy dressing the patient in the bed beside Clarissa's. Though Mrs. Sanders couldn't speak, or move, or do anything but just stare at the wall, Lawrence always talked with her regardless. Lawrence was the type of nurse that believed in always telling the patient what was going on, no matter if they were alert or comatose. He liked to think that Mrs. Sanders could hear him, and appreciate the warnings that it was cold outside the blankets. Laying in that hospital bed, alone with no stimuli day in and day out, must be terrible, and Lawrence wanted to try and make it a tad more bearable for his patient. As he put Mrs. Sanders' sweater on, he told her about the morning newscast.
Clarissa thought she could hear a voice; it was talking about something odd, a baby hippopotamus maybe? What was that person saying? The voice sounded pleasant. She cracked open her eyes. The brilliant white of the hospital room was painful and she let out a little moan and pinched her eyes shut again.
Lawrence adjusted the sweater, then opened Mrs. Sanders' bedside drawer and took out a lovely pearl necklace. He draped it around her neck; now she looked just like a well dressed grandmother, instead of an unresponsive hospital patient. Lawrence caught her eye and flashed her a big grin; Mrs. Sanders only continued to stare in response.
"There, ready for the day. I have to visit my other patients now Mrs. Sanders, but I'll stop by around lunch time alright?" Lawrence said kindly. Part of his morning ritual with her was to put the TV on the soap opera channel before leaving, so that Mrs. Saunders wouldn't be bored. He wasn't sure if she liked soap operas, but Lawrence's grandmother did, so he figured it might be okay. Positioning her pillows so that she faced the TV, Lawrence pulled the curtain aside and went to his next patient.
Clarissa had opened her eyes again, just a crack, to try and adjust to the light. Everything around her was a sickly bright white. The beeping that she had heard was much clearer now, but the voice had stopped. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a flash of green. Clarissa made a little noise in surprise. A man dressed in green hospital scrubs stepped into her view. He wore a bright orange stethoscope around his neck, and his smile was warm and friendly and handsome.
"Good morning Clarissa," he said softly. She tried to greet him back, but all that came out was a mumbled mess. The nurse must have seen her worried face, because he chuckled and approached her bed still wearing that nice smile.
"You're still a tad drugged up from the surgery, you'll be speaking normally in no time. My name is Lawrence. I'm your nurse for today. Do you remember what happened?"
Clarissa recalled something about a wheezy police officer, and that she had felt very scared, but nothing more. The anaesthetics must be why she felt so groggy when she tried to think too much. Lawrence was taking her vital signs now, checking her pulse, her breathing. As he did this he was speaking to her kindly, gently unbuttoning the top of her gown to check her heart.
"You fell off the city dam yesterday morning. You were in pretty bad shape when you arrived Clarissa, a broken back being the worst, but the doctors rushed you into surgery," Lawrence told her, removing his stethoscope off her bare chest and buttoning up the front of her gown. The news terrified her. A broken back? Surgery? Was she paralyzed? How was she going to get to work tomorrow? What about rent? Would she be in a wheelchair? Clarissa burst out into tears. Grabbing tissue Lawrence wiped them away, trying to soothe her. The doctors don't think there will be paralysis, he said, and that right now she needed to focus on resting. He would let them know she was awake, and they would come talk to her once the drugs wore off.
"We also contacted your family," Lawrence told her. "They stopped by earlier, and said they would be back tomorrow," The thought of seeing her father made Clarissa cry all over again. Lawrence's smile faded and he gave her a concerned look, still wiping away her tears.
"No visitors," she sobbed, her first coherent words of the day. Lawrence nodded.
"No visitors, okay. Do you need anything else Clarissa? Would you like to talk?" Clarissa shook her head. She was feeling very tired. Lawrence grabbed the tissue box and placed it by her right hand on the bed. Then he put a little egg shaped device in her left.
"Okay Clarissa, I'll let you be for now. This is your call bell, push it if you need anything. I'll come see you right away," he said in that pleasant, soft voice. Clarissa tried to say thank you but it came out 'fhankz yew' and she blushed a little at her fumbling. Lawrence grinned. He gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder, then got up and left the room. Clarissa watched him go.
Aside from the beeping of her machines, the room was quiet. Clarissa noticed that she was in a double, but the curtain to the bed beside her was drawn shut. She was too tired to wonder who was in the bed next to her, but she hoped that person hadn't heard her crying.
Her eyes felt heavy and Clarissa's lids fluttered open and close. She didn't want to go back to sleep. She wanted to get out of bed and pretend this never happened. She wanted to go to work and then go back to the dam and draw. No, she didn't want to go back to the dam. She'd find a new place to draw.
As the drugs won and Clarissa began to drift off to sleep, her last thought was that the river water had probably ruined her art supplies. Replacing them was going to be costly.
No comments:
Post a Comment