Dear Delilah

Chapter 2: Wide Awake

Chapter Two:

Wide Awake

My head is pounding, and I would know the definition of pounding. I keep my eyes close, and try to think through the aches in my head. Where am I? I don’t recognize the feeling of this bed, and there’s a slight draft. Where are the blankets? I don’t feel the usual warmth or weight of a blanket. I feel as if there’s paper laid across me. What is this? And oh, don’t get me started on my chest. It feels broken, or almost broken. It feels empty, yet heavy all at the same time. What is wrong with my chest? I think I need to take Ed’s advice and see a doctor. I slowly open my eyes to see I'm in a fluorescent white room.

Why am I in a hospital room?

I quickly whip my head around, making the pounding in my head pound a little bit harder. I see Ed, and his flurry of red hair, asleep in a chair in the room and it makes me wonder what happened. I look and see that there’s a hospital “blanket” on me. This isn’t even a blanket, it’s basically a paper sheet. As I see that, I see my arm is hooked up to a IV and I fail a little bit and rip it out, causing pain and a loud beeping to admit through the room. I shove my hands over my ears to block out the sound, it’s just aggravating the pounding, as two nurses rush in. They shut off the beeping and ask me how I am, and I tell them about the pounding. They quickly reinstall the IV and use a needle to put something into the fluid that’s in the bag. Sooner than I expected, the pounding lessens and I feel better than I have in a long time. 

Sometime in all the commotion, Ed has woken up.

“Oh God Delilah.” He says, rushing over to my bed as the nurses leave.

“Ed, what happened? I don’t remember anything after your concert started.” I say, how scared I am flooding my voice.

“You collapsed and started seizing just as I got to the chorus of Give Me Love.” He says, looking down at me.

“Oh my God.” I say, “Am I ok?” I ask him, looking up at him.

“Well-“ He starts to say but is cut off by the entrance of a doctor.

“Delilah Riley?” He asks, and I nod, noting slightly to myself that my head didn’t hurt when I did so. The doctor advances and shakes my hand.

“Dr. William Yates, I have been attending to you since your seizure. How do you feel?” He asks me.

“Better since the nurses have been here, although my chest still feels hollow.” I say, and he nods and writes something down on his clipboard.

“As to be expected, when you collapsed, you fell at an angle that made it harder for you to breath, so your lungs are recovering as well. Delilah, do you know why you collapsed?” He asks me, and for the first time I take a good look at him.

Dr. Yates seems to be about mid-forties, and he must be under a lot of stress, because he’s already starting to get gray streaks in his black hair. He has bags under his eyes, and no ringer on his left hand. He has deep brown eyes that make him look like someone you could trust with your life, good thing I am.

I shake my head in response to his questions and he continues to tell me what’ s wrong with me.

“When you were brought in, Mr. Sheeran here told me you had been having severe migraines for almost two months now, which made me curious. So after we stopped your seizing and got you to a stable condition, we ran a CAT scan on your brain.” My heart stops. There’s something wrong with my brain?!

“And?! Am I going to die?!” I ask with worry, I don’t want to die! For God’s sake! I'm only 21 years old.

“No, or at least, not from our findings.” He says, giving me a trustworthy smile, and I instantly feel better. “We found that you have a small tumor on your Cerebellum. Right,” He says, reaching behind me and tapping on the nape of my neck, where my neck connects to my head, “there. It’s small, but it’s been causing your headaches, and your Cerebellum controls coordination, were you clumsy as a child?” I nod. “As I thought, this tumor you’ve have is something you’ve always had, it’s always been there. Now, we think over simulation caused you to collapse and start seizing.” He says, and I start to understand.