Muscle Memory

🌹💃CHAPTER FIVE🕺🌹

She opened her eyes and instantly shut them, the room was bright, too bright perhaps. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the light, then the blurry object captured came neatly to view. it was the morning sun, sifting through the window, an air condition hummed from the top right corner of the glossy white wall. IV lines snaked down from her arms, her left thigh strapped and leg held towards the end of the bed by some force. She tried to sit up and her head protested, stinging with pain that made her moan and surrender. Where is she, what is happening? The first thought that came to her mind, then came the realization that she didn’t have any answer to that. It was just as unsettling, as the fact that her neck was in some sort of collar, her thigh throbbed dully, and there was some metallic taste at the back of his tongue.

It was a nurse that came in first, stared at her and hastened out. Then came the doctor that introduced himself as Segun, stout, medium build, spotting a side bun and puffy sleep deprived eyes. “you were in an accident.” He told her, then went quiet as if she should fill the blanks herself, maybe she should have. “I _” she wanted to tell him that she remembered nothing of the sort when he interrupted her. “I’ll be doing a quick exam, if you don’t mind.” Then held her wrist feeling for pulse before she could nod her head in consent. While he poked and prodded, she thought of pain, and how her aches had aches. The nurse that came in earlier stood at end of the bed, simply staring. “if you have any questions, the consultant will soon be around for her morning round.” He said as he shone his pen touch on her left eye and then the right, and nodded with a faint smile she wasn’t sure was meant for her.

“I can’t…” there was something about the face of the man standing at the door way, handsome, crew cut, worried look, in denim and t-shirt. His face was familiar, or maybe he just looked perfect, he couldn’t remember meeting him before, the idea of memory and the need for one both came back to her consciousness without answers. She felt more tense by the moment. She greeted the man, once she saw the tag on his shirt. Is he the boss to answer all her questions? He responded rather coldly, more preoccupied with staring at her when he thinks she’d looked away. Lines appeared on his brow and seem to deepen with each step the brought him closer to them. it turns out he wasn’t the doctor with the answers she needed.

Both doctors left the room. Few minutes later, the second doctor came back in with Doctor Alex, a bit taller than doctor Segun, fair complexioned, admirable posture, spirited, and a smile that makes you think sunshine. She briefly introduced herself and launched onto explaining her situation. Her accident and the details of it (how a driver suffering from a heart attack had ran into her, her broken thighbone, and a brain bleed that didn’t really seem to need surgery), and how she’ll be her connected to tubes and wires where they can properly monitor her.

Doctor Alex could not be much older than she was, perhaps younger than the other two doctors, but the fact that she was the boss amongst them couldn’t be more obvious. Doctor Segun ran in few minutes later to be welcomed by her withering look that resolved into a kind smile the moment she turned to her. She repeated every physical exam Doctor Segun had done and began asking questions. Grace recognised object but couldn’t tell what day it was or what year, the answers felt so locked away she feared she never had them to begin with, then the doctor asked for her name which she couldn’t even remember. “Oh no.”

“this is most likely a complication of the head injury,” she said, “you are in great hands. I assure you.” When Doctor Alex was done, she ordered tests and consults with other specialists—things Doctor Segun feverishly scribbled down on the chart, looking embarrassed under Alex’s withering look, which she turns to him at what felt like measured intervals, just to get him flustered whenever the nerves began to calm down. Grace had questions. Doctor Alex was helpful, when she was done she patted her shoulder and called her name, “Grace, we’ve got you,” then smiled her million-dollar smile.