Watching

Chapter 20

I looked around at the room I was in, everything was blurry and morphed together. I was trying to force feeling back into my hands and feet and legs and arms. I couldn't move. I felt stuck. My mouth was stuck together as my eyes fluttered around the room. After what felt like hours but I was sure it had only been a few minutes everything became clear. I took a deep breath.

I licked my lips as I lifted my head as best as I could. I could feel my head shaking as I took note of my surroundings.

It was a small room with one long window. The door was a light color with a little window. It had a long sofa-like thing under the window. There was another door that was open and led to a bathroom. I was in a bed hooked up to a bunch of tubes and needles. I could hear the beeping of a heart monitor. I laid my head back again as I listened to the door open and shut.

Nora was standing there. Her hair was down and had fallen in her face as she looked down at the floor. I listened to the sound of something hitting the floor.

Nora had lost a lot of weight. She looked sick. Her clothes hung weird on her. They were way too big and kind of swallowed her. She bent down to pick up whatever fell as she cleaned her face with her sleeve.

"Nora?" My voice cracked and sounded beyond rough. She stood up and looked at me. Her eyes were wide as she opened the door.

"Nurse!" She yelled out as she pushed it completely open and then walked over to me. Her lips were cracked and picked at, her nails were completely worse than how she used to keep them. I only thought they had been bad before.

She let go of the door and bolted over to me. Before I could comprehend what was happening there were doctors surrounding me and Nora holding my hand.

Days passed fast. I never had a moment alone with Nora. I have no clue if anything I saw or did in my coma was real. I had no clue what was real and not real. Everything fused together in some weird mess of everything.

The doctors were trying to teach me how to walk again. I didn't think I could forget something like that but for whatever reason it did happen. Nora never felt my side unless it was to pick up our daughter or drop her off.

She had been picking at her nails and lips less now. She seemed somewhat better. I was almost at the point where I could stand sort of on my own.

I let out a breath as Nora sat down next to me on my bed. The doctors and nurses had finally left us alone and the baby wasn't with us. She was at pre-k.

"I missed you more than anything," Nora let out a breath as she put her head on my shoulder, "There is something almost weird about watching the person you love sleep for such a long time. It felt like I was watching you wither away and I couldn't even do anything to fix it. I felt like you were here but just at fingertip reach ya know."

I toyed with the idea of telling her all of what I remembered from what they called a dream. I didn't think it was a dream, it felt too real. I should have known what was real and what wasn't but my head was filled with blurry memories and flashes of things that felt too real or too fake. I opened my mouth to talk trying to not let the words get stuck in my throat, "I wish I could say the same about you but to me you were there. You were with me and we had a life together even if it was made up in my head but I lived through our first date, wedding, pregnancies, clothing stores, and everything else. I can't tell you what was real and what wasn't real because everything has blended into a blob of everything all at once."

I did my best to explain what I could but I wasn't sure if I did it right as her face contorted into a mix of love, hurt, and confusion.

"How are we supposed to make you remember everything about us then," Her whole body stiffened up as she spoke.