Only For You

XLIII) Marion: Woken

"Code blue, code blue!"

It was heavy, very heavy. "Open them! Get the defibrillator, the blanket, and the IV." The pain, the terror, and the emotion. The compression on the chest felt like ten thousand - one thousand pound bricks. Oxygen finally returned to the lungs as if the balloon was finally blown up -one gasp for air, two gasps, three more, and finally sixty five plus two hundred. Oh, heavy eyelids that foresaw the future. It did not change, besides trying to open... "Honey, can you hear me?" Breaths became more consistent. "Mar! Marion! Marion, can you feel this?" Can't move and it kills me. Small amounts of light peered through my eyelids. "Wake up honey!" Eyelids finally lifted one eighth of the way open, one fourth, another fourth, and even so another, and finally another until I was staring into the deep, dark brown eyes of a registered nurse. "Hey, Marion..." Her eyes twinkled in the sunlight that peered through the window. "Welcome back home." I thought I was indeed home... until I smelled the stagnant scent of the half burnt down hospital. "Mar, you died and came back, you are a miracle." Her smile pierced my mind as if she was someone familiar. "D-died? Y-you should have l-let me die." The words attempted to spill out of my mouth. "We couldn't do that because you are the reason... the reason we are safe today." Maybe she was wrong, dead wrong. My head fell back down onto the pillow causing me to fall asleep. I really do not think I am back home. "Marion, Marion, can you hear me!! You are flatlining again! Code blue code blue!"

___

6 months later

"Marion Wright, you were shot down yet again. You got lucky a second time, as someone pulled you out of the rubbish. We do not know who, but when we know who it was they will be invited to the induction ceremony. You did it, you did it for us all. As a country, a nation, we are all indebted to you. In about four weeks we will host the ceremony and we ask that you please be there." The chief captain repeated the orders back to me. "Today you are being released from the hospital, all healed, and ready to fly since you passed the medical test. Ms. Wright, you are an amazing woman, thank you for everything." The general bent over caressing the side of the bed. "On behalf of the United States military president -President Jerrech Holt- it is to be announced in front of Marion "Lynx" Wright that she is hereby invited to the induction ceremony where she will be attributed for her bravery, courage, honesty, and integrity. Thank you, thank you for all of it. The induction ceremony will be held on the nineteenth day of October, in the year two thousand and twenty three." He ended with a salute and a final note of justice on behalf of the military. I struggled to understand, "But, isn't the war still going on?" He shook his head a firm no, which left me in complete disbelief. "It has ended, and it will forever cease to exist. Attend the ceremony because you have something awaiting you." He turned and left, leaving me in the hospital with the nurse.

The brunette nurse looked me in the eyes and repeated the doctor's orders, "You are free to leave, and you can get back to doing what you always have done. The x-rays along with the bacterial tests look perfectly normal. The urine sample that Doctor Denise took looked right on. Everything in your blood tests looks absolutely perfect and you cleared your Federal Aviation Administration class one medical with flying colors. Miss Wright, you are clear for departure. Thank you so much." She helped me out the door, through the long corridor, and finally out to a shuttle bus that was waiting to take me back to my home city.

Never in a million years did I expect the war to be over like that. Here I was being launched into a crazy world that I had no idea what was happening in. The unknowns were consuming me, but I felt somewhat free. The pain and suffering is always here to stay, and it will be here forever. I walked past a group of men that eyed me. There were papers posted all over street lamp posts discussing the details of the war's ending. One Of them read, "Marion Wright, female pilot, female hero, will always and forever be remembered. The angel of the skies lives on, and she will forever be honored. There is a bounty for whomever saved her life -the guy who saved her twice." That was it, that was me. My eyes locked with my figure's reflection in a large window. At that moment I saw myself for who I am -a strong willed woman, who will do anything to fly.