Her Royal Highness, Leonor: The Years Later

Defining Odds

Phillipa

La Paz University Hospital

Autonomous University, Madrid

All I knew was that my head was heavy, and someone was touching me by my right arm, wrapping something around it, and later on I felt I couldn't raise it up, as the stabbing sensations came through my forehead, with me finally opening my eyes.

The gray ceiling greeted my eyes, and I blinked, and my sight cleared and adjusted further on the lifeless ceiling staring back at me, its installed lights making me squint my eyes just as soon as I opened them wider. 

I felt my head's heaviness shift as I slightly made a move, and my eyes focused on a lady wearing a blue uniform, seriously checking my right arm.

I tried to open my mouth to say something, ask her a question, but the question died at my lips, at a loss of what to say, or what to ask.

The nurse might have noticed me finally waking up, and she flashes me a faint smile, still wrapping a bandage across my wrist.

"Senorita Ines, ¿cómo te sientes?" She softly asked. (TL: How are you feeling?)

"Mi cabeza es muy pesado...." I breathed through the pain I'm feeling in my wrist. "Que ha pasado?" (TL: My head is heavy...what happened?)

The nurse heaves a deep sigh, and slightly shakes her head. "Te desmayaste cuando te trajeron aquí. Nos dijeron que los protestantes te habían noqueado fuera de la universidad, pero no creo que te hayas desmayado." 

(TL: "You've passed out when they brought you here. They told us you've been knocked out by the protestors outside the university, but I don't think you just passed out.") She made a soft tap on my wrist. "Su muñeca derecha resultó levemente herida y tenía un hematoma en la cabeza y el cuello." (TL:"Your right wrist has been slightly injured, and you had a bruise up your head, and neck.")

She looks at me underneath. "Parece que te han derrotado y parece que te defendiste". (TL: "It seems like you've been beaten, and it seems you fought back.")

Hearing this makes all the memory of what happened earlier came back to me in successive motions at the top of my head, and I closed my eyes in the heaviness I'm feeling, the memory of the fight earlier with one of the protestors insulting Leonor and her family played once again in my reverie.

It all comes back to me clearly, from arriving in the university to personally see the Princess to apologize about the whole Josie-kiss thing, to hearing one of the protestors verbally speak remorseful words about the Princess and the monarchy. The protesters formed up in front of the university, blocking anyone who's going to enter it, and so when I decided to kindly tell them to make a way, one of them got personal with me.

I told them they shouldn't do that there, as I believe this is not the right place to voice out their opinions about the monarchy, and they didn't know the family to say such meaningful things. Hearing this suddenly got their eyes feasted on me. 

They categorized me as a monarchist, sensing my care towards the Royal Family, and they've come in circles around me, shouting things at my ear. I tried to get away from them, yet by the time the Princess was walking out of the palace, they've pushed me away, which threw me into the crowd. 

If my memory serves me correctly, one of them threw a punch on my head that knocked me down. Now I remember why my wrist was injured—I fell down and got it stuck on one of those gutters separating the main gate to the street.