I'm not really sure when I lost consciousness, I just know that now I hear someone calling my name with a trembling voice, full of fear and despair, so much so that it makes me smile.
Without even needing to look, I know immediately that it's Miriam.
"That's great... when I open my eyes, I can see your face."
Now I'm in a place that's unfamiliar to me. The smell of alcohol and disinfectant tells me that I'm in the hospital. Oh... I remember now. Before I passed out, I was shot. No wonder Miriam is crying so much.
"Please leave for now."
Said a firm voice of a nurse, asking Miriam to wait outside.
I look around at the people around the bed and speak weakly, as if I'm pleading:
"Please don't amputate my arm. Even if it doesn't work anymore, leave it like this."
But it seems like no one listening. Everyone still busy taking care of me, fulfilling their duties. I remember begging and pleading, and then... everything went dark again, as if someone had turned off the lights.
"Got... can you hear me? Got."
As I was gently shaken, I slowly opened my eyes. Although my vision was initially blurry, I could recognize that the voice calling me was my mother, the one who had been with me my entire life.
"Mom."
"Thank God you woke up... sobs."
Then she begin to cry like someone who was holding everything in. I could imagine that my mother was in immense pain. I had only begun to understand her feelings recently, when Miriam was knocked out. The fear that the person you love will never wake up is worse than watching them suffer.
"My arm?"
As I begin to regain consciousness, I remembered my arm. I quickly used my uninjured right hand to feel around it and sighed in relief.
"It's still here. The doctor didn't cut it."
"The doctor said your arm is fine. Just a small fracture, but it will heal and work like before."
"Oh, okay."
I wasn't very excited because I knew deep down that it wouldn't
work the same way it used to. Physically, I might look normal like everyone else, but because of the curse, I would just be an extra limb, there with no real purpose. At least it wasn't amputated. I just wanted to be whole, to have all thirty-two parts of my body intact, even if only for appearances.
"What happened?"
"I thought you already knew, Mom."
I smile lightly, trying to ease
her worry. If I showed how hurt I really was, she would only suffer more.
"I got shot."
"Did you argue with someone or curse someone?"
Even though I knew it was a question, I dodged it by talking about the gun. Anyone else would have asked how I ended up getting shot, but since it was my mother, who knew I wasn't like everyone else, she didn't ask the usual questions.
She understood that something abnormal must have happened for me to get shot.
"No, I didn’t. I stay in my room all day; who could I possibly blame?"
I lifted my head slightly from the pillow and looked around the room.
“By the way, where’s Mi?”
"She went home."
"Why did she leave?"
"I looked at my mother suspiciously. She, knowing that I'm about to lose my temper and blame her, quickly shake her head in denial.
