Different Doesn't Mean Broken

Chapter 24 - Mia

During evening program, Sally wandered over to me and spoke softly, informing me I needed to go see the director. Immediately.

When I arrived there, a police officer was sitting beside the director. I, too sat down.

The officer was on the phone and quickly hung up. Then sighed.

"Mia, we have some unfortunate news."

I looked confused and waited to hear what was going on.

The director looked at me.

"Officer Henry here has informed me that your mother has been in a car accident. I am so sorry to tell you, Mia, but, unfortunately, your mother did not make it."

I furrowed my brows, momentarily confused. Then, realization hit me and the waterworks began. I wailed and keened. My mom! My mom was gone? That couldn't be. This had to be a bad dream. I found myself kneeling on the floor and didn't remember how I got there.

I felt numb and became silent, hardly even moving. This felt like a huge nightmare. I couldn't stop crying and shivering. I puked on the floor in the director's office. Then stood up, and was about to run out, but the room started spinning and I felt sweaty. My whole body hurt.

Before I knew it, the ground once again grew closer and closer.

I must have fainted or something. It was several moments later when I came to - sort of - with the nurse talking to someone nearby.

"What happened?" I heard the nurse ask.

The director and police officer relayed the news to the nurse who was listening intently to the noises they were making. They didn't make any sense.

Suddenly, the nurse left. I lay where I was unable to comprehend where I was or what was happening. The world seemed fluid. I didn't feel like I was a part of it. Everything was happening around me. Not to me.

Suddenly again, the nurse had returned with a gurney and pulse ox. I felt parts of my body being moved. I heard the nurse swear.

"I have to get her to the infirmary. Her pulse is over 200 and her oxygen isn't great!"

I was only barely aware of everything going on around me after I was brought to the infirmary. Someone held a straw and cup with electrolytes and ginger ale mixed together and told me to sip. Then tried getting me to eat. I felt like a baby, having to be spoon fed applesauce and dinner.

After night meds, I fell asleep but woke up, screaming and crying, convinced I had a bad dream. Someone was beside me, shushing me and telling me it was okay. It would be okay. But my dream had seemed so real. I had dreamt that I had been told my mother had died. But that had to have been a nightmare. What I couldn't understand was why I was in the infirmary.

I'm remembered someone giving me my electrolyte drink and figured maybe that's why. I'd had a episode and they were letting me sleep it off in the infirmary. That made sense.

There was chaos in the infirmary and it sounded like someone was rushing into the infirmary. I heard Michelle's voice. She sounded frantic. That's not like Michelle. She's usually pretty balanced.

"Her sugar is low and neither myself nor Sally can wake Alex up."

The nurse said something and I couldn't tell what it was. Then I heard.

"Mia can't be left alone."

Why can't I be left alone?

"I know," I heard. "We've gotten Trevor from the specialist cabin. He's going with Debrah to carry Alex down here. But I needed you to be aware and be ready. I don't know if we're going to need an ambulance."

"I'll get some glucagon mixed and ready for when Trevor and Debrah get here," I heard. "We'll start there and I'll keep tabs on her sugar. I'm going to be up all night with Mia probably anyway, so I'll be able to keep an eye on Alex, too. Thank goodness Erin is on tomorrow morning. I am going to need that morning rest."

"What a day. How's Mia doing?"

"She was resting comfortably. She had a nightmare, I think. Just woke up a little while ago screaming and crying. I've just gotten her calmed down. She's still pretty out of it, though. I don't know if she's processing still, or coming to terms with the news, but we'll get her there."

"There's a social worker coming up tomorrow to speak with her. And apparently there's an aunt willing to take her in. I mean, she was named her guardian should anything happen, so from what I've been told, the aunt has been contacted and is aware of the situation. I think the aunt might also be coming up in the next day or so."

"Are you sending Mia home?"

"I guess that'll be up to her and her aunt," Michelle's voice sounded distorted and I stopped listening.

A few minutes, or maybe it was hours? Days? later, there was more commotion, shuffling and someone was laid on the bed next to mine. There was a curtain around my bed and presumably the one beside me, too so I didn't know who it was. Not did I have the strength or inclination to turn my head to try to see.

"Okay. I've given her the glucagon and I'll check her in fifteen minutes. I didn't realize when you said she was low she was that low! If two shots - that is if I have to give her a second shot - don't work, we'll have to take her into the hospital."

"Come on, Alex," Debrah's voice registered through the fog in my brain. "Show us you're okay."

Darkness surrounded me and I allowed myself to succumb to it. In that darkness, my mom was alive. Because her death had just been a nightmare brought on by a POTS episode. It had to have been.

I woke up screaming again around two in the morning I think, by the clock on the wall.

I looked over to see Alex was in the bed beside mine. She stirred, got up, groaning, and walked past my bed, looking for the nurse, I guess.

"Nurse!" She called out. "Hey! Nurse!"

The nurse didn't come and I felt weight near the foot of my bed.

"Michelle told the cabin your mom died. I'm sorry."

She looked sorrowful and rubbed my back, trying to comfort me. I could hear what she was saying, and I could feel her hand on my back, but I felt so disconnected from my own body. Like everything was happening around me.

"Do you want me to go get the nurse?" Alex asked. "Or I can get you a snack. I'm sure there's something around here I could get for you."

I couldn't answer her. I wanted to. I wanted to thank her for trying to comfort me. It was the most gentle she'd ever spoken to me. I wondered, vaguely, why she was being so nice.