Fallen From Grace

But - I Do Love Her

I was instructed by my hospital letter and a million times by my mother to drink as much water as I could by eight o clock today as this was the day of my carpool tunnel operation. I had followed all the rules that were stated, I had periodically bought Ibuprofen for the pain after the operation on my weekly shops and looked through exercises to do after the operation as well as bringing in a clean dressing gown which the clean part was specific to go forward to have the operation.
I had gone throughout the night without my blackcurrant squash next to me and had a bottle of water instead, which was shit but I did it. I'd hardly taken any of it in the night because it was just plain water and my throat was so dry when I woke (that banged my Moms theory that if I'm thirsty in the night that I'd only take what I needed) but when I was up and moving the feeling passed because I was drinking water a bit better. Mom had to ring the house to make sure I was drinking whilst I was drinking water, and Andy came into the living room with his phone to his ear telling Mom yes, she's having bottled water. I wore loose baggy clothes as instructed, I had patterned black and white leapord print trouser bottoms with a black round neck top, so I had to explain this to Mom as I took the phone from Andy and what shoes I was wearing. It was the little things like this she stressed over, but I was just glad I politely refused the option of taking my clothes away from me so she could wash and press them a few days ago.

Mom picked me up today with Dad as the driver, I said goodbye to Andy at the door and fumbled my way over to the car. I was tired anyway at getting up earlier than usual to stop drinking at eight.

"Are you alright?" Mom asked when I got into the car and strapped my seat belt in.

"Yes, thank you."

Dad had the left seat pushed all the way down for something, so I couldnt get in the side that I wanted to hence all the mouthing and finger pointing at me inside the car before I even got in. Now, I balanced my handbag over the seat that had come forward.

"You alright driving?" I asked.

"Yes, alright, thank you, love," he responded. "I have been doing little journeys in the car, so I said I would take you today."

"Thanks."

It was about half a second, perhaps less than a minute, and the dashboard began to light up from a call. It was Annie, and I listened to what she had to say. I would have called over to say hi to her, but she hadn't stopped to take a breath and as Mom conversed with her and they didn't stop talking I finally decided didn't feel like I needed to make any effort. As I was sleepy anyway, I fell off to sleep. I was slightly coming around anyway when I arrived at the hospital, and I felt Mom tap my knees to get me to wake up and look alive.

"She fell asleep because of our riverting conversation," Dad sarcasticly joked.

Yeah!

If I were spoken to, I would have made more of an effort.

"You're Father can't stop here," Mom said. "Join that queue over there."

I looked out the window to see other people coming on through for their appointments, by yellow rails to hold on to so I hadn't time to speculate or say or do anything because it had now become a race to get in. I grabbed at my bag, uttered a bye to Dad, and got out of the car. I wasn't too far in the queue. I was perhaps like the eighth, if not the ninth person, and I waited to be seen to. Mom and I were by the second set of double doors where they were automatic doors, and Mom and I were just on that line. I put my foot in the way so they wouldn't close. The queue at the front of us was getting shorter, and people were being seen to promptly. After four more people, it was my turn.

"Hi," I smiled, making sure I spoke first. "My name is Kimberly. Kimberly Cooke."

The receptionist looked down at her notes and to the computer screen.