The Wrong Side

Chapter 29

Snip, snip, snip.

Kadiya tilts my head to the right as she tries to get a better angle for cutting my hair. I'm so tired that when she suggested it, that I didn't even protest. I haven't gotten much more than a few hours of sleep this past week. I'm afraid that I'll have another one of those vivid dreams or that I'll wake up with my arm gone and that this past week in the hospital was really nothing more than my imagination.

I yawn as Kadiya takes out another chunk of hair. She said that the length of my hair had finally drove her crazy and she showed up today with a bag of scissors and combs, plopped me on a chair and started cutting it. I didn't complain.

I have been in the hospital for just over a week now. My shoulder is a lot better, my ribs are healing and I'm walking with crutches now. The only thing going on which is causing me distress is my lack of sleep.

I think everyone else has noticed it too. I've seen my reflection; there are ugly dark circles under my eyes and my entire body moves sluggishly whenever I do something.

"You excited to leave tomorrow?" Kadiya asks.

I nod and give her a slight smile through the mirror she's put in front of me. She doesn't return it. Instead, her eyebrows are furrowed in concentration as she cuts my hair.

"Are Matthew and Luna coming today?" I ask.

Kadiya shakes her head. "Sorry, but it's just me today."

"That's alright. I like hanging out with you."

She smiles at that comment but doesn't look up from what she's doing. She continues snipping away, not saying anything and making the atmosphere in my tiny hospital room very awkward. It's silent, except for the sound of her scissors. I wonder where she learned to cut hair. I'm about to ask, but she speaks before I get the chance to.

"How are you doing?" she asks. "And I mean apart from physically. Have you been sleeping alright lately?"

I open and close my mouth a few times like a fish before answering, "Why?"

"Don't play dumb, Caden. You never have circles under your eyes and one of the doctors told me you haven't been getting any sleep."

"How do they know that?' I ask. I turn my head back to look at her, but she grabs it in both her hands and rotates it back to the front.

"They can monitor your body's activity. Everything slows down when you're sleeping and apparently you haven't been. Is this true?"

I'm about to lie to her. She doesn't need to be burdened with my little problems, but the expression on her face makes me breaks down and I nod.

She sighs. "Do you wanna tell me why?"

I don't, but there's something about the way she asked that makes me want to start talking. "They're just memories," I say.

"What are?"

"I'm not sure... I think they're memories but I don't remember having them... I don't know how to explain."

"Just try," Kadiya says and she sets the scissors down on a side table and she pulls up another chair to sit beside me. In the mirror, I look pretty funny with half of my hair short and the other half almost at my shoulders.

I take a breath before talking. "You know how I told you that my life feels off? Like there's something about it that doesn't feel right?"

"Yes. You've told me."

"Have you noticed sometimes I've been getting headaches?"

"You mean those times when you stop what you're doing and grab your head, and then when I ask what's up, you say that you're alright?"