Eyelids Alex Babinski FF

Chapter Four

Remember, remember, this is now, and now, and now. Live it, feel it, cling to it. I want to become acutely aware of all I've taken for granted.

- Sylvia Plath, "The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath"

My eyes are closed, hearing the sounds of machines and familiar voices. I wasn't in much pain as I thought I would be, I opened my eyes slowly feeling all the weight on my eyelids close again.

"Alex?" I whispered quietly, feeling the presence of the gentle hand that was once wrapped around my hand leave, movements in the room were heard, doors opening and closing.

I pushed myself up into a sitting position, hearing the door open again and the atmosphere in the room change from an unsteady place to somewhere which was so calming.

I felt a hand wrap around my left hand again, making me smile as I knew it was Alex secretly by the way he smelled. Fresh mint and cinnamon.

"How are you feeling?" I could hear the smile in his voice as I shifted to get comfortable.

"Tired and sore." Although I had slept for a while it was as if I didn't get any sleep at all. I felt exhausted, emotionally drained at the most.

"You'll be okay soon." Feeling his thumb softly caress my knuckles made me feel a lot better than what I was already feeling.

"You'll be home before you know it."

-

Today I was getting discharged, my mom told me that she'd get me. I still couldn't see things, I could only see outlines of things. It was as if I had Vaseline on my eyes, the blurriness giving me a headache from time to time.

I was told my sight should be slowing coming in over the next few days, I felt weird, but I also felt normal. Being normal like everyone else, how good was that? Alex had to do something today and my mom really wanted to get me so we agreed that she'd pick me up and take me to Alex's house.

I was helped by female nurses to get changed into my clothes that were brought to me by Alex last night, the soft fabric touching my skin felt so much better than that paper thin material that the hospital gives.

I was humming quietly to myself as I sat at the edge of the bed, thinking about how my life will be when my eyes fully adjust to the surroundings of the outside.

Things were extremely blurry, kind of like beer glasses minus being able to see. I missed a lot of things especially when I've been blind for most of my child and teenaged years.

I soon stopped humming as I heard footsteps sounding in the halls of this quiet part of the ward, I pushed up off the bed slowly.

Seeing the trace of the outline of the mystery person who had just been walking down the halls not too long ago.

"Hey, baby. Are you ready to go home?" My mom sweet soothing voice rang through my ears, adding to the smile on my face.

"You bet I am, I just want to sleep." I really was tired from the operation and it was hard to sleep here at night. The echoes of people screaming and crying kept me up at night, it wasn't normal and nor was the crying continuously throughout the night.

The first night, I thought that maybe someone was just in pain, but as the hours went on they were still crying. The second night, the crying continued and so I asked a nurse about it. I asked if the person who was crying was okay, she told me there was no one crying. There was no one on the same floor as me who had major injuries, not enough to make them scream. The third night it was as if they were closer than before, I did get out of bed but as soon as I made my way over to the hall all screaming had stopped as if they were standing in the middle of the hallway.