Shark Chase

Hospitalized

I woke in the hospital with my leg elevated off of the bed. The sounds of the heart monitor echoing in my ears. My eyes slowly opened. My head was throbbing intensely.

Then I realized why I was in here in the first place. I sat up with a start. Bad idea. It made me dizzy. Someone was talking to me, but i ignored them. Then a hand rested lightly on my shoulder. I jumped, but realized quickly it was just a doctor.

He was smiling down at me when I looked at him. My first thought was that he was old, but then I noticed he still had some natural color in his hair.

"Don't move to fast. You'll get dizzy." Like I didn't already know that, "You're lucky someone got to you so fast. You would've lost your foot if that, um, shark held on any longer." He said with his fake smile, "I hope you're feeling all right."

I thought about what he said for a moment. I was to distracted with what was happening in my own mind. I felt like my body was moving faster than my mind. It was weird how he paused after saying shark... I thought.

"Yes, thank you." I sad as clearly as I could, but my voice still broke a few times.

I sat up slower than I did before and went through my body checklist. Toes, check. Arms, check. Legs, granted one was in a cast, but check. I sat there, checking out my leg.

It hurt of course. A bone must be broken also since it's in the cast. I realized I phased out long because my doctor was tapping me on the shoulder repeatitively and it was starting to get irritating.

"Laura, Laura. Hello, are you listening" he asked.

"Hmm. Oh, sorry. I was just making sure everything was in place." I said with a smile.

"That's good. I don't think I've introduced myself properly. I'm Dr. Scherbotsky. I'll be taking care of you while your staying here. According to the X-rays, you have a fractured ankle. Our surgeons did a good job fixing it, no? We'll have to keep it levitated so we don't increase blood flow. Don't worry, it's just a precaution. The nurses and I will make sure that you are comfortable while you are staying with us. If you need some help, there is a button behind your head that will page them here. Can I get you anything? Maybe a water or something to eat?" he asked me.

Man, can he put on a show. I could tell he was faking the whole thing. Bored eyes, slumped shoulders, fake smile plastered on his lined face were all i needed to know about him. Either that or he got so used to the job, he just went through a routine every time he met a patient here.

I declined and he left the room.

I lay there, running through what happened. It all seemed unreal. I never thought this would happen to me. Well, i guess no one does. It doesn't really happen on a daily basis, I guess.

My mind was running a mile a minute. I was hating having to think about what could've happened, but I could've lost my leg. Or gone into a coma from blood loss. Or, even worse, died! My mother walked into the room crying while I was thinking.

"Oh, my baby girl! Are you alright? Are you cold? I can ask the nurse for another blanket. Nurse, nurse, nur-."

"Mom, mom, I'm perfectly fine. Everything is alright with me." I said cutting her off.

"Oh, okay. Sorry. Well, if there is anything you need, sweetie, just tell me and I'll get it for you." she said.

"No, I assure you I'm fine. Just one question though."

"Yes? What is it dear?"

"Have you told what happened to me to Dad yet?

"No. Why? Do you want me to? I can call him right now and have him get here on the first flight to Sweden. I'm sure he won't mind. After all, he is your father." She got her cell phone out.

"No, no. It's fine. I don't want to upset him right now."

"Well," she said, "It's no trouble, dear. I really could do it. It would give him and I a sense of ease."

"It's fine. We'll just finish our vacation, then fly back home." I said. I didn't want to waste a well spent trip. Mom paid for everything and its expensive going to Gotland, Sweden. It's one of the most popular places in the country!

She sat down in the chair next to the bed as I turned the TV on and flipped through the channels.

Suddenly, gibberish was blaring into my already hurting ears. I changed the channel and turned the volume down.Then I noticed something. Every single channel was in Swedish.

I pressed the button for the nurse and a short, slim woman walked in. She had long, dark auburn hair that fell to her waist in a thick braid.

As she came closer, I saw that she had sea foam green eyes and a warm, welcoming face. I looked down at her scrubs and smiled. They had images of Mickey and Minney Mouse all over them. When she spoke, I was suprised to hardly hear any accent in her soothing voice.. 

"Is there something wrong?" she asked, smiling. She had very white teeth. She was mesmerizing. I just sat and stared at her. She then looked concerned.

"Oh, um, I can't find any TV stations in English." I said, snapping back to reality.

"I am so sorry. Let me just turn on the English receiver." I looked at her confused. She saw my face and laughed.

"You see, we have TV receivers for the most common languages. What channel would you like?" she asked looking at me.

"Uh, do you have the Discovery Channel?" I asked.

"Yes we do. If you don't want to watch this channel anymore, there is a channel guide in the bedside table's drawer." she said, "Is there anything else, Ms. Hart?"

"No,but thank you." I said kindly. Mom took out the directory and looked through the channels.

"Oh look sweetie," she said, " They have BBC America!"

I didn't hear her. I was to busy thinking about the what if's. What is I lost my leg? What if I was bitten somewhere else important? Like my neck. Then I might be paralyzed. What i-

"So sorry to disturb you again." said the person walking into the room. It was Dr. Scherbotsky. Again. He was carrying a tray of food, a small cup, and a large cup of water.

"You need to take your medicine." he said.

"Okay, thank you for bringing it to me." I said politely. He set the tray on the desk and walked out of the room quickly. Ugh, pills. I hate pills, I thought. I grimaced at the cup. It was a large pill too.

I quickly held some water in my my mouth, stuck the pill in and swallowed as fast as I could.

"Blech," I told my mom, "Held it in my mouth for to long."

"I'm sorry, sweetie." she said back to me.

I sat back into my bed. I was already getting restless just sitting around. I hated this. I couldn't do anything.

All that has happened is making me light-headed. My eyelids slowly became heavier and heavier until I couldn't keep them open any longer.

I lay there wondering why I was like this. I wasn't tired a few seconds ago.It must've been the pill. But why would the doctor want to put me to sleep?

There was something wrong with how Dr. Scherbotsky acted. Always talking quickly to me, then leaving the room the first chance he gets, and then this.

He was keeping something from me. I intended to find out what.