I'm Still Sadie

The Resurrection

THE RESURRECTION

Kevin told me that I had to be careful with the bodies I was in. And while I knew that, the universe didn't.

In fact, a few mornings after my meeting with Kevin, his message was drilled into my head further.

That particular morning was a memorable one. I knew even before I opened my eyes that I wasn't Sadie; I could just sense it, but it would be crazy to think that the universe would suddenly return me back to my body.

With the first bad thing about that day being that I still wasn't Sadie, the second bad thing was that I couldn't move my left hand. It was numb and even shaking it was no use.

Wriggling my wrist around told me that I was gripping something that was cold as ice. As I rubbed my thumb around, I concluded that it was a hand.

I pried open one eye, but oh dear god, I was holding hands with a sleeping elderly woman. As I shook my hand out of her grip, I ended up smacking my hand against the chair that I awoke in.

Any other day that would've meant that I was one of the worst people alive, but the whole situation changed due to the fact that I was in a hospital room that was so white that it hurt my eyes.

And since a hobby of mine was sitting in rooms in company of the deathly ill and their germs, hospitals were my favorite place.

Leaving the old woman to sleep, I tiptoed out of the room and ventured off for the restrooms so I could wash my hands. After turning off the faucet, I stared at myself in the mirror, just to discover that I was a very pale boy today.

With nothing better to do, I wandered around the ICU and did my best to guess why each person was there.

Appendicitis. Car accident. Pneumonia.

In my head, I was a world-class doctor, yet in reality, I was reciting things I had heard before on hospital soap operas.

Only a girl's voice could interrupt my guessing game. "Hello?" she asked as I walked past her room.

My head snapped to the direction of the voice and I walked backwards to see who was speaking. My eyes landed upon a teenage girl with multiple casts all over her skinny body; my first thought as to why she would be here was anorexia.

I peeked my head around the door. "Hey," I said, my first words as this particular body.

Her eyes looked glossy, as if she was about to cry. "I could use some company," she said. "Do you mind?"

I shrugged my shoulders, moving towards the chair that was next to her bed. "What's your name?"

Although her eyes were still sad and "puppy-dog like", she smiled. "Tegan," she told me.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck.

This couldn't be the same Tegan, could it?

I tried to return the smile, but it almost stung to do so. "That's a pretty name," I said. "Very cool."

"Thank you, what's yours?"

"What an...excellent question. It's uh...Sadie," I mumbled. At least I was being honest.

"Sadie?" Tegan asked. "I had no idea that Sadie was a unisex name."