Beloved: Memoir of a Phantom

Chapter 16- Recovery

       CHAPTER 16

        Recovery

I felt like I was being lifted, carried along to some unknown destination by unseen hands. It was dark where I was, yet I knew there were others nearby me. I could almost hear them speaking, but they were too far off in the distance to me.

I caught snatches of a conversation two of the people were having, just enough to realize that I was the topic matter.

“Second and third degree burns on her arms, legs and torso…lucky she was found in time.” An unknown voice waived in and out of my hearing.

“What kind of sick bastard would do this to an innocent girl?...” a second, slightly younger voice spoke to the first.

“Dunno kid…have my suspicions…no sign of struggle, so I think she went willingly.”

The younger voice said something that sounded like “why?” but it was far too garbled for me to understand.

“…ask her.” The first voice said.

“…poor thing looks mummified… from the ground you said? Strange…”

After this I heard no more words, only a soft humming noise by my head and the familiar blackness that surrounded me.

When I finally was able to open my eyes I saw a plain white ceiling through a rippled sheet of plastic and at first I couldn’t make sense of why I couldn’t move or even where I was, but again I started to hear voices intermingling with the soft rhythmic hum from earlier.

“Jerry, get the nurse! I think she’s coming around!” I heard my mother’s familiar voice frantically ringing out at my father; sending a cold wave of reality crashing down around me.

Instead of being sent to heaven or hell to my beloved I was instead rushed to purgatory; otherwise known as the intensive care ward at Renborough General Hospital.

The sound of the machine pumping oxygen into my little clear tent was acting like a lullaby, making me feel so drowsy…maybe it was all just a nightmare and I was really dead after all…

“Sweetheart, stay with me!” My mother shouted tapping on the wall of the tent, jarring me out of sleep.

I opened my eyes again and rolled them in the direction of her voice, that’s when I saw her standing there with tears in her smiling eyes. She was quickly joined by my father; neither of which seemed to have gotten sleep for a week but were both smiling nonetheless.

“Hey pumpkin, we thought we lost you there.” My father spoke softly.

I opened my mouth to speak but the intake of air made my throat burn badly and sent me into a coughing fit. “Where am I? What happened?” I wheezed in a crackled voice that wasn’t my own.

“We’re not sure how it happened, but the police are looking into it.” A nurse on my opposite side replied as she rolled up the side of the tent to examine me.

“How are you feeling today Isadora?” she asked.

I wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that question. Outside the pain must have been obvious, but inside I felt a hundred times worse. I had tried and failed miserably to be reunited with my beloved again and now rather than have the blissful death I welcomed I received more pain and suffering than any sane, normal person could handle or tolerate.

I looked up at the blank ceiling again, avoiding everyone’s eyes. “I’m in an inconceivable amount of pain, how do you think I feel?” I snapped, still wheezing with every breath. Tears began to well up in my eyes and sting at my dried up tear ducts.