Sinking Through the Cracks

The Inncident

When I wake up I'm lying in a hospital room.  I begin to panic.  My heart monitor starts beeping furiously and a nurse comes in to my room,

"Oh, good, you've woken up.  Can you tell me your name?" she asks.  I stay frozen in the bed underneath the thin picky sheets.  I examine the situation.  No one here knows who I am.  My clothes are gone.  I'm in one of those robes that barely passes my butt and my underwear is still on.  Now the nurse wants to know my name and it springs to my lips,

"Ally."

"Ally, do you have a last name?"

"Ally Pearson."

"Okay," she says, scribbling on my sheet, 

"What school do you go to, Ally?"

"Riverdell High School." I say.  She raises her eyebrows as if she's surprised and asks me a few more basic questions before saying,

"Okay.  We are going to call your school to tell them where you are and we want to keep you under observation for a few hours before releasing you.  Is there anyone you need to call?"  When I glance at the clock, I see that school has been over for almost thirty minutes.  I nod and the woman hands me my cell phone.  I immediately dial Anthony's number.  When he picks up, I tell him where I am and before I can say anything else, he hangs up.  About twenty minutes later he comes running up to a front desk down the hallway.  I see him say something to the nurse and she scans over a paper on her desk before Anthony starts running down the hall toward my room.  He wrestles the door open and embraces me in a hug.  I don't want to let go, but when he does, I release him.  He sits in the chair by my bed and frowns at me.

"What happened?" he asks.

"Well... When we Mitchel told me to leave the room, I couldn't sit down.  I kept walking and suddenly, my vision went blurry.  The room started to spin and I couldn't see for a minute.  Someone saw me and brought me to the nurse because I woke up in her room.  I got out off her office and started home when, half way there, it happened again and I woke up here." I say. Then the door opens and a man and woman step inside.  The guy smiles at me and I see that he's probably my age or a few years older.  The woman he's with must be his mom.  The woman beams before saying,

"Thank God you're all right.  I saw you fall down outside and I went outside to get you, but you had passed out so I had my son carry you inside.  When you didn't wake up, we brought you to the hospital."  I thank them and they leave, Anthony and I alone again until the nurse comes in to the room.

"The doctor wants you to stay here overnight just to make sure that you're all right.  Young man, you're welcome to stay as well." she says, but I look at Anthony and shake my head, insisting that he doesn't have to stay.  After she leaves and we talk for a few minutes, he leaves, only to return an hour later with a large bag containing clothes, my Ipod, my laptop, and a notebook. 

I can't believe that he was that sweet.  He also tells me that he fed Nagini and that he returned the emergency key he used to get inside, back to it's place. He then goes home and I miss him as soon as the door closes.  I lie awake in bed until about midnight when a nurse comes in.  I immediately sit up in bed, worried that she's going to pump food in to me through the tube in my arm, but she assures me that she was just going to see if I was still awake.  She leaves and I lie back down in the bed.  A few more hours pass and I suddenly feel claustrophobic in this room.  Before my heart rate escalates, I climb out of the bed and pad out in to the hallway, my bare feet not making a sound on the cold tile floors.  I walk around a few corners, finding myself in a barren hallway.  I try to turn around, but I seem to be lost.  I go this way and that, keeping myself calm, but I can't find my way back to my room.  I keep walking, thinking of the calories I'm burning, and trek on, determined to find my room.  I find a clock that says that it's almost 3 am when a door to my right creeks open.  A male nurse comes walking down the hallway, looking tired and worn out.  He sees me peering around the corner and freezes as I whip my body back around the corner, out of sight. 

"Hey." he says.  I don't move, don't breathe, hoping that he will just go away, but he doesn't.

"Are you alright? Do you need help finding your room?" he ask.  I risk it and poke my head back around the corner.  I nod and bring my head back around so that he can't see me. 

"What's your name?" he asks.  I take a deep breathe and from a point where he can't see me I say,

"Ally Pearson."

I hear him move, his uniform swishing slightly.  I guess that he has a walkie talkie because his voice breaks the silence,

"Abbey, you there?" then I hear a muffled response.

"I've got an Ally Pearson who lost her way around the hospital.  Can I get her room number and wing?" he asks and is answered by a static filled response that he apparently understands.  He says my name and I again poke my head around the corner.

"Come on.  I know where your room is." he says.  Once he turns, I carefully step from around the corner, embarrassed by my huge thighs and calves.  His head turns to glance behind him and I dart behind another wall.  We set up a system so that every time he check on me, I just run forward and tap his hand with mine.  We finally make it to my room and I scurry inside after a quick thank you.  I take a deep breath, leaning against the door, before perching myself on the window sill and waiting there until a nurse comes the next morning and releases me.