Changes

Breakfast

Despite being unconscious for roughly a day and a half, Jack slept soundly through the night. He fell asleep shortly after his mother left, not even stirring when the nurse checked in on him around midnight as per Dr. Stephens request. He woke up around seven thirty to see an orderly bringing him a tray with some breakfast on it. The man came in, put the tray on the wheeled table beside Jack's bed, and left, all without saying one word. Jack lay staring at the ceiling for a few moments just to let the last remnants of his deep sleep leave him, then sat up to see what he was given to eat. 

Having grown up eating it for breakfast nearly everyday, Jack felt neutral about the bowl of oatmeal which sat steaming at the side of his tray. He was a bit happier to see scrambled eggs, sausage, and whole wheat toast underneath the lid which covered his plate. They had even given him butter for the toast, and what he assumed was a recently thawed berry mix for the oatmeal. Alongside this was a mug of tea, once again without the cream or sugar it so desperately needed. Jack still felt optimistic about seeing his mother the night before, so the tea didn't bother him too much. He ate his meal slowly at first, enjoying the sweet flavour of the berries in his oatmeal. He used up all the butter he was given for the two pieces of toast, and found he didn't mind whole wheat bread too much, despite white bread being what his mother usually kept in the house. But after he'd had his first taste of the breakfast sausage, he devoured the rest of his food voraciously. When he finished, he found himself with an insatiable craving for more meat. When the orderly returned to retrieve the dirty dishes, Jack asked if there might be any sausage left he could have, but the man just laughed as he walked out of the room. The bloody steak his mom had offered to cook him when he returned home sounded like more than he could ask for.