Seoulmates

Waking

Ella opened her eyes slowly. She expected to wake up in her bed with Yeonkyung peacefully sleeping in the bed across the room, or maybe on the floor of the elevator where she had closed her eyes momentarily. This was not either of those places. Ella stretched and took in her surroundings. The blue and green walls of her room were tinged with the fiery orange glow of the setting sun as it dipped below the glistening Columbia River that she could see from the window. She was home. She had never really left. As she sat up, Ella noticed the disorganized pile of papers on her desk and the disarray that she had left her bookshelf in. She smelled the aroma of her dad's homemade, oven-baked nachos and heard the pounding of feet coming from downstairs as her brothers, Evan and Ethan, ran around chasing each other. Everything looked the same. Everything smelled the same. Everything sounded the same. But there was something that felt off. Maybe it was the dust that seemed to have settled in a fine layer on top of her beloved books, or the fact that the air in her room felt stale, but Ella suspected it was that everything just felt too normal. 

Ella pushed her comforter down her legs and rolled out of bed. She padded barefoot down the hallway to the staircase and lightly descended stair by stair into her family's front living room. Turning the corner she walked down a short hallway to the family room and adjacent kitchen. Evan and Ethan had settled whatever they were fighting about while her mom sat on one of the couches on her phone, perusing Facebook. Her dad was tending the stove-top, cleaning up the mess he'd made with the taco seasoning. Ella rubbed her tired eyes and looked around. No one had noticed her presence, or if they had, no one had cared. "Hey, guys," Ella said with a deeper voice than she'd intended. No one turned around. Walking towards the stove, Ella asked "Dad, need any help?" Still no acknowledgement of her presence. "Hello?" she yelled. Still not so much as even a turn of a head.

Walking over to her mom Ella waved her hand between the phone screen her mother was looking at and her face. Her mom squinted and then kept scrolling. She tapped her brothers on the shoulders, kicked them in the shins, tried with everything she had to be noticed and still nothing. Finally she plopped down on the couch opposite of the couch her mother was sitting on and sighed. Do they not see me or do they not care? Am I invisible? Mute? Ella had no idea. She continued to sit. Eventually the nachos were pulled out of the oven and everyone sat at the table to eat. Ella sat too. Ethan set the table and put out four places. One for everyone. Except Ella. The family ate and Ella watched as her father's homemade nachos were quickly devoured.

It had been about twenty minutes and Ella's family had mostly finished dinner. As Evan cleaned up and did the dishes, Ella sat still in her chair deep in thought. Why don't they see or hear me? Am I dreaming? Yeah, this is probably a dream. I mean there's no way I'm actually home. Ella thought back to where she last remembered being. The elevator! Ella wake up! Ella wake--

Ella gasped awake. She opened her eyes to the harsh white light that surrounded her. This time it wasn't her bedroom, or the rickety elevator. The smell of antiseptic hit her nose. She was in a hospital. She had no idea where or how, or why but she was here. She moved to sit up and a nurse rushed over telling her not to get up and not to strain herself. Laying back down, Ella looked around and saw that she was the only patient in this room. That's odd. Maybe that's how they do things here. In the States, Ella had always shared a room with at least one other patient but there weren't even multiple beds in this room. Looking to her right she saw the guy from the elevator. When she looked over at him, he smiled and did a little wave.

"Uh, hello," Ella  croaked. Her throat was unbearably dry and she looked over to a bedside table for water. Locating a nice large glass, she reached for it and nearly knocked it over. While she struggled to grab the glass, the guy reached over and handed it to her. "Thank you," Ella mumbled before chugging the clear liquid.