Chapter Two
The hospital room was beginning to dim, indicating that the day was coming to a close. The television set mounted on the wall across from me was playing some sort of cop show. By now I had slept a good four hours, and I tried my best to forget the fact that I would be having surgery on my leg.
Some nurse I have never seen before came into the room. “Darrel?” She said softly.
I turned down the television set so I wouldn’t have to speak over the loud volume. Hopefully the noise didn’t annoy my roommate. “Yeah?” I sat up, adjusting the wire that veered into my arm.
“I just wanted to let you know that we will be performing the surgery tomorrow.”
My eyes widened, and my mouth dropped. “Tomorrow?” I said nervously. “Can’t you reschedule it or something?”
The nurse grinned and shook her head. “Sorry. I just came to tell you about what the surgeons will be doing - ”
“I don’t really want to know.” I looked away, avoiding the nurse’s eyes.
I heard her sigh. “Very well.” Her light footsteps sounded throughout the room, going past the curtained off area.
I turned up the television once again so that they wouldn’t think I was eavesdropping. But I couldn’t help myself. Straining my ears, I tried to listen in on the conversation between the nurse and my roommate.
“He’s not in the mood right now,” the nurse said. “Maybe later. Do you need anything?”
My roommate must have shaken their head, for the nurse said, “Okay,” without getting a verbal response.
The nurse made her way out of the room. She stopped at the doorway and looked at me. “Can you turn that off? Your roommate wants to sleep.”
I scowled and turned off the television. The nurse nodded before leaving the room, the sounds of her high heels clacking on the floor dissipating with every step.
It was much darker now; the digital clock on the nightstand beside me stated that it was almost eight. Did I really have to go to bed so early? The last thing I wanted was to get in some sort of argument with the person on the other side of the curtain, so I lay back in my bed and closed my eyes.
Telephones rang throughout the busy hallway, intermingled with the sounds of chattering amongst the doctors and patients. It would be nearly impossible to fall asleep with all the noise getting in the way, so I tried to navigate through my thoughts. The only things that came up were the horrible incidents that could occur during my surgery the following day. How was this all going to play out?
“You want me to close the door?” I heard someone whisper from the other side of the curtain.
I sat up, almost forgetting that someone else was in the room with me. Once the shock had passed, I said, “Yeah, go ahead.”
I heard some shuffling and then the sound of bare feet moving across the ground. Rounding the corner of the curtain, a tall, young girl emerged. She looked to be about my age, maybe sixteen or seventeen. Her long, black hair went past her lower back; it looked like it hadn’t been cut in years. She kinda resembled Repunzel in some sort of way.
She glanced at me with a wide smile as she made her way towards the door. “Assuming that you can’t get up . . .” She kicked up the doorstopper, allowing it to creak and moan before shutting completely. The only thing that was now lighting the room with whatever radiance it provided was the light coming from the window on the curtained-off side of the room. Her face seemed to give off its white hue, making her look like some sort of angel from heaven.
