"Where am I? Where is this place? What am I doing here?" Just like that, a whole bunch of questions popped out in my head. "Alexander, you finally woke up. Thank God you're still fine," said Harriet, "you have been unconscious for three days already. I'll call the doctor to check on you." "It's okay Harry. I'll be fine," I replied. The person I was talking to was Harriet. She was my lab assistance and one of my close friends since I was a kid. I usually called her Harry because it's shorter and she didn't seem to mind about that a lot. Then I realized, what did she mean calling the doctor?
I took a close look around the room. The room was painted white and the bed I was lying on was very uncomfortable. No doubt about it, I was in a hospital. "Why am I in the hospital, Harry? What did I miss?" I asked her in frustration.
Instead of answering my question, she just silently handed me a mirror with a look on her face like she was trying to say: "Find it out yourself man." I looked at the mirror. My face was covered in bandages. A flash of memory crossed my mind. It was blurred and unclear like it was hidden between a layer of mist. All I remembered was I knocked over something, my lab was on fire and the sound of the ambulance.
"You had an accident in the lab. In the process of creating your new compound, you had accidentally knocked over some chemicals and blew the lab up," she sighed, "I just left the lab for my one hour lunch and when I came back, the lab was on fire. If Lance wasn't there, you could have gone forever," She said as she was about to sob.
Lance was my closest friend. I could say that he was my BFF since we were in elementary school. We went to the same school, had the same passion and went to the same degree. But sadly, he chose to be a professor instead of being a scientist like me. "Where is he?" I asked.
Suddenly, the door swung opened. Then, Lance ran into the room and gave me a bear hug. He squeezed me so tight that I felt like my ribs just broke off. "Can't breath... Argh," I stuttered. He released me as I fell back onto the bed, gasping for air. "Sorry, I was very excited to know that you have woken up," Lance said as he scratched his head, "I ran here as soon as I heard the news from Harry."
"Lance, I have a burn on my face and it would be appreciated if you don't break my ribs, too," I made a joke. We all laughed and I know how much they had missed that. My time in the hospital went away in silent and monotonous, maybe a bit of misery too. I was actually very worried about my half-done project and I really wanted to finish it.
Finally, after half a year, the doctor finally came to me and told me that I could leave the hospital. He brought me to his room to unwrap my bandages. But little did I know, a big shock was waiting for me. I called Lance and Harriet to come and pick me up after I after I finished unwrapping my bandages. After an hour, they arrived in front of my room and walked to the doctor's office with me.
The doctor slowly removed every layer of bandages out. Layer by layer, the bandages were soon removed. I looked back at Harry and Lance eagerly and asked: "How do I look?". Harriet looked away with her hand covering her face. I soon realized that a drop of tear was falling down her face. "What happened?" I asked Lance eagerly. "You looks great man. Better than ever," He lied, "you look great. Seriously." Something in his voice urged me to look in the mirror to find the truth myself. I looked back at the mirror behind me to find out that my face was ruined. My voice trailed off. "What is this Lance? Why did you lie you me?" I yelled as I collapsed and fell down onto the chair that I was on "doctor, is there any way to recover my appearance?" "There is a way to recover it but it would take you half a million dollars to afford for the surgery," the doctor answered me in a sad tone. My family had always been very poor. Beside from me, no one had has the privilege to go to university before and now, just because of my appearance, I had to waste half a million dollars? I looked at the blank space in front of me, thinking of my life after this. It wouldn't be so bad if I just look ugly right?
