Dreams

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 It was 2 a.m. and I was drifting in and out of sleep while doctors did their rounds and the night shift of nurses came in to slave away in the early hours of the morning. I'd always wondered how they did their jobs with such ease, they are at the hospital from 12 a.m. to 8 a.m. and still manage to live a happy normal family life. They were all owls in disguise, taking sleeping pills to get over the things they'd seen in the ER this shift. Hoping to have dreams of nothing so they didn't have nightmares of their kids becoming the ones she's seen in the hospital waiting room. Their father in tears because he would never hold his wife's hand again, because a drunk driver had totaled their car and taken their mother's life. I could never go into the medical field, my nightmares would be displayed in front of me every day. Although it seems they have already taken over my reality already.

  When I woke up, there was a sticky-note on my forehead.

BE BACK IN A FEW, WENT 2 GET BREAKFAST, PHOENIX

I threw it on the ground next to me and saw the calendar on the table across the room, it was Monday. My nurse came in seconds prior to me hitting the call button, and before she could ask any questions I told her I wanted to go on a walk. "I'll be back within an hour, I just want to stretch out my legs that's all." She hooked me up to the IV on wheels and opened the door. "Have a nice walk." She said once again with that fake smile that I hated so much. I hobbled down the hallway towards the elevator when I got intercepted by a hoard of cancer kids surrounding a German Shepard puppy that seemed to be completely and utterly enjoying all of the attention he was getting. Shuffling around the swarm of children I finally reached the elevator, and stepped inside. I reached to press the button for the 6th floor, but someone with perfectly painted red nails beat me to it. "Elizabeth! I, um, didn't expect to see you here. I mean I did, but not here, in this exact place." I wish I could speak with the confidence that she did, but she also wasn't wearing a hospital gown and had brushed her hair in the past 48 hours. "Meredith, I see you decided to follow through on our offer! Fabulous, that's one more paycheck for me and one less headstone in the graveyard." Somehow I managed to laugh at that even though I knew the headstone she was talking about would've indefinitely had my name written all over it, literally. We pretended not to know each other as more people got on and off the elevator and then we actually managed to reach the 6th floor. Thinking about what was going to happen was the least of my problems, I'd had more tests done than I could count. I was just hoping that this treatment might actually work, for whatever the hell I had. 253,254,255, here we go-256. I thought to myself as I turned the doorknob and struggled to push the huge door open until someone on the other side opened it for me. Elizabeth trailing behind I slowly walked into the room which was lit up by fluorescent doctor's lamps from all corners of the room. I walked into the center of the room and promptly fainted.