Tidbits

Hospital Scene

Author's Note: This was an assignment to write the first 500 words in a story set in either a blackout, a hospital, or a foreign country. I went with hospital. This is totally improvised freewriting other than that. 

I've never been in an emergency room waiting room before. In a hospital waiting room in a movie there would always be someone rushed through on a stretcher every two minutes, a couple crying in some corner, and little kids going crazy while fear-numb parents ignored them. In reality, right now, at least, it's pretty mellow; the same vibe as the DMV. The emotions I am feeling are mixed, but rather than anything dramatic, the emotions are a mix of "I can't believe it's my only day off this week and I have to get up at 4 A.M. anyway for this" and "I hope Grandma will be here for a few days and I'll get a break from dealing with her."

Yeah, I know, that makes me sound like a horrible person. But this has happened before, back before she moved in with us, and the last time it happened it wasn't even really anything to do with her heart. It was just her stomach acid or something. And I haven't gotten any privacy at all since she moved in with us. Everyone else in the family leaves the house occasionally. Mom has errands, Dad has work, my uncle has his boyfriend, and my little sisters have school. Grandma can't work, can't drive, and has no interest in walking any further than from the kitchen to the living room. Not to mention – Mom and Dad are married, my uncle is a guy, and my little sisters already share a room, so guess who has to share a room with Grandma? If she's going to be in the hospital, maybe I'll actually get the chance to invite my boyfriend over for some private time. (His house isn't an option for that – his crazy mom checks the security cameras every time she leaves him alone in the house for more than five minutes, just because he lied to her about some girl being at the movie theater with him and his friends, like, two years ago.)

We've been here for hours. They're finally letting us in to visit, one at a time, which means Mom is there with Grandma and I have to baby-sit the kids. Kylie, who's six, has been quietly playing some stupid "Brush JoJo Siwa's Teeth" game because I sacrificed my phone to appease her. But Adalynn has decided she wants to be social and keeps trying to talk to me. "I hope Grandma is gonna be okay. Right, huh, Emilia?" she keeps saying, over and over, as if I have any kind of response to that besides "Yeah, I hope so too" or "She'll be fine." The last time she asked I just snapped, "She'll be fine, Adalynn! Calm down!" to which she retorted, "Well, geez!" and shut up for all of two seconds before she started talking about school. If Mom was here she would've yelled at me for raising my voice. She's always saying I'm too harsh on the little kids, but I mean, it's not like I would've snapped if Adalynn was actually worried. When she actually needs me, I'm nice to her. Mom doesn't know I stayed up 'til midnight with her while she cried about some cute boy in her sixth-grade class who said he'd never go out with her because she's fat. But Adalynn isn't worried now. She's excited. Like waiting here in this room is some kind of grand adventure. Shouldn't she know better?