“Yes ma’am. Isn’t that amazing?” The shorter nurse said.
She must have noticed the sad look on my face. From what I could remember I was already pregnant before and I had lost my baby. Who I was pregnant from was eluding me right now. I couldn’t think. The taller black nurse approached me and grabbed my hand. Her name readStacyon the name badge.
“It’s a lot for us to talk about but today is not the day. This is your first day with your eyes open and we just want you to get adjusted after being on the machine for so long. I’m Stacy the charge nurse and this is my cousin, Velma. We’ve been standing in the gap for you since you arrived. We’re going to take this day by day and anything you want to know just ask us. What’s your name?”
I thought for a minute before I responded, “Merci.”
“We finally have a name. You’ve been a Jane Doe for months now.”
“Where am I?”
“You’re in LA. Now that I could hear you talk you sound like you from the south.”
“How the hell I get to LA?” I asked confused.
They both looked at each other funny. It was like they knew something I didn’t know and I wasn’t in any kind of mood to okay with them.
“I don’t think today is a good day to relive this. I work a double tomorrow. Let’s start fresh tomorrow,” Stacy said. “Your brain is going into overload you still need to rest because they will be in and out all day.”
“What day is it?”
Velma looked at her Apple Watch, “It’s 4:34 in the afternoon on a Friday.”
“What’s the date?”
“November 12th.”
If it was one thing I could remember, was my birthday. It was coming up in a few days. Tears formed in my eyes as I thought about being tied down in the damn hospital not knowing what was going on with me.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Thank y’all for everything.”
“I’ll be back first thing in the morning but Velma is here until seven.”
I nodded and they both left the room. For the remainder of the day, doctors and nurses were in and out of my room. I was able to eat my first meal in months which was only a few bites because that’s all my stomach could take. Now that it was nighttime and the nurse had helped me up to use the bathroom, sadness hit me out of nowhere. I anxiously paced the floor, going from the tall window in my room back to the bed. Small pieces of things were coming to me slowly.
I wasn’t sure why but the only thing that kept running across my mind was a party that I had went to. The feeling of me not belonging there and wanting to leave but something was stopping me. Standing to the window with my arms crossed over my chest, I stared off into the traffic trying my best to figure shit out. My head was starting hurt and right as I was about to pass out, the night nurse walked in and helped me back in the bed.
“You cannot do too much. I prefer you to stay in bed so I don’t have to write up any incident reports please.”
“Can you tell me why I’m here?”
“This is my first night working with you. You’ll have to talk to someone else. I did see in your report that the police would be here to see you in the morning.”
“Why?”
“Not sure. What I want you to do is get some rest. Please call me if you want to get out of bed. Your equilibrium is still not where it needs to be.”
“Yes ma’am.”
I ended up just forcing myself to go to sleep. It was either that or make myself sick from trying to get my brain to do something that it wasn’t ready to do. Maybe the nurse could give me the information I needed in the morning. Something was telling me I had done some shit to land me here.
“Good morning, Merciiii,” Stacy opened the blinds in my room. The warm sun beamed right in my face making me squint and pull the covers over my head.
“It’s too early.”
“Actually, I let you sleep a lot later than I should. You were supposed to be gone down for an MRI, but I told them to let you sleep.”
