Day Seven （Joy Moore）
Joy Moore
Day Seven
I feel as though I’m floating. An odd sensation, considering I can’t move my limbs.
The nurse, or doctor, or whoever was just here, asked if I knew what day it was and I laughed.
Laughed! I don’t know what day it is. I haven’t known what day it is for days.
This too strikes me as funny. I’m strapped to things, bleeps and tubes, and this is the best I’ve felt in ages.
I’m not sleepy at all. I could stay awake for …
I WAKE UP. My throat is scratchy and the nurse, or doctor, asks if I know what day it is.
I laugh. I don’t know what day it is. I haven’t known what day it is for days.
I laugh at this too. I’m strapped to a lot of tubes.
There’s some discomfort in my lower abdomen, and it occurs to me that I have no idea why I’m here.
“Why am I here?” I ask the nurse or doctor or whoever he is.
“You had surgery. You’re coming out of anesthesia.”
“Surgery?” As I voice the word, nausea slithers in. The discomfort in my abdomen amplifies. I tell the nurse or doctor or whoever he is.
“Let me help with that.” He does something, and I feel nothing. Or maybe nothing is the wrong word. Definitely something. Or the absence of something? It’s the best I’ve felt in ages. I’m not even tired. I could stay awake for …
I WAKE UP in a hospital. This is the first thing I notice. The second is the tubes. I’m attached to monitors and drips and who knows what else. I can barely swallow for how dry my throat is.
“Hello?” I croak.
A man enters the room. “Well, hey,” he says. He introduces himself as Nurse Todd and asks me what day it is.
I think about it. “No idea.”
“What about the year?”
I tell him.
“Good. President?”
I know this answer too.
“Excellent. How are you feeling, Joy?”
I try to adjust my posture and my body returns an odd combination of numbness and pain.
I notice then a lump of bandages on my lower abdomen, and remember, with a growing sense of alarm, Mitali’s bathroom.
The last time I opened my eyes, I was on Mitali’s bathroom floor.
I press my fingers to my lips and say through them, “I’m not sure how I got here. ”
He nods. “Let me get a doctor in to explain it to you.”