Set in Ink

Chapter 22

After another fitful sleep, today's battle begins with the racket of a hospital, like trumpets waking a person up, filling my room. I take a long moment before opening my eyes to gather myself. I inhale deeply, then exhale. It's so much easier to sleep, it feels so good to hide behind my eyelids, but I know that I can't keep my eyes closed forever. Eventually I will have to face the day, so why not do it now?

I open my eyes, and a swarm of nurses come to greet me, they all take their turns forcing various pills, foods, and liquids into my mouth. Each of them tell me to swallow in their best 'talking to a baby' voice, then move out of the way so I can swallow something else without being told what I am putting into my body.

After all of the nurses clear, and there is a sour taste in my mouth from the combination of who knows what I just ate, the only person left in the room is a doctor. He's facing away from my bed. He looks at my room, as if taking it in for the first time, though I know he has been in here for days. He slowly turns from wall to wall, carefully examining each, then he turns to me. For a few minutes it seems as if he is staring past me. He looks at my sheets, blankets, and my pillow. Then he looks me in the eye. He doesn't say anything for what seems like an eternity. I decide that if he isn't going to speak anytime soon I might as well. I open my mouth, not quite sure of what I want to say, but he cuts me off.

"Shhhhhh," he says sharply as if I'm going to wake his sleeping baby.

I close my mouth quickly in shock. He only stares for minutes more before he begins to speak.

"You have quite a bit of work ahead of you today Miss Addilyn," he sounds very professional when he speaks.

"Yes," I begin slowly, " that has become pretty normal for me."

I take the chance to give a little sigh before I let him continue. I immediately regret it. The last thing I want is to appear needy or weak to any of the medical staff here. The sooner they believe I'm strong, the sooner I can get off of all of the drugs they have me on.

"I wanted to give you a little time to yourself before I gave you the challenges of the new day," he says sounding a little more comfortable and less professional than before. "Now that you've had that, I will let you know what we have planned for you."

"Of course, the plan that everyone else has for me. When do I ever control my actions anymore?" I ask, my tone dripping with sarcasm, before realizing that the question was meant to stay in my mind.

"Well Miss, you've been very sick and we just wanted to make sure-" I cut him off this time.

"I know I'm sorry I didn't mean to be rude," I apologize. "I guess all of this laying in bed is driving me a little crazy."

"Well then I have good news!" he exclaims, a little too happy for what his next words are, I think. "You're getting up right now. It's time for you to begin dressing yourself and feeding yourself again. You're basically going to live as you normally do from now on with as little help from the hospital staff as possible, however we will help you dress or do anything if you're for some reason not able to do it on your own. We do believe that you're ready though, we've kept you in bed a couple extra days for good measure."

I suddenly realize that, to my surprise, I feel completely fine. I feel as if I had never been sick at all. I hadn't really noticed any improvement or lack of pain in the past few days, but apparently there was some. I smile as wide as possible.

"I'm ready," I say, my grumpy mood suddenly vanishes.

I replace it with a mood like sunshine. I jump out of bed and shoo the doctor out of my room. He hesitates a little and looks as if he's about to say something, but he leaves without another word. I notice that standing so suddenly makes me very dizzy, but I don't mind I'm up and I'm staying up all day. I skip to grab some day clothes and hop into the sanitizer. This is extremely refreshing. I have only been wiped down with wet cloths for days. I am finally clean, for real. I step out and pad downstairs merrily, humming a little song as I go. I make myself some toast and coffee.

The food is gone in a millisecond. I haven't tasted real food in quite a while. Since the doctor's "plan" for me didn't contain step by step instructions for every second of the day as I thought it would, I take pleasure in planning for myself what I will do next. I decide that I will visit Vander. I haven't seen him in what seems like centuries.

I place my empty plate and coffee cup in the dish sanitizer, still smiling. I twirl and take a step in the direction of Vander's room, then I recoil when I see a body inches from my nose. I am shocked, but still unable to wipe the grin from my face. I look up to see Vander standing in front of me.

"Vander!" I sing.

I skip up to him and give him a hug.

"How are you up so early? I thought your condition was worse than mine. I thought you would be in bed for days more," I say to him.

"My condition was worse, but I recovered quickly, I've been out of bed for days now."

"And you haven't come to see me?" I ask in a mock hurt tone.

"I have, you just weren't awake when I did," he says smiling.

"Well I'm glad you're better!" I reply with loads of enthusiasm.

I feel a little silly, but I can't hide my joy, so I let it show, all of it.

"I don't believe it," Vander says smiling, "the ever-serious Addilyn Griffin is giddy?" he questions.

I look at the wide smile on his face, then reply, "Must be something in the air."

I walk to him, grab his hands, and do a little dance with him before giving him a kiss on the cheek and dancing down the hall to go see my parents. I don't have to look back to know that I left Vander, with no doubt, grinning and watching as I disappear around the corner.