The Boy with the Blind Eyes

SEVEN

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'Is she awake?' She heard a voice demand. A familiar voice. One she hadn't heard in eons, so it felt.

Then she felt a stabbing pain in her elbow, and a sting in one arm. Her head was still throbbing, felt as if it were full of cotton balls. And then, she smelled it. The smell accompanied with Eli's death: the hospital smell. A subtle, sick scent filled the air, making Tamsin cough. It was the first time since Eli had passed that she had been back to a hospital. And she instantly wanted to leave.

Indistinct murmurs were everywhere around her, indecipherable words all blurring together as one, huge sound that made her head throb even more. Her eyes cracked open a tiny bit, just enough to see what was right in front of her—a pasty, yellow wall, covered in grey smudges, some sort of cart parked against it, and white sheets covering the lower part of her body. She felt like a corpse. She couldn't move her neck, because there was a brace around it, and another one around her aching arm, as well as a drip. 

'We've given her morphine for the time being,' a soothing voice said, coming out of nowhere.

Through her line of vision, a lady with coffee-coloured skin and frizzy hair opened the curtain dividing Tamsin's room with the person next to her. She was dressed like a typical doctor, with a white coat around her shoulders and a clipboard tucked under one arm. Behind her in walked another lady. She saw the shoes first—familiar, cream flats, then pressed aqua slacks, and finally, a floral top. Blue eyes smiled at her sadly, and the mouth curved upward into a smile.

'Mom.'

'Darling,' her mother whispered, walking over to her side immediately. She brushed a kiss on her forehead, her eyes watery. 'You've had a fall.'

'A fall?'

'Yes,' the other lady piped up from across the room. Her dark brown eyes smiled kindly at Tamsin, joining her on the other side of the bed. 'Your friend called an ambulance, because you'd fallen over.' She held out her hand. 'I'm Nurse Alyssa.'

'What's wrong with me?' Tamsin asked, accepting it.

'Nothing too major,' she replied. She turned a page on her clipboard, pursing her lips together and making a clicking noise with her tongue. 'The first issue, being that you inured yourself falling over, is that you've fractured your elbow. That should heal within a couple of months,' she said, 'and the X-rays don't appear to be overly concerning. You also hit your head falling down on tiles, which caused you to black out. There's no damage to the brain, but you do have a lot of bruising, and we've prescribed you medication to manage the pain and help the healing process along.'

'How long will she need this medication for?' Her mother asked quietly.

'We'll have regular check-ups every few weeks, and when we see the bruising is healing and there is no clotting, we can take you off it,' she said. 'Now, as for the reason you fell in the first place, Tamsin. You're showing signs of having an intolerance to alcohol, which is very common these days. It's very manageable; you just can't consume alcohol.'

'I've never drank before.'

'We found traces in your system last night.'

It dawned on her suddenly—the few sips of beer she'd had.

Her mouth ran dry. 'Right. Yes. Um, I had a few sips. That was all.'

'We did see that, too. None of this is going to majorly impact your health, it's just a pain,' Nurse Alyssa laughed sadly. 'We'll have check-ups with you every three weeks and check that everything is developing properly. You can leave the hospital as soon as I give you a prescription for the medication, which you'll need to start taking today. Dr Landry will be in to see you in a few minutes, and then you'll be able to be discharged.'