The Tide

The Incident

I suddenly woke up in a bright white room surrounded by machines being, and wires attached to my arms and legs. As I looked around the room wondering where I was, a woman came through a door to my right wearing a lab coat. "Excuse me "I whispered in agony, "Oh your awake, I wasn't sure you were ever going to wake up" she said calmly as she bustled quickly around the room with bottles and cables, "how long had I been asleep?" I asked with a pinch of fright now edging into my hoarse voice. "3 months" she answered casually still fiddling with medical equipment dotted around the room. Confused and scared I started to ask her questions, "what happened, where am I and where is my family if I even have one?". Now with a portion of worry spreading across her face she explained, slowly and carefully "you are in St Agnes hospital, you had a terrible accident on the beach, your family are fine and waiting outside for news on your health, but as for what happened I can't possibly explain I'll go and get a family member to explain the situation", then she left and I was alone again. After around 5 long painful minutes a different woman walked in "Hello Sophie it's me your mum".

"What happened, what happened to me!" I shouted forgetting my pain. She sighed and started to explain, "It was a warm summers day and we had gone on a family day trip to the beach. You and your brothers where playing in the sand, looking for shells, swimming and surfing in the sea. We called you over for lunch you played with your dad, and you your dad and your brothers even threw a bucket of water over me as I sun bathed. Then the tide started to come in so we all gathered our things and made our way off the beach. We were on to the car, you kept begging us to let you go back because you had left your bag behind, we told you we would buy you a new one but you didn't listen. We never should have let you go off by yourself. Anyway, you went to get your bag, I don't know what happened next, but you were taking a while so we went to go and find you. We couldn't see you anywhere and we were starting to get worried. Then I spotted you bobbing up and sinking back down under the water, that's when the panic kicked in, you weren't shouting out for help so there was something wrong. We called for the lifeguards, they got you out and you were rushed straight to the hospital. That's when we got the bad news."

"What bad news? What's wrong with me? What's wrong mum?" I shouted out causing myself a terrible amount of pain." The doctors told us that you were in a coma, and you were paralysed from the waist down."