Here and There

Chapter 4

This is not a flashback! This is an update on her life in the hospital!

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For the past few days, I’ve been wondering around this hospital watching people and trying to figure stuff out. There was various nurses who came in and took care of me, but there was one special nurse in particular. She was the only one who actually spoke to me despite me being in a coma. All of the others came in, did what they were supposed to and then left without saying a word. Rude, right?

 

Well, this nurse talked to me about everything: her husband, kids, job, career, etc. She was very interesting, too. The stories she told had me in trances and although she couldn’t hear me, I responded to her and sometimes asked her questions when I forgot that she couldn’t hear me talking or see me sitting in the chair. To other nurses, I was nothing more than a simple body laying motionless that they had to care for. To her, I was an actual human being who needed some kind of communication and socialization in their lives. I appreciated that she took the time to talk to me effortlessly.

 

She was average sized with short light brown hair that almost reached to her shoulders and bright blue eyes that all of her kids had inherited despite their brown-eyed father.

 

I’ve learned a lot about her just from her stories. Her name is Stacey. She lives in Sea Isle City 20 minutes away in a small beach house with her gorgeous husband and three kids. She has a 14-year old son who is very disoriented to put it nicely. He’s very talkative but he’s sometimes a complete jerk to everyone except for his friends and girlfriend. His name is Matt. She has another 12-year-old son named Ash who is basically the exact opposite of Matt. He’s respectful and athletic although he does have some mischievous moments involving his siblings. Her youngest child is 6 years old and her name is Leah. She’s an adorable, loving little girl who’s perfect in her mother’s eyes. She’s silly and playful yet messy, one of her few bad qualities. She likes dolls and is in love with Nemo, which is something my little sister, Alea, is also very fond of.

 

Stacey went to medical school for 6 years in Pennsylvania at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center where she met her husband who is currently an accountant. They’ve been together for 15 years and were nearing their 16th anniversary.

 

She worked as an RN at the local Avalon hospital where I was staying while in a coma.

 

She believed in miracles because she saw many things happen here in this hospital throughout her lifetime and she was always encouraging me to wake up so she could hear me speak and have the chance to actually meet me. And let me tell you, I really wished I could wake up, too. I wished I was able to actually tell Stacey about my life, too. And tell her everything about how my parents decided to divorce and tell her about Colton and Alea and all of my friends. She makes me feel so loved and cared for which was kind of something I had been missing the past few years especially with the divorce that had taken away the caring mother I once had long ago.

 

She told me about her pets, also. According to what I’ve heard, she’s got a house full of animals. She had 3 dogs. One was a golden retriever, one was a shih-tzu, and the last one was a beagle. The shih-tzu was her baby and didn’t like to do stuff the other two did. She was kind of like the queen of the animals even though she was the smallest. The golden retriever and beagle went hunting with the boys and loved to play outside and run around.

 

She also had 2 parrots. The male was named Sam and the female was named Julia. They were one of a kind birds, too. They held conversations with each other and were madly in love. They fought like a married couple sometimes and other times, they’d talk about their owners and discuss things. Keep in mind they were parrots and their vocabulary was limited, but they knew an awful lot of words for the casual parrot. They both held colorful and bold personalities.

 

Along with the dogs and parrots, she had a small aquarium with a few fish and two frogs. Although they didn’t really have names, her daughter always gave them different names each time she spoke to them.

And that’s about all I’ve learned about Stacey. I may be forgetting a few things, but I think I got most of it. Stacey is an amazing nurse and friend and I really liked when she came in to check on me every few days.