Double Update for the weekend!
☽🔮🃏🌕🕸✨🍃🕯🧿🌙🍄☾
"Room ten-ten is that way," says the nurse, and points down the hospital corridor.
I don't wait for her to finish her sentence before I take off running. A surprised visitor jumps out of my way as my feet pound down the hall. I swing my dad's door open and let out my breath. His face is covered with tubes, but I'm used to that.
His blankets are neatly tucked around him. They're a different shade of blue from the last hospital's. I touch his arm, the one without the IV and heart monitor.
Yoomi walks into the room and shuts the door behind her. "You almost knocked that man over."
"Uh-huh," I say, without paying attention.
I sit on my dad's bed and hold his hand. Without thinking, I trace the cooking scar on his pointer finger. He looks the same. I examine the streaks of white around his temples. Maybe a little thinner than last time I saw him, but not to0 different.
"We moved to Manyeo," I say. "After all those times I bugged you to take me there, we're living in Halmeoni's hanok. It's enormous. I can't believe you grew up in that place. I got lost trying to find the bathroom . . . I'm using your bedroom. The one you had as a kid, with different furniture, though.
"Mrs. Oh fixed it up for me. She told me you guys were best friends when you were little." I laugh. "You never told me about her. She's kinda great. And, holy moly, her cooking is out of control."
I examine his palm. "When you wake up, maybe you can tell me about Halmeoni—" I stop short. His heart monitor alarm wails.
"Why is it doing that?" I ask Vivian.
She steps forward, examining the display of his vitals, and shakes her head. "Did you knock the monitor off his finger?"
"No." I run to the door. But by the time I get there, a nurse comes in.
She feels his pulse, and presses a button on the intercom. "I need two nurses in ten-ten now."
My hands shake. "What's wrong? What happened?"
Two men in scrubs enter. "I'm gonna need you to leave the room," the first one says.
"Let's give them some room to work, Suzy," says Yoomi, heading for the door.
"No!" I yell. My dad's heartbeat flatlines. "Appa! Please. You can't. I don't know . . . Please, Appa. I need you!"
One of the male nurses catches me before I reach the hospital bed. The first nurse pulls out a set of defibrillators. They open my dad's gown.
"It's okay, " the male nurse tells me. "I'm gonna take you out of here."
I can't get my breath. I try, but there's only wheezing. The room spins.
The nurse guides me toward a chair in the hallway.
"Breathe, Suzy," says Yoomi.
I can barely hear her. This isn't happening. My dad isn't dying. Minutes pass. I don't know how many. I close my eyes and attempt to breathe.
I pulled my knees closer and my back pressed into the cold steps outside my apartment building as my dad's town car pulled up.
"Suzy?" He didn't say his usual goodbye and thank you to his driver. He knew why I was perched outside in the dark against the railing.
I held up a few jagged pieces of hair hanging above my shoulder. "They cut my braid off."
He sat down next to me and forced a smile. "That's just because they knew how pretty you'd look with short hair."
My lip trembled as I held up my one remaining long braid to show him how bad my situation was. "They laughed." A few tears fell onto my cheeks.
He grabbed my hand and easily hoisted me from my sitting position. "Come on."
I let him lead me into our well-lit lobby, with its big chandelier. He headed straight for the doorman's desk and grabbed a pair of scissors. Without any hesitation, he cut off a big chunk of his own black
hair right from the front.
I was so shocked that I stopped crying.
"There. Now we're the same. You'll never be alone, Suzy. As long as I am in this world, I'll be there with you. What do I always tell you?"
"Fall down seven times, stand up eight."
"And what are you going to do?"
"Stand up."
"That's my girl. Now, should we go show Yoomi our new hair cuts? Maybe she'll want one."
I couldn't help but laugh. The thought of Yoomi cutting her own hair was too ridiculous. I leaned into my dad's side, and he held me while we waited for the elevator.
The first nurse comes out of my dad's room. She approaches Yoomi. "He's stable," she says, and my chest releases it's grip on my lungs. "He may have had a heart attack, but it's hard to tell until the doctor sees him."
"Will he be alright?" Yoomi asks, and I stand.
"For now, yes," says the nurse. "I would wait a couple of days before visiting again. He just transferred here, and sometimes patients have a bad reaction to moving. I would give us a few days to monitor him. We'll be in touch if anything changes."
"Can I see him?" I ask.
"I would let him rest, Suzy," says Yoomi. "We'll come back when he's more stable."
"Why don't we just wait here until he's more stable?"
The nurse interjects. "I really think it best you go home."
"Thank you. We'll do that," says Yoomi.
"Please, can I say goodbye?" I ask.
The nurse looks unsure. "Just be quick."
I run into his room before anyone can object. His tubes are back in place, and except for his disrupted bedsheets, you would never know anything happened. I kiss him on the forehead.
"I promise I'll fix this," I whisper. "I won't let anything happen to you. I love you."
The nurse opens the door, and I back away, taking a mental picture of him as I go.