The first time I come around I am lying flat in an operating theatre. Everything is numb and I have a small sense of my surroundings. I hear the familiar beeping of a heart monitor and the whirring of the surgeon's tools. Then I feel a sharpness in my chest and my vision is clouded with black spots. I finally pass out to the noise of the heart monitor flat lining.
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The second time I come around it isn't even properly. I just see some haze of a bright light pointed directly at me. It's over quickly as someone notices I'm awake and I secuum the drug cocktail I have been given.
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The third time I come around I am in a soft bed. There is a tube down my throat and the sound of a ventilator to my left. I relax my body and just listen to the sounds surrounding me. Everything is clearer, all the sounds and smells, the taste of the tube on my tongue. The feeling of the contents of my IV flowed down my vien. But then everything started to overwhelm me and I heard footsteps rush into my room and they inserted something into my IV. It soothed me and I relaxed but I didn't secuum to the sedative. I wanted to stay awake. Another voice, a familiar voice told me to just let it happen and I trusted them so I let myself fall into the darkness...
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I slowly became aware of my surroundings. The soft pillow laid under my head. The steady (and unusually fast) sounds of the heart monitor. The texture of the nasal canul forcing air into my lungs. The sounds of cars being driven down the road not that far away. The feeling of liquid (probably glucose water) goes from the IV into my body. Despite being fairly loud everything is calming, it's no longer overwhelming to my senses.
I slowly go and sit up on my bed, at first I stumble a bit but finally I manage to lean on my hands. I look around the room. It doesn't have much furniture. Mainly my bed in the middle of the room, a bench by the window and a chair beside me. It does have a good sized bedside table with my glasses and a vase with beautiful flowers. I lean over and smell them. Sweet but not too strong, just the way I like it.
To concentrate on my surroundings I don't notice a nurse coming in to check my vitals and stuff like that. The nurse nearly dropped their clipboard when they found the girl who had been comatose just hours before showing no sign of waking up, sitting upright in their bed singing to themselves. I turned my head and smiled. "Hello." I wave to them.
"Hi." They mumble back to me before quickly walking up to me. They placed a firm hand on my chest and laid me back down on my bed. Then they tilted the top of the bed up. I look at them confused. "Can't have you straining your back." I nod as they quickly leave the room. I just smile and look back out the window.
I hear 3 sets of feet walk into my room and I turn to see them. "Hi, you must be doctors. Can one of you kindly tell me how long I have been comatose? I don't want to miss my dad's birthday, I wanted to go and visit his grave."
The doctors came over to my bed with shocked expressions on their faces, completely ignoring my question. They went to either side of my bed and looked at me, they were completely baffled by what had happened, to be truthful so was I. One of them started to ask me a question but everything was unfocused and I had no clue why, maybe it was because I didn't feel safe with this man talking.
I wanted to answer him, but he was giving me a headache and I just wanted him to leave me be. My face showed that I was stressed and so they began to back away from my bed, their faces showing fear for some odd reason. Was there something they knew that I didn't? They looked at each other for a moment before the other man came up to me. His hair was neatly brushed, and his face was cheerily despite the fact he looked like he had not slept in a while.
"Atchaco can you hear me?" The doctor said slowly. His voice was calming. "My name is Dr Robert Turning." I looked at Robert and nodded.
"Yes, Robert." I replied. "I can hear you." He smiled before placing his hand on mine. He looked at it and stroked it ever so gently before I quickly retracted it and put it under the covers. He looked confused at why I had done what I had done. So, I smiled at him then I explained it. "Sorry, I just don't like people touching me unexpectedly. It makes me feel uncomfortable. It always has, so don't take it personally."
"That is okay." Robert said. "This is Dr Steven McDonald. We are just here to help you." He indicated to the other doctor, who just waved at me before resuming his serious posture. "Do you remember anything from your accident?" I stared out of the window in thought before turning to look back at Robert.
"A climbing accident?" I replied. He nodded slowly but didn't reply. Was there more to the accident than I had originally thought. "I had dived into the ocean. Then I came back up. I was climbing up the cliff face to get to my sister when my hand slipped, and I fell backwards into the ocean. I must have banged my head as I do not remember anything else."
"You did more than bang your head. Way more, but for now you have visitors and you need to rest." Robert said as he turned and left the room nodding at whoever was standing by the door.
"Steven." I said. The doctor turned around to face me as he was about to leave.
"Yes, Atchaco." He replied. His voice wasn't as nice as Robert's was, but it did have a hint of kindness in it. Even if it took a long time to find. "What is it? Do you want something?"
"I was just wondering. How do my visitors know that I am awake?"
"Well they didn't until they looked through your window. They come and see you every day without fail. Is that all or can I go." Steven said, hand on the handle of the door about to open it. Waiting for my reply. I nodded at him and he left the room. He too nodded at whoever was outside.
The first to enter my room was my twin. Her curly hair was a mess, but she tried her best to hide it. Her nose was red and there were tears running down her cheeks from her crying so much. My mother was the second person to enter my room. Her hair was clipped back by a butterfly clip like it normally is but even still it was a little bit messy. Her small touch of makeup was running down her face so she too must have been crying. In fact everyone who entered my room had all been crying over something.
As soon as Asheanna saw me awake she ran up to me and squeezed me tight. Worried that I would leave her again. Not that I would ever want to. "Atchaco." Asheanna said, still hugging the life out of me. "You got us so worried. Please don't ever scare us like that again."
"I can't make any promises, but I will try my best." I slowly peeled Asheanna off my body and smiled at her. "Deal?" Asheanna just smiled and nodded her head before sitting down on the chair beside my bed. Jemina – my mother just stood there and smiled at me. Jimch – my brother came over and started to stroke my hand. Unlike what I did to the doctor I let him stroke it. Strangely it was calming even though my brother was normally the one person in my family to make anyone stressed.
"We'd thought we lost you." Jemina said, holding back her tears. "We thought you would never wake up. We'd thought we'd never get to tell you. Don't scare us like that again, okay."
"Yes, mamma." I replied, staring into her eyes, the bridge to the soul. "I am sorry for everything that I have done. I was stupid to ever think that I could. You're right I could have died and for that I am forever sorry."
My mum placed her hand on my cheek, and she smiled. "It doesn't matter now. What matters is that you are alive and well. Get some rest. You have a lot of getting used to, and a lot of healing to be done." I look at my mother who starts to walk away but I don't want to let go of her hand. I want her to stay by my side. She tries to walk to the door, but I tighten my grip and stare into her eyes. I then tug my arm despite it causing a fair bit of pain. Jemina looks at me worryingly as she is forced to come closer to me to avoid her arm being pulled right out of its socket.
"Atchaco." She said sweetly, worry laced in her voice. "You really need to get some rest, the doctors will come in here and sedate you if needed because you need to rest your body and let it fully heal."
"No!" I stubbornly told her. "Not until I find out what happened. I need to know everything."
Ashêanna touches a button on one of the walls which I vaguely remember the doctors pointing to when they were talking to them outside my room. I look at mum. "You need rest, Atchaco. We will tell you everything in good time but not right now. You won't be able to handle it. You can trust us to do what's right. This is."
She stood to her right and let a nurse pass. They did something with my IV and my body started to feel heavy. Jemina lowered the bed back to its original possession and kissed me on the forehead. "Noo." I raspe out, my body numb and heavy from the drug (probably a sedative) to do anything properly.
"Just go to sleep." She whispered. "You know that you will eventually succumb to the sedative eventually. The quicker you do the quicker you will find out what happened. My eyelids drop and my vision starts to go dark.
"Mum." I use my remaining strength to softly hold my mum's soft hand.
"I'll be here when you wake up." She reassured me, and with that I surrendered to the sedative and let my world go dark. Jemina stayed true to her word and went to the couch beside my bed and layed down. The others either sat down or went to the cafeteria to get something to eat. A weight had been lifted off their shoulders as this time I was in a drug induced sleep rather than a trauma induced one.