THE WAITING
THE DAYS BLUR
Day 47 — Hospital ICU Room 412
Dante hadn’t left the hospital in forty seven days.
He was still wearing clothes from three weeks ago jeans and a shirt that had permanent wrinkles now, that smelled like hospital disinfectant and his own sweat. His beard had grown in dark and thick, covering the lower half of his face. His eyes had hollowed out. He’d lost weight in a way that made his face look skeletal.
He sat in the chair beside Aria’s bed and watched her breathe.
The ventilator had been removed two weeks ago. Aria was breathing on her own now, which meant she was alive enough for that much autonomy, but still completely unconscious. Still suspended in whatever place comas existed in. Still absent from the world while her body continued its automatic functio
