Danny

Chapter 7

Slowly I feel myself being pulled out of a groggy sleep. My eye slowly opens to bright lights all around. There are loud beeps and humming all around. A large band on my arm begins to inflate cutting blood supply to my fingers. The bright lights burn my eyes forcing me to close them shut again.

"Wake up now," a voice rumbles at my feet.

"I am… Urgh," I try to answer but my throat is dry and irritated. I start coughing as a result of the dryness in my throat.

"Open your one eye now," she instructs me to do. I obey her instructions with some groggy effort. My eyelid is still heavy but I manage to keep my right eye open for a short time before I close my eye again. I hear her mumble something and I try to open my right eye. There is too much effort required to get that right so I allow sleep to consume me.

I am slowly becoming aware of my surroundings again. There are nurses all around me encouraging me to move across from stretcher to my bed. One of the nurses with dark pudgy fingers offers support for my broken leg with a new horrible device all around it. One of the nurses by the head of my bed lays a supportive hand on my lower back to help me to kind of sit up. Carefully I lay one hand on the bed and slowly shift my bum across. With little energy left I almost immediately fall back.

“No, don’t do that dear,” says one of the nurses. I try to partially sit up again and try to pull myself slowly across. With every little movement a painful sensation travels up and down my broken leg. The pain and the effects of the anaesthesia is draining me of every little bit of energy I may have had. Before long I am exhausted and fall back down on the stretcher. As my arms buckle the nurses all pull on my sheet and send me on to my bed.

The pain that erupts from my leg is extreme I feel the sensation of unconsciousness tugging on the edges of my vision. With some effort I maintain a level that allows me to still be aware of my surroundings and I notice the porter take the stretcher out of my room. The nurses are pulling my sheets to neaten my bed, hanging up drips and checking my blood pressure and my temperature. One of the nurses was writing information down. I watch all this through hazy vision as I slowly feel myself being pulled into darkness. I am still feeling the effects of the anesthesia and the pain in my leg from the sudden movement is forcing me to go under.

One of the nurses who was hanging my drips, I seem to have two now for some reason, gently lays a hand on my right arm in assurance. She looks at me sympathetically and asks me if I need anything for the pain. I struggle to find my voice and simply nod stupidly. She smiles at me warmly. Recognition floods me and I realise that this is the same nurse who had given me pain relief soon after the Patrick incident.

Relief fills me up from the pit of my stomach. All the stress of going to the operating theater and being put under anesthesia leaves my body like the sand in an hour-glass emptying into the bottom chamber. I feel her small fingers press on the side of my arm before I feel the prick of the needle. As the burn enters the muscle a certain happiness warms me from the inside out. Despite myself I could not help but smile.

Then I realize I am fighting the drowsiness for nothing and I let myself slowly slip into a slumber that was calling me. I let my eye slowly drop closed. The inflating blood pressure cuff could not wake me from the peace that soothes me from within. The dull ache in my leg no longer bothered me. My eyelids remain shut for a little while before I lose sense of my surroundings and drift off.