Aria was led into the room on my right, her pleading eyes catching mine for a fleeting second before the door closed, muffling her cries. Meanwhile, the woman guiding me moved a little farther down the hall, where a small circular nurse’s station bustled with activity. Nurses shuffled papers and murmured amongst themselves, their faces a blend of boredom and routine urgency.
As we continued down the hallway, I took in my surroundings with a strange sense of detachment, noting the mundane details that only seemed to sharpen the surrealness of it all. We passed a compact laundry area, its hum blending with the faint sound of television from a nearby waiting room. There were chairs arranged in tight rows, a big screen TV flickering with some late-night show, and end tables cluttered with wor
