PROMPT - comatose

You wake up not feeling anything. You see the sun shining through the window blinds. You hear the sounds of cars outside, the footsteps of the people in the apartment above, the creaking of the floors, and water from the taps running from somewhere in the building. You try to move but your body feels heavy, like a building rests on top of you and prevents you from moving. You open your mouth and say something, but no sound comes out. You try to clear your throat but you only felt the pain, constricting the muscles inside your mouth, your throat, your chest. You wonder, “What’s going on?” You try to raise your arm to look at your hands, but it feels like you are pinned down. Then it seems a heavy cloud is blanketing the sky and the sunshine fades, the vertical shadows of the blinds on the walls vanishes. In fact the walls seem to fade themselves, moving away from you, from your body.

A dark shadow, the shape of a man, enters the room. It’s Andrew and you open your mouth and call his name. He looks worried as he talks on the cordless phone. You can’t understand what he is saying. Once again, you call him but he ignores you, even as he sits next to you on the bed, holds your hand and caresses your fingers. Everything is moving away, fading. You start to scream and only then do you notice that you can’t hear yourself. No sound emanates from you. And everything is fading away. Fast.


Once again you wake up. It's a cold snowy day. The ice that has formed around the glass windows indicates it's cold outside. You see snow flakes falling. At first you don’t know where you are but you are pretty sure this is not your bedroom, you are not lying on your bed. The air is filled with sterile smell, like alcohol or some cleaning stuff. You cannot smell it, but you know. You just know. There are flowers, most of them wilted in vases that you are pretty sure are not yours either. You are confused and start to get up, but you find you cannot move. You hear sounds, beeping, hissing, ticking and then see tubes and wires. You ask yourself are those connected to my body or is my body connected to them? And then you realize you are in a hospital room.

You hear footsteps, like the sound your rubber shoes used to make on cement floors, with an annoying squeal. A young woman appears. She holds a clipboard and a stethoscope dangles from her neck. She hums a melody you’ve never heard before, but pleasant to the ear. You smile but she does not acknowledge it. Instead she grabs your wrist and takes your pulse. She listens for a few seconds then jots something down on her clipboard. She looks at your face, then shakes her head.

Another woman, much older, arrives.

"This is the new patient?" she asks the younger woman who answers Yes.

"Goodness, how old is she?"

"Forty-one."

"Do you think she will recover?"

The young woman shrugs her shoulders. "Who knows? What are you doing here?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to see this new patient. I want to pray for her. I want to thank God that at least it's not me."

They both stand there on either side of you.

"Do you think she can hear or understand what's going on?" the older woman asks.

The younger woman shakes her head, "I don't think so. She's in a total coma."