Of course it was the first time I was ever in a hospital, why would I have been before? And it smelled oddly of butterscotch, what could that be… butterscotch.
The nurse stood in the hall, holding a clipboard and a dictionary size pile of forms. The lighting was dim, and it was almost midnight. Butterscotch, what smelled like butterscotch? Maintenance workers walked slowly down the hall, dark blue uniforms becoming black as they crossed a section of hallway without lighting. The nurse's scrubs vibrated slightly as she hummed a tune I can't make out. Up and down her small voice went, humming in the dim lighted hallway.
Pudding, it must be pudding. Butterscotch pudding, why would there be butterscotch pudding around at midnight? The nurse's scrubs vibrate and I smell pudding. The worker's footsteps disappear as he mops the off-white floor to the end of the long hall. His mop meets a door with a clang. Vibrating mint green scrubs, humming up and down. Mint green and butterscotch pudding, God I'm hungry.
I look around the small room, confining, no wonder everyone's sick, there's nowhere to breath, the air is stale and damp and dark and smells like pudding at midnight. No wonder nobody leaves. The IV stands, looming in the darkness. The overhead lights have been turned off and all that remains are the shadows that cast from the light behind my bed. I can't turn it off, I don't think I want to. There would be darkness, darkness, humming, mopping, and pudding. Who eats pudding at midnight?
The other light, right, the one in the corner. That's bright. It still holds an x-ray. Was that mine? I can't remember. Yeah, I guess it was. The IV stand is loose. I pull back and it wiggles a little. The bag sloshes back and forth with the liquid it contains. It sounds funny in the semi-darkness. Humming, oh God, I know that sound. Maybe the humming nurse was eating pudding on her break. The x-ray holds back the light from the glowing board. It's still glowing. Why didn't they turn it off?
Yankee Doodle? No, that's not it. God, that's so… I don't know what that is. The nurse backs up a little, she's putting the clipboard down. God, that thing must be heavy. The x-ray glows in the darkness. It's teasing me. I can make out the picture of my chest, my abdomen. Was that me? It must have been. The nurse is walking this way.
"First time in a hospital?"
"Do you like butterscotch pudding?" I signed.