Nori woke from her sleep with a painful stab in her foot. As she carefully opened her eyes she had a feeling of Deja vu. Around her was the crisp smell of medication, too much disenfectant and decay. She was laying in a bed with hard cotton sheets and an itchy, yellow, woolen blanket. The steady beat of a heart monitor and an IV in her arm brought her to full conciouness. She was fully awake in seconds. She scanned the room again, but it did not calm her mind. Mind reeling to some forgotten, unpleasant memory, Alex screamed.
In am matter of seconds, the bed that she layed in was surrounded with doctors and nurses. It was insanity as they all rushed around checking machines, liquids and charts. Always one to speak her mind, Nori lost her patiece.
"Is anyone going to tell me why I am here?" She demanded, looking from one shocked face to another. They all stared at her in wonder, before many began to mumble and leave the room without awnsering her question. Their ignorance just added fuel to the fire and Nori lost her temper.
"You!" Nori said, pointing to a small nurse. The lady looked old and frail. Her skin was a deep brown, and it was covered in wrinkles. It led people on to believe she was well beyond her years. "What happened to me?"
"Child, I am not your nursemaid, and ya cannot expect me to be responsible for ya every whim." The woman told her this with complete conviction that it was not her duty. She began to rise to leave.
"Then who do you suppose I do ask then?" Nori asked with vengence. The woman looked at her with a bit of sorrow before she replied.
"If you must know I'll tell ye a bit." The nurse, whose name tag read Bess, resettled herself before she began telling Nori the truth. "It must'a been 'bout sixateen months ago that they brought ya and your a mother in a here. Beat up prette bad if I remember correct. You mother was in a shape of somethin' awful. Big cut on her head, both legs a'broken, collapesed and punctured lung, even some internal bleedin'. We tried to save her must'a been 'bout a week. Nothin' we could a do, but ease her sufferin' and let the good Lord take her."
"Now a you on the other hand, you weren't 'live and kickin' too well either. Some awful scrapes up and down yur arms and legs, still got most'a the sca's. Broken bones and bleedin' a glore. We thought we was a' goin' to lose you too, but 'cha fought real hard. Proved us wrong. But with the bump on yur head. You have been out cold since that night that 'cha was brought in." Her tale done she looked at Nori for a response.
"What's today?" Was all Nori could squeak out.
"Why it be the seventh'a of December." She told Nori. "I'll'a be a goin'' With that she left the room, trying to give Nori some peace.
Nori sat up in the hospital bed for a long time. Her mother, was gone, and had been for a good year. Her father, she had no idea where he was, but it obviously wasn't here. She was hurt, and sixteen, for a day. Her birthday had come and gone, and came again yesterday. She stared out the window to the dark night. She wondered what had happened to her life. Where was everyone? Was she really alone? Still puzzled but extremely tired, she fell back asleep. As Bess called her father, some four states north.