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Chapter 9 - At the Hospital

"It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy;-- it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others." – Jane Austen

I think of Darcy, all alone without me, and place my hands to my face as I begin to cry. My mother and Pirhana sit on either side of the bed. They look at each other as though they haven't a clue on what to do.

I miss Darcy! Was he even real or was he just my imagination? Was my mother right in saying that I spent too much free time reading Pride and Prejudice?

I stare at the white ceiling. The smell of pine scented cleaning solution enters my nostrils as I cough.

What if he was not real? No! No! I was going to marry him!

"Wh-what's happened to me?"

"Pirhana found you out cold in the bathroom."

Pirhana smiles, "Hey, sleeping beauty."

I smile weakly, "Hey."

"What happened to me?" I ask again.

"The doctor said that you had pneumonia."

"No," I shake my head, "I didn't have pneumonia."

Pirhana and my mother exchange looks. "Come on," I ask in exasperation, "what is it?"

"The doctor said that your pneumonia could have killed you. You weren't even bothering to treat it."

I look away from Pirhana, "I didn't know I had it."

"He said that you could have been depressed about something and you didn't know you had it because you confused your sickness with your depression."

"I lost my job."

"That's probably why you were depressed," Pirhana soothes.

I don't have the strength to argue, for, I know that Pirhana is probably right. So, I ask, "How long was I out?"

"Only a few minutes," my mother whispers.

A few minutes? But, when I was with Darcy, it felt like I had been gone for a year!

"Why are you whispering?"

"The person next to you," my mother gestures towards the curtain partition, "has been out for a month and a half."

"Oh," I whisper.

"We spoke to his family," my mother whispered.

I look away as my mother continues, "He was in a car accident and has been in a coma ever since."

"He's actually kind of cute," Pirhana smiles.

"Not cute," my mother looks at Pirhana. "Blindingly handsome is more like it."

I smile weakly, "No."

"What," Pirhana whines.

"No, I mean it." I look back at the ceiling, "I'm not up for a relationship. At least not yet."

Not unless it's Darcy, I think to myself.

"What's this guy's name," I point to the curtain partition.

"Leigh Pember or something like that," Pirhana scrunches her nose; something she does when she's trying to remember details.

"Oh," I nod; trying to change the subject. "How long do I have to be in the hospital for?"

"Maybe another week," mother says. "You've really neglected yourself."

"I know," I look out the window, but, since I am lying down all I can see are the tree branches; reaching out for the sky.

An impossible dream.

Soon enough, visiting hours are over and Pirhana says good-bye. I request that my mother stay with me. I hold my mother's hand, "I love you."

She leans forward to give me a kiss on the forehead, "I love you too." "I'm sorry," I say as though that would make everything better.

"For what?"

"I don't know," I try to blink the tears away.

"Don't think about your job," my mom says; thinking that I am crying about my lack of profession. "Humans weren't given a sense of humor for nothing," she smiles.

I smile back and lay my head down to rest; hoping that I can go back to Darcy. But, alas, my dream is nothing extraordinary until I hear him again. "Elizabeth? Elizabeth, where are you?"

"Here," I mutter in my sleep. "I am here!"

I wake up to the sound of someone buzzing the nurse and my mother looks at me. "What is that," I ask.

"Your neighbor," she looks at the curtain, "just woke up."

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