#ShortStories: Memories (Episode Two)

Like someone who was being chased, he ran into the hospital, dashing past the nurses at the reception as he headed straight to her room. Two of the nurses at the reception ran after him, not understanding what was going on. They caught up with him in front of an empty room. Standing there, looking at the empty space, he was lost in thought and didn’t hear the nurse telling him that she had been moved to another room.

His first thought was that she had been discharged. If that was the case, then he knew his apologies just got harder. He felt bad enough that he wasn’t there when she woke up, but now he hadn’t even made it to the hospital on time to take her home. He was in the middle of thinking about what would happen if she was dead and her body had already been moved out when he felt a big tap on his back. His mind became conscious of his surroundings, and that was when he saw the nurses.

He was about to tell them his name and explain what he was doing there when one of the nurses said she remembered him from his last visit, which was two days ago. Since he had been discharged from the hospital, he had been visiting her every two days. There had been nights when he slept over at the hospital, which was why he had become a familiar face among some of the nurses. He couldn’t recollect the face of this particular nurse because she was new at the hospital; she had started her shifts two nights ago. He had been asleep in the chair in the room, so he hadn’t noticed her when she came in to check on his wife.

The nurses took him to the new room where she had been moved, and upon getting there, he met his mother, sister-in-law, and two other doctors who were whispering to themselves. He greeted them and apologized for being late, explaining how crazy the traffic had been. The doctors brought him up to speed on her recovery, telling him she had come out of her coma but was fast asleep now and needed to rest. As they were giving him her health status, he was just staring at her, thinking of the exact words he would say to her the moment she woke up.

When he snapped out of his thoughts, he informed the doctors that he wasn’t going to leave the room until she was awake; he made it clear he wanted to be there when she opened her eyes. They were not going to object to it, but he just needed to say it out loud. He had a quick conversation with his mother and sister-in-law before they eventually took their leave. They had a sort of agreement: on the days he slept at the hospital with her, her mother and sister wouldn’t have to, and on the days they stayed with her, he wouldn’t have to.

As he sat there in the chair, watching her sleep, he had so many thoughts running through his mind, reflecting on all the memories they had shared and all the memories he still wanted to create with her. His first thought was how they had met.

Episode 2 ends! Please expect the third episode by 5pm tomorrow (August 21st)… Thanks

Heres Episode 1

Photo by Darius Bashar on Unsplash

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