I hear the nurse's rubber soles squeaking across the hall. My door clicks open, and in she walks. Have I seen her before? I don't remember. The light from the hall spills across my floor, making shadows on the bleak grey tiles. 2
" How are we doing today?" She asks. I smile and answer, " Same as always." She nods and smiles also, shuffling over to me, her green scrubs rubbing against each other and making a brushing sound. She hands me my medicine, and a small, plastic cup of water. 3
Those cups. You know the kind: Cheap, little, crinkly, white things, that the dentist uses to rinse your mouth out? It seems they have begun to populate hospitals as well.4
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As she leans over I smell something lemony, like Lysol, mixed with vanilla. She was probably cleaning the desk at the nurses station again, I think. Why did I think of that? I'm not sure. 6
She smiles at me again, but this time it is one of those fake smiles, the ones that I have been flooded with lately. She walks out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her. 7
The sun is setting outside my window, making the mountains appear pinkish-orange. The tips of the big oak outside my window, are turning rosy red, hinting of autumn. I swallow my pills swallow my pills slowly, forcing them down my throat, with long gulps of lukewarm water. I swallow the last of the pills and shudder. They have left a metallic taste in my mouth again. 8
I walk painfully over to the bed and climb in, gently sliding my feet out of my slippers first. I lay down on the crisp white sheets, which smell strongly of bleach, and pull the scratchy pea-green colored blanket to my chin. I close my eyes and then snap them open again as I hear something move near the corner of the room. I hear a sigh and the Distinct sound of someone settling into a chair. Ah yes, the night nurse has come to begin her watch. I fall asleep to the gentle creaking of the rocking chair, my mind slowly dreaming. 9
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I rock in the chair and watch her laying there, I listen as she falls asleep. I close my eyes and push back and forth, back and forth, the hard wooden back of the rocker digging into my spine. Suddenly I stop and listen. The deep steady breathing has stopped. And there is silence in the room.11
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