Aerin

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans,” a voice talking softly in the background said as I slowly, painfully, emerged out of a confusing blackness that, by fits and starts, grew less black and more grey. Soon, the room I was apparently lying in came into focus and I began to notice other things, such as an occasional series of beeps in the background and the solitary lamp switched on that sat on top of a side table in a corner of the room.

“I’ll call you back, baby, she’s awake,” the voice added after I groaned aloud. I saw a tall, slim, oriental woman walk gracefully out of the shadows, smiling at me like she knew me, until she stopped by my left side.

“Wh-h-o-o … are… you?” I croaked. I swiftly moved my head to my left, or at least tried to.   Big mistake. This sharpened the stabbing pain that shot through my head like the worst migraine I could imagine ever having.

“Unnnhnn…” I moaned and tried but failed raise my hand and cradle my head, in response to the pain.

“Easy … easy, Aerin,” the woman said quietly as she squeezed my left hand and then stroked my forehead.

“Wh-e-e-re .. am-m-m…” I tried to formulate my next question.

“Cedars-Sinai,” she said briefly. And then she asked with clear concern in her voice,“I’m Bai … don’t you remember?”

As I squeezed my eyes shut, I heard the door open with a whoosh and another woman entered the room. She approached my bed smiling like she knew me also. Before the door shut behind her, the harsh glare of the lights in the hallway cut through the darkness of the room and hurt my eyes.

Or an eye.

I realized that only one of my right eye was fully open. The left one was covered with something. It was still difficult to raise my arms so I couldn’t tell what was covering my eye.

But in the few seconds that the room was bathed in light, I saw that I was indeed in a hospital room, hooked up to an IV, and there was another needle that had been inserted into my arm that was apparently connected to a drip.