I would have been annoyed by all the beeping from other machines surrounding me, if it had not been for a widespread, gnawing pain all over my body.

“Hey there! You scared the shit out of everyone, you know,” the woman said in a voice pitched to the same level Bai’s was. She squeezed my arm in what I guessed was a friendly manner.

I looked at her with my good eye, thoroughly confused.

The woman looked quickly at Bai and they had a quick exchange. I barely caught, “She seems to have some sort of amnesia,” that Bai said under her breath.

Before I could process that, the woman asked me clearly but gently, “Aerin tell me the most complex word you know to describe your pain.”

I took a breath and exhaled. Amnesia? My throat was bone-dry, I realized. Let’s see if I can get my neural network going here. “A-a-cuminate,” I said slowly. And then followed that up with a request, “May I … may I … have.. have… some water? Please?”

My request startled both to action and Bai moved quickly to an overbed rolling table that had been parked at the foot of my hospital bed. She poured me a glass of water, took a few steps back to my side, and handed it to the woman, who had taken over the gentle stroking of my forehead and hair that Bai had been doing ever since I woke.

“Should I…?” Bai asked, looking at the woman. The woman nodded and said, “Just a touch. May make it easier for her to swallow.”

As the woman handed me the water I felt the bed push me up to a half-way sitting position. Evidently Bai had pushed a button or something to adjust my bed position.

And then Bai asked in a panicky voice, “The doc said it would be alright to give her water, right?” as if realizing something too late.

“Yeah, yeah,” the woman answered over her shoulder, still looking at me with deep concern.

After I drained the cup, and handed it back to her, I laid my head back on the pillow. The overall …acuminous … pain I’d felt since waking clarified in my mind.   The pain mostly came from my arms, shoulders, and one of my shins. Not my head so much, if I avoided sudden movements.