Quote:
“The person is declared dead, and you clean up the body and wrap the body in a sheet. Then it’s transported to the freezer.”
What’s that bright light at the end of the hall? Something just doesn’t seem right…Mom’s crying…why is she so upset? Why are there so many people crowded around me, in such a bright room? Where are my friends, where’s the party? This wasn’t the same place I remember.
It was just going to be a small group of people at one of my friend’s house – we were all just going to sit around, talk and maybe watch a movie for an end-of-the-Summer party. Somehow the word got out that there was going to be a party that night, more and more people came, and I had a drink – it tasted sweet. They told me that a few drinks wouldn’t hurt, that everything was just going to be alright and I would be able to drive everyone home like I promised. They were hardly wrong before; they themselves drove home a few times after having a beer or two. I took the red plastic cup from them and smiled – nothing was wrong with just one; I never felt the second, third and fourth go down.
I was just given the car three weeks ago – it was my pride and joy, my ticket to freedom. Why is Dad being handed my car keys –why are there brown spots on them? Why is the police officer saying how the car was totaled? That car never had a scratch or dent on it. How could it be totaled? This has to be some sort of prank. The people around me, they’re all saying things that I don’t understand. They’re yelling something that sounded like B/P 80 over 50, O2SAT 80 – what does it all mean? A women with brown hair is sticking a big tube down my throat…it looks scary. There are two huge needles on my arm, but I don’t feel them, and they look like garden hoses. It became really quiet really quickly. Everyone is leaving the room, why are they leaving me there alone? I don’t want to be alone; I want my Mom and Dad! Some other person is here, now. He’s running a cloth over my face, arms and neck; why is the water reddish brown? What’s going on? Why do I feel so empty? Where are my parents? The Priest from my Church is here, now, with my parents. He opens the bible that he always has, my parents are holding each other and crying.
It was three in the morning – I was supposed to be home by midnight, latest. Mom was angrily calling my cell phone, yelling profanities that fell on dumb ears. I was with my friends; everything else was on the back burner for now, something to be procrastinated into another time. Three people – two girls and one guy – needed a lift, and I was the only one of them that would have been able to drive at that hour. I wasn’t going to deny my friends, wasn’t going to have to make them call their parents at that hour just so they could be chewed out. My head felt funny, but that was really it. I started up my car, starting to drive down the road to get my friends home.
What are these men doing to me? Why is there this white sheet that’s being wrapped around me? Why is the nurse that was with my mom putting a tag on my toe? Why is my name on my toe? What’s going on? Two men I’ve never seen before lift me onto some sort of metal stretcher, putting some kind of board over me, then another blanket. They’ve started to take me somewhere; why is Mom screaming in the hallway, why is Dad so angry? One of the men opened the door and put me inside, alone. Its dark and cold in here-what happened?
