Look Before You Leap

“Hey, Stacy!  Do you want to go to the movies with me tonight?” a voice called.

I turned around, my light brown hair flying in the wind. I saw my one true love, Travis, standing across the street, asking me on a date.  To say the least, I was more than excited.  So excited that when he waved me over to come and talk to him, I rushed out into the street without even checking to see if there was any traffic.

And then I was hit by a truck.

When I woke up I was in a hospital room.  It was the middle of the night from the look of darkness outside of my window.  There were tubes and needles and such surrounding me, but none of them were in me.  That part I didn’t understand.  Why weren’t they in me?

I looked down at myself.  My skin was nearly white.  I guessed I just had a lot of blood loss.  There were bandages everywhere, and I couldn’t lift my legs.  Was I paralyzed?  Dear God, I hoped I wasn’t.

There was no one in the room with me.  That surprised me.  Wouldn’t Mom or someone be there with me?  Maybe the hospital had made them go home and sleep.  I didn’t know how long I had been out for.

I sat up in the bed and looked around.  There were nurses outside of my room, doing their daily midnight routine.  I tried to move my legs.  This time they worked.  I wasn’t paralyzed.  At least that part was good.  Getting up slowly, I tried to walk.  The first time I nearly fell, and I had to use my bed to support me.  The second time I used the little wheeling table next to my bed to balance, and I was able to walk to the door.

Once I got there I walked into the hallway, this time balancing with the wall.  None of the nurses were paying any attention to me, which I also found strange.

“Excuse me, but where are my parents?” I tried asking one of them.  She just walked right past me, like she hadn’t even heard me.

“Excuse me!” I said to another.  He looked like he was writing a prescription.  I guessed he was too busy concentrating, but he should have heard me.

I sighed and shouted for the entire room to hear, “Excuse me!”  None of them even looked at me.  Not a single one.

“If you want them to help you, they won’t be able to hear you.  They can’t even see you.”

I looked down and saw a little girl in a light summer dress standing there.  “What do you mean, they can’t even see me?  I’m standing right here.  Besides, you can see me, can’t you?”

She smiled.  “Of course I can see you.  I’m special.”

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Go look in the room you were in,” she told me.

I did as I was told, completely confused the entire time.  Walking slowly as my legs were still weak, I walked to my room and screamed.

Sleeping on my bed was me.

The little girl walked up behind me.  “I told you.  You wouldn’t believe me.”

“Who are you?”

She smiled and put a finger on her lips.  A woman called, “Amanda!  Who are you talking to?”

“No one, Mommy,” she called, running up to the woman who was waiting for her.  “Just to my friend Katie.  She’s a tigger.”

The woman laughed.  “Is she  now?  What does she look like?”

“Like Tigger!”

“Oh, of course!  Why didn’t I think of that?  Let’s go home.  It’s getting late.”

I looked at the little girl as she was leaving.  She looked back only once, to wink at me.  Then I looked back in the room and saw my dead form sitting there.

And then I was gone.

Author's Note

At the last part I left it open for you to decide if she just went to Heaven or, if you don't believe in that, if she went somewhere else or just disappeared. I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Reviews

[JulieNorell]

It was a nice read...But...I don't think a hospital would just leave a body in the open for everyone to see....Try having her walk to the morgue or something along those lines...I liked the concept...

[James Watts]

This is not bad. From structure to dialogue it was nice well written piece.