Where Am I?

The room seemed drab and not very well kept. It was a large room with three beds and I was put in the bed on the wall by itself, and across the room I looked upon the other two beds. They seemed almost dirty, although they were made up, and it was obvious no one else would be in the room.

The foot of each of the other beds was decorated, if that's the word, with dirty silk vines and flowers, and on the trapeze frames over the beds it looked like carvings of snakes. As I watched, the snakes seemed to move, slithering back and forth on the metal bars, but not crawling off, just wriggling there.

A nurse came in, took my vital signs and asked if I wanted anything before going to sleep. She cautioned me not to try to get up by myself, but to push the button for a nurse to help me. Get up, I thought, I don't think I could if I tried.

Then a chill of fear ran through me as I realized they had finally taken the catheter out just before the trip. I had liked having it because I didn't have to get out of bed, but now, there was no escape. I knew that here, I would be forced to get up. It was something that filled me with dread, because I knew there would be pain. I hadn't been out of bed at all yet, and now I knew the easy way of doing things was over.

As I tried to get settled for the night, the mattress felt extremely lumpy and there was no comfortable position possible. I moved the head and foot of the bed up and down in every possible position, but nothing worked. It was a terrible mattress, I finally admitted to myself. I probably wouldn't sleep all night.

I lay there listening to the new sounds. It seemed rather noisy out in the hall. I realized I was right across from the nurse's station and I heard occasional voices.

As the night wore on the noise got increasingly louder. Around midnight a young girl came in and checked my vital signs. Then it was quiet for awhile.

Suddenly I was jolted wide-awake by someone saying, "Shut up," and then there was the sound of a slap and a female started crying.

Soon after, I heard the nurse say, "Do you let this kind of thing go on at home? Your wife is crying because she wants me to wait on her. That doesn't happen here. They have to get up and take care of themselves. She refuses to."

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