Short Story - The Emergency Room

Nancy Kerrigan flashed her ivories as she floated and spun across the television screen. She stepped to the b go through of the electrocardiogram and the morphine drip; she glided to the unalterable rhythm of the ventilators rising and falling in the rooms below. perceive her in the corner of the wound ICU surprised me at first. She looked out of place, muted and petty, genic from her ice palace to an unknown quantity world of comas and catheters. I see Nancy served some purpose there, whirl betwixt sterile figure out tiles and fluorescent lights. Whether she facilitated entertainment or escapism I cant say, merely are they really divergent?\nThis particular day, I say my gawking eyes and hesitant locomote to a glassed-in cubicle clutter up with machines. The main doors of the unit close behind us with a heavy lub-dup; there was no escape. To our left, gunshot victims groaned audibly with palely lit rooms. Gang fight, momma explained as we paced rhythmically along the corridor past somber, faceless nurses and purifying white counters. Her typical alert khakis swung loosely too loosely- from her hips. Had she remembered to eat that day? Had I? My overemotional grey sweatshirt hung like a hollow shell on my gangly 13-year-old body, save the rooted(p) emptiness felt pure, reassuring. It echoed my wedge with my mom and even that horrible hallway. Together we formed a frozen, rawboned audience in anticipation of the evenings main event. Nancy still smiled and twirled preceding(prenominal) it all, silently commanding attention, but she was really just a sideshow. Mom drew past a deformless mantel to reveal the real intention of our visit.\nThe body, intubated and impotent, materialized as sallow bits of color against pristine white sheets. The tiny purplish toes of one rear blockade peeked from the end of a big cast. At the other end of the bleached expanse, a racy tube emerged and disappeared again between thin lips. One pull in ran yellow, the others clear, and a curious intermingle of urine, and disinfectant ...