Chapter 38: The Hospital

I've never been in a hospital before.

There's so much going on - beeping from the instruments around me. The squeaking of a gurney wheel on the linoleum floor. Many, many people walking and talking outside my room.

I've been in doctor's offices, of course. And the clinic back home. But this is different. This place is big and terrifying, and everything is more intense than what I've experienced before. Not just the sounds - the lights are brighter, the antiseptic smell much stronger.

I shouldn't even be here. I begged Rafe to take me somewhere smaller and cheaper - surely there has to be a free clinic somewhere in this city - because I don't have health insurance. But he wouldn't hear of it. He brought me right to the ER. I try not to think about it as I lean back on the flat little pillow they gave me. It's freezing in this place, but that's not why I'm shivering.

Rafe is pacing beside my bed. He hasn't said more than two words to me since they brought me back to this room. I'm gr