Short Story - The Emergency Room

Nancy Kerrigan flashed her ivories as she floated and spun across the television screen. She stepped to the brust of the electrocardiogram and the morphine drip; she glided to the unvaried rhythm of the ventilators rising and move in the rooms below. visual perception her in the corner of the damage ICU surprised me at first. She looked out of place, muted and minute, familial from her ice palace to an disaffect world of comas and catheters. I hazard Nancy served some purpose there, twirl in the midst of sterile drub tiles and fluorescent lights. Whether she facilitated entertainment or escapism I cant say, tho are they really various?\nThis particular day, I enjoin my gawking eyes and hesitant locomote to a glassed-in cubicle cluttered with machines. The main doors of the unit certain behind us with a heavy lub-dup; there was no escape. To our left, gunshot victims groaned audibly with pallidly lit rooms. Gang fight, mommy explained as we paced rhythmically along t he corridor past somber, faceless nurses and purifying white counters. Her typical spiffy khakis swung loosely too loosely- from her hips. Had she remembered to eat that day? Had I? My boggy grey sweatshirt hung like a hollow shell on my gangly 13-year-old body, unless the rooted(p) emptiness felt pure, reassuring. It echoed my pose with my mom and even that staid 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 asunder a touchless chill to reveal the real disapprove of our visit.\nThe body, intubated and impotent, materialized as sallow bits of color against pristine white sheets. The tiny purplish toes of one plunk peeked from the mop up of a large cast. At the other end of the bleached expanse, a blue air tube emerged and disappeared again between thin lips. One direct contrast ran yellow, the others clear, and a curious concoction of urine, and disinfectant ...