Ira awoke to a beam of light fluttering in through the window, while being enveloped in a feeling of nostalgia as she reacquainted herself with the foreign feeling of being in a warm soft bed. She couldn't remember the last time she had slept that hard. The room was bright white. She considered how exactly she died to get a room this nice in heaven, but struggled recalling any recent memories. Everything was fuzzy as she attempted to get her bearings. She stirred a bit, trying to lift her arm, but her limbs felt heavier than lead. She sighed realizing she was still alive, as the throbbing aching pain in every muscle crept back in slowly all over her body, coursing and inflamed with blood as her heart pounded in an attempt to repair her deteriorated condition while in her now forfeit suspended state.
She closed her eyes as her aching body began filling with anxiety. She listened to a bustling coming from the hallway, and hearing the doorknob of her room turn. She tensed and sharply watched the door like prey waiting to be pounced upon, clutching the edge of her blanket tight in suspense as she watched the door open.
An upbeat black woman with her bouncy dark curled hair tied into a tight ponytail that squeezed it into a poof of fluff that cascaded onto the nape of her neck like a gentle sheep sleeping peacefully on the side of a hill. The fluff of which bounced as pleasantly and lightly as a cloud as she was turned around as she pulled a cart inside the hospital suite.. She turned and looked at Ira sitting in bed and her dark eyes brightened with delight. Her face looked gentle and kind, and her tone was as inviting as a song.
"Well gooooodmornin' Sunshine!!" She smiled and parked her cart beside the bed. "I'm Dr. Noatak, and I'll be your primary medical resident for your stay here." She beamed.
Ira struggled to part her dry cracked lips and get a word out to try to gather where she was, but all that came out was a dull croak. Her throat hurt and burned with dryness and gunk that made her start into a coughing fit.
The medical resident noted this and quickly rifled through her cart to pour her a cup of water which she handed to her sympathetically, which Ira took suspiciously between stifled coughs before relenting and downing what refreshment she could to regain composure. The doctor nodded expectedly and looked around before finding and pulling up a rolling chair from the corner and taking a seat. She noted Ira's arm wavering ever so slightly as she forced it to support the weight of the glass and so procured a notebook on a clipboard sitting on the cart, flipping to a fresh page and noting something down, before unclicking her pen and returning her attention to her patient.
"How are you feeling today?" She asked with earnest interest, though Ira seemed to hesitate, clearing her throat before asking in a low quiet voice.
"Where am I…?
"You're in St. Olga Memorial Hospital. You've been asleep for 3 days." She explained, as she walked around to the foot of the bed, taking a clipboard with inpatient papers from a hook there, and she flipped through it checking her chart. "I'm afraid there's some missing info on your paperwork, it doesn't list your name, hmm.." She squinted examining it and then rolled her eyes with annoyance at the negligence of her night staff's poor charting and near illegible handwriting that had little care put in. "It seems you collapsed from what appears to be hypothermia, you show signs of exhaustion, dehydration, I got you marked down for…" She struggled separating the papers a moment as she checked the back of the front page and continued, "..Potential malnutrition, and had some pretty serious bruising and swelling to the face and body," Dr. Noatak pulled up a chair and gave her a neutral, non-judgemental smile. "You were in pretty rough shape but it seems we got you stable. It sounds like you've really been going through it,"
Ira sat in the bed a moment with a faraway look as her eyes were cast down on her hands, her long dark hair sloped forward and fell in her face, her expression pensive, as if searching for the pieces of how she got here. The doctor took note of this.
"May I ask your name?" The med student smiled at her. The woman in the white coat had a warm demeanor about her, a pretty face, smooth brown skin with attractive eyes, and the sweetest smile you ever saw.
The patient instinctively went to smile back to return the pleasantry before registering the question she was asked, causing her demeanor to cast downward in a forlorn countenance for a moment, as if remembering herself, and it was like the light of recognition left her eyes as her mind left the present safety of the hospital room, and went away to someplace far darker, someplace where hope goes to die and regret goes to fester. Dr. Noatak noticed this might have been the wrong question too soon, and after a beat of silence, she shifted her demeanor brightly.
"So are you hungry??" She offered with a bright smile as she stood up and went over to the cart. The doctor had a grin and a vibrancy about her that cascaded like a beam of light in a dark pit that seemed to guide the patient back out of wherever she had gone. "We've had you on IV fluids while you were sleeping to rehydrate you and get you some nutrients as fast as we could, that gives your body the building blocks it needs to get you back into shape," She spoke as though she was educating her, while at the same time talking with great interest about the marvel that she saw the human body as, as she took a tray from the cart with some softer food and solid food on it, and prepared a side table that swung over the side of the bed with one arm to support the tray.
"How sore your jaw is feeling right now?" She tilted her head to look for any bruises that might be on her patient that might interfere with chewing solid food. She noted the swelling described on the chart had gone down considerably.
Ira was so weak, and so used to hunger she barely noticed it anymore. "Even if I tried, I can't promise it'll stay down." She managed to say softly after a few moments. The medical resident nodded then turned the tray to have the indent full of mashed potatoes face the bedridden woman.
"Well, how about we give a little mashed potatoes a try?" The woman in the white coat noted the nausea on her chart, then scooted her chair up to the bed and took a spoon full of potatoes and offered it to her patient.
The injured woman froze for a moment, staring at the warm, mediocre, hospital potatoes, and her eyes traveled to the hand holding the spoon, then up to the warm face that offered her such courtesy and kindness, who spoke so gently and with such warmth to her. When she looked at the woman who sat in the chair that looked at her like she would look at a close friend.
The woman in the bed could feel her face start to burn with warmth and her eyes sting, welling tears she couldn't blink away. Her lip quivered and her hands trembled as she brought them to her face and simply began to weep into her hands like she hadn't done in years.
She couldn't remember the last time someone had treated her with such unrelenting kindness. Someone who looked her in the face and treated her like a human being, just a normal person. She felt like someone who had endured the cold so long she couldn't even feel it anymore. The sudden rush of emotion burned, like warming nearly frostbitten feet by a fire. A painful, creeping, tingling agony as sensation reawakens in the deepest fibers of your tissue. It was uncomfortable, but all for the hope of bringing you back to a better condition. She felt like she was waking up from a nightmare she had been mired in for so long she forgot what it was like to be awake.
The doctor's eyes widened a moment in surprise as she lowered the spoon, taken aback by her patient's reaction, before her eyes softened and she sat with her patiently, letting her take all the time she needed. She reached over to the bedside table grabbing a box of tissues and setting it beside her to use if she wanted.
After a while she found the tissues and used them liberally. She coughed and blew her nose as her face became a mess of tears and mucus, but Dr. Noatak just nodded and patted her leg with a comforting expression. She looked at her patient's bloodshot blue eyes and thought they were lovely.
After a long time, the patient finally managed words.
"I-I-I'm S-sorry.." She sniffled and blew her nose again. "S-so sorry.. It's just been so long since…" She took deep breaths to try to maintain some composure. She held her face in her hands and she trembled a moment, trying to breathe. The doctor nodded and still remained patient.
"That's all right, that's all right," She replied kindly. "We're in no rush, and you got nothing to be sorry for," she eased with a knowing compassion. After even longer still, the weeping woman's heaving sobbing shoulders finally slowed, and tiredness returned to her body but also calmed her. Then she broke the silence.
"I-Ira…. M-my name is Ira…" She finally said softly in a shaky voice. The doctor looked surprised as she registered this for a moment, then brightened as she reached for her chart and filled in her name.
"How do you spell that? I-R-A?" She looked to the bedridden lady for confirmation. Ira nodded as she finished scribbling it down and she let out a tiny chuckle to herself. "Has anyone ever given you the nickname Roth??" She chuckled to herself as her patient remained silent. "Like… Roth I-R-A…" Seeing her comedy gold was being wasted she shook it off and just continued on. "There we go, we have a name! It's nice to meet you Ira, My name is Cresseida Noatak,"
The doctor continued to coax a few more words and details from her patient, but after noting her beginning to withdraw again, apparently cagey about personal information, she decided to relent and get the rest in smaller doses. She was clearly overwhelmed, having been through an ordeal enough already, the med student decided to let her have more time to rest after assuring she was stable.
"Oh! Before I leave," The woman in the white coat bent down and took something from her cart and handed it to Ira. "This was left here for you,"
Ira got a befuddled look on her face before taking it and examining an old looking leather bound book with the words "Treasure Island" printed on the front in bold elegant font. Flipping through the pages she froze when she saw the word 'pirates' on one of its many yellowed pages. She felt the blood drain from her face and she felt a lurch in the pit of her stomach as her heart pounded.
"W-w-who left this…??" Her eyes as blue as the endless sky looked as if they had seen a ghost as they darted to her caretaker.
"The nurse that gave it to me said it was dropped off for you by a man that didn't give his name, but seemed to be a good samaritan," Cresseida then leaned in and asked with a touch of concern in her voice. "Is there someone you are afraid might be looking for you? Someone that might want to hurt you?"
Ira furrowed her brow and bit the nail of her thumb as she studied the cover of the book. "A man… you said?" She asked while still clearly engaged deep in thought. Cresseida nodded.
"That's what the nurse said,"
The patient seemed to relax her shoulders a bit at that. Maybe it's just a coincidence… She thought to herself, shifting her gaze to the window. She saw large fluffy clouds, and large faraway ships that sailed through the air, leaving long trails of steam behind them. Nothing out of the ordinary. There's no reason why they would come after me now… Not after all this time.
"Listen, if you're in danger, I can make sure to tell the staff to watch out for them, but I have to know who to tell them to turn away," The doctor called back the long haired woman's attention and she shook her head.
"I-I don't think that's necessary. I don't think there's anyone that would be searching for me…" The statement hung limply in the air, casting a quiet upon the two women, one having said it with such plain conversational tone. The other woman heard the words with more weight than Ira realized. After a moment Dr. Noatak broke the silence.
"Well you let me know if you change your mind," The doctor finally continued. Ira nodded, watching her stand and collect her things. "Ring that bell on the bedside table if you need something, okay?"
Ira nodded gratefully. The doctor nodded then turned to push her cart out of the room,"
"Thank you…" Ira said in the silence, earnest gratitude evident in her voice, causing the doctor to stop in the doorway and look back at her with a comforting expression.
"Of course. I hope you feel safe here. I'm going to get you feeling better in no time," She said with warmth and a promise in her voice.
The doctor left the room, and Ira sat in bed, considering the book in her hands. It seemed strange to her. Why this book? Why so old? She flipped through its contents and saw woodcut illustrations of what was once known as a 'sea', a great vastness of water stretching all the way to the horizon. The first ships were built to travel in water. All those years ago people would sail on it for travel and cargo hauling before the Great Ascension.
"So there were pirates back then too, huh…"