If I Go

Chapter 8

After a few hours of adjusting, I slowly sat up in the hospital bed to take in my bearings. Two nightstands are on either side of the bed and a small dresser was in a corner of the small room. Two folding chairs were propped up against the bland white wall. Nurse Loretta came into my room with her notepad as an accessory. She beamed at me, her eyes shining with relief. 

"Hi Natalie! How are you today?" Loretta asked gently, her pencil poised over her notepad. 

"I'm doing fine. A little woozy," I replied. Loretta quickly jotted that down. 

"Do you feel up to doing X-rays of your body today?" Loretta asked calmly. 

My eyes widened. "X-rays? I thought I was doing well!" 

"You are! You are having a great recovery!" Loretta assured me. "We just want to make sure that everything is doing well in your body." 

I relaxed a little at that. "Okay. Yeah, I'm ready for them." I pushed myself off of the bed, the room spinning around me. Loretta jumped in and held my arm to guide me to the X-ray room. I carefully sat down on the exmaniation table while Loretta and another person set everything up. 

"Ready?" Loretta asked. 

I nodded. 

The machine above my body scanned my whole body. I heard the sounds of a printer puking up my X-ray results. Another nurse that was standing near me ushered me to take her arm. I stood up while the room danced around me, and took her arm. Pretty soon, I was back in my room and on the bed waiting for the results to be finalized. 

I didn't have to wait long. Loretta bursted in with the X-rays in her hands. Behind her, I saw a glimpse of my parents. I lighted up with joy that they stayed the whole night just to wait for me to wake up. My Mom came in first. Her eyes sprang with tears as soon as she laid her eyes on me. Dad pulled up the two folded chairs from the wall and placed them next to the foot of my bed. 

"Hi sweetie," Mom said shakily. "How are you feeling?" 

"I'm feeling fine, thanks," I replied uneasily. Something bad must've happened with my X-ray results, I thought. 

Dad patted my knee. "Good," He replied. Dad then turned to Loretta. "Are you going to tell her, or should I?" 

Loretta shrugged. "Whatever you want to do." 

"Tell me what?" I asked. My stomach quickly formed a knot inside. "What is it?" 

Loretta sighed. "Well, we X-rayed your body and found something... Interesting to say the least." 

"Well, what is it?" I asked impatiently. 

Loretta took a breath. "According to the X-ray, it looks like that the drink you drank had something in it that caused you to pass out, or something. It's called GHB and what that is is, it is a liquid that someone could sneak into your drinks and could cause you to pass out. GHB is also known as 'liquid ecstacy.' A small sip of it could cause serious effects or—death." 

A long silence fell over the room like a big rain cloud. 

Loretta then continued. "It can easily be slipped into a drink since it is odorless, colorless, and it has no scent. From the liquid ecstacy, it could cause drowsiness and short-term memory loss. Since there was a high dose of the liquid ecstacy in your drink, you could feel dizziness, vomiting, and also the others that I mention previously." 

My Mom blew her nose in a tissue as Dad patted her leg. I held back all of the emotions that were building up inside me. But all of those emotions came pouring out when Loretta said, "So to conclude, you have a high chancing of dying."