Hospital Haven

Chapter 5

"Aleksander! What on earth are you doing up there!? Come down here!"

The scolding jolts me awake; I nearly fall off from it. I look over to see Zayla standing under me while the others are just getting up.

"Oh, uh, sorry." I reply meekly. As I try to stand up, I remember why I don't sleep up here anymore. My legs feel like jello. I try to climb down, but all I do is wobble and cling onto the curtains.

"I. . . uh. . " I stutter, trying to remember the words."Can not get off the window."

Zayla just sighs and stand on top of Marco's bed. "Slide to the edge and I'll get you down."

I creep to the edge and slide into her arms. She jumps off his bed and lowers me into my seat.

"Now, no more sleeping on window sills. And that goes for all of you!" She announces. As we dig into breakfast, everyone stares at me. The absolute moron who slept on a window sill even though he has a working bed. I almost feel like slapping myself for it.

"So what was it like sleeping up there?" Asks Nicoli.

"Well, kinda cold and not nearly as comfortable as my bed." I admit, slightly embarrassed. I keep my head down as I finish up my hotcake and sausage patties. Once we finish up, I climb back into my bed and pull out an old journal. Pages are falling out and the cover is so worn I could rip it with my feet. I pull out a small pen and flip to a blank page, pulling out a torn sheet of Greek sentences and begin copying them in English. Marco comes over to join me while Nicoli pulls out a small chapter book.

"Good morning Nicoli." Greets Marco as he stumbles over. "What are you doing?"

Nicoli and I share a smile. He turns back to Marco." I am reading a book."

I go back to copying the sentences. On some of them I'm not fully sure what I'm writing. Marco reads over them, trying to find out what they mean. I give him the translation, so he'll learn. We go on like this till lunch. I don't know why, but just sitting here, listening to the sound of pages flipping and pencils scribbling calms me and makes me smile. It's so quiet in the room I can hear the boys from R2 playing BS. From what I can hear, they're playing in Russian, and I think a kid named Ike is winning. I turn to Konrad.

"Hey can you hear the R2 boys?" I ask.

He comes over and pulls over my stool from the table. "From here I can."

Well, what's going on?" Calls Nicoli.

He closes his eyes and listens very carefully. We stare at him, curious and wondering. After a minute, he opens his eyes and turns to Marco. They speak rapid Italian, leaving me confused. He puts the stool back and returns to his solitare.

"Okay," Begins Marco. "Four boys are playing, Ike is winning with only three cards, but another kid named Earl is close, with only five cards. The others think he might be cheating, with hiding cards in his sleeves. "

"Wow" Whispers Nicoli.

Soon the rest of the boys file into the room for lunch, along with Rocco and Les. They must be doing better. I give a sigh of relief. We all take our seats for lunch as Zayla and Lissel set out plates. I stare down at my plate while she says the prayer; some noodles in some creamy-looking sauce, cucumbers, and a slice of bread. The minute they finish up, we all burrow into our food. It doesn't take long for everyone to finish up and ask for seconds. Even this time I scarf mine down. After hearing the news, every meal feels like it's my last here. I want to fill myself up, just in case; I don't know where my next meal could come from. We finish up pretty quickly, and decide to take a walk around the building. We know where we can and cannot go, so we don't get into any trouble. Our floor has mostly healthy kids, only two rooms with kids who are either weak or kinda sick. The TV room is at the end of the hall. The other playrooms all connect, tricking us into think the rooms are huge and that they're filled with toys and games. We hobble down the stairs, which takes a lot longer considering Marco can barely take five steps without having to stop, and I trip over my own crutch walking on a flat surface. It takes a good fifteen to twenty minutes, even though there's about 10 steps between each floor. Once we reach the third floor, we rest at the bottom step for a minute and keep going. We keep our heads down walking past the girls showers, but stare through the windows of the labs. Despite their dingy appearance, it's kept quite clean and has helped make sure the chemo for some of the kids in R8 is correct. I look over at Marco's face. He's enamored with it. When he gets older, I know he'll make a great scientist, most likely in Italy. We pry him away and head on. Walking by the psychiatric rooms makes us all nervous. Walking by one of them we hear a girl screaming about soldiers, in another we hear a little boy along with a little girl crying to go home in Russian. I squeeze Nicoli's hand as we speed up to leave. We past by the entrance to the boarding wings, but we see a girl our age in a wheelchair entering R6. We wave and make funny faces. I can faintly hear her laugh as we begin our descent to the next floor.

The second floor has my favorite room. I run as fast and I can with crutches and peer into the window. The operating rooms always seem interesting, even when nobody's using it. Today they're just cleaning the tools. I could spend all day watching. Every tool has a name, a meaning, a special purpose for them. I desperately wish to be in their one day, not on the table, but leaning over the table, tools in my hand and focus in my eyes.

Wings R9 and R10 have soundproof doors so no one walking by can hear crying and moaning from the kids. When we walk past the laundry room, the scent of fresh air and soap fills us. I personally find it to be the second best scent ever. Homemade banana muffins from Crissy take the first spot. Finally, we reach the last floor, with Nicoli's favorite room. We still don't know why, but the ER is Nicoli's favorite place to be. He'll probably grow up and work in one, never stopping to go home. We sit in the waiting room for a bit, letting him look at everything. We even go by the ambulance trucks so he can watch the volunteer EMT's set up. We poke our head into the kitchen and the scent of cinnamon swirls around us. We leave after the cook catches us starring. We're out of places to check out, so we head for the elevator. We step in after two nurses come rushing out with the girl we heard from the psychiatric ward strapped to a bed. We try our best not to stare, but Marco can't turn away. I just keep my head down as we get back to our own room.