Chelsea

“Hel-” Chelsea said, trying to speak. She began to cough viciously.

A red light started blinking very rapidly on the machine to the right side of her bed.

Chelsea tried to turn her head to get a better look at the machine but felt constrained by all the needles in her arm and something pulling at her nose. “What is happening, where am I?” she thought, feeling weak and sore as if she had just completed a full body workout the day before.

Chelsea looked around the room. Everything was white, from the walls to the crown molding to the ceilings. She was on a hospital bed and she could hear coughing, rapid talking and beeping machines outside of the room.

There was a knock on the door, a lady dressed in all white appeared and rushed towards the machine where the red light was blinking. The nurse was tampering with the machine until the red light stopped blinking, then she moved on to fix the needles on Chelsea’s arm.

“Hello” Chelsea’s voice cracked.

The nurse jerked back against the machine she had just re-calibrated, “Oh my gosh you startled me” she said with her hands pressed against her chest.

“Sorry about-” Chelsea managed to blurt out before she started coughing again.

“Let me go and get you some water, I’ll be right back” the nurse said before she started for the exit of the room.

“Wait!” Chelsea whispered, “What happen-” she started coughing, trying to fight it but she kept coughing.

The nurse paused at the doorway of the room, “All I know is that you were in an accident. I’ll be right back with that water okay” and then left the room.

Chelsea finally managed to stop coughing and tried to think back to the last thing she could remember. “I was in my mom’s car going home,” she started to think “I was picking up Jeremy from soccer practice, he was in the passenger seat.”