Highs v. Lows Exercise

The day after the fourth of July; what are you doing? Sleeping right? You just stayed up all night watching bright, beautiful lights fill the sky. Me? I’m in The ICU watching with horror as the reality dawns on me. The tedious beeping of medical machines quickly bores itself deep into my head and will, with no doubt, haunt me for a very long time. I can smell the medicines, and the cleaners, and the dying hurt sickly people. I shudder involuntarily as tears well in my eyes. In the room with me is my father – whom I haven’t seen in years. His eyes are dark as he stares at my comatose grandmother. There is no comfort from him. The pain that hung on my heart felt as if someone had burnt it and was slicing through the charred remains. My mind was clouded and I went through various stages of shock. I looked carefully at everyone’s eyes and noticed only my aunt would even look at me. The sympathetic smile she tried just pointed out of hard this was going to be. For her and me. I suddenly felt a dread. I didn’t fit in here. They don’t want me here, crying silently in the background. I look at my father’s girlfriend. She refuses to make eye contact with me. My aunt is sitting there trying to calm me down. My grandmother is lying on the hospital bed. She’s had a bad episode of seizures and she is currently covered in welts and scabs. By now I’m crying uncontrollably and my aunt’s trying to get me to stop shaking so badly. It occurs to me that I don’t even get to remember how beautiful last night’s show was.