Disconnected Read Free Page B

when the accident happened, everything changed. Amelia changed and so did I.
    I try to remember the first time she turned on me, but this uncontrollable darkness hovers over me like an eclipse. I lie here curled up, hugging my knees close to my chest and feel the curtain brushing my face as the light breeze continues to blow. I don’t know if I’m half awake or sleeping when the sirens outside go off. There’s a burning smell in the air and the crackling of fire somewhere. Smoke fills the room like a gray fog. I must be dreaming, but when the smoke fills my lungs and I start to cough, I get scared and jump up. I wave my hands through the cloud of smoke and make my way down the stairs to my grandfather’s room.
    â€œGrandpa George? Please wake up!” I shout through the door. The smoke is burning my eyes. “Please Grandpa!” I reach for the knob, but it’s too hot to the touch. Kicking and banging, I finally hear him stirring on the other side of the door.
    â€œDear God!” he says. “Amelia, are you okay?”
    Suddenly, I can’t speak. But I feel a force push me back away from the door. Within seconds, everything turns black.
    ***
    I wake up with a burning throat and an oxygen mask over my face. The room is sterile, with white walls and no windows. I feel boxed in. As I look around, I see through the small window in the door that there’s a long hall just outside the room. Oh, God, I’m in the hospital, but how? Grandpa George!
    I panic, take off the oxygen mask, and scurry out of the bed. I race to open the door, heading straight to the nurses’ station at the end of the hall.
    At the station I ask, “Can…can someone help me?” My voice is raspy, so I take a painful swallow and ask again. “Can someone please help me?” My pleas go unanswered. No one replies. All the nurses are busy doing something. One tall, blond-haired nurse doesn’t acknowledge me until the phone rings. “St. Luke’s Hospital, please hold,” she says to the person on the other end, while she holds up her index finger to me.
    I am getting impatient. I fidget uncontrollably, strumming my fingers on the counter and wiggling one foot as I wait. I watch the nurses go on about their business and feel like I’m just about invisible, disappearing into the whiteness of the walls until I ask again, “Please! I need to know where my grandfather is. Can someone please help me?”
    â€œYour name?” the blond-haired nurse asks in a curt tone, as if I am keeping her from her daily routine.
    â€œMilly…I mean, Amelia Norris.”
    I wonder where Amelia’s gone running off to. After saying her name, I think of the reasons why she is being so silent with me. I wonder if she’s just as scared as I am. I’m almost irritated that I haven’t heard from her.
    The nurse looks through my file, thumbing through the pages, then closes the manila folder and says, “Yes, I will have the doctor speak with you soon, please go back to your room.”
    I walk back to the room in defeat; I don’t know what else to do. One minute I am banging on the door for my grandfather to escape and the next I’m here. It doesn’t add up. All I remember is the smoke and not seeing much…and that strange girl across the street.
    ***
    I saunter to the bed and take a seat. The sheets are stiff and smell like the doctor’s office. “What happened?” I say to myself. It’s all your fault Milly, he’s dead. Just like they all are. Now you have no one. “Stop!” My voice is loud enough to attract a passing nurse. She comes inside the room. “Is everything okay?” She’s an older lady, maybe in her fifties I’m assuming, with short curly brown hair interspersed with gray. She’s holding a clipboard and checking my chart.
    â€œNo! Everything’s not okay! I don’t know what happened. Where’s my