R-147

That morning, she woke up with total amnesia. Her transition from the world of sleep into that of reality was slow, as if she were coming up from an endlessly deep black hole. At the second she moved her eyelashes, a flow of light flooded her eyes. But no thought crossed her mind at the beginning; a total blackout. Then slowly came questions: where she was, what day it was, what time it was. And why she felt that strong impulse to stand up.

She had to leave her bed; something urgent was calling her. She had to stand up, and she did, but in her mind first before her body made the slightest move. As she used to do every morning, she slowly sat in her bed, bent her legs and kept contemplating her pillow for long seconds, the time to regain her consciousness, and then made her first step out of the bed. Her feet touched the floor, and a new day begun.

This was exactly what she saw herself do, but only in her mind. She was unable to turn that daily waking up scene into a physical deed. There was something heavy tying her to her bed.

“My bed? This isn’t my bed!” she realised with the confusion of a half asleep mind. The colours of the blankets were different. Their smell was different. And light was not coming from her window as every morning. There was no window at all at her right. A slight movement up with her eyes showed her a totally different scenery from that she used to see everyday. Her blue lampshade placed at the centre of the ceiling was replaced by square sets of neon light! Light! Too much light was disturbing her eyes and the room was so cold. She needed to cover herself and hide the light attacking her eyes!

Again, her movement was heavy, slow, weak, negligible, inexistent. For a moment, she thought she must be still asleep. She was probably having one of those nightmares in which we are unable to walk or run as if our legs are chained. But the light seemed too real. Yet, the situation seemed just like a nightmare, and she didn’t know how to free herself from it. Fear started sneaking into her heart. She didn’t know where she was and why she was unable to wake up. She didn’t even know whether she was asleep.

But there were much other things she didn't know about. She didn’t know that she was probably never going to wake up again. She didn’t know that a lot of things had happened since she last fell asleep... three days ago while she was driving her car. She didn’t know that she had been in that bed for three days, unconscious, and totally paralysed. A lonely woman lying in some hospital’s room n. 147.