Hospital Scene Short Story

His heart overflows with regret when he sees her in that hospital bed, lying there practically lifeless, struggling with each shallow breath.  Her body forces out the occasional groan, but there is no sign that she is coming out of the coma.  He has never been so frightened, desperately gripping his face and shivering as the frigid air makes the hairs of his neck stand on end.

Her face is swollen and an awfully colorful assortment of bruises covers her neck and arms.  Red lines around her throat, the mark of violent and strong hands, still seem to choke her fragile neck menacingly.  Her hair is disheveled and her hospital gown indicates she has recently vomited blood.  Her condition is critical.

Robin, the poor man, he is so sorry he let this happen to her.  He tries to regain control of his breath to calm himself down.  He knows the hospital staff would not normally let anyone in, not when a patient is in this state.  But he is still her husband.  The divorce hadn’t proceeded yet.  And he is afraid she will die.

The nurse suggested keeping the television on for white noise.  Advertisements for cheap fast food repeat one after the other.  The images mean nothing to him and he tunes out the voices.  He gets up to turn off the television.  He looks over to Elizabeth.  The woman in the bed makes no movement. 

Outside the hospital window, the view is picturesque, and the setting sun casts a beautiful beam of light into the room.  Robin can see the dust particles floating around in the light, dancing and hovering with no destination.  He momentarily loses himself in their whimsical flight, daydreaming to a time when things were better between him and his wife.

He sighs heavily.  Despite time standing still inside the hospital room, the Earth continues to turn outside, and he can hear his father’s voice in his ear:  “Life goes on.”  The sun has just about disappeared behind the grassy green knolls.  The scene reminds him of his relationship with her before it all went wrong. 

The man takes his eyes off his wife to look briefly outside and wishes things were still as good as they used to be.  Sunset was Elizabeth’s favorite time of day.  He wonders where his life went.  He wonders why everything went to shit so fast.  He wonders why she couldn’t have stayed.

The sun has disappeared behind the horizon, and it is starting to get darker in the room.  A skinny nurse with blonde hair comes in and asks if he would like the overhead lights turned on.  He says he would.  With the interior illuminated, he notices a painting on the wall he hadn’t seen before.

He glares at it with disgust.  It is the only piece of décor in the stale room, depicting a single cow in a field of yellowing grass.  The cow is staring stupidly out into the hospital room, so Robin momentarily locks eyes with the creature.  Its eyes look dull and lifeless and he can’t help but grow angry with whoever decided to put this goddamned stupid painting in this room.

Elizabeth mumbles, and for the first time, places her hand to her swollen eye.  Robin stands up in disbelief, but her hand falls lifelessly back to the side of the cold metal bed frame.

He did this to her.  It was his fault.  He should have been more loving.  He is so sorry.  It was his mistake.  If only he had tried harder, said more, wrote one last love letter, perhaps then she would have stayed.  But he hadn’t.  She ran off with a better, younger man.  A man with a better salary, a full head of hair, and his life and dreams ahead of him.  She left him.  If only he could have stopped this.  He loved her.

But that man turned out to be controlling and violent, and Robin had no idea that Elizabeth found herself trapped in an abusive relationship.  He wishes she would have said something to him.  He wishes he could have saved her.  He hates that younger man, and worse, he hates knowing that he is out there somewhere on the run.  The police hadn’t found him yet.  Elizabeth was found in her apartment by a friend when she didn’t answer the phone for an entire day.

He grasps her hand firmly and it is so cold.  He is still wearing his wedding ring.  She is wearing an engagement ring from her young lover.  He begs and pleads to God that she will wake up and the internal injuries will be healed.  He’s never prayed before, but he makes a promise to God that he will start if He can lend a hand just this one time.  He looks at the heart monitor, hoping it will stay steady, dreading for the line to fall flat.

But it does.  The monotonous beep drives him insane.  He runs out of the hospital room and screams.  He bolts to his car.  He doesn’t even remember how he got there.  He reaches under the seat on the passenger’s side and retrieves a revolver from its case.  He doesn’t know where he is going, but he is set on finding that goddamned man who killed his wife.