Hours

I scooted back more as a series of legs walked into the room. The wires running along the floor under the bed were plugged into various medical devices above me. I heard a man's voice.

"I hope your doing well. I brought everybody with me to see you and I know we only have about thirty minutes before visiting hours are over. You remember my wife? And I brought the girls too. They got permission to get out of high school for a few days for our trip down here."

A grown woman I took for the mom stepped around the bed near the electric devices monitoring the patient. She said, "I have to be careful with all the wires on the floor."

One of the young girls sat in a chair and I saw her too clearly so figured she could see me and I moved away the few inches that I could spare, when suddenly I felt my hand crushed and turned to see the mom had stepped her white tennis shoe onto the fingers of my left hand. I wanted to scream but I had to remain silent in agony.

"Here, " she said, "Let me help you with your pillow."

Hurry up, I was thinking. She must have finished but never stepped off of my poor fingers. After they chatted a few minutes, she backed off of my fingers and I clutched them in my other hand and tried to massage them back into shape. The family stayed right up until visiting hours were over as the dad announced I assumed by looking at his watch.

The patient accepted the offer to have her light turned off. They closed the door and I waited until I could hear the long steady breathing of a women asleep above me. I eased out from under the bed and began to ease the closet door open to feel around for some pants to wear. I found some clothes. I finally had a pair of pants in my hands, even if it was a womans pair of slacks. I stepped into the legs and tried to pull them on, when I realized the lady must be skinny because no man could possibly wear these and I had to put them back in the closet.

I eased open the door and just as I hoped the hallway was empty with a well-lit place midway down the hall I took for a nurses station. I figured I couldn't go through every room looking for pants or I would definitely get caught. An idea came to me that I could get to the basement and figured the laundry was down there and I could wrap myself in sheets. Then I could get out the basement somehow and make it to my car and get the spare key I keep hidden under my rear bumper and finally drive home.

I eased further down the hallway. Someone had left a gurney against a wall with a sheet draped over it. I was about to go around it when I hear a man's voice coming in my direction and I had **** but to get under the gurney and hoped they passed by. But as luck would have it, the man stopped behind me and I saw the wheels start to move. I had to think fast and move in the direction the square of metal moved. I had trapped myself in his small space and now we were moving down the hallway, me walking in a squatting position which was quickly exhausting my legs. We stopped and I could not see what was happening but I heard a bell ding and the doors opened to an elevator. I soon had to scamper to keep up with the man who was wheeling me into the elevator. We were not alone and about three female voices said hello to him as we moved in closer, my naked body only about a foot away under a thin white sheet.

More people got in at the next floor and it was getting crowded. Legs were nearly encroaching on my space. I had to leave when the cart moved us out the elevator door. A lot of voices were in this hallway and I was steered around lots of legs. I was parked behind another bed and I crawled out as fast as I could into my new hiding place under a bed that did not move. I needed the rest. I could hear someone being moved from the bed to the gurney and soon everyone left me alone. I let out a sigh and was trying to think of my next move when several women came back into the room and started tidying up. I tried to make myself small under the bed and watched for anyone getting near me. Finally, they left and flicked off the light. I stayed for a about fifteen minutes and moved out from under the bed and made it to the door to check if the hallway was clear. I saw lots of people so I returned to the bed and figured I could wait them out. I waited so long that I feel asleep. I awoke and realized I was still living my nightmare. I had no idea how long I was out, but I checked the hallway and it was mostly empty. The only thing I spotted was the back of a nurse as she leaned against the counter talking to the nurses at the well-light area about ten feet away from me.

I decided to get out and stay against the wall as much as possible and be on the look out for another set of stairs so I could make my way to the basement. In a crouch, I waddled my way down the hallway putting more distance away from the nurses station. I heard the nurse more clearly now as her voice was thrown in my direction but it did not sound like she saw me. Rather it was like she was still focused on them as she finished up a conversation, and would soon be headed in my direction. I found an empty waiting room coming up and I rose and made a mad dash in there and leapt behind the end of a couch just as the nurse stolled past. When will this ever end?

I left the waiting room and continued my mission to find a stairway. I was soon rewarded and was about to open the door and dash downstairs when I heard the hollow echo of someone in dress shoes making their way down the concrete steps. I dove behind a few potted plants and knew if the person were to walk past me, I would be caught. The door opened and I held my breath.