TABULA RASA

Art by _miiart_

He opened his eyes slowly, nauseous from the pain that stabbed every inch of his body. They refused to focus at first, giving the world a dreamy, haze-like quality from which he could only recognize colors and, just barely, shapes.

            He closed his eyes, counted to ten, and then opened them again. They seemed to work much better now, allowing him to take in the room he found himself in.

            It looked like a hotel room. But judging from the pain that filled his every moment, he knew it couldn’t be one. The luxury suite of a high-end hospital then. He saw a mountain of flowers by the door, as well as baskets upon baskets upon baskets of fruit, some already showing signs of rot.

            Which meant he’d been here for a while. How long, he wondered. A week? A month? There was no way to tell, unless…

His turned his head and felt like someone took a hammer and bashed in the back of his head. He closed his eyes again, calming himself. When he opened his eyes again, he very slowly tried to look around searching for a calendar.

            The door suddenly opened. A stunning woman in blue (easily as beautiful as a model or an actress) came in and came to a stop. She looked him, stunned, before unleashing an ear-piercing screech and rushing towards him. Tears streamed down her eyes as she touched his face tenderly, words flowing out of her in a constant stream.

“Mi amor, mi amor, mi amor”, she gurgled. She then ran back to the door, screamed some more, and came back to his side. He tried to smile at her, in the hopes of calming her down.  The door opened and more people came in.

“Gracias a Dios!”, “Estas vivo!”, “El Señor es misericordioso!”, they said. The woman in blue held up a crying little boy, who looked at him, held his hand and said “Estás vivo, papá!”!

He smiled at all of them, hoping it would be enough. He then closed his eyes again, hoping they didn’t realize that he didn’t understand a single word they said. What’s more, he didn’t even recognize any of them. And that hurt more than his broken body did.