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Shadows that Lurk in the Light: Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven:
I was heading home! However, it wasn’t my home, it was Deliah’s, and it was a jumble of emotions for me. A combination of emotions swept over me: happiness, sadness, anger, and relief. I felt like crying one moment and laughing the next. More than anything though, I was glad to be out of the hospital, a place that felt like prison the more time I spent there. While I was shot, others were dying from a virus that had destroyed thousands and even millions of lives. An epidemic that threw the world into chaos.
It was only the second time Deliah had been allowed in the same room with me; the first time was when I had court and even then the distance wasn’t as great. But now she was helping me figure out how life with a disability looked for me, my life in a wheelchair.
Even now, we were forced to keep our distance not only for our own sakes, but also for the sakes of doctors and nurses. Doctors and nurses who also get sick. As I grieved for them, I found it difficult to grieve for myself. The grief almost made me feel selfish, as if the world’s pain was valid, but mine wasn’t.
As I waited for the doctors and nurses to come in and give me discharge instructions, I stared out the hospital window. Inpatient rehab and a few visits to the physical therapist would have been normal, but…
