A day at the hospital

I woke up and we were already rushing to the hospital. I thought it was a dream, because I remember getting into a car accident. But I wasn't the problem; it was my mom.

When I saw her the first thing she said, with just a tinge of misery, was "I had a great fall." I couldn't help but think of Humpty Dumpty when she said that. Dad has always been making fun of Mom that way. I almost took it as a joke.

Apparently Mom had fallen at work, on the luggage conveyor belt at her workplace. I overheard her talking on the phone with her colleague about the way she fell, and I stifled a giggle when I imagined it.

So while Mom was being treated and all, I just went and have a normal day at the hospital.

At first I just sat reading the book I'd brought, Fangirl. It's about a girl who goes into college and realises that she can't be stuck in her past 18 years. The things that happen to her slowly forces her to grow up and leave all her familiarity behind.

The main character is annoying sometimes but I found myself being able to relate to all her bullshit.

I went on reading until my little brother showed up and told me he was hungry. I didn't realise I was too, so we went off to get stuff to eat.

We came across a vending machine that dispensed 'fresh hot sandwiches', but we didn't have enough coins for it. So we walked on to the 7-11 where I got myself a big fat nice hot chicken pau and icy cold milk tea. We used the change for the sandwich vending machine.

After slotting in our coins, the machine flashed WAIT 190 SECONDS, the 190 decreasing to 0 by the second as a countdown. When it got to 0, bam, a wrapped sandwich appeared in the little window. We sat outside the A&E, eating all our hot food and talking about bullshit like we always do.

I brought sushi after that, and then we came across a pond with dozens of huge fish. They were the same kind of fish as the ones at Downtown East, yet we still found ourselves being excited about them.

You could donate 2 bucks in exchange for fish food, so we did that and spent the next 15 minutes or so throwing these bits into the pond. They smelled like the cuttlefish snack that comes in string, so we thought those damn fish were cannibals.

You should have seen how excited the fish were when we threw the food in! They were almost fighting to get one. The big dark fish were on one side while the bright sparkly white koi were on the other. We thought they were racist too.

Who knew that fish could be so weird too?

There was one that didn't move from the bubbles coming from the purifier thing or whatever it was. It just stayed there among the bubbles, like it was its personal Jacuzzi. It didn't leave its spot, not even for the food.

There was one that kept swimming on its side, and we noticed that it hadn't gotten any food. We tried to get it to eat, but it was never fast enough to snag a bite.

There were also the suckerfish that mostly stuck to the floor and walls of the pond, and when we saw one coming up to the surface, we rushed to feed it. It came up, slowly, and then SPLASH it jumped to bite the food fiercely, shocking the shit out of my brother and I!

The koi were rabbling on about something, their mouths opening and closing non-stop. We looked at one and mimicked its mouth movements, saying rabble? rabble rabble? over and over. I imagined looking at us through the koi's perspective. Who knew if they were saying something intelligent and calling us humans dumb morons for our constant rabbling???

All in all, the hospital is a really cool place. I got sad looking at the patients and all, but I tried my damndest trying not to imagine their life stories. It's a habit I need to stop because it always makes me emotional on the inside.