 Day 2 - June Image Challenge: Where am I? In the pitch black your skin can sense cold air, your bare feet inform you of the smooth tile beneath you, and your ears pick up an eerie and foreboding dripping sound. Then light floods the cell. Blinking, your eyes slowly adjusting, you see something unbelievable on the other side of a glass wall. *** I hear a beep. I feel a drip. I hear a beep. I feel a drip. I hear a beep. I feel a drip. Beep. Drip. Beep. Drip. BEEP. DRIP. BEEP. DRIP. BEEPDRIPBEEPDRIPBEEPDRI… "MAKE IT STOP!" I shout but the words won't leave my mouth. I access the mental calendar inside my brain. 29 mental tick-marks in groupings of five, reminiscent of what you might see on a prison wall. Drawn on. A finger using dripping blood. I add another mental tick to the four marks on the end of my mental tally, a diagonal line drawn across the grouping of four, begging for that line to complete its pattern. Day 30. Where am I? I sense my body, prone and heavy. I attempt to move an arm, a leg, then finally focus on just one toe. My big toe. Nothing. I hear a buzz. Like a hive of angry bees. Then I drift. Beep. Drip. Beep Drip. Day 31. I add a solo tick-mark adjacent to the last grouping of five. I attempt the movements. Arms. Legs. Big toes. Nothing. Then the buzzing begins. The buzzing gets closer. Above me? The buzz begins to take on a pattern. A pattern familiar but I am still locked inside my brain. Voices. I drift. Beep. Drip. Beep. Drip. Day 32. I make the mental tick. I go through the ritual. Arms. Legs. Big toe. Big toe! A flicker of movement, trying in earnest now. The big toe moves, the smaller toes follow suit. The buzzing takes on a faster, higher fluctuation. Closer than usual. Excited buzzing. I feel a whisper of breath on my face followed by a soft peck on my forehead, gentle like a butterfly kiss. I become hyper-aware of eyelids as I feel them flutter, shafts of light. I drift. Beep. Drip. Beep. Drip. Day 33. Mental tick-mark. Arms. Legs. Legs and all ten toes! Sweet movement; my eyelids flutter. Buzzing turns to voices. Voices turn to one voice. A voice familiar. I think of rain. Walking in the rain while this voice whispers words of love in my ear. I mentally push using all of my strength. Shoulders pushing arms pushing hands through a fragile barrier, smooth...glass-like. It feels like swimming up and up from a dark pit toward a glow. If I could just push a little harder now. Eyelids! Open! A face hovering just inches above my face. Beep. Drip. Beep. Drip. I can hear and see it all so clearly now. Lying in a bed. Tubes and machines all around me. "Darling, welcome back," a voice so tender; a kiss so gentle on my forehead. By Lisa H. Owens Shut Up & Write photo prompt - Day-2 (Click to read Day 3)
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