Yellow light, black light, yellow light, black light. Right, left, right, left. Yellow, right, black, left. I’m running, and I keep running. A white light flashes, and I jump up in my seat. There’s a sharp pain in my neck, and it feels as if something is constantly pounding behind my ear. A chair? When did I get here?
Baba paces back and forth, and we are in a room labeled- well, I can’t see the label. W-A-I-T-I-N-G, the waiting room. The walls are white, the floors are white, and the chairs are white. There are hand sanitizer containers everywhere. The hospital, that’s where I am.
Baba still paces back and forth, and I make my way to the automatic sliding doors. He doesn’t even see me. His eyes are half closed. 9 hours? 10 hours? How long has he been here? I squint and look up at the clock. The small hand is between 10 and 11. 10:30. Wow, I’ve been here for a long time. I press the yellow button, my hands shaking. The doors open, and I turn around to look at Baba. Still pacing, back and forth.
Walking through the sliding doors, I press the yellow button on the other side. The glass doors close. I turn my head left. Nothing there. Right, there it is. E-M-E-R-G-E-N-C-Y. Right, left, right, left. Just like the dream. The sign is yellow and black, just like the dream. My hands are cold, and I feel a shiver down my spine. A smaller sign reads 16-and-up. Only 12. The lady at the counter looks up at me, and then back down at her magazine. She thinks I’m 16. I guess looking older comes in handy sometimes.
I press the yellow button, and it’s a lot bigger this time. The doors are bigger as well. They open and I walk in, looking everywhere for someone familiar. There are big white curtains and I peer behind them. There’s a woman. Someone with red dots everywhere. Who is she? I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, and everything I had eaten not 2 hours ago churning in my stomach. My eyes fill to the brim with tears.
Before I know it, I’m out of the emergency room. My legs carry me as far as they could before I bump into something. Someone. Someone taller than me. I look up and see Baba. “Did you see her?” Who is he talking about?
“Ma.” That was Ma.