No Way Out

    The night nurse finished her last rounds before the morning shift commenced with the standard review of medical charts, at the nursing station. Alicia had one more room to visit on the respiratory floor. She walked with a carefree swing, shifting her thoughts to the soft Tempur Pedic mattress at home, her long-awaited resting place after the graveyard shift. Alicia entered room 429, and spoke first to an elderly woman in bed number A. Her voice rose then fell as she spoke slow, in a clear, monotone inflection. Doris, not hard of hearing, sat up at attention, following a long list of medical questions.
     Rather abruptly, the night nurse then swung open the lime green checkered curtain that divided the two patients in the room. Alicia lowered her voice, when she realized she was no longer speaking to the general population of elderly patients, Her voice quieted, with a short list and her usual tagline: Rest and be well. Sure, I begged Mr. Sandman for a peaceful slumber after a long night in a chaotic emergency room, but I held a defiant upright position in a hospital bed, plotting to slip quietly through the exit door. It would have been an easy prison break, the stairwell to freedom just a few steps of her slipper from the room. And, I was familiar with the blueprint of the hospital from past visits, aging family members. 
I don’t want to be here anymore; I repeated inside my head. A beacon signal flashed from home like a lighthouse flashing its signal on a foggy night, miles away. My children would soon wake up for school.  
I started to panic, what if my husband forgets to give them lunch money? Would my son remember to dress for gym day? Would the dog have her morning walk and the right mix of organic food?  I don't want to be here anymore!