The Long Lost Daughter

3 Happy Birthday

Penelope

Before I open my eyes I am aware of a faint beeping noise, which only continues to grow louder and more frequent. Where am I? When my eyes fly open I am shocked to see that I am in a hospital room.

Once my eyes adjust to the light I further examine my body. I am able to move my arms and legs, I have an oxygen tube in nose and I am connected to countless monitors. I reach up to pull the tube out of my nose because it is wildly uncomfortable and I groan in pain because there is an IV in my arm that I did not notice. That groan must have alerted who ever was in the room of my now awake state because I hear Aunt Rae.

“Penelope Rose Fletcher!" she yells at me. She seems angry with me, but what did I do? The yelling has also made me aware of the massive headache that is pounding through my head. I lift my hand to my head and realize that there is a bandage wrapped around it. I still have no idea what is going on.

“What is going on? Why am I here?” I frantically ask her.

“Josh returned home this morning to find his daughter vomiting upstairs and you passed out in the middle of the living room with blood coming out of your head! What were you girls thinking?!” Rae shouts. I have never experienced this kind of anger and frustration coming out of my Aunt. Knowing her it is most likely coming from concern rather than anger at my actions. However it does sadden me to know that I have angered my aunt so deeply.

Realization of what she said allows the night to come flooding back to me. The sleep over with Ashley, the movies, the vodka. I remember not being drunk however, it makes sense that Ashley was throwing up, but what happened to me? Then true realization it hits me. The voice, there was a woman who was talking to me and I never found her. I shoot up straight frantically searching the room.

“What are you doing?” My aunt asks clearly annoyed with my behavior. Not only am I now her drunk of a niece but I am also looking around the room like a crazy person. I know that there was someone in that house last night. I know it, I talked to her.

“Where is she? There was someone in the house last night what happened to her?!” I ask whilst still looking for the threat.

“Honey there was no one else in the house" Aunt Rae says calming down and joining me on my hospital bed. In an effort to comfort me she holds onto my hands and looks seemingly deep into my eyes. "You clearly got too drunk last night, had an accident and hit your head."

I know that if I was to express to my Aunt Rae the voice what I was hearing, she would think I was crazy. There is also something in her eyes that tells me to just go with what she is saying and not question it. So instead of further expressing what happened, I choose to keep it to myself and just apologize. I know just the tactic to make her stop giving me a guilt trip.

“I’m sorry Aunt Rae I don’t know what I was thinking. You know how hard my birthday is for me. It is now for years since my Dad left. I thought he would have cam back for me by now. I guess I was just trying to distract myself from the pain" I tell her.

I know brining up my Dad is a low blow, but the pain is true. I just did not get drunk enough to even forget about the pain. I still have no idea why I was not drunk and why I was talking to someone in my head. Or were they outside of my head? I still have no idea. Aunt Rae does not question my defense however and I immediately see sympathy fill her eyes.

“I am sorry honey I know how hard your birthday is for you. I should have been more understanding when I was yelling at you, you just scared me” she explains. "I hope that this is not how you plan to act in California. I know you are an adult now, but I will still drive there and come give you a stern talking to" she chuckles. Aunt Rae definitely does not like playing the strict parent role so I know that she is light hearted in her threats.

“I won’t I promise” I tell her.

"Good. Oh and by the way, Happy Birthday" Rae says wrapping me in a hug. I hug her back despite the pain coming from my head. This woman is the kindest and most loving person I have ever known, I don't know what I would do with out her.

"Oh you are awake" I hear from the door which causes Aunt Rae and I to drop our embrace.

"Yes I am" I tell him as he walks further into the room.

He is your typical old man doctor with dark grey hair and glasses. He is a little on the pudgier side but he seems nice. If I had to guess what my grandpa would look like, I would say something like this.

"Well I am glad to see you awake. I am Dr. Barnes" he says coming over to me and shaking my hand. "You took quite the tumble there Miss. Fletcher. How are you feeling?”

"I had a bad headache when I woke up but it is not as bad as it was just a little bit ago" I tell him.

“Well young lady you must have a very high pain tolerance, let’s take a look at this gash.”

Aunt Rae gets up and Dr. Barnes come to my bed side and begins unwrapping the gauze that was on my head. Once all of the gauze is removed Dr. Barnes stares at my head with a look that I can only describe as shock.

I look at Aunt Rae and her eyes are wide with the same shocked expression that the doctor has. I have never felt so confused in my entire life. I have two grown adults, one of them being a doctor staring at me in amazement. Aunt Rae seems to snap out of her shock when she makes eye contact with me and brings her lips up to her mouth, signaling for me to not speak.

"Well would you look at that!" Aunt Rae says with a high pitched voice I have never heard before. Her speaking finally jolts Dr. Barnes from his own state of shock.

“Well it appears that the gash is almost fully healed. I will be able to take the stitches out before you leave today and replace it with a butterfly bandages" the doctor says making his way to his computer to type in all he just told us.

He seems to stop what he is doing for a second and looks back at me. I see Aunt Rae tense up in the corner of my eye. Why is she the one that is tense? I am the one who is being stared at like I just removed my head off my body and magically put it back on.

"May I say Ms. Fletcher, this is quite remarkable. In all of my years in medical practice I have never seen anyone heal this kind of wound in this amount of time,” Dr. Barnes informs us.

"Well it must be some sort of miracle!" Aunt Rae excitedly says. "Does that mean she will be able to be released soon? It is her birthday after all, we still want to celebrate."

"Ahh yes I see that. Well Happy Birthday young lady" he tells me while resuming his data input. "Ms. Fletcher would you mind staying just a little bit longer? I know my colleges and I would love a sample of your blood to take a look at what antibodies assisted with this rapid healing. It could help a lot of patients."

“No thank you we are not interested" Aunt Rae quickly states for me. I am an adult now, so I could technically demand to do it. However it is not that big of a deal to me and it is clearly something Rae does not want me to do.

"Can we get a move on those discharge papers? I think she is ready to go home" Rae says.

“I see no reason why she can not go home, I will get started on those discharge papers right now. Someone will be here shortly to remove the stitches.” Dr. Barnes states quickly leaving the room. I could tell he was a little disappointed I would not give him some of my blood. I think he got the hint that Aunt Rae was not someone to mess with.

Once the doctor exits the room I stare at my aunt with utter confusion. What is going on? Rae is just standing in the middle of the room with her arms crossed staring off into space. Seemingly remembering where she is at ad what is going on she snaps her attention back to me.

“I am going to wait in the car until you are discharged and I will drive around to pick you up” she tells me.

“What just happened? What is going on?” I ask her.

I have never seen my aunt so stressed in my life. It is almost as if I can feel the waves of stress radiating off of her. She just shakes her head at my questions.

“Please just don’t question it. We have a lot to talk about, but not here and not right now” she tells me while rushing to the chair which had her purse sitting on it. Rae gathers her things and reaches in into her bag and she hands my my phone. "Here, you have some missed texts from Ashley."

Rae hands me my phone and turns to walk out of the room. You could have sworn this room was on fire the way she left the hospital room.

I am left sitting in my bed in utter confusion. What does she have to talk to me about? What is going on? For the first time in a few months I have the extreme anxiety creeping back in. Before it can morph into a full blown panic attack I take deep breaths and use the coping mechanisms I learned with my therapist. Once my breathing has calmed I am able to lay back on the bed and close my eyes.

I don't know if I fell back to sleep or how much time passes, but I am awoken by the sound of taping on the door. The nurse comes in and removes my stitches. I can tell that she has the same look of shock on her face. Though I am spared from looking directly into her eyes because she is working on my forehead.

It took no time at all to remove the stitches and it was very pain free. The nurse also removed my IV and gave me some clothes to change into before she left. As I am sitting in my room I swear that there is a parade of nurses and doctors outside the door who keep staring me down as they walk by. Some look at me shocked, others confused. I have had enough of their little parade and I shut the door to change and get ready to go.

Once I am dressed I begin replaying the events of last night. I remember everything now and none of it makes sense. At least I have not heard the voice in my head again. Maybe I really was drunk and did not even know it. Maybe I really did just hit my head. Maybe the alcohol made me start hearing voices.

I have no clue what really happened. The suspicious behavior of Aunt Rae however has me thinking that she possibly knows something that I do not.

There is no sense in obsessing over what is going on right now because I am not going to get any answers until I get home. I resolve to spend the time waiting for my discharge papers looking through my phone.

I have a couple messages on i********: of people telling me Happy Birthday. Most of them are people who have been in my classes. I have gotten to know a few people from high school, mostly due to obligatory group projects. It is touching to see that some of them remembered it was my birthday. I quickly respond to them and check my texts. I am met with about a bunch of texts from Ashley.

Ashley:

Where are you?

What the Penelope! Are you okay?

Girl!

Penelope?

Are you okay?

I am just worried.

My Dad is SOOOOO pissed.

Dude I'm Dead.

What the hell happened last night?

Me:

I have no idea.