––––––––
“The first inhalation is the most difficult."
Wherever I"d drifted off to, I was back. Her voice had an eerie warble because I was listening underwater.
Not water.
The doctor told me there were speakers down here. She said she would talk to me, soothe me, help me through treatment. At this moment I didn’t know if she knew her microphone was on.
"Time?" She wasn’t talking to me.
I could not hear the other person’s response mumbled off-mic. I strained to listen, which made me open my eyes. Open is the wrong word because I could not control my eyelids; I refocused on movement within my field of vision. Three other people had joined the doctor, their heads above the rim of the tank. Not that I could distinguish faces— more like nebulous ovals with other-colored smudges where h
