It wasn't that the lights were too bright. The lights were fine, and whatever he was lying on was fine. Nothing was blurry, or moving too fast. It was just that the things that existed only did so while they were directly in front of him, and immediately afterwards they slipped back into whatever void existed before God made the universe. Words were the same way. There were people talking, as the ceiling rolled past above him, and there was something in his throat. And a man leaned over him and asked him a question, and the question made sense, but by the time Adrian opened his mouth to answer, the question had faded away so he just blinked instead, and let his eyes stay closed.
An instant later he was in a different room, and the bed wasn't moving. He was so very tired. It was a good thing he was lying down. He liked that. There was still something in his throat, though, and now it hurt a little bit. He thought maybe that was why his chest felt funny too. He closed his eyes.
Miss Katherine was next to him. He was in a hospital room. He watched her smile for a while, and eventually connected the two thoughts. Miss Katherine was next to him in a hospital room. She told him the surgery had been a wonderful success, and he would feel better in no time at all. He smiled back at her. A doctor leaned over, and told her Adrian would be unlikely to remember anything she said. Adrian wondered if she'd said anything yet. He'd hate to forget. He loved Miss Katherine; she'd come to his hospital room. His throat hurt a little, but there was nothing there. She bent over him; her lips were warm on his forehead. He closed his eyes and smiled.
It was the next day. They told him when he asked, and he didn't think they'd lie. His thoughts were clear, now, but he was still exhausted. They said that was normal, and offered to give him sleeping pills whenever he wanted. They said his drains had been removed. He was glad about that; he didn't know what that meant, exactly, but he didn't think he wanted to. His chest didn't hurt much. They gave him pain pills whenever he wanted, too, so he mostly just didn't feel anything. He asked when he could go home, and they said they didn't know yet. He asked when Marcos could visit. They said they didn't know that yet either. He asked for another sleeping pill and they said okay.
