The young woman wakes up, wishing she felt better. She wakes up in pain, and lays in bed to wait it out. While she waits, she checks her phone messages. She feels connected, less alone, when she messages her friends. One friend was posting about how scared he was on his impending surgery. The young woman sends a loving, supportive message, “Hey, how are you?” and smiles wistfully. She wishes she could go but Hospitals have hazards, like disease and viruses floating around. She has no immune system support, so she can’t go. The young man sees the message, and takes a deep breath. They chat about it through text, and she eases his mind. He was about to cancel the surgery, but the young woman’s message gives him motivation to go forward with it.
TW: Self harm reference
The young woman finally has the strength to get out of bed. She takes her medication and goes to make coffee in the kitchen. The coffee tastes hot, bitter and fortifying. She puts bread in the toaster, because she can’t drink milk with cereal. It upsets her stomach and gives her pains. A friend calls from the East coast, “Hey, how are you?” She’s pregnant again and upset. How will they afford a new mouth to feed?? The young woman congratulates her friend and talks her down. Helps her get a plan together to anticipate the coming baby, and how the friend’s older children will help with the care. The young woman wishes desperately for children, but her body cannot carry them. Her friend, however, felt more hopeful and cancelled the Clinic appointment to end the pregnancy. When she announces to her family that she’s expecting, strengthened by her friends’ conversation, the entire family is on board, and happy about the new addition. The pregnant mother moves about her day, happier and relieved.
The young woman wakes up from her morning nap. She remembers a time when she worked double shifts at her Nursing job. “What am I good for?” she whispers, as she sobs over her new life as a disabled person. She reads online about a fundraiser for a sick child, and she leaves a kind comment for the child’s mother, “Hey, how are you?”, she continues to encourage the mother, telling her how strong she is. The young woman also donates a dollar. It’s all the extra she has. The young woman has a cousin who owns her own business. She sees the fundraiser through the young woman’s notifications and donates the full amount so the sick child can get treatment. The child’s mother weeps with gratitude as she reads the kind comment left for her.
It’s dinner time, and she makes extra for her neighbor. Her neighbor is elderly and forgets to eat, and the young woman hates cooking only for herself, when she has the strength. “Hey, how are you?” she asks clearly as she knocks on the door… She brings the neighbor a sandwich, or soup in a tupperware container if she can’t cook a full meal. It’s usually the only food the woman consumes regularly. This keeps her nourished and living until her daughter can visit and set her up in an assisted living home.
It’s bed time and the young woman takes her pain medication to sleep. Otherwise, the pain will keep her awake, although it sometimes does anyway. She texts her distant friend. “Hey, how are you?” Her friend is feeling low. She tells the friend how much she loves them, addresses them by their preferred pronouns, as she is usually the only one who does. The young woman encourages her friend to seek a therapist for her anxiety, and uses google to find one close to her. The friend puts down the razor they held at their wrist, and sets the alarm to call the number. The young woman has inadvertently saved friend’s life.
As the young woman lays down to sleep, she’s still sad. “I wish I could just make a difference again… I’m doing nothing productive like this….”
As she falls asleep, she dreams of flying through the air and saving people, like Wonder Woman. Saving lives, one at a time…. She wishes her dreams were reality.
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