Out of Order
“The blanket wrapped tightly around my shoulders was suddenly stifling. I was simultaneously too hot and too cold, my own breath hitting my face in warm gusts. The oxygen mask fogged and unfogged as I gasped, trying to twist out of the blanket, but I was tangled.
“Off, off,” I said, clawing at the blanket and trying to reach my face.
The male paramedic pulled the oxygen mask off easily, and the elastic snapped against my cheek. The sting of it helped to ground me, to calm my racing heart. The am...bulance rocked again, a little more violently, and then the feel of it changed—almost as though we were slowly driving downhill into the depths of a cavernous maw. “We’re here. We’re at the hospital. Just breathe, Corinna,” he said, pushing my bangs off my forehead.
Just breathe. As though it were that easy. As though every breath wasn’t a knife in my freaking chest, scraping along my ribs with a terrifying rattle.
I tried to focus on my breathing, the in and out of it, forcing myself through it like we had with Ricky during her asthma attacks—in through the nose, out through the mouth—my eyes closed and my throat filling with bile at the thought of Ricky’s lungs, quiet of their usual whistle and rasp.MoreLess
“Off, off,” I said, clawing at the blanket and trying to reach my face.
The male paramedic pulled the oxygen mask off easily, and the elastic snapped against my cheek. The sting of it helped to ground me, to calm my racing heart. The am...bulance rocked again, a little more violently, and then the feel of it changed—almost as though we were slowly driving downhill into the depths of a cavernous maw. “We’re here. We’re at the hospital. Just breathe, Corinna,” he said, pushing my bangs off my forehead.
Just breathe. As though it were that easy. As though every breath wasn’t a knife in my freaking chest, scraping along my ribs with a terrifying rattle.
I tried to focus on my breathing, the in and out of it, forcing myself through it like we had with Ricky during her asthma attacks—in through the nose, out through the mouth—my eyes closed and my throat filling with bile at the thought of Ricky’s lungs, quiet of their usual whistle and rasp.MoreLess
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