Surgery

I am stealing an idea from Becca and posting work I do in my Creative Writing class here. Please feel free to comment. Constructive criticism is welcome.

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In-class assignment: Take something that happened to you, using only the facts, but making it suspenseful.

I sit alone in a chair. My bare skin squeaks against the cold blue vinyl. My clothes are locked away somewhere in a locker, down one of these mazes of corridors. If I were to escape, I would have to do so naked but for this robe that barely covers my ass.

They've pulled a curtain around me and I can't see beyond the two-foot compartment in which I am sitting. I hear voices-- two people, mid-conversation, have flowed into the room beyond the curtain. I draw myself up in the chair, as though improving my posture somehow makes up for my bare ass. I try to wipe the sweat from my palms onto my robe, hiding any sign of fear.

I jump at the sound of metal on metal as the curtain is wrenched open.

"Hello dear," the nurse says, feigning geniality. I know the real deal.

My suspicions are confirmed as a long needle and a ribbon of rubber emerge from behind her back.

"Just try to relax," she says. "It's easier to find your vein that way."

That's what they all say.