The ward was quiet and stillness surrounded me. My head spun and ached and I felt nauseous. Suddenly, I had a feeling I wasn’t in my normal room. In fact, I wasn’t. I crept out of bed towards the door and opened it slightly. I was on the second ward. I should have known by the foul stench of body odor that permeated the walls. Patients were more disturbed down here and less likely to care about their personal hygiene. At six o’clock in the morning a woman knocked on my door before barging in. She walked to my bed and grabbed my blanket right off of me. “This is mine now. Hear me, Iona, when I say I run a disciplined hall. I do not tolerate any shenanigans.” She spit when she talked at me. I gulped and glanced at the tag she wore on her pocket, her name was Patricia. In my mind she was ‘Fatty Patty’. She was large and had body odor so strong it made one dizzy. I plugged my nose when she waded in closer to me to speak again. She yanked my hand from my nose and breathed her stinky coffee breath right into my face.
