women’s fashion in the emergency room26

laura hallman

“Can you just go back and sit in the waiting room, and I’ll, umm, I’ll figure out exactly why you’re here.” I guess she didn’t notice the neck brace. But by now I’m wearing the neck brace, a hospital gown, my work pants (though, they’ve taken my belt in hopes I might eventually get x-rays, so my pants are falling down), and flat black shoes I had to search months for to find exactly the right ones, which have glass in the bottoms now. I’m glad I decided I was too tired for high heels in the morning. My mother says to me, “The girl… that girl. The one dressed really cute. They brought her by on a stretcher. She was passed out. She wasn’t wearing her tights anymore.” And I wonder what’s wrong with her. Just before I leave, as I’m discussing with two doctors the difference between ibuprofen and acetaminophen, I see the girl again. Her leg is all bandaged up from ankle to thigh in an ace wrap. She’s being wheeled in a wheelchair elsewhere. I hope it’s not the same wheelchair the lady with the scrunchie and head cold was in, because I’m sure she had something catching—not anything perilous, but annoying just the same. Days later, in explanation of the days’ events to a co-worker, I said “car wreck” and felt weird about it. I wasn’t sure if the picture with the word was right. It was what I was feeling and was tired of saying “accident.” But it didn’t feel conveyed, didn’t feel like the whole of the experience. And then I thought about the girl, wondered what was wrong with her, wondered if she was alright, wondered if she got wherever she was supposed to be going, wondered why they bothered to stop for Burger King on the way.

Author:

Laura Hallman has two Bach-elors of Art from East Stroudsburg University(Communications, Media Studies & English, Professional Writing), of whichshe uses neither in her everyday life. Laura sincerely enjoys being awoman of contemporary gender defi-nition, even while her wardrobe remainsstuck somewhere between 1947 and 1962. She writes short fiction, poetry,her blog (http://my-unsolicited-opinion.tumblr.com/) or whatever you wouldlike to read. You can catch her short fiction in Sea Giraffe magazine andher poetry in Dr. Hurley’s Snake Oil Cure and 3:AM Magazine.

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