No one visited on Tuesdays. Well, during the day, anyway. Both her parents had to work all day, and Barry and Tina had school. Her grandparents went shopping on Tuesdays, and her aunts and uncles had their own lives to tend to.
Corey was used to it. Being alone didn’t bother her as much as it had when she had first been admitted to the hospital. However, there was always something unsettling about the peaceful silence of her room. Sometimes she wondered if anyone would even notice if she died . . .
A nurse came in to check on her. She was new to the hospital; a blond with perfect teeth and sparkling green eyes. Corey didn’t like her. She treated her like she was terminally stupid, not sick.
The nurse’s visit was relatively painless, considering the woman didn’t speak. Corey felt that the woman knew about her dislike for her. She didn’t mind. It was better that she know than try and become friends as she had attempted in the beginning.
As usual, the nurse left Corey’s door open. She hated when she did that.
Sounds drifted in through the open doorway. Corey could hear the shuffling of feet and the beep of machines. She could hear the squeak of gurney wheels and the murmur of doctors’ voices.
She leaned back into her pillows and closed her eyes. Although she hated sleeping the day away, she didn’t feel like doing anything else.
When she first heard the voices, she thought she had fallen asleep. However, with a quick jerk of her eyelids, she found she wasn’t yet asleep. She listened again. Maybe she had just been hallucinating. Or maybe just half-asleep. She was about to dismiss it entirely when she heard the voices again.
“Room three seventeen?” one asked. It was the voice of a guy.
“Yeah. That’s what it said,” confirmed another guy’s voice.
“Yes,” said the first guy. “Could you please tell us where room three seventeen is?”
Corey’s heart began to pound. Three seventeen was her room. But no one visited on Tuesdays . . .
The blond nurse poked her head in Corey’s door. “Do you feel up to having visitors?” she asked in her honey-sweet voice.
She felt like telling her, “No one visits on Tuesdays,” but something in the back of her mind told her to say otherwise. “Yes,” she told the woman.
The nurse turned from the door. “You can come in,” she said to the unseen visitors.
Corey held her breath. It seemed like forever before the door of her room pushed open all the way. When it did, Corey had to take a double-take. Three guys stood in her doorway. Two of them were tall, making the third look small in comparison. All three had long blond hair; two wore it loose around their shoulders whereas the third had it pulled back into a casual pony tail.
Hanson was standing at her hospital room door.
Her wish had come true.
