The blond nurse walked into her bedroom shortly after she woke up. “Good morning,” she greeted in her honey-sweet voice. “I hear you’ve got plans today.”
Corey cocked any eyebrow at her. “Huh?” she asked. Probably, she had Corey confused with someone else.
“It’s the news of the day around the water cooler,” she continued. “Dr. Lang is kind of worried about you being out for the whole day, but Dr. Harris says it’ll be good for you to get some fresh air.”
“I’m not going anywhere today,” Corey said firmly. “You’ve got the wrong person.”
The nurse looked at Corey, her green eyes wide. “Oh, I’ll bet it was a surprise! Oh, no. Um, I’m sorry. Just, when they come to take you out, act surprised,” she cried. As she left the room, she muttered, “I should just keep my big mouth shut . . .”
“Yeah,” Corey agreed under her breath. “Do the world a favor.” She sighed. The woman must’ve had the wrong patient. Her parents were afraid to take her out - afraid she was too weak to handle it. Barry might, especially now that he had his driver’s license. However, it was only Thursday and he had school. If he cut school just to take her out . . .
The door pushed open and Corey held her breath. She let it out when she saw the familiar figure of Dr. Harris.
Dr. Harris was a young physician as compared to most of the hospital’s staff, being only in his mid- to late-thirties. He had dark hair and eyes and a soft, olive complexion. “How’s my favorite patient?” he greeted cheerfully.
Corey smiled. “I’m good, how about yourself?” she replied.
“I’m fine.” He walked over to her and checked her heartbeat. “Strong as usual,” he observed.
Dr. Harris went through his regular check-up on Corey, which took about ten minutes. When he was finished, he put his hand on her cheek. “You know, you’re regaining color,” he observed.
Corey smiled. “So I’ve been told,” she agreed.
Dr. Harris smiled. “Well, that’s good. I’ll see you later, okay?”
“Okay,” she agreed.
He left the room, closing the door completely. She smiled. If there had been some plans for her to go out today, surely he would have mentioned it. She had been right in the assumption that the blond was just losing her mind.
Corey sighed, picking up the pen with red flowers on it and twisting it around between her fingers. Yet another day.
The door to her room opened again. She figured it was Dr. Harris, coming back in to tell her something he had forgotten - as he often did. However, it wasn’t.
“Zac?” she asked in disbelief.
Zac Hanson looked out toward the hallway. “Yeah, she’s awake,” he called before walking into the room. “Hi, Corey,” he greeted, smiling.
She smiled at him. “Hi, Zac,” she said. “What . . . What are you doing here?”
He shrugged. “I told you I wished I could do more. Well, it turns out I can.” He grinned. “Do you have, like, some clothes here? Like, street clothes?”
Corey nodded. “Yeah,” she told him, confused. “In that closet over there.”
Zac walked over to where she had indicated and pulled out a pair of jeans and a white button-up shirt. “Is this okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, fine,” she said. “Uh, Zac, what’s going on?”
He turned to her and smiled. “We’re busting you out,” he told her. She cocked an eyebrow at him, so he continued. “Actually, we have permission to take you out today, okay? So, c’mon, get dressed.”
“Uh, Zac, I’m gonna need a doctor to take out my IV so I can,” she told him.
He laid the clothes at the foot of her bed. “Oh, no problem. I’ll go get one, okay?” With that, he was out of the room.
Corey couldn’t believe what was happening. A few minutes passed before Dr. Harris came into the room and took the IV out of her arm. “If I’ve know they were gonna be here this fast, I would’ve taken this out when I was in here before,” he told her.
“So, he’s not kidding?” she asked. “I can go out?”
He nodded. “That’s the idea,” he told her. “Now, you’d better get dressed, unless you plan on strutting around town in your pajamas.”
“Oh, yeah,” she agreed. Dr. Harris closed the door behind him when he left and Corey climbed out of her bed. She took her bedclothes off and slid into the outfit Zac had set out for her. It felt nice to have real clothes on. Once she was dressed and had slid on a pair of shoes, she walked out of her room. Isaac, Taylor, and Zac were standing in the hallway.
“Ready?” Zac asked eagerly.
“Yeah,” she said.
“Okay, let’s go!” Zac grabbed her hand and led her toward the elevator. Isaac and Taylor followed close behind.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“It’s a surprise,” Isaac said, smiling.
Isaac pulled his green rental car to a stop.
“The movies?” Corey asked.
“Yeah,” Zac said. “When was the last time you saw a movie at the theater?”
Corey thought back. With a laugh, she said, “I think when ‘Anastasia’ was playing,” she admitted.
“Way too long!” Zac told her. He opened the door to his right and climbed out.
Smiling, Corey climbed out the door to her left. “What movie are we going to see?” she asked.
Zac stopped short. “Yeah,” he said, turning toward his brothers. “What movie are we gonna see?”
Isaac laughed. “I guess we’ll decided when we get in there,” he said.
The four of them walked into the theater and looked at the list of movies that were playing. Corey looked around, taking in everything. The theater was nearly empty, considering it was during school hours on a Thursday. Adults composed the lines as well as were the workers. She smiled. It had been so long since she’d been out of the hospital. She had barely realized that an outside world even existed.
“That movie looks good,” Taylor said, pointing to one on the list. “The previews were excellent.”
“Yeah,” Isaac and Zac both agreed in unison.
“What do you think?” Taylor asked Corey.
She shrugged. “I don’t watch much TV, so, whatever you guys pick is okay,” she told him.
Taylor smiled. “Okay, then. I guess that’s the one we’re seeing.”
As they walked up to the register to pay for the tickets, everything finally hit Corey. She was out of the hospital, out at the movies, with Hanson.
Corey smiled.
