{"id":236,"date":"2019-12-14T16:49:43","date_gmt":"2019-12-14T16:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=236"},"modified":"2019-12-14T16:49:46","modified_gmt":"2019-12-14T16:49:46","slug":"christmas-in-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/christmas-in-hospital\/236\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas in Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So here I\nam, 24th<\/sup> of December, aged thirteen, lying in my bed and I don\u2019t\nwant to weep but there\u2019s a real good chance I won\u2019t see Christmas Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s no fun\nhaving a brain aneurysm, because hey it will be the death of me. I know this\nbecause Death himself sits by my bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No honestly,\nit was yesterday when I found the bald boy, that lad who glared moodily at\neveryone lying still on his bed. He wasn\u2019t blinking or breathing. And as I\nstood there gaping at a dead body, I heard a strong steely voice behind me,\ncalling out with a cackle \u201cOh don\u2019t worry, he wasn\u2019t going to amount to much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

And Death\nlaid a hand upon my shoulder and said, \u201cSince I\u2019m here, I might as well wait\nfor you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, my new\nand probably last friend is the reaper. Should I describe him? That\u2019s hard, he\nalways keeps changing, well not changing exactly, rather he\u2019s like one of those\noptical illusions. You know your brain cannot decide on what it sees. That\u2019s\nwhat Death looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Death is\nwearing a paper crown, listening to the radio and tapping his feet to the beat\nof a Christmas jingle whilst I lay on my bed, and whenever I ask him when I\u2019ll\ndie, he presses his long fingers against his chin and says \u201cNow, now that\u2019ll\nspoil the surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m thinking\nof my beloved cat Butterscotch, the fat grey tabby Dad\u2019ll probably give away\nbecause he never liked her, I\u2019m thinking of a plump roast roast turkey with my\nparents and siblings gathering around without me\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know\nthis\u2019ll be my last Christmas, and I\u2019ll never see Sarah or Jessica, my best\nfriends sing in the school play. I\u2019ll never have my first kiss, never go to\ncollege or be a doctor and I\u2019ll never see my big sister\u2019s baby, she\u2019s four\nmonths pregnant but I won\u2019t be around long enough to be an aunt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gloating\nreaper has a paper plate on his lap, he chews on mini-sausages and sips a\nlittle sherry. He hums Jingle Bells and laughs when I tell him about my\ntroubles. \u201cMy dear,\u201d his base voice vibrates \u201cI\u2019ve taken children starving to\ndeath, I\u2019ve taken babies in their cradles, why should I spare you out of\neveryone?\u201d
\n
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I drop it,\nDeath doesn\u2019t like me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a\nwhile I just snap and beg him to get it over with, I\u2019m screaming, my throat\naches as I howl but he only grins at my outburst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t want\nto die, but if I can\u2019t live, I don\u2019t want to sit around waiting. Just take me\nalready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Death\ndoesn\u2019t move, now he wears the expression of a leering kitten, playing with its\u2019\nprey before gobbling it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merry\nblooming Xmas everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So here I am, 24th of December, aged thirteen, lying in my bed and I don\u2019t want to weep but there\u2019s a real good chance I won\u2019t see Christmas Day. It\u2019s no fun having a brain aneurysm, because hey it will be the death of me. I know this because Death himself sits by my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,101],"tags":[8,119,12],"class_list":["post-236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2","category-december-2019","tag-he","tag-ll","tag-my"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-3O","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions\/237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}