Megan Salois

Long Lost Escape

It was late at night but all I could hear was the buzzing of the fluorescent lights in the hallway. I lie awake, unable to sleep and unwilling to dream; I long to be free soon but for now I continue to wait. I look up at the large barred-in window at the twilight sky outside, so peaceful and dark. In here I hear the footsteps of staff in the halls, moans or cries by other patients, the grumbling of the old pipes in this beige-paint and concrete ward. I shift in my bed, longing for my own bed while I try to find comfort in these scratchy industrial sheets on this vinyl mattress.