When I Die, I want To Come Back As A Leotard

 It was a Saturday when I got my life back.

I opened my eyes, squinting against the glaring white light of the room. It was so bright. I looked around, trying to find a face I knew or something familiar enough to tell me where I was. I saw the monitor that told what my blood pressure and all that. 

I was in a hospital.

Why?

The door opened and housekeeping came in, whistl(e)ing as they made their way to clean the bathroom. I tried to raise my hand to get their attention, but they didn't seem to notice, lost in their own world. They came into the room and pranced around, singing along to the song pouring into their ears by way of their earbuds. I knew making a sound would be pointless and I couldn't seem to move my extremities. 

They looked around the room when they were done and nodded in satisfaction; the room was properly cleaned. It smelled good, like fresh linens with a hint of bleach.

I love that smell.

I closed my eyes, trying to remember what happened. I just couldn't remember! It was blank! 

The door opened again and I turned my eyes toward the sound. It was a nurse now. She came over to me and saw that my eyes were opened.

"Why am I here?" I tried to say through my eyes, as I couldn't speak. Why couldn't I speak?

"Oh, you're awake! Good. We are working on getting you weaned off the oxygen. Once we do that, you should be able to go home," the nurse said, checking the readings on the machines, then rubbing my head. That felt nice. 

She pointed at the tubes in my nose.

"You've been mostly breathing on your own. You're doing so good!"

I opened my mouth and took a deep, purposeful breath. I needed my lungs full for all the questions my brain was trying to force my mouth to say.

"Why am I here? Where IS here? What day is it? WHAT HAPPENED?!" I said.

Wait, what?

That's not my voice. That's not even a voice! 

"There, there! I know just what you need!" the nurse said, turning to open the door. A man and woman I've never seen before came in.

The woman leaned over my bed and kissed me on the forehead, the man stood behind her, rubbing her back.

"There's my sweet baby!" she said. The nurse told them she would give us a few minutes and that the doctor would be in shortly to give an update.

I panicked, unsure what was happening. Who was the woman and why is she calling me her sweet baby?! Oh, my wife is going to be so mad!

Then, the strangest thing happened.

The woman scooped me up like it was nothing and cradled me in her arms.

What

The

Hell?!

Carrying me into the bathroom, I caught a glimpse of my reflection.

"Huh" I thought. "I'm a baby! Last thing I remember, I was a grown man, a firefighter. I went into a burning house and...."

Realization kicked in. "Ohhhhhh...I must have died," I thought.

The woman snuggled me again.

"My sweet, precious baby. We wished for you for so long and here you are!"

I'd always said that if reincarnation was real, I wanted to live life so good that I came back as a dog. But instead, I came back as a baby, fulfilling someone's dream.

I'll take that!

Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.

My words were "weaned ~ purposeful ~ pointed ~ cleaned ~ whistle" and they were submitted by On the Border. Thanks for the words! 

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