Nitrogen Narcosis

Her weight was crushing her hipbone. She shifted slowly, aware that her body felt heavy and lethargic. She wasn’t ready to wake yet.

As her conciousness kicked in, she became aware that she didn’t know where she was or how she’d got there. Keeping her head still and eyes closed to control the dull thud in her head, she moved her arm gradually until her palm was in contact with the surface she was lying on.

Her touch recognised a cold tile floor and her mind went into overdrive, trying to pull the memories of the night before. Opening her eyes carefully, she allowed the light to diffuse the dark recesses left by her sleep.

Her right shoulder was jammed against the floor and the wall, and as the light reached her brain she saw that she was lying against a blue door. Her head resting comfortably on a pillow, she searched again for the memory of how she had come to be there.

Gingerly raising her delicate head, she looked around at the unfamiliar room for clues. Clothes were strewn haphazardly over the floor and the unmade bed. Diving equipment was abandoned in the corner and a bin sat curiously in the middle of the room.

Recognising the clothes as one of her diving buddies from the day before, she relaxed marginally before realising that she was alone. Alone, and lying in front of the door as if to prevent anyone entering.

She sat up, all of her muscles aching and groaning with the effort and she nearly fell over again as the dizziness hit her. This didn’t feel like any hangover she’d ever had before, it felt far worse.

She cast her mind back to the evening before and the joking around the bar. She was alarmed to find that her memories stopped after the second drink. What had happened?

She closed her eyes and sat for a moment, willing her head to stop spinning. When she did open her eyes again it dawned on her that everything was blurry. Where were her glasses? Aware of an ache in her right cheek, she slowly brought her fingertips to meet her skin. A sharp pain raced through her head as her fingers made contact with the ragged skin. Pulling her fingers away quickly to look at them she was relieved not to see any blood but curious, she moved them back to feel again.

The pain lessened as she felt along the jagged edge of the cut. It was small and blood was already dried into it. Running along the very edge of her cheekbone and eye socket, she wondered if it had been her glasses that did it.

Her feet were getting cold on the floor and she began to wonder then what had happened to her shoes. Looking down she noticed curious red marks on the bottom of her linen trousers, like hundreds of tiny droplets of some unknown liquid. Again her mind reached for the answers but still came up with none.

Her tongue felt like a blanket of wool now and the pounding in her head was getting progressively worse. She needed water desperately.

Getting up from the floor slowly, she turned towards the door, nervous about what she might find outside. The light streamed in as she opened the door. Too bright, she screwed up her face in pain.

There was no-one on the veranda outside as she moved out, and walking round to the door of her own room she realised with a sinking heart that she didn’t have her bag either. It wasn’t just her everyday bag that she didn’t have though. Yesterday she’d been changing her flight, so she’d had her security bag on her. The one that had all her travellers cheques, tickets, a few different currencies and worst of all, her passport. She wanted to cry.

Pulling herself together, she went downstairs to find the landlady to let her into her room. Finally back where she felt comfortable she guzzled the bottle of water that was in her fridge.Lying on her bed for a while, she tried to snooze to see if she felt any better.

After a while she got up and had a shower. Standing under the water eased some of the pain that was still coarsing through her body. She was nervous about seeing the others but curiosity was getting the better of her and she really needed to get her bag back. The sinking feeling in her stomach was only getting worse and the sooner she faced reality the better.