Chapter 8: Sensibility Over Sense

Coffee.

Nori could smell coffee.

A light stabbed the back of her eyelids and she opened them.

The scent of ammonia and Pinesol assaulted her nose, but the scent of coffee was undeniable. She swallowed and her tongue felt gritty and sticky in her mouth. There was an oxygen tube in her nostrils that pushed cold air into her raw lungs. She coughed and opened her eyes.

The hospital room was clean and devoid of personality. Sun streamed through the open window and a familiar figure sat in a beige sofa chair with a cup of coffee. There was a brown paper bag next to his chair.

“What the– Brad?” she croaked.

“H*ll was full, huh?” he muttered. Brad sipped from the Styrofoam cup and winced.

“Yeah, call ahead when you go there,” she said and tried to push herself up, “Where’s Mindy? Miyagi?”

“A lot of smoke inhalation, some burns. Concussion. Doc won't tell me anything. No visitors. Don’t know when she’ll be out,” said Brad and set his cup on the window sill.