嗨， 护士……谢谢你（2）
I smiled, wished him a good afternoon and turned to go on my way. His booming voice stopped me again.
“No, wait a minute.” He started snapping his fingers. “Your name is... oh, let me think...”
I turned around to see him looking up at the ceiling, a half smile on his face. Then he looked back at me.
“Jackie, right？ You’ve got a long blonde ponytail, don’t you？”
I was dumb founded.
“Yes.” I said, peeking at my chest to make sure I’d taken off my name tag. (I had.) I reached back and touched the tightly braided2 bun on the back of my head. Then I studied his face, looking for something that might trigger my memory. His eyes were cool, blue and shiny. Curly salt-and-pepper hair framed his face.
“I’m sorry. I don’t work on the fourth floor, and I just don’t remember you.”
“That’s all right, Jackie. I’m just glad I got to see you again. You came into my room about three weeks ago. My heart stopped dead on me and you put those paddles3 on my chest. I remember you shouting out all these technical sounding words, telling everybody to clear the way. Then you took those paddles and you shocked me back to life.”
Suddenly it dawned on me: I had been in his room for a code I’d forgotten about. He was a different person then—unresponsive, with dilated pupils and a red and blue face.
“Who told you I helped you that day？” I asked, my curiosity pulling me into his room.
He laughed and looked back up at the ceiling.
“Nobody told me. I was up on that ceiling there watching you. That’s how I saw your long, blonde ponytail. And when you turned to look at the monitor4, I saw your beautiful face. I’m so glad I got to see you again.”
He looked down at me, his smile gone. I could see he was struggling with his emotions.
“I wanted to say thanks. Thanks so much...”
Every time I pass room 254 now, a warm feeling wells up inside me. I am grateful for the shortcut I took that day, and for the fact that I answered the call of “Hey, nurse！”