Nia lay in bed for a while, trying to recover from the injection. Then she got up and went to the window. The landscape was mesmerizing. Tall, curved buildings, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow, neon signs, advertising billboards floating in the air. But something was wrong.
Nia looked more closely. Evening seemed to have frozen in time. There was no sunrise, no sunset. The same twilight light all the time. She remembered that when she woke up in the alley, she hadn't seen the sun either. Was it always night in this world? Or were they keeping her in a place where there was no change of day and night? What were they hiding?
Anxiety grew, but Nia had many other reasons to worry. Doctor Emmett came to visit her periodically, and they had long, heartfelt conversations. As a result of these conversations, Nia realized that the doctors had already carried out all possible procedures and were not going to harm her. They just wanted to observe her condition. But why me? What's so special about me?
Doctor Emmett told her that he was a newcomer to this hospital, and she was his first patient. This seemed strange to Nia. Starting a medical practice at fifty was a little unusual. But the main thing was that she had at least one person she could trust in this chaos. Although… can I trust him?
Doctor Emmett began to visit Nia more often, and she looked forward to the time when he would come. The doctor decided to find out exactly what Nia could do by offering her different games and activities. He hoped to awaken muscle memory in her.
First, he ordered them to give him a ball, and they tried to play the games he knew. She didn't remember a single one and didn't know how to play. Then he tried to get her to cut and peel vegetables, but it turned out that she didn't know how to do that either.
– Maybe you can draw? – Doctor Emmett asked, taking a canvas, paints, and brushes from the closet.
Nia tried, but she only managed to make some meaningless strokes. She threw the brush on the table.
– I can't do anything! – she said.
– What about sculpting? – Doctor Emmett suggested, bringing a piece of clay.
Nia tried to sculpt something, but only a shapeless mass came out. She squeezed the clay in her hand, feeling it spread between her fingers: I am no one. An empty space.
– Okay, let's try something more complicated, – Doctor Emmett said, taking an old, broken clock from the drawer. – Try to disassemble it and put it back together.
Nia fiddled with the small parts for a long time, but could not understand how they worked. She leaned back in the chair, feeling despair engulf her: I can't even fix a broken clock!
Doctor Emmett was upset.
– What can you do then? – he muttered, looking at Nia with disappointment.
– I don't know, – Nia replied, feeling completely useless. Her eyes filled with tears.
Doctor Emmett pondered for a moment, and then his face brightened.
– Wait a minute! I have another idea!
He ordered them to bring him all the musical instruments that could be found in the city: a guitar, a violin, a flute, a drum. Nia tried to play each of them, but nothing worked. The strings did not obey her fingers, only whistling sounds came out of the flute, and the drum responded with a dull, arrhythmic thud. She threw the drumsticks away, feeling tears streaming down her cheeks again:
