She swayed slightly and gagged.
Her eyes bulged in her reddened face. She was already turning blue around the mouth.
The curtain rod creaked and bent, but still held her a good three feet off the floor. She clawed at the white sheet noosed around her neck.
I ran at her. Four minutes. Four minutes until her brain cells died from asphyxiation.
The chair was overturned next to the radiator. I didn’t take the time to set the chair on its feet. I scaled the radiator, my sandals nearly slipping off the narrow, painted metal bars, but I managed to stay upright and hoist her weight against gravity, relieving the pressure.
We swayed. Her gown was wet with what smelled like urine and I didn’t want to think what else. Pain shot down the right side of my back, but I clung to her.
I was screaming the entire time.
The nurse burst into the room and stopped dead at the door, her mouth open.
"HELP ME!" I yelled, my throat already raw. Reena began jerking in my arms. I couldn’t tell if she was seizing or trying to get away, but I bit my tongue as I clung to her. My ankle twisted. My knees buckled.
But I managed to hang on. Just.
The nurse glanced back at the door. "I—have to—"
"Do you have SCISSORS?" I screamed. "Cut her DOWN!"
She dug into her uniform pocket, excruciatingly slow. I imagined Reena’s brain cells saying sayonara, popping off one by one, while the nurse righted the chair and stood on it, her legs trembling so hard, the chair rocked. Even with the chair, there was no way she could reach.
She bit her lip and jumped off the chair.
"No!" I yelled, but she was already punching the call bell next to the bed, while I tried to hold Reena’s weight up off her neck.
"GIVE ME THE SCISSORS!"
She dashed back, scissors aloft. I did my best to hack through the sheet, one-handed, but all I was getting was cramps in both arms while some of Reena’s weight rested on my legs.
The call system squawked. "Code Blue, code blue!" yelled the nurse. Too late, I remembered we could have dialed 55555 to trigger a code right away. I kept sawing away with the scissors, but I couldn’t hold Reena much longer. Even my neck was cramping up. Tears dripped down my face and the side of my neck. "Get—up—here."
"I can’t reach!"
I pulled Reena over to make room on the radiator. Reena wasn’t moving or groaning anymore. Good sign? Bad sign? I had no idea anymore. Hesitantly, the nurse levered herself up.
"PULL DOWN the CURTAIN ROD."
She stretched her hand up. "I can’t!" She was even shorter than me.
"She’s DYING! JUMP!"
She leaped up and grabbed the curtain rod. It sagged and finally broke under her and Reena’s weight. I couldn’t hold her anymore.
Reena tumbled to the floor and I fell on top of her, catching myself on my hands and knees. My neck and back seized up. I gritted my teeth against the pain and raised my head to look into Reena’s dilated pupils just as the emerg team burst through the door with the crash cart.