How to Visit a Friend in the Hospital By Silence's Siren

Always smile, no matter what. Remember this first, remember this often.
You'll want to dress appropriately for the visit, a hospital is a clean, respectable place. Sit in front of your closet for fifteen minutes, but not any longer. You don't want to treat this like a blind date. Pick out a nice skirt and top, the khaki one and the plain pastel green shirt. Nothing garish or absurd, everything around you will be sterile white, color alone will make your outfit stand out.
Time it so that you arrive at the hospital a little after noon, when the late service would have gotten out. Let her think that you went to church rather than sleeping in, but don't bring up the subject yourself. You don't want to have to lie to her. She'll think that you're praying for her, and this will let her know she is going to get better faster. Be sure that you don't wear your Curve perfume, even if you normally do when you go to church with her. She is sick after all and the smell will clash horribly with the antiseptic odor of the hospital. You don't want to overload her senses.
Start the conversation slowly. Tell her about the inane. Tell her how at lunch Phil put salt in Ryan's drink, and then he sprayed the table with it after taking a gulp.
Tell her that the band looked amazing on the field at the game on Friday. The crazy thing where everyone was walking in two different directions and all the trombones somehow managed not to hit anyone was incredible, you should say. She'll want to know who took her spot in the French horn section, but neatly change the subject. Don't tell her that the football team lost the game 38 to 6 either. Such things will surely upset her and only remind her what she is missing.
When you come, bring her a present. Food is a good idea. Sneak it past the friendly nurse in her animal patterned scrubs. She may look young and kind, but when she sees the ice cream smoothie from Shakes, her face will growl like the angry lion on her shirt pocket.
You'll think to bring her a book. Make sure that it has nothing to do with school. She had wanted to do her homework, but like a good friend you don't let her. Tell her it's because she needs to rest. Don't mention her right hand bound in its cast.
Bring the book in an overlarge purse you bought specifically for sneaking in her favorite smoothie. When you grab the paper novel, its cover wet from the drink lying against it, and look at her face, you'll remember another reason why you couldn't bring her homework, and you leave Harry Potter in the purse. Don't tell her that you brought it.
She is asleep when you walk into the room, and you want to just sit and watch her. This is all right, but you set the smoothie out on her side table. The nurse comes in with your friend's tray of food a little later. She sees it and takes it and scolds you for trying to give the patient something not specifically ordered by the doctor. It will be too sweet for her stomach to handle, and though you won't know for sure, you will wonder what it might have done to your friend had you succeeded in giving it to her. The images will leave you ill, but follow the nurse with your eyes as she leaves and think only of the way the elephant's trunk bends at her knee. Turn to look at the bed once the nurse is gone, and see that your friend is awake. Begin to talk to her about the Friday of school she missed, but don't tell her about the fender bender in the parking lot. Do whatever you can to avoid telling her about it. Don't mention cars at all.

When neither you nor your friend can think of anything else to say, she'll move the tray in front of her and pick at her food.
Don't mention how disgusting the food looks, she might have seen the nurse carrying the strawberry ice cream smoothie away, and you don't want to remind her of what she can't have. Don't stare while she eats either, it might make her lose her appetite.
The tray has only liquids on it: a thin broth, unsweetened tea, a pink plastic pitcher of water with its matching cup, and a syrupy yogurt. Don't mention that you made scrambled eggs and toast for lunch when you woke up at eleven today. She finishes half of the soup and ignores the yogurt completely. It is the bright pink of food coloring and dribbles from the spoon like thick water. You'll wonder what it tastes like, but don't ask her if you can eat it. It will taste like scratch-n-sniff strawberries and you'll make a face and want to spit it out.
The nurse comes in again and makes a few marks on her chart as she inspects the tray of food. She checks the IV where your friend is getting most of her nutrition, and you sit quietly. Leave the room for a while when the nurse begins to check all the monitors and where they hook up to your friend. It would be impolite to watch, and besides, you don't like needles. Tell yourself that's the reason you left.
When the nurse finishes, she takes the tray with her. You go back inside and sit down again, but are saved from having to find something to talk about when your friend's family comes inside. The mother will immediately come over and hug you. The father will stand by the door with a vase in his hands, and the younger sister will go to take her older sister's hand. The mother then goes to pull her daughter into a hug, bending over to reach where she lies in the bed. The father begins to talk in stunted English to his daughter, raising his voice as though she is deaf. He always speaks this way, you know this from the one time when you went with your friend to her father's house, but that was the only time you met the man, other than in the stories she tells. He is putting the small vase with its three red roses on her side table, asking in his loud voice if she likes the roses and the vase, if she is allergic to them. He turns and repeats the same questions to his youngest daughter.
Don't stay any longer in the room, her father has driven a long way to see her, and she needs time alone with her family. Pick up your large purse and walk out the door, but first stop and tell each family member that it was nice to see them again. Give the younger sister a hug, you know her well enough to do this. Place your hand on your friend's arm. Don't hug her. She will be sore and not want to be touched. Wish her well and leave.
You don't want to stay too long, a hospital visit is meant to be short. Everyone in the room wants to be gone from there quickly. You should be no different.
You'll want to look at her one last time before you leave.
You'll want to see what she looks like lying on the bed in the neatly pressed sheets with a blue blanket carefully tucked across her form so that there are no wrinkles. You'll see that she has white gauze covering her left eye and stretching across her head into the line of her hair. The hair in a wide circle around the bandage will have been shorn clear from her head so that you will only be able to see black stubble on her pale scalp. She will be giving her family a smile that pulls at her bandage and stretches the swollen areas of her face until they are tight and rounded. You will think that she looks nothing like herself lying in that bed.
You'll think of the glass in the seat and of the way the driver's side door was caved in. You'll remember how that crumpled Bronco looked sitting there in the wrecking yard, it's body broken. You'll remember the call you got after dinner the night before, the way your mind blanked and you couldn't feel any fear but an odd numbness. You'll remember your mother telling you that she would drive you to the hospital, but you cannot remember the ride. You'll remember that night, and nothing else will seem important but visiting her again the next day after the surgery. You will think of the way she looked when you walked into the room. You'll think of how long it took her to wake up, and the way she smiled at whatever you said, and how her bandaged and swollen head lay still and unmoving against the pillow when you first saw her.
You'll think she is going to die, but you won't tell her that.
You'll want to look at her one last time before you leave. Don't.