Gemotions

The fluorescent lights of the hospital hallway seemed to hum with a discordant energy, amplifying the hollow echo of his footsteps. Thomas clutched the errant medical file, the paper crinkling in his sweaty palm. A knot of unease twisted in his stomach, a physical manifestation of the knowledge that now, in a way, he was sharing the life of another person.

He’d always prided himself on his predictability, his rigid adherence to routine. Now, all of that felt fragile. The discovery of the switched records was a pebble dropped in a still pond, creating ripples that threatened to overwhelm him.

He pictured the other patient, a woman named Sarah with a history of… things he couldn’t bring himself to name. He was a practical man, a man of facts, but here, in the cold, antiseptic environment of the hospital, he felt a strange, unsettling kinship with a woman he had never met.