There is a darkness, which seems to last for days, but I'm starting to wake up now. I'm lying on the floor. People are asking me if I can stand up. I can hear them, but not see them. I feel like maybe I can just stand right up, but maybe not, like I'm not sure if I want to, or I lack the will, and maybe my condition is worse than I think. Anyway I should stand up slowly and carefully. They help me to my feet.

My brain is thick and eyes heavy but I'm starting to see around me a little bit. They help me walk, and just move my body around. I'm in a room with a high table in the middle and a large window or screen door out into a courtyard. Around me are people under similar care, with something like nurses taking care of them, walking them around.

I vaguely recollect that I was in another place just before this. I was already having problems but I was in some outpatient place where I was under care, but able to go out, and go to work. But then I had a collapse, I remember the darkness, and laying on the floor, just not having the will to move. I lay there for three somethings, some mark of time.

I have a little bag of my personal items, and I pour it out and look through it. The usual things from pockets - coins, USB drive, the like. Somebody asks me what I'm looking for. "My phone," I answer.

"They took it," the nurse answers, apparently implying the authorities of this place, they always take the phones. I feel like I need to call somebody and let them know where I am, because I am probably missing.

I address 'my' nurse, asking her clumsily "how long have I been here?", but then I think this is rude language and I can do better. I touch her shoulder and say "should I call you 'miss'?"

She turns to me, laughing. "Nobody calls me miss," she says. This is implied to be because she is not attractive. She is a large woman and her face is pimply.

"Well, I'll call you miss," I say. "Miss, can you tell me how long I have been here?"