Satan in the static
This woman came in and she was screaming. She was handcuffed to te stretcher, both arms and legs and she screamed and the only time the screaming stopped was when she inhaled. Her body was ridged and jerked. in harsh spasms, she was concave then convex, and so on. At first I thought she might be rabid, I saw a homeless man once, when I was still a studenct and he looked a bit like this woman. Similar, actually she ws by fa worse shape than that.
S the first thing to do is just get them stable, and inject them with 25mils of clam. So I prepped the jab and nodded at Leroy to hold her , and he looked down and shook his head. He was gesturing insubordination he was in dication pity.
On three?
Leroy nodded and took a deep breathe.
Two. ONE. go!
Leroy leaned forward put his hands on the shoulders and his body wieght did the rest. Leroy was a large man. And the womans eyes dlicked back in their sockets, as if she was looking at Leroy through the back of her skull, the unpinned abdomin flexex in reflexa and Sue and i went in. Sue grabbed her forearm and leant her weight, and I lunged the syringe in and it was done.
A payload of calm was dispactced, the womans eyes where full of wrath, and her teeth snapped and nadhed but the moment the plunge reached the bottom of the syringe she collapsed. She just went limp. Just like that, as if there was an unseenpupeteer behind some curtain and they collpaded her rig.
There is no way the seditive could have done this, it was too soon. She had at least 10-20 seconds of lucidiy left. This was not carcotics, this was psycosomatic. She turned it off.
She looked into me and sobbed. she said nothing just sobbed and with her eyes i felt guilty. er eyes where pale blue, and she just cried. Some times sounds are viral. You. hear them and they infect you they hijack your limbinc system, your amigddalla, your pre-crontal cortex the whole fucking lot gets impregnated with the sounds.
A baby screams in discomfort as an aeroplane cabin pressueises. And everyone on the flight is uncomfortable, and gitated. I wish that stupid mother would control bher baby for god sakes. Babies should not be allowed to fly. Etcetra etcetra.
Well in the three of us looked at each other and where overwhellemed with saddness, and vetrayal. She when from some crazy bitch to Christ when the romans arrived a the last supper, and we; me and leroy and sue we where collectively judas. we couldn t make eye contact with each other.
She drew a deep relaxed breath and lamented more. When someone is violent it is clear what need to ve done. but when they are calm, when there is not ecternal symptom to relieve, then what do you do. We where not trained to releice clam. What the fuck.
I looked up and the clock ticing toward her chrmilcal paralysis. Ten, fifteen seconds if she is really lucky and somehow i was propelled to step forward and on the verge of tears my self my chin quivering i started to cry.
When I cried the others snapped too. And Leroy sniffed and turned his face away, he turned to the corned, and cried.
Whats wrong? i managed to say to her.
she sniffed, her eye where red and watery.
Satan is in the static, she said.
I nodded, trying to understand, and nodding as liar does, pertending pretending and not having a clue what she meant.
Satan? I asked.
Yes. Watch. Today is the day i die. I'll die because i'm telling you this.
She looked at me, then sue and then Jerome.
You, and you and you are fish in the water. Fish in the water, in the static, and you are murdering me, she said
No ones murdering anyone, okay You are not going to die.
She turned her face away from mine, and looked at her right hand, flexed her fingers. She was wearing a wedding band, and she rubbed it with her thumb, tenderly, lovingly, and cried into the pillow until Morphues arrived and lead her away in the charriot of synthetic slumber and when she went the last remains of corpal tension in her muscles relaxed.
When a patient becomes unconscious it is indistinguishable from death until the chest inlates and collapses, as the atopilot billows her lungs. But there is that second of doubt, in between where which you wonder if they have died. Today that single second felt like an hour.
And then she inhaled. She was safly in our care.
There was an odd pause before Sue and Jerome returned to normal, and the Sue circled around the bed and slipped the womand finger tip into a pusle checker. The red clamp was a hinged timble and pressed on the index finger and wirelessly connected to the hopsitals mainframe.
There was a blink of light from the thimbal letting us know that it was connected. I moved to the bottom of the bed and picked up the clipboard, which asked for my ID and a biometic check, and then the surface refreshed with the paitents medical history, from her delivery until this precise second in time.
Lilly, the patients name was lilly. She wasd middle aged, starting menopause, quite recently and a widow. Her husband had passed away two years earlier. They had no children and she was a magistrate justice of the peace, and defence lawyer. And from by the looks of it very well accompished.
No history of mental illness. No body in her family had any signs of mental illness. That was odd. Had she had a siezure, something traumatic must have preceeded this episode.
The last reported visit to the GP was recorded as a complaint of noise in the ear, tinititis, which is a ringing sound, contant ringing in th inner ear. But she insisted it was not ringing it, and it was not random noise.
I checked her vitals and the holy trinity; blood pressure, heart rate and glucose. This lady was in rally great shape for her age, and there was not a single indicator that she was at risk.
Jerome finished and joined Sue and I, and noticed her name
That is Lilly Kingston? He asked in suprise
yup. I said you know her? Nah, not me but this isn’t she the one that is anti advertising? Like did she lobby to shut down the AD&NN? She’s a big deal right? Oh my god, yeah I think you are right. no way. Who? I asked
Seriously! ask Sue. She’s a thing, said Jermome. I’d don’t watch the news, what can I say?
So doctor? I asked Ah right, so I think glucose and double check the blood works, maybe she got slipped something, so there is a hidden habit we need to looked and maybe that will explain the behaviour? I nodded, yes, very good, Jerome? Thin we need to keep her for the night, that episode was distubing and we don’t want that energy focused on self harm, so seditive and then see how she is in 12 hours? I nodded and smiled. Very good, I picked up the clipboard ordered the drip and set a regular nurse check and signed the order and pricked her thumb for a blood sample, as I pinched her finger tip to get a nice health bead for the tube test her hand twitched and pulled back, I looked dup and there she was grinning and staring straight at me, I jerked back. Jeusus Christ I barked, and turned and collided into Sue who was talking to Jerome behind me. What! Exclaimed Sue with a fright and shocked annoyance. Look I said and pointed at Lilly. Sue looked behind me What? She said with a frown. I looked back and Lilly was in the same place a before unconsious. Her thumb had blood smeared on it and it was also on the corner of my jacket cuff. Shit I said, I need to have a break, seriously. I re-did the blood sample and put the vile in my pocket along with the spoilt first attempt., and then all three of us left the ward.
we where seperated for the rest of that shift. I went to the canteen and got a an taurine simulant. The dispenser resufed, all consumable stimulants are recorded and bio regulated, and wI had already had my share, but I could not get over the womans stare, I could not believcve it, it must ve fatigue. ther is now other explanation ottherwise.
the dispenser recommended I report to the rest room and take a decelerant. Sleep might ve exactly what I need, so I took the recommendation. There was a vvuz followed b a hollow plop, as a. Disposable cup ejected into a folder and the his and slurp of liquid pouring.
The machine prepared a high fibre (milo ingrediants) drink, and milk substitute. It tasted lovely. It reminded mid of my childhood. My grandmother wold make me a cup of milk and how with a drop of. vanilla.
Youll be out like a light, she said
and I wouldn’t remember my head toucing th epillow. his was like that, and the machine had given me the tthree hour recharge cycle.
In the rest wuarters the the walls are soft corrigated foam, sound absorbing and the sound. Is dead. Like a sound booth in a recording studion and ar first it feels like you are cut off, it feels very detached, there is no evvidence that uo are connected to the world at all, and the densation is ver isolating.
I remember than did not like it as a younf student, vut at three in the morning the dead quiet is like an AC on a hot day. The other sstaff all afree, that is the way to rest. The light is low and warm, it feels like the sun as set and somewhere close by a camp fire is vurning. When you enter the restroom you are asleep before you lie in the hex. We call it the morgue, just an inside joke, dead tired, you know, and you slip out a pod lie down and it slides in and seals and you have lonliness in the highest quality loneliness. It is divine.
I slide my pod open and removed my shoes and left them in a locker and reflected on the Lillly. As I SIPPED THE DRINK. MINURES LATER I WAS ASEEP. AND IN A BLINK I WAS AWAK AGAIN AND GRATEFUL FOR THE REPRISE FROM REALITY. SLEEP THE GREAT LEVELER, THE GREA HEALER THE SMALL DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION.
I got up, dressed and left, heading down to the nurses station to chek in and register that I was on call for the nect part of m shift.
The corridor. Right angled and lead down and passed the ward where Lilly was adminted,a dnlike a voyuer I looked in as I past. Her bed was empty. And stripped clean. with a cross contamination sign clear visible, which is standard practice.
At the front desk I ask what happended to Lily Kingston, and the nurse of duty confessed that she was not sure, her shift had just begun, and looked up the ward in the manifest. She’s was moved to intensive care, she told me
Intensice care? I questions Yup, as recommended by Dr Steele, confirmed by the orderly Jamerson. Thats, that’s not right. I insisted, I am Dr. Steele, and the woman was perectly stable. What ward is she in now? I asked
Ym, let me see, one sec … King, King, that’s odd, IC does not seem to have her. No wait, I have her … oh. What? See is in the morgue. I am so sorry Dr. Steele The is impossible, give that here, that is … I circled around the counter and leaned of the nurses shoulder. She’s … look, said the surse. Brain seizure. That is ullshite, how signed that off, can o se who called it? Sure, just fo here, and, it , is Dr. Sanchez I opened my phone and punched in his call id. But he was off duty already and on leave for the following two tweeks, How can I get Dr. Sanchez’s phone number please? I asked the nurse.
I call his number but the device was unreachable. I had to know what happened.
Nurse please can yom page Dr Jermoe to meet me in the canteen. She did and I eased sown to the canteen. Jermoe arrived looking exhausted, I saw him nter as I was standing in line to pay, I signal for him to grab an empty table and asked what he wanted, coffee and mouthed, and he shook his head, and called loudly @decafinated@. At the pay point purchased two Flat whites, one regular or me and a decaf for my friend, and a pasty, the hatch printed a bar code which I scanned and when over to the table, to walk and wait.
Long night? I asked None stop, but in an hour it’s all over, he smiled.
A screen beep and announced my order, and I went off to get it and returned with the tray The pastie where warm and the coffees where distiguished with a blue and black lids.
Thanks Sean, he said Jermoe, remember Lilly Kingston from earlier today? Yeah, that got to he. I mean there was something in her words that really got in to my mind. She’s dead, I said
Jerome set the cup down and stared at me.
I know, I know. That’s why I PAed you. You and I signed her off and I know what we signed and it is definitely not what the log says.
And locked the board and hung it above her head, and we left.