Michelle had just been told that she would be performing the surgery. She had been awake for a while now and was venturing over to the vending machine in search for a much needed source of caffeine. As she walked the hallway, she saw Dr.Francis using her incredibly calm bedside manner on an exhausted looking man and woman. They stood gripping each other’s hands so hard Michelle noticed a slight discoloration to their fingers.
As she got closer, Michelle turned her head and quickened her pace, not wanting the introduction that she expected might happen. Dr.Francis may have been excellent with patients and their families, but she had a really nasty habit of putting surgeons in an uncomfortable position: reassuring people that their loved one was in good hands and that they would do everything they could to make sure the procedure went smoothly. Michelle hated to put real lives behind her work, it made it that much harder to accept failure.
But Dr. Francis didn’t call her over. She was still deep in conversation with the couple. Michelle overheard only one sentence in its entirety as she snuck past.
“We are going to everything we can to help you son.”
She chose her drink, consumed it, scrubbed up and joined her team in the theatre.
A man carrying a box entered just as they were about to start.
Welcome to The Echo Room, the home of budding weird fiction
Monday 25 April 2011
Sunday 24 April 2011
PAUL AND MICHELLE PART 1
Paul didn’t like this aspect of his job. He knew he served a purpose in life, something he had always felt he needed to feel, but he could in way say he ever grew callous to the effects of seeing a child struggling for life and knowing damn well it was going to lose the fight.
He was an auto pilot, carrying out tasks he did so routinely that they had become second nature. His mind on the other hand was filled with frantic dissonance, choruses of words alerting him to the horrendous nature of the situation he chose to put himself in day in day out. He often battled these demons that tried to highlight only the negative in his life, but he never let them prevent him from doing his job. He didn’t care if they were telling him that underneath the façade he knew the kid was going to die, he was going to try and save it anyway if it was the last thing he did.
The body lying on the gurney had come from the orphanage, it was a body no one wanted. The demons were getting louder again.
“What’s his name?” Paul called out to his partner.
She dropped her eyes to the information that had been provided by the woman who had been on site when they arrived. She opened her mouth to tell him as the vehicle hit a pot hole and jolted violently, dislodging the mask that was providing the kid with oxygen. His partner rushed to attend to it.
In the hospital, less than a mile away, Michelle had already been informed of the possibility that she would be performing surgery within the next hour. She didn’t fret, she was confident in what she did. She paced out of anticipation, an odd excitement she always felt before it was time to pull on the gloves.
Paul and his partner hurried the gurney through the open doors of the emergency department where staff were ready to take over. They watched as a group of doctors and nurses burst through into the next hallway, the doors swung back and closed, the kid now out of sight and never to be seen again by either of them.
“It aint right.” He mumbled.
“What’s that?” his partner asked.
He could feel his eyes glazing over but knew they wouldn’t let a tear slip, he had had to learn to control this reaction over time, knowing that no one would want to be partnered with someone who couldn’t handle the harsh reality of the job.
His partner didn’t question the past tense he used, they both knew the little body wasn’t coming back out.
“That kid aint even a person yet” he said.
He was an auto pilot, carrying out tasks he did so routinely that they had become second nature. His mind on the other hand was filled with frantic dissonance, choruses of words alerting him to the horrendous nature of the situation he chose to put himself in day in day out. He often battled these demons that tried to highlight only the negative in his life, but he never let them prevent him from doing his job. He didn’t care if they were telling him that underneath the façade he knew the kid was going to die, he was going to try and save it anyway if it was the last thing he did.
The body lying on the gurney had come from the orphanage, it was a body no one wanted. The demons were getting louder again.
“What’s his name?” Paul called out to his partner.
She dropped her eyes to the information that had been provided by the woman who had been on site when they arrived. She opened her mouth to tell him as the vehicle hit a pot hole and jolted violently, dislodging the mask that was providing the kid with oxygen. His partner rushed to attend to it.
In the hospital, less than a mile away, Michelle had already been informed of the possibility that she would be performing surgery within the next hour. She didn’t fret, she was confident in what she did. She paced out of anticipation, an odd excitement she always felt before it was time to pull on the gloves.
Paul and his partner hurried the gurney through the open doors of the emergency department where staff were ready to take over. They watched as a group of doctors and nurses burst through into the next hallway, the doors swung back and closed, the kid now out of sight and never to be seen again by either of them.
“It aint right.” He mumbled.
“What’s that?” his partner asked.
He could feel his eyes glazing over but knew they wouldn’t let a tear slip, he had had to learn to control this reaction over time, knowing that no one would want to be partnered with someone who couldn’t handle the harsh reality of the job.
His partner didn’t question the past tense he used, they both knew the little body wasn’t coming back out.
“That kid aint even a person yet” he said.
Friday 8 April 2011
LUCAS BROWN AND THE OTHER MAN PART 4
“I remember some of that” said the other man “not what happened, but I remember that place with all the other children”
“What else do you remember? You say you don’t know your own name, what about your own life?” Lucas asked of him
The other man was silent but not because his brain was scrambling or putting together pieces of a puzzle long ago scattered. No, all was blank aside from the recollection of that place, the place with all the other children.
“You were the child that fell out of the window, weren’t you?”
The other man silently agreed.
Then they were different men altogether.
That’s not it, they were seeing through other men’s eyes
“What else do you remember? You say you don’t know your own name, what about your own life?” Lucas asked of him
The other man was silent but not because his brain was scrambling or putting together pieces of a puzzle long ago scattered. No, all was blank aside from the recollection of that place, the place with all the other children.
“You were the child that fell out of the window, weren’t you?”
The other man silently agreed.
Then they were different men altogether.
That’s not it, they were seeing through other men’s eyes
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