I saw Robert waiting outside the room, playing with his yoyo, ‘Typical, never one to see a patient.’ I remember thinking as I approached him, “You could always go in and see her yourself?”
He showed little sign of actually hearing me, apart from a yoyo that hung in midair, “But I know how much you like kids.” He turned and grinned at me. I then noticed my hand had started to rub my stomach absently, “Lets get this over with quick; we don’t want to keep you away from that fiancé for yours.”
I was glaring so hard at him by then that it was a wonder he didn’t spontaneously combust. I decided to bring the conversation back to medicine, “Did you perhaps notice anything unusual happen to any of the patients?”
“Well if you count the glowing,” The yoyo had started to spin again, “or the increased regeneration of their skin, or both, then yes you could say I noticed something unusual.”
“Got you stumped, hasn’t it?” I know I shouldn’t have said that, but that man always needed a push to get motivated. The yoyo quickly returned to his pocket and my heart danced with that insignificant victory, “I’ve suspended surgery for the moment. We should get every possible test done and get someone down here to check for radiation.”
He soon left with Mike in tow, who gave a small wave as he went. I stayed outside the room for a few moments, deciding what to say and how much.
As I entered the relatively small room I spied the girl. She was the picture of innocence, my heart, fresh from dancing, melted slightly as I watched her play with a heart monitor.
I looked over her appearance more toughly, her black hair off set perfectly with her now pale green skin. I’m still not certain now how it happened. Skin just doesn’t turn green in such a short period of time. I worry about what that might have done to her psychological well being in the long run.
That moment’s reflection will forever be marred with my purpose there that day, “Hi.” I jumped slightly when she spoke to me.
I geared myself up and sat beside her on the bad, “Hello, what’s your name?” I already decided on the direct approach in order to get more information as quickly as possible as I could.
“You’d think it’s silly. I’ve got a stupid name” She said as any child would when you ask them a question.
“Don’t say that. I’d bet it’s a nice name.” Nothing, “It can’t be any worse than mine. How about, I’ll tell you mine and you tell me yours. If you want, deal?” She started thinking about it, then gave a small nod of agreement, “Willow Bethany Doable. Bad isn’t it?”
That got a giggle out of her, and I smiled at the sight, “Kathleen,” She finally said, “Kathleen Tiffany Goshine.” Sitting up properly she proclaimed her name.
I chuckled in spite of myself, “I still think mine’s worse.”
Kathleen agreed with me and started looking at me with a mixture of wonder and curiosity, “You’ve got pretty hair.” She finally stated as she reached up to touch my red hair.
We just sat while Kathleen stroked my hair. I knew what I had to do, what to ask. It inevitably came caroming towards me, “Sweetie, do you know why you’re here?” I asked quickly and she nodded equally fast, “Do you want to tell me what happened?”
Her eyes looked into mine sadly. The hair rubbing then stopped, “Will it help?” I nodded at her, “Then I’ve got to.” I smiled bravely at her.
“It was late, later than we should’ve been up. Mel was by the window of our room looking at the night sky. He spotted something and pulled me up to look. I couldn’t see it at first, but Mel pointed me straight at it. A big star, biggest I’d seen. Then I thought ‘bout how we don’t normally see stars and when I looked again I saw the star was bigger. It kept getting bigger as we looked at it.”
“Mommy came in then, told us to go to bed. She was up late as well, waiting for daddy to get back. Mel pulled at her to go look. When she did she looked confused. Then she let out bad words she told us not to use.”
“Mommy took my hand as well as my brothers and led us out of our room and into the hall. She told us to put our shoes on as she walked into our brothers’ room. Mel looked at me and scratched his head. I didn’t know what to tell him, so we put our shoes on. Mommy came back with our brothers’, Hershel, Weddle and Wendell.”
“Mommy put her boots on while my other brothers’ put their shoes on. She told us we had to go. Bad things were going to happen. That’s all she would say. Mommy told us to run and we did.”
“We were running out side our home, Hershel was in front with Mel just behind, each of them held onto one of the twins. I saw a flash of colour and heard a crash boom sound. It came from the tree house, or where it should have been. When I looked back it wasn’t there, I didn’t see where as I was going and I tripped. Mommy picked me up and ran with me in her arms. Another loud bang happened and….”
She suddenly stopped and started to violently shake. Her body spasmed and a green glow enveloped her. I reached out my hand but recoiled instantly. I looked at it as it stung as if from intense heat. I could feel that same heat from where I was stood.
The sheets started catching fire around her. I jumped at the sight of it and did the only thing I could do. I called for a nurse and grabbed one of the curtains, pulled it off and used it to try and dampen the flames. When I looked back at Kathleen she’d stopped shaking and glowing, but small fires where still around her as she laid on the bed with her eyes closed.
I prayed she wasn’t as I moved to put out the rest of the fires with the remains of the curtain. Checking her pulse and breathing I soon gave a heavy sigh of relief, and thanked that she was still with us.
I sat in the cafeteria with a semi steaming cup of coffee in my hands, when I took a sip I winced slightly at the taste. Three things hospitals never, ever, get right: food, drink, and coffee. You’d think they were spending their money elsewhere, medical prepuces perhaps.
All reflection aside, the reason I was sitting in a relatively empty cafeteria, with one of the worst cups of coffee I’ve had since last Thursday, was because I needed thinking time. And boy did I have a lot to think about.
First: all of the family apparently had similar ‘symptoms’ as Kathleen. The twins went to quads and back again in a matter of minutes. One of the brothers disappeared and then reappeared again, but his gown was ripped and his arms were sticking through the holes in it. The other brother had pieces of his bed twisted, bend and broken. Their mother vanished as well, only she didn’t come back to us as such. Her gown was on the bed but that was it. We were about to call a full hospital search when nurse spotted her under a bed, on the floor below her room. The weirdest thing was that that wasn’t the weirdest part of the day.
Secondly: The family ‘glows’, almost all of them, seemed to share the same colour as their current skin tones. The radiation boys drew a big negative on them, higher than the average person, if the average person worked in a nuclear plant, but nothing lethal.
Dr McCorkle cut those internal musings off when he came barging in waving the test results. Ok so barging wasn’t the right word but it’ll do. He opened the folder and pointed to a particular section of the mothers CAT scan. I would have made a sarcastic remark about his greeting skills, but I nearly choked on my coffee when I saw what he was pointing to.
“Are you sure about these?” I asked in shock and wiped a bit of coffee off my chin.
“Positive. I know the pervious tests didn’t show anything, but we can’t just ignore this.” With emphasis he showed the old CAT scan we took before the second ‘glow’ incident.
“Just great, a blood clot in her brain. You’ve scheduled the surgery?”
“They’re getting ready to perform now, and that blood clot is taking centre stage.” His attempt to lighten the mood didn’t help, then again neither did mine.
“Let’s make sure it doesn’t get to the second act.” I know how bad that was and I don’t like to be reminded of my sense of humour.
We left the joking in the room and went to see how the surgery was doing. It wasn’t going to be that hard, it was only brain surgery, nothing serious or complicated there.
To Be Continued
By W. C. Reaf