Written by Elfen Sciuridae
– Into the Night, a Miracle at Pouncefield General –
One or two child patients come to Fernando’s room at a time to see their newest neighbor, though unsure how long he would stay or if he would even wake up. All they knew was that he was in very bad shape through eavesdropping of word of mouth of what the doctors have said.
Of them all, Edith and Marisol stayed in the room as the others came and left. They do so to maybe remind themselves that there others worse than they are. At Lights Out (around 10PM), all go back to their rooms and pretend to go to sleep. After about an hour, they sneak out to what they were doing before, going into each other’s rooms and checking each other out. An occasional couple does yiff.
“You know Marisol, if one was about to die, why would they put on his glasses?”, Edith says as she holds against Fernando’s bed to stay standing up.
Marisol gets up to join her, “What do you mean?”
“I don’t think our friend here has had his glasses off since we entered.”, Edith says. She reaches down to take them off and examines them. “Wow, you can’t see out of them…”
Marisol finds a folded cane on the nightstand by the bed. She takes it and unfolds it, but the sections weren’t connected. “I think its because he maybe severely visually impaired.”
“You mean he’s blind?”, Edith says as she turns to Marisol, trying to figure out the cane. “You have to pull on the loop of string at the top if the handle.”, she then adds.
Marisol takes the loop of string on the handle and pulls on it. As she does, the sections come together until there was no more string to pulls. “How did you know how to do this?”
“When I first came in there was this mouse girl who lost her eyesight in a car accident, glass went into her eyes when she went through the windshield. She had to learn how to use a cane like that one but hers was white.”, Edith explains. “To fold it up, you pull apart the sections gently as to not break the string inside.”
“Oh.”, Marisol says. “So, as you were saying?”
“Why would our friend have his glasses on?”, Edith says as she puts them back on him.
“I don’t know. Maybe that girl put them on for him?”, Marisol asks.
“But why?”, Edith says.
“I don’t know. Maybe she’s his girlfriend or something.”, Marisol says. “The world is filled with too many mysteries as it is.”
Edith yawns.
“Its getting late.”, Marisol says.
“I know.”, Edith replies.
“Too bad our friend is not responsive.”, Edith says.
“Why, want to yiff him?”, Marisol asks.
“Why not? He’s kinda cute looking.”, Edith answers.
“Yeah, too bad. I would join you if he was awake and active.”, Marisol adds.
“How about we go yiff Ronnie in his room?”, Edith asks.
“OK, only if he’s not too high on his meds. You know how spacey he gets when they overdose him.”, Marisol says.
“Yeah. Last week he thought I was his sister while we were yiffing.”, Edith stated.
Marisol just giggles at Edith words.
“Well, good night sweet prince. May you find peace when you get to the other side.”, Edith tells Fernando before moving his mask out the way and giving him a kiss on the lips. She then puts the mask back on him and then sits down on her wheel chair. “Come on Marisol, to Ronnie’s Room!”
Marisol takes the to Edith in her wheel chair and pushes her out of the room, to go to Ronnie’s room for a bit of yiffing fun.
At about the same time, the door to Fernando’s room at home opens. A figure walks amongst the shadows, taking a seat in the middle of the room.
“You still crying?”, the voice asks.
“I stopped crying a long time ago, Jorge.”, Rachel says.
“Good.”, he says. “You know he would not want you to worry about him.”
“So?”, she replies, “I’m his sister.”
“And I’m his brother.”, Jorge tells her. “Been so a lot longer to admit that I care. But I do know that if he does not want you to worry. Now, what are you doing in his bed?”
“I sometimes sleep in his bed.”, Rachel answers. “His scent is in the blanket, the pillow and the sheets.”
“You’re having sex with him, aren’t you.”, Jorge tells her, almost demanding an answer.
“That’s between me and him.”, she tells him.
“Why is he so special to you? He’s just as bad as I am, when he’s not sick.”, he says.
“Because he saved me, more than once…”, Rachel answers.
“I know, from those rapes in the park.”, Jorge tells her.
“I know you were part of those gangs who attacked me, but you were not there when it happened.”, she returns.
“Why should I? Little Hoe like you, probably got some disease, and you’re giving it to him.”, he tells her.
“I’m clean! The doctors said so!”, Rachel says as tears begin to run down her face.
“Shame though. Wasting that pussy on him. He’s not going to live long enough at the rate he’s going.”, he says.
“What, you want some of my pussy?!!”, she shouts back. “Is that it?!!”
“I might be desperate, but I aint that desperate to fuck my own sister.”, Jorge says. He gets up out of his seat. “Besides, you couldn’t handle this…”, as he grabs his crotch.
He walks out the room, “Good night Rachel.”, before closing the door behind him.
Rachel holds Fernando’s pillow tighter against her as she forces herself to sleep.
In front of a home PC, a chipmunk sits in front of the glow of a monitor’s screen, typing on a keyboard.
“Welcome to the Lovejoy Internet Chat System:”
…
..
.
“LoveJoyMunk> Any word on Fernando?”
“HappyVixen> Nothing here.”
“WhiteBunneh> Same here, nothing.”
“WhiteySquirrel> Rachel did not call me.”
“LoeJoyMunk>…Why not call her?”
“BlackBushyTail> The lights to their house are all dark. I think they are all asleep.”
“WhiteySquirrel> How can you tell that, Juanita!”
“BlackBushyTail> I can see their house out my window and its all dark over there.”
“WhiteySquirrel> Hold on…”
[Several seconds pass]
“WhiteySquirrel>Yeah, it dark over there.”
“HappyVixen>They go to bed early? Its only 10:30.”
“WhiteySquirrel>Yeah, their grandmother is kinda strict.”
“BlackBushyTail>I’m getting tired…”
“WhiteySquirrel>Then go to bed.”
“BlackBushyTail>Alright, g’nite!”
“*BlackBushyTail has signed off.”
“WhiteySquirrel>Juanita!!! Damn you!”
“WhiteBunneh>What?”
“HappyVixen>Yeah, what?”
“WhiteySquirrel>I needed to ask her something.”
“WhiteBunneh>Why don’t you call her?”
“WhiteySquirrel>Her room light just went out.”
“HappyVixen>There’s always tomorrow morning.”
“WhiteBunneh>Well, its getting boring here! Bye!”
“*WhiteBunneh has signed off.”
“*HappyVixen has signed off.”
[Several seconds pass]
“WhiteySquirrel>What were you doing in the park alone with my boyfriend?”
“LoveJoyMunk>talking to me?”
“WhiteySquirrel>You’re the only one here.”
“WhiteySquirrel>So, what were you doing in the park alone with my boyfriend?”
“LoveJouMunk>We were trying to reconcile our differences.”
“WhiteySquirrel>Under a tree far from the path?”
“LoveJoyMunk>He was not feeling well, and asked to go to the shade.”
“WhiteySquirrel>And your mode of dress?”
“LoveJoyMunk>Eh?”
“WhiteySquirrel>Your short skirt and polo shirt.”
“LoveJoyMunk>Because I wanted to wear that! If you think it was for him, you got it all wrong!”
“WhiteySquirrel>Yeah, right. If anything happens to my boyfriend, it is going to be you and me- alone!”
“*WhiteySquirrel has signed off.”
“Argh! Why are these stupid girls so over protective of this boy?!!”, Lucy says to herself as she stares at her computer screen.
“*LoveJoyMunk has signed off.”
The she bows her head as she moved the mouse to ‘Shut Down’. “Then why do I feel so uncertain about myself ever since he came?”, she says to herself. “Damn It! I’m Lucy! Lucy The Strong! Lucy The Mean! Lucy The Alpha of St. Lovejoy School!”
Lucy gets up out of her chair as her room darkens with the power to her PC being turned off. She walks to her bed, and crawls under her blanket until she sets herself just right. She lays on the bed and stares at the ceiling in the dark. “He’s nobody. He’s not special to anyone. He’s not even good looking… Then why do I feel this way?”
10:30, 11:00, Midnight, the hours go by as much of Pouncefeild sleeps. The early morning hours seem to slide by as events are played out in the dreamscape. Both Edna and Rachel dream about being with their older brothers in the most intimate moments of sharing their bodies with them. Other girls dream similarly, with the ones they want to be with. The boys too have similar dreams.
In the middle of somewhere, in fog that is more that ankle deep and everything fades to white in just several feet, he stands there alone, wondering ‘What the fuck am I doing here?’
A young girl walks up to him, taking his hand and looks up at him with a smile.
“You have grown up a lot.”, she tells him.
“And you have not changed.”, he replies.
“You know I have been died for almost 4 years now. You don’t age up in heaven.”, she informs him.
“I’m sorry.”, he says to her.
“What for? It’s not your fault I get sick and died. I also know that children were not allowed to visit, but every card you sent, every teddy bear I got from you, I treasured to my last day.”, she tells him to make him feel better.
She reaches out and touches his nose, making him age regress to what he was 4 years before. Then she hugs him for a moment before stepping back while holding his hands.
“That’s more like it.”, she says.
“Why you did that for?”, he asks.
“It would be better if we were the same age. Right? This way we can hang out, talk and even yiff in here, and no one wont have to question what we do here as kids. But with you being older, some might question what we do even if I was fully aware in participating in it. It wont look right, big you on little me, though that might be fun too.”, she says with a smile.
He just signs.
“Everyday I look down at you and wish you was happier. I know you can’t replace me, no one can replace another, but you have a life to live. You got a little sister who loves you so much that she would give anything to you just to make you happy. You have girlfriends that care about you who wish they knew how to make you happy. You got a new town to live in, new friends to make, and your brother- you need to guide him to the proper path or else he will end up in a very bad place. You get what I am telling you?”, she explains to him.
“Yeah.”, as he nods.
“One more thing, you need to live your life, no one will do that for you. I cant guarantee what your outcome will be because you have to make some hard decisions to make, but if you make the right ones, you can grow old with many squirrel puppies as your children and grandchildren. So I need you to do me one favor…”, she says.
“Anything, what is it?”, he asks.
“You will deal with your headaches, that will forever be a problem for you in life. So you need to relax so they wont happen so often. And I do need you to wake up.”, she says before leaning over to him and kisses him on the nose.
6:47AM, the alarms in nurses station go off, signaling that life signs of the patient at the end of the hall, in Isolation Ward 3C60, has crashed. As the nurses gather a defriberator onto a crash cart, the doctor in charge reminds them that the patient has a DNR. Though they argue, they walk to the room to at least check the scene.
The other patients start to wake up from the commotion and look out their windows and doorways to look at the activity heading too Isolation Ward 3C60. Edith makes it to her wheelchair, and Marisol pushes her to the doorway. Edith takes note of the time on the wall clock.
“At least he made it through the night.”, Edith says to herself as she sees the nurses go into his room.
Inside Isolation Ward 3C60 was a site to behold. Fernando was sitting up into a ball with his face in his hands crying. More stranger was the wires to the life monitors were ripped out of their jacks from the unit with their plug still on with torn wired hanging from them, and the IV stand laying on the floor with one of the life monitors having a broken screen. Who knew where the mask he was wearing through the night was.
“I want to go home…’, is all he kept repeating. In his hand is part of the bed railing that for some unknown reason has been ripped off from its moorings.
As the nurses approach, the bed rail goes flying out of his hand, through the observation window and bounces off the opposite wall. They all run out of his room.
“That don’t seem like dead to me…”, Marisol says.
“Yeah…”, Edith replies with her expression in wide-eyed disbelief.
As the nurses hide out in their station, waiting for security to arrive, the patients slowly walkout into the hall and head to Fernando’s room. Marisol quickens her pace to take Edith to his room before the others. Edith outstretches her arms at the doorway, stopping Marisol and anyone else from going further. She then applies the brakes to her wheelchair.
“Block the door.”, Edith tells Marisol, while others try to look inside.
Edith summons all of her strength to get out of the wheelchair and takes steps towards Fernando’s bed.
“I want to go home…”, Fernando continue to repeat to himself.
“But you cant go home now.”, Edith says as she steps closer to his bed, “Maybe later when your parents come but not right now.”
“I don’t like it here…”, he changes his sentence.
“Nobody does.”, as Edith makes it to the bed. She reaches to grab the railing but finds it missing, then reaches down and takes a handful of blanket and mattress to hold on to. She then takes her other hand and places it on his head. “This is a scary place, especially when you are unaware on how you got here. But the people are here to take care of you.”
“I just want to go home.”, he says.
“Look at me…”, she tells him.
He does not want to, but she manages to encourage him to do so. A slight trickle of blood can be seen coming out his nose.
“Relax… we are all in here for the same reason more or less.”, Edith tells him as she reaches out and holds him. “Give it time, things will be alright.”
– End of “Into the Night, a Miracle at Pouncefeild General.” –