Folie a Deux (TinCan) - Completed

Chapter 5.4

Can's left eardrum had damage. That was the point of the doctor's explanation with a French accent, which Can had difficulty understanding, to Can's mother. That was why Can often heard a constant ringing and a painful headache in the back of the head. That was why Can had to do some sort of surgery a few hours from now if he didn't want to experience left hearing loss.

Can had been up all day, but he spent much of his time getting back to sleep.

He tried not to listen to any conversation.

The only conversation he tried to listen to carefully was the talk of the operation.

The rest of Can's parents and Sammy who took turns waiting for him spoke in whispering volumes. Can appreciated that because it was after his last attempt to hear the conversation that ended with himself groaning in pain.

So if he wasn't sleeping, Can began to learn to pay attention to the lips of his parents and Sammy or the nurses. He got better in the last few hours.

He caught information such as about five hours ago the toilet paper in Can's room ran out.

About Sammy being chatted with by a young Frenchman when she fetched Can's medicine and being asked out on a date in English that Sammy half didn't understand. Sammy turned it down, apparently.

About Tin's victory speech, which Can just found out won the best actor category.

About Tin and the crew film of Folie a Deux won many awards.

About Yates who had come while Can was sleeping and had to hurry away.

About the lousy breakfast menu in the cafeteria but they had pretty good canned coffee.

About Sammy eavesdropped on the gossip of the nurses on the floor where Can was being treated, a doctor was caught kissing his patient, who was already married.

And about Tin had to return to England to finish his album.

Then the rest, Can's father asked Sammy to talk outside with him. So Can couldn't read their lips.

Can vaguely remembered Tin beside him and calling out his name softly when he woke up with a painful ringing in his room.

After that, he remembered a group of nurses coming in and a doctor, checking this and that and the usual commotion was making Can's head hurt terribly from the ringing of the noise of their activities.

When he woke up from the sedative and after finishing his CT scan, he hoped to find Tin's face again. But this time Tin didn't come back. He just walked away. Sammy reasoned they were in a hurry. Busy schedule.

Can wondered if it was time he was denied like before?

They had delayed for a while. Tin had done a good job. Can only hoped if Tin thought it was time to end the play, he would get a goodbye greeting. But this seemed the same as before, Can just never learned not to hope.

Mary Grant returned to Can's room, accompanied by the doctor who will operate on Can. It looked like it was time to go to the operation room. Can read from his mother's lips saying, "It's alright." Can smiled and tried to believe it.

Then Can felt the prick of the needle. And his eyes were getting too heavy to read the movements and other lines on her mother's lips.

When his eyes closed, he saw Tin's reflection and his smile. Also a kiss from his thin lips.

At the last moment before his consciousness was lost. Can felt a tightness in his chest. The same tightness when he realized that Sky left him.

And Tin did the same.