DUALITY /#Wattys 2021

Chapter 23

Before she knew it, Ridley found herself back at the hospital with Popish again, only this time as a patient. Popish's friend was a middle-aged Indian man named Dr. Sharma. He sketched out for her the surgery he planned to do. As he talked, a movie scrolled across a screen on the wall. Ridley stared, fascinated, as a tiny fiberoptic tube with a light and a little retractable blade on the end pierced the skin of an animated character that looked just like her. Deftly, it weaved its way up her neck, separating muscles and diving between them without a drop of blood, a flexible, thin rubber tube in tow.

"We don't want to disturb important structures in the throat," he said, speaking in an Asian lilt like Greebles back in Holstonia, pointing as the camera dodged a blood vessel and curved around a nerve fiber. "Larynx, tonsils, epiglottis, all that, we don't want to interfere with swallowing. Also, we don't want to get the opening of the tube too close to where you actually swallow, so you preserve the liquid and you don't ingest it. And we want to stay away from large blood vessels and minimize bleeding, and leave a wound that is small and easy to heal. So we do this."

He pointed to the mouth image on the animated Ridley, as cartoon Ridley opened it to demonstrate where the tube would emerge under the tongue. "We go on the underside of the neck, next to the jawbone, and we make a small hole to advance the tube to the inside of the mouth here. As you can see, we've tunneled the tube under the skin so it is not visible, down the neck, to below the collarbone, where it emerges from skin and can be hidden under the clothing. We attach a pouch for the liquid, which can be sealed. When you no longer have need of it, we withdraw the tube, and place some small absorbable sutures inside the mouth. When you drink the liquid, you use your tongue to direct it away from swallowing and into the tubing."

"How big will this tube be?" Ridley asked.

"About the diameter of a thin straw. It is the sort of tubing we use for Penrose drains, so it should not cause any reaction and minimal discomfort. And it's flexible in diameter, so it will be difficult to see under the skin. We will install a small magnetic hatch for it where it opens into the mouth, to prevent food and beverages from contaminating the tubing. Before you go to the ceremony, you open the hatch by means of a tiny key we will attach to the tongue."

On the screen, a close-up showed the animated Ridley's tongue, where a piercing ended in a little black pinhead.

"This is a small magnet," said Dr. Sarma. "To cap off the tube, we place a one-way valve, which is opened and closed by the magnet. When you are ready to direct liquid to go down the tube, you touch your tongue to the cap, the valve opens, and will drain what you liquid you take into the mouth to the pouch. When you are finished, you tap it again to close the valve, to avoid contaminating the liquid in the pouch with saliva or anything else you may eat or drink."

"Just so it's a pouch big enough to hold it all. I don't know how many ounces were in the goblet I saw in the video, but if the pouch doesn't hold all of it, I'm not drinking the rest."

"I'm informed that one of the subjects who drank from the goblet in question has one of similar size and shape that holds six ounces. We are going to attach a pouch that holds eight, a broad, flat pouch that will be less visible under the clothing."

"That's good," said Ridley. "Am I going to be sore? How long will I be out for the procedure? And what do I do if it gets infected while I'm still in the Guildhall?"

"I would expect some mild soreness from the procedure, which should only take us half an hour to do. I wouldn't expect infection, but the mouth is not a sterile place, so we can send with you some antibiotics and some pain medication to start if you think the surgical area is becoming swollen or painful."