Pricked

4

     A day later a new doctor comes, then three more right after him. Dr. Hyde is the first that morning and he has no assistant just his case and the tools within it. Hyde pulls out everything and lays them neatly on my bed. He is very organized. His coat is perfectly white and straight, not a single wrinkle and his hair is parted and slicked down making him look more like a mad scientist then a medical professional. He gives me a quick once over and starts jabbing me. He mustn't have found anything out because he is quiet. The only sound he makes is a small squeak of confusion then leaves.

"Nice to meet you too," I call out slightly confused as I follow him to the door. As I peer around the wooden door frame I see a line of doctors already forming. I also see the results of my bloodwork posted outside my door. Seeing the line of doctors and their close examination of the list, I am now confident that they will fix me. So, I skip back to my bed, a hopeful spring in my step. Dr. Russo, Dr. Stevens, and Dr. Matthews. Apparently my condition sparked an interest with doctors throughout the region.

Russo does a full exam of my face, he starts with my ears.

"Dirty." Is all he says and marks a note in his booklet.

"Yeah, well I've been lying here for a while with people jabbing me, and I didn't have time to worry about my appearance, let alone, clean the wax out of my ears." I say sarcastically and plop on the bed to watch him work. Probably mid-40s, I think as I see the grey flecks in his hair, the crow's feet at his eyes, and a few age spots probably from work in the sun, so being a doctor is probably not his only job. He moves on to my nose.

"Do I have any boogers in there too?" I ask, "Because I've been wanting to sneeze for the longest time" I exaggerate, scratching at my nose. "So I probably got something in there-ouch," I jump up and scream. It doesn't hurt, obviously because I am still unable to feel anything the doctors do, but he jabbed a wooden stick up my nose in a sudden movement, the force making me cringe with the possibility of pain. Then slowly removes the stick. "Ouch," I say again softly when a see a drop of blood on the wooden stick once it is removed.

"Curious," he says and looks up my nose once more. This time he had a gentler touch as he put a tissue in my nose and slowly moves his thumb into my nose. It looks strange and uncomfortable, but when he removes his finger the tissue is clean. "Huh," he says revealing no indication on what he is really thinking. He moves on to the mouth. "Say AHHH," he says and laughs, "I know, I know you can't talk," he says laughing at his own joke.

"Ha, ha," I say dryly and roll my eyes to the window. The dark clouds are growing nearer. It looked as though it would rain all day yesterday but the ground stayed dry, today the clouds are still threatening to fall at any moment. He goes to opens my mouth prying my jaw open. He looks over my mouth and I look with him. "You see something?" I ask once I have joined him abandoning my thought to feel the rain on my skin again. He puts a glove on and sticks a hand in my mouth. "Wow, you have no boundaries do you?" He moves his hand around my cheek, "you must really hate me! Did I steal something from you in the past and now it's your goal to torture me?" I swat at his hand but he doesn't remove it. "Well listen here, I'm already in this death like state I don't need more pain and suffering in my life!" His hand remains, "so if you don't mind..." I state.

"Nothing," he says and removes his hand from my mouth and disposes of the glove. He moves down to my heart, makes a few not so subtle facial expressions of irritation and opens his notebook, beginning to write.

Heart is regular, rate, and rhythm from what I can tell it is slightly slower than normal but that is to be suspected.

He places his hands on my stomach and gently pushes moving his hands as he goes.