The Amish Rebel

10

"Wait. Wait! Stop!" I barked groggily.

I yanked my arm backwards, feeling like my body was swimming through a dense pool of molasses. I slowly rose on the table with the needle still stuck into my flesh, hanging limply.

"What are you doing?!" The anesthesiologist cried, pulling my shoulders back onto the table. The surgeon ran over to his side, eyes wide with surprise.

"I don't want it!" I slurred, my eyelids feeling heavier than a ten pound weight.

"What?!" The surgeon called, helping to hold me down on the other side of the anesthesiologist.

"No...I don-...Don wan...Ih..." I mumbled, my lips unable to formulate my thoughts.

The tingling and burning sensation in my face increased significantly, along with the burning sensation in my brain. I relaxed limply, not able to fight the drugs any more. With my last ounce of energy, I threw my left arm over to my right and pulled the needle out, tossing it to the ground. The anesthesiologist gasped and jumped back, escaping the throw of the contaminated needle.

"Geh...Get....me...out...." I whispered. Against my will, my vision darkened as I heard the voices floating around me.

"I already administered most of it. Should we stop?" The anesthesiologist asked, sounding panicked.

"But she gave us written consent." The nurse countered.

My eyelids completely closed as the murmuring around me grew quieter by the second.

"I-" The doctor began, but I'll never know what he said, because everything went completely dark.

~

Gaibe sat in his chair, bouncing his leg up and down in anxiety. An hour had passed already. He was settled into his spot, flipping to page 61 of the National Geographic magazine he had found in the magazine rack. The lobby was completely empty at this point. Gaibe looked around impatiently. He noticed a Christian magazine sticking out of the bottom of the magazine rack, and mentally whispered a prayer for me.

Suddenly, the knob turned on the door across from him. This was surprising, because there was nobody else in the lobby to be ushered in.

The nurse opened the door, wheeling me in. I rolled my head around groggily before my eyes found Gaibe. A lazy smile spread across my face. The nurse's expression was quite contradictory to mine. She was stern, serious, and tired when she met Gaibe. He jumped up, brows pulled together in confusion.

I played with the pattern on the wall next to us as the nurse sighed.

"...She stopped the doctor right before the operation. She's still waking up from the dose of anesthesia she received. I hope you know, you will still need to pay for all of the costs." The nurse said.

"...Wait, what? What happened?" Gaibe asked, very confused.

"She told him to stop. That's all I know." The nurse said impatiently.

"So...did...Did he still do it?" Gaibe wondered.

The nurse shook her head.

"No. We need both written and verbal consent before performing the surgery." The nurse explained.

"Uh...Okay. Okay, I'm sorry. This is a lot to take in." Gaibe put his hands through his hair, feeling a sense of whiplash.

"She can reschedule next week if she decides she wants it." The nurse explained in mild frustration.

"Oh...Okay." Gaibe responded.

"Anyway, she's going to take a bit to wake up fully. You are free to leave whenever." The nurse said, turning and leaving.