The Movement

Chapter Two - Part 1

Chapter Two

Troy awoke, his vision blurry from the long daze. Refocusing, he looked around—sky blue curtains surrounded him at every angle, sun shining through, illuminating the floating dust particles in the room as if the ceiling were precipitating warm follicles. He noticed the cluster of tubes on his arm—no, in his arm. He felt nauseous, his stomach turning and twisting at the realization of his painful situation. The curtains flew open with a rusty, high-pitched screech. An old lady with a white knitted cap appeared, followed by Troy’s wife, swimming past the elderly nurse to beat her to the edge of Troy’s cot.

“Troy!” yelped his wife, relieved at the sight of life in her husband.

 “Ugh,” mumbled Troy in response.

“It’s ok baby. Whoever did this to you will be caught and everything will be alright. The nurse said you’ll be fine. You’ve lost a lot of blood, but the cold temperature helped clot the wounds quickly. I was so scared, baby, I was so scared!” she said frantically.

Troy, coughing and choking, exerted enough energy to force his words out into a somewhat understandable phrase.

“I’m…sowr…ree.....Jess,” mumbled Troy.

“It’s ok, baby, it’s ok…everything is gonna be alright, I promise,” she comforted.

“Ma’am, your husband is going to need this here pill if you want to keep your promise to him,” blurted the elderly nurse through her smoker’s voice.

Her saggy arms jiggled at her every movement as she strutted towards Troy’s cot.

Stunned at the nurse’s rudeness, Jessica Duckworth glared at the large, crooked-nosed old lady and took a step away from the cot, allowing the nurse to slide in front of her.

“Now, Troy, you need to take this here pill if you want to start to feel better, OK?” demanded the nurse with an odd sincerity.

Troy nodded, eyes half-open and half-closed, acknowledging the nurse’s advice.

“Would you rather swallow it with water, or chew it with a cracker?” she politely asked, holding up the glass in one hand and the cracker in the other.

Troy forced out a whispering “wahh-a,” lifting his chin and cracking his mouth wide enough for the nurse to place the small yellow-grained pill on his tongue. The nurse slowly poured the water into Troy’s thin, horizontal mouth formation. He made a loud gulp, Adam’s apple bouncing up in his throat, and swallowed the pill.

“There, that should make you feel much better now,” declared the nurse with satisfaction while turning to leave the curtained room.

Jessica quickly filled her spot as she waddled out.

“There now…there now…that will help you get better, babe,” said Jessica.

Her straight, long hair fell onto Troy’s face. He made no attempt to dodge the thick golden locks.

Troy felt his blood heating up inside his neck. The hot sensation traveled down into his shoulders and arms simultaneously, continuing down his spine and through his legs and feet. At this, he belched out a sound of desperation, arching his back up off the cot, sternum reaching for the roof. He suddenly felt dizzy, the ubiquitous blue curtains swirling around him with Jessica’s worried face moving away, then close; away, then close. His ears clogged shut, blocking out all sounds as he watched Jessica’s mouth open and close but no noise being heard. The spinning, chaotic world stopped. Pure blackness took over Troy’s vision, with a dim red speck of blurry light emerging from the black depths. Troy began to hear muffled words, shouting from a distant place. The sounds grew louder, but only the sounds—the words were incomprehensible. Troy felt comfortable, more comfortable than he’d felt in a long time. He enjoyed the feeling; it made him smile and crack open his fidgeting eyes, twitching back and forth from every direction. The sounds were getting louder and beginning to make sense, but Troy’s hazy world continued to please him. He blocked out the sounds, only for a second more.

Suddenly, Troy understood the loud sounds as his wife’s voice.

“Troy! Troy! Troy!” she screamed louder with each repeating call.

Finally understanding, he looked at her and formed his closed mouth into a pleasant smile, oblivious to the current situation.

“What’s the matter?” he asked innocently.

Jessica dove her head into his neck and her arms around him with delightful relief, his eyes shutting once again without her noticing.

The nurse popped her head back through the small gap in the blue curtains. 


“Oh yeah, nothing to worry about, ma’am. Thassa perfectly normal reaction. He’ll be fine…just be snoozing until the morning next,” she added as she rolled her eyes and shook her head.

Troy’s dreams shifted from the spinning, blue curtains and pure red-speckled blackness to the lost memories of his childhood, which he had forced himself to unlearn years earlier.