Second Chances (Short Story)

Chapter 1: Blue skies don't last forever

Daybreak was just the time before the sun rose. Around this time the nurses working the early shift would take over from those working at night.

Trudith, the nurse working her shift greeted everyone as she came in. Taking off her coat, and shaking it, causing the droplets to scatter like pearls onto the ground. She greets her co-worker Anny before walking over to the stationary desk, all of the supplies are placed on the cart.

She sighs and starts walking, checking up on each patient assigned to her ward. One by one, with nothing out of the ordinary.

Whilst passing by Henry's room a sudden sound of flatline sounds out. With a hurry, she opened the door, and on the bed, the peaceful visage of Henry lay. She rushes to his bedside while pressing the emergency button located around her neck.

While reaching towards Henry's neck, she feels nothing, no pulse. From outside the room, a man in white enters, his salt and pepper hair in disarray from having worked a long shift the night before. With steady steps, he walks over to Trudith whilst placing his hand on her shoulder to temporarily relieve her. Behind the man two special nurses, one blond and the other with red hair take over, speaking in doctor jargon.

From beneath the bed, the nurse with red hair takes out a defibrillator. Using a pair of scissors, the nurse with blond hair cuts open a ridge through the middle of the thin hemp clothing, whilst the red-haired nurse squishes the defibrillator together creating sparks of electric static.

The salt and pepper doctor looks towards the two nurses and gives them a countdown. "Clear" he shouts and with a thump, the body of Henry rises slightly. Noticing nothing the salt and pepper doctor counts down again whilst shouting "Clear". Thump goes the chest of Henry, as it rises slightly into the air again. Nothing again, the doctor turns around and grabs a needle, stabbing it into an unknown liquid, he flicks the top of the needle with his finger.

At the same time, an uncertain gaze washes over his eyes, but he shrugs it off, of himself. Now determined he raises the needle and stabs it into Henry's unconscious body. "Cmon Cmon" the doctor mutters under his breath, as sweat starts building on his forehead. This time something does happen, the once-still heartbeat starts beating again with life.

Starting slow, the doctor orders the two nurses to raise Henry's lower body into the air. This is a trick he learned in his early years. It's a method to essentially reset the flow of his patient's heartbeat.

After some time Henry's heartbeat starts stabilizing on the heart monitor, the doctor sighs, a smile forming around his well-aged handsome face.

As the nurses smile at each other, thinking they completed the job, another play starts unfolding itself, Henry's body which just started stabilizing starts convulsing rapidly, his eyes shifting back into the back of his skull, and from the edges of his mouth, white foam starts leaking. As his breathing starts turning rapid, making gasping noises.

The doctor's face which started to release, straightens up as he presses the button around his neck for the two additional nurses to come. Together they transfer him from his previous room, into a blue-lit room with tubing machines in it. Placing two tubes into his mouth, one transports out the white foam, while another one starts supplying fresh air while removing the old air keeping a constant breathing.

The doctor quickly ordered the nurses to hook up four needles into Henry's head, whilst he, placed several needles connected to tubes with various colored liquids all over Henry's arm.

Several minutes later, the team finally wrapped up their duty. The salt-and-pepper-haired doctor is left alone temporarily. He gazes towards Henry with a deep frown, over the past few months he had come to know Henry. Who seemed to him like a young man short on good fortune.