Out of Darkness

Boys Are Weird

I had just gotten done patching up my brothers when Gabe sends me a text to come back to Pookie's room. I text him back, asking if it's urgent, and when he responds that it's not, I decide to detour to the cafeteria for some cookies. I feel like rewarding the boys who haven't gotten into a fistfight in the last 24 hours. I decide to grab a slice of Mabel's apple pie while I'm there. Good lord, have I earned it! I pull out my phone to text Victor.

Sean: can u find time for family mtg for us all asap?

Vic: Sure, Doc.
Vic: Looks like everyone is available at noon, but Silas has to work at two.

Sean: he might need to reschedule. Mtg urgent

Vic: Consider it done. See you at noon in the hospital conference room.

I finished my pie and look at the time. Was it really only 10:30? I feel like we are making a habit of cramming a weeks worth of events into a few hours. I sigh, wishing for one more slice of Mabel's heaven, and go to see what Gabe and Luke need.

***

"Oi, Luke! You can't go thumbing through her shit! It's private!" I chopped him on the head as he turned the cute little diary Silas had bought upside down and tilted his head.

"You're right, Gabe," he handed it to me, opened up to a page full of scribbles, "I can't."

I look down at the book and am confused. I saw Sang writing in this earlier, after she'd had her stitches fixed, but what I was seeing now didn't look like anything I could decipher.

"Is it Chinese?" Luke asked.

"Fuck if I know, Dude!" I squinted at it, trying to find some sort of pattern in the chaos. "It's just a bunch of fucking circles and lines and shit!"

"Maybe Doc will know?"

I shrugged. Perhaps. He does speak Japanese.

***

"What does it say," Luke asked me. Honestly, I don't have a clue. It definitely looks Korean, but when I scanned it into Google Translate, it came back as total gibberish.

Fear started wiggling its way into my heart. There are a lot of things, medically, that could make a person read and write nonsense. None of them were good news. Maybe something was wrong in her brain?

I rushed to wake her as soon as I thought the words. Fear gave way to panic.

"Sang! Sang!"

I shook her, and then again, more forcefully. After her panic attack this morning, I gave her a sedative to help her sleep. Her eyes fluttered open, and I helped her sit up. Those beautiful green pools of wonder widened when she saw my hands gripping her shoulders, and she flinched and started shaking. I motioned for Luke to calm her while I started flashing a penlight in her eyes and checking for any other signs of distress.

"Pookie," I held her gaze, " sweetheart, could you read the chart on the wall for me?"

She looked at me, at the chart, and then back at me like I was an idiot. She pushed her finger into her bottom lip and nodded.