The Behavior Game

6. "We'll Straighten All of This out Later."

6. “We’ll Straighten All of This out Later.”

When he came to, there was a cotton bandage wrapped around his head, an IV in the inside of his elbow, and a strap around his chest. He could raise his right arm, but nothing else. As he began to get more awake, a drumming started in his head and thumped down his neck. If he hadn’t been wearing a neck brace, it would have been even more painful.

Lying horizontally was not something he was used to, but the strap around his chest was preventing him from sitting up. He knew he was in the hospital, but for some reason, he couldn’t remember what had happened.

“Good to see you’re up, Mac.” A woman’s voice chirped from somewhere beside him. Suddenly in his field of vision he saw a woman leaning over him. She was wearing scrubs and had a name tag pinned to her shirt.

“What happened?” he wasn’t in the mood to reply to her greeting.

“That’s actually what we were wondering, too.” She smiled. “The landlord of your apartment heard you scream and found you on the floor. He called an ambulance and we brought you here. You have a pretty decent bump on your head, and a concussion that we were pretty worried about, but we can’t really say what happened to you. We think something may have fallen on you during yesterday’s earthquake. Your left pupil is permanently dilated which would suggest a significant blow to the head, but since you naturally have dichromatic eyes, we don’t know if it’s because of a concussion or because of your differently pigmented eyes. You’re so underweight, though, that we would have admitted you because of that.” She was talking too fast for him to comprehend, and the words she was using seemed foreign to him. She began to loosen the strap around his shoulders. “Now, don’t try to sit up on your own, just lay back.” She pulled the strap away and moved the bed so he was propped up.

“A table,” Mac said suddenly. “I fell into a table.”

The nurse nodded. “That would explain things, huh? The good thing is there was no damage to your skull. You’ll have a pretty sizable bruise there for awhile.”

“What about Melanie?” He asked.

The nurse’s smile fell. “She’s in questioning.”

“Questioning?” Mac repeated. “What for?”

 “For you, Mac,” The nurse replied. “No one knows anything about you. Mac isn’t even your real name, is it? You have no ID, no birth certificate, and no family members to take care of you. Melanie offered to help you once you’re released, but we can’t have you running away on us, we need proof of your identity.”

“Proof? What proof do you need? I’m here, aren’t I?” His head was throbbing, and his vision was beginning to blur.

The nurse shook her head and pulled a blanket around his shoulders. “You just focus on getting better, and we’ll straighten all of this out later.”

“Later?” Mac repeated. “How long will I be in here?”

The nurse smiled and tapped a finger on her chin. “You don’t need to worry about that, we have someone here who wants to help you.” She turned and left the room.