The paramedics began to examine me. They took my temperature in every spot you could probably think of. Then they examined my eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. They also measured my heart rate and it was all the usual. My lungs were the only thing that concerned them. They were getting worse and weren’t doing well.
I have been taking some pills in my spare time for the pain in my lungs to go away. I have always had lung pain, always. It’s easy to say that it is because of lung cancer. That answer will never change.
The paramedics gave me new medicine, but my lungs feel no better than they always do. I guess I will always be in war with my lungs.
The paramedics were leaving when they decided to talk to Charlotte and not me.
“Excuse me; are you leaving with Miss Rose?”
They were looking Charlotte a urgent look as if it were an emergency. Charlotte gave a worried tone in her answer.
“Yes; I have been taking care of her for more than ten years. Why do you ask?”
They took hold of Charlotte’s arm and spoke near her ear.
“May I speak with you for a moment?”
Charlotte looked toward Grace, who was just talking to another one of the paramedics.
“Sure.”
Charlotte showed him to the hall which no one was standing near. My lungs may have been bad, but my ears were perfectly fine, or better.
I could hear their whole entire conversation. It was bad news. I shouldn’t have been listening.
“Well, what is it?”
The paramedic gave her a saddening look.
“Well ma’am. Your friend isn’t doing very well as you know.”
Charlotte nodded.
“Well, one of my collies has noticed that the lung cancer is doing more damage than we thought.”
Charlotte’s jaw was getting lower and lower.
“It’s getting to the point where her lungs are beginning to infect some of her other organs.”
It was completely silent over in that corner of the room. No one moved a muscle. I was beginning to worry.
“Like..?”
Charlotte’s voice was starting to crack.
“Her heart rate is slowly rising the more we measure it, and her brain is starting to go a little… out of control.”
Charlotte was crying in to her hands now. She didn’t want to lose me in any way. The paramedic laid his hand on her shoulder and whispered an apology in to her ear; then he walked away.
Him and his collies grabbed their medical bags, and said their good byes. When they left, I began to try and sit up.
Charlotte and Grace saw me struggling and rushed to help me up. When I finally sit up, I reached for the paper and pen on the table beside me. I started to write something down. Grace and Charlotte kept on exchanging glances as I wrote on the paper. When I was done I put the pen back on the table and passed the paper to Charlotte and Grace. Once they read it, they exchanged looks and their eyes widened. Charlotte looked at me. She was trying to find the words to say. Grace jumped in to her place.
“Why would you write this?”
If you are wondering what I asked, it was if Dr. Trent was dead.
I took the paper and wrote, “Because I had a dream.”
Grace took the paper back and thought of what to say. Charlotte was staring at the floor.
Grace looked up at me with a serious look. She was clearly scared of my question.
“Rose, Dr. Trent died the same night as his wife. He killed his wife because he was drunk, and she was leaving him. This was all the night we told his secret. Later on that night, the cops came because they were going to arrest him. Then his girlfriend found out, and she wanted revenge. Oliver and the cops were in his kitchen arguing when she came in yelling at him. He was yelling back her for a while. Then she got so mad, she hit him with a hot pan repeating times until he was dead. The cops tried to stop her, but they were too late. Dr. Oliver Trent was dead.”
I stood dead. I couldn’t believe that my dream told me something that wasn’t the past. It was the future.