A Heaven for Toasters

CHAPTER 14: A Near Miss

Friday, April 22, 2117, 5:54 a.m.

I was in my bed. Random bangs and clangs around me disturbed my sleep. Did I forget again to turn on noise cancellation? I tried to open my mouth to give the command but my tongue felt welded to the back of my mouth.

Well, this is frustrating.

I pulled the bed sheets and slipped out of bed. The room was dark but I could make out the shape of a desk and a bookcase filled with stuffed animals.

It's my old room. Am I still a kid? No, I'm a grownup now. I'm just in my old room.

I slapped the light switch on the wall, feeling a pang of nostalgia for the good old days when rooms were covered in switches and we didn't have to whisper commands at objects all day.

The light failed to turn on.

I scratched my head in bewilderment. Was the power out?

No. I must be dreaming.

Of course! It's a dream. Which means I can wake up if only I try to move my hand. Or my arm. Or my...

My leg twitched, kicking away a blanket.

"Detective!" Arms squeezed me, then released me. "Nurse," a familiar voice called, "she's awake."

It took me a moment to place the voice. Leo? It took some effort to pry my eyelids open. It was even harder to open my mouth enough to speak. "Leo?" My tongue felt swollen, like I'd swallowed an angry bee. Or an entire beehive, for that matter. I tried to move my arm and felt a sting. A needle was in my wrist, connected to a tube filled with a milky liquid.

Leo's hands gently touched my shoulders. "I was so scared." His voice was heavy with a mixture of worry and relief.

A nurse hurried into the room, followed by a doctor; a short, middle-aged blonde in a spotless white gown. She shone a blinding light into one eye, then another, sending stabs of pain into my head. I turned my head away in protest.

"Miss Pensive, can you hear me?" the doctor asked. She seemed sleepy and had a thick accent, which meant she was talking in English my hololens did not need to translate.

I wanted to come up with a funny retort but my brain felt numb. "Yes," I whispered instead.

"Do you know where you are?" the doctor insisted. She had one of those nasal voices that irk me.

You're a doctor. No prize for guessing I am at a... "Hospital."

"Do you know what day it is?"

That had me think for a minute. Memories rushed back to my head. Richard. Leo. Captain. Doctor Morgan killing Sergeant. "Leo," I croaked in my best frog imitation. "Hololens."

"Not now," the doctor snapped. "The day?"

Oh, for goodness sake. "Tuesday? Now—"

"It's Friday. Now, stand still, please."

Friday? The final memory, of me trapped inside the weird bush like a poor bee caught in a Venus flytrap waiting to be digested, rushed into my head. What the heck happened in that garden?

An orange globe appeared over my head. A brain—my brain?—appeared within. The doctor zoomed in and out of the image, turning the brain around on occasion. It felt weird to see your brain out of your head. Weirder still when a doctor pinched it and squeezed it, murmuring to herself every now and then. She shook a strand of blond hair out of her face.

I closed my eyes and waited for the examination to be over. "We done yet?" I asked after what felt like an eternity.

The doctor let out a reluctant growl. "I don't see any permanent damage." She sounded almost disappointed. "Still, I'd like to keep you in for observation for at least another twenty-four hours. Perhaps longer. Now, rest. It's still very early in the morning. I'll see you later."

I wanted to protest but felt drowsy. Out of the cornerof my eye, I saw the nurse injecting something into the tube protruding from mywrist. "Leo, my ho..." I murmured. Then, darkness. Again.