Living in a Mirage

Chapter Ten

But you, children of space, you restless in rest, you shall not be trapped nor tamed.

Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

* * * * * * * *

Whenever the sedation wore out, the pain made its presence known by a throbbing headache, as the time passed, it spread to his shoulders, arms and then down to his legs. The pain always started with a mild headache and ended up taking over his entire body. He tried to move, to get liberated by it, but he could not. He couldn't move any part of his body; it felt as if there was a very heavyweight holding him down. The more he tried to move, the heavier it got.

Then his whole system would go into panic: he would scream, in his mind, as it seemed he could not do so out loud:

'what was happening?'

'Why couldn't he move?'

All the what-ifs and whys that his mind could come up with overwhelmed him enough to make him breathless with the panic he felt.

He was trapped in the darkness...

The darkness that he feared the most...

And the only one who had the power to shine in that darkness was nowhere around, he knew...

He was trapped in it without the protection of his shining star...

He called out to her, again...

As she was the only solace; her presence, the only comfort...

'Nandini...'

* * * * * *

As the automatic door opened, Dr Waltz, rushed inside of the hospital. He had been eating lunch with his wife when he was called in an emergency. If it was about something else, he would have been whining how he got off after a sixteen hours shift only to be called in right back, and how he couldn't even enjoy one quiet intimate lunch he promised his lovely and thoughtful wife after weeks of wait, but it was a very important case. And whine he could not do.

The patient had been stable after they pulled him out of the medically induced coma he was in, although it had been a week, he was still in a very delicate condition. That wasn't surprising as there wasn't a part of his body that was in one piece, unbroken by the trauma of the accident he had been in...

But the truth of having Dr Waltz, the Chief Medical Director, as the doctor to call in for the emergency had more to do with the fact that the patient belonged to a very rich family than the delicate condition he was in. The generous donations made by the patient's family, who had contact with just the right people, was what helped in keeping Dr Waltz and all of his team motivated and forced them to go out of their way to make sure the patient was taken care of in the best way possible. As he thought about it, Dr Waltz had to give some credit to the old businessman who surely knew how to get what he wanted.

As Dr Waltz walked in the patient's room, he was welcomed to the sight of a panicking nurse and a very agitated and tormented patient.

"What happened?" he asked the young nurse.

"I don't know, Dr Waltz. I can't understand what I did wrong. That is why I called you. It seems like he is in pain, so much pain. But I can't understand what to do to end it," the young nurse said, crying and sweating.