Ethan- An Open Heart Story

Chapter 12- Fellowship

Sometimes these interns brought that murderous creature inside me to wreck havoc on the front.

Like I had been saying over and over again, I was not a man carrying infinite patience and if you tested the edges around, the consequences would be dire.

I was holding a plain thin sheet of paper along with my head as the interns howled in front of the podium like a bunch of exited mountain goats grinning as if they had received a very fine and nutritious green pasture to brood and graze. Which was what goats did because I had read in a poem once. I would have loved their company instead of this.

I was shuffling my feet in the podium, alone, and in front of me the interns gathered from my department were shoving and pushing each other to reach for the paper I was holding. As if I would hand it over to them.

He is alone in the room.

A reminder beeped. 

The shouting was ambiguous to the ears and I was on verge of shoving these interns myself.

Sending a glare in their directions, I shouted, "Back! Back! You people are like a bunch of rabid dogs!"

They were not offended. Because they just got a booster from my raised voice to bring in the concert of cacophony in the atrium. The ones in front started jumping like an excited 3 year old kid would be when you would be recording whatever of his in a camcorder. My eyes were narrowed and they trailed off towards the back where I found the Interns who stood meters away in a peaceful horde and were intently looking at the podium-at me, to reveal the test results.

Someone might find him there and then questions will be raised.

It had been a week since the fellowship was announced. The next day onwards, I had circulated the list of participants and had randomized their patients for inspection with Dr. Delarosa and Mirani in charge again. Since every damn one from my department had enrolled, it was not a hard surprise about the competition which came later.

The interns attacked every case with furious pace and started literally throwing patients out within a day or two by feeding them powerful dosages of medications. The treatments weren't wrong ethically or else I would have kicked them from their destiny. Those who needed mild treatments were retained for few hours and then charged and discharged. I was moving around in the foreground to notice these malicious activities of the interns which was plenty. There were fifty participants and hardly 20 of them were good enough to grace good marks.

I would never say them the criteria I judged but it was enough for their lifetime.

I wasn't looking at the number of patients one intern had treated or how quickly one had made diagnosis (though it was attained, I knew that there were some helping hands involved from some attendings). I was looking the way, the concept and the pathway their mind had built to solve each case with correct assertiveness and maintenance.

What if he found a way to force it down your mind?

I found my mind's voice annoying and alerting at the same time. I couldn't stay here much longer because I had a bigger fish to fry which involved top secrecy and absolutely not a single involvement of any homo sapien sapien.

"Dr. Ramsey! Show us the results!!!!!!!!"

I sniffed with frustration and then banged that sheet with a pin on the notice board lined adjacent to the podium. The interns suddenly became silent as I crossed my arms and snared, "Now you can stop badgering me about where you stand." Then added, "If anyone wants to challenge your rank, feel free to come to me and I will immediately disqualify you. Good day."