The Ward

By Alejandro Gonzalez

It seemed that things were really changing for the weirder when Elizabeth, a middle age woman who was there since her early twenties, tried to jump out the window. Kelietya reached out the window and grabbed her by the back of her neck, and hoisted her back into the building. Her father, who was dead for twenty years, that today she was worthless and should end her worthless life, now, had told Elizabeth. One thing that she always had a problem with, was her father's insolence and anger. He would constantly remind her that she was useless, and that he wanted a boy instead. Naturally, she was destined to end up here.

William, one of the patients who thought himself to be a doctor, was always trying to "cure" the patients. He once diagnosed Doctor Eckers with Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanicconiosis, a disease caused by inhaling volcanic dust. Naturally, the doctor had himself checked, and he had no such disease, so he tried to tell William that he was cured, to which William reacted with a less than positive manner. And that was only the few patients there who had some degree of normalcy left.

Unlike Don, who was completely gone. He was an idiot savant, who could recite the names of every leader of every country that's ever existed, but could not tell you his mother's or father's or even his own name. Furthermore, he could tell you if you were destined to become famous, but couldn't tie his own shoes. Sometimes the human mind amazes even the experts. As of right now, however, the only patient who was the immediate concern of Doctor Eckers was Kelietya. And she was in bed, sleeping. With both eyes open.

He entered the room, trying to be as silent as possible. He crept over to her bed with complete silence, by taking as small of steps as possible. Still, with all of these situations where he made no noise whatsoever, she still heard him, which he believed was not possible.

She leaped from bed and had her hand extended towards him in the manner of, "Stop!"

"Jesus Christ," she said, lowering her palm. "I almost blasted you! Don't creep up on me again!"

He was somewhat confused. "How did you ever see me coming?"

She smiled. "Again, you humans are too simple. I can sense you, by your CHI signal. Remember? You really should look it up."

"Oh," he said, in defeat, and walking out of the room.

Darn, he thought. This is going to seriously complicate things. If I can't sneak up on her when she isn't looking, how can I ever monitor her progress?!

And partially, he was right. Most of the time, doctors have to sneak up on patients to monitor how they're doing when they don't think the doctor is there. The fact that somehow she was able to "sense" his presence, made things incredibly difficult. But first thing in the morning, after getting some sleep, was to look up what this darn "chi" stuff was. But first, sleep. He plopped down on the couch in his office and slept a good one.

Well, she was right. After looking up chi, he found out that it was the energy field that one gives off, but in Chinese mythology, it was something that was formless and invisible. Somehow, she'd convinced herself that she could "sense" it, and so, she could. Not an impossible topic, people could do all sorts of things if they convinced themselves that they could. A Woman once convinced herself that she was pregnant, and so, her body acted like she was. There was no child, but she did go as far as contractions.

Eckers went over to the observation window above the eating room, to see how the patients were doing, and saw that Frank and Kelietya were sitting far apart. He was sitting with several patients, who thought him to be interesting, and Kelietya was sitting alone eating seven trays worth of food; she'd paid off the lunch people, but where did she get the money? He went down to find out.

"Kelietya," he asked. "Where on Earth did you get the money to pay off the cafeteria people?"

She turned to him, smiling. "I got it from a guard. He paid me about three hundred dollars to do something incredibly simple. Amazed me that he was so quick to give money for something so simple."

The doctor raised an eyebrow. "What did he pay you for?"

Kelietya responded by lifting her chest plating on her Saiyan armor, then putting it back on. He was angry as ever.

"Who? Which guard?" He asked, losing his temper.

"They're all fat, but it was the one who has donut stains on his sleeve."

Eckers stormed out of the cafeteria, and marched toward the guard post. When he found Bob, the fat one with donut stains, he grabbed him by his shirt collar.

"How dare you pay off one of my patients to reveal herself to you?! You're interfering with treatment! I should have you fired, you fat tub of lard!" He yelled, getting up in the guard's face.

This was the day for him to get angry. If he was to get angry, he was surely best to get it over with now, because tomorrow was a picnic with his ex-wife. Why had he planned it? Oh, now he remembered. It was because she wanted to provide her ex-husband's son with his first ever picnic, which in his mind, was a dumb idea. But for some reason, Kelietya was thinking otherwise.

She walked in his office, and sat down in the chair; it was time for their second session.

"So," he said. "Tell me more about Saiyan life."

She grabbed the bowl of fruit, and scarfed down the whole thing, one bite per fruit. She then addressed him.

"Saiyan life? Well, all of us are sent out to begin with, but the middle and elite classes are usually provided with knowledge of homeworld, so they can return. Lower classes that find their way back usually do it by finding other Saiyans."

"Uh huh."

"And furthermore, we do this because we like to conquer other worlds. As babies, there is knowledge directly planted in our heads, and later on, we develop our control of chi, and we grow up and blow away life on that planet, clearing it out."

"Controlling chi? What does that mean?"

She rolled her eyes. "I don't know how to explain it, but watch this. Hold up that cigarette pack."

He put the pack on his bookstand. She pointed her index finger at the pack, and a small, thin beam of light emitted from her finger, setting the pack ablaze on contact. She smiled, and watched as he frantically waved the pack in the air, trying to put out the fire. Afterward, he looked at her as though she was something unusual.

"Just how did you do that?"

She grabbed him. "Don't you ever listen?! I fired a chi blast! To destroy planets, he use the same thing, only much more powerful!"

He rearranged his shirt, and she sat back down.

"I guess I do listen."

She looked at him, and laughed mildly. "You see, the problem with listening, is that we hear half of what is said, listen to half of what we hear, think about half of what we listen to, analyze half of what we think about, and remember half of that."

The doctor's eyes got wide with confusion. "So, we're left with about an eighth?"

She rolled her eyes again. "No, one thirty-second."

"Oh."