The nurses always thought that the day it happened would
be such a happy day. Out of all of the patients that
rolled in and out of ICU, Andrew Ikeda, or AYI, as he
was called, was their favorite. This was for a variety
of reasons. First, his family was amazing. They all
clearly cared about him AND still managed to be nice to
the nurses. In fact, when the new nurse on the wing
had to work through her birthday to deal with complications
related to AYI, the family threw her a party the next day.
That still blew Gretchen's mind.
Second, (and there was no denying this) AYI was HOT! Black
hair that fell in his face, a well-defined body, a few well
placed scars...he looked like the original bad boy. Unfortunately,
as he hadn't opened his eyes in the twenty-seven days he'd
been in the hospital, no one was sure what color his eyes were.
Did he have his mother's soulful brown eyes or his younger
brother's piering green ones? There were several bets around
the hospital on his eye color.
But, the real pull toward AYI was the story behind what
got him in the hospital in the first place. No one talked about the
accident, but it was a doozy. His life-story was a Lifetime
movie in the making, if he would just wake up.
No one really wanted to think about what would happen if the
young man never woke up.
But the day he did was not the dream for which everyone
had hoped. In fact, it was more of a nightmare, especially for her.
Gretchen had been late to her shift that day. Her sister had called
and rambled on, rather selfishly, about pointless stuff in her life.
While Gretchen tried to talk and get ready at the same time, she
managed to stub her toe, pour hot coffee down her front, and scrape
her leg. Three outfit changes and one pointless phone conversation
later, Gretchen walked onto the floor to an argument between Alia
and Bahavani, the newest nurse. It appeared that Bahavani's mother
had taken a turn for the worse and she had put her up in a rival
hospital. Alia, in part because of her work with the administration,
was screaming at Bahavani for that choice. But that was just the
beginning.
It was that day that Doctor Blake decided to suggest that the
family remove AYI from life support. That, of course, did not
go over well with the parents. Alexandria Washington-Ikeda was
near hysterics scant minutes after the interview. Mitsuru Ikeda
was extremely cold in his own right. Whatever Dr. Blake had said,
it wasn't good. Which wasn't surprising. The doctor could be
amazingly insensitive and seemed to take issue with having to help
the boy in the hospital bed.
So, before noon, Gretchen had a mini-war between the nurses on the
floor and distraught and agitated parents. Although she would never
admit it if asked, she prayed that AYI would stay asleep one more
day, if only to allow everyone to calm down. When she saw the frantic
call signal from his room at one that afternoon, she knew she wasn't
going to like the answer that she got to her prayer.
As with all the other nurses on the floor, she rushed to the door of
the room, noticing that Alexandria was in their midst as well. She
heard the women cry out to her son and her husband, her fear evident.
It may have been better if her husband had answered her right away,
but he had turned back to the bed to hear something that AYI had
whispered. The look of confusion on his face as he answered was the
last straw for Dr. Washington-Ikeda. She pushed throw the nursing staff
in the room until she reached her husband's side.
Gretchen sighed as she looked over all the confusion. Damn, she
needed a vacation. NOW!
"Okay everyone. This confusion helps no one. Let's all calm down
and check on the viability of our patient."
This Side of Living
Living Flat on Your Back - Chapter 2
If the young man thought he was confused before, the commotion in
the room now made his first moments of awareness seem almost crystal
clear. He didn't understand why he was in a hospital. He didn't
understand why Koemna was calling him Andrew. He didn't know who
that strange dark woman with Kota's voice was. And that not knowing
was pissing him off.
"Mitsuru," the dark woman insisted of Koemna when she got
close to him, "what is it? What's wrong with him?"
The older Koemna sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
"Maybe Blake was right."
That obviously wasn't the right answer for the female who
Asked the question as her eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?" she
demanded.
"He doesn't know who Andrew is. That's what I mean." Older
Koemna sighed again. "At best, he's got amnesia. I'd rather not think about
the 'at worst'. Not just yet."
"No," the woman whispered in denial, although her voice didn't stay
quiet for long. "No! I don't believe it. He does not have amnesia.
My Andrew Yusuke Ikeda hasn't forgotten who he is! He hasn't!"
At that point, it seemed that the woman with Kota's voice started
to cry, but he really couldn't tell as he was surrounded by
nurses, who started to poke him and look at the various machines in
the room. He wanted to object, to complain. He wanted to scream
at someone to remove the damn tube in the back of his throat. Yet
he couldn't seem to force the words out.
As he laid in the bed, surrounded by nursing and objecting to
their actions in his head, he saw one of the nurses go over to the
Koemna/Kota couple. He was able to see her nametag for a split second,
and, although it was clearly not his native Japanese, he could read the
name Gretchen on it. This Gretchen blocked his view of Koemna and the
hysterical woman with him, but he could still hear the three of them
in conversation.
"Dr. Washington-Ikeda, Mr Ikeda. I realize that you are both
upset,but we promise to do what we can for Andrew."
"What is wrong with him? He can barely speak!" Koemna
asked, obviously not happy with the what was happening.
"Mr. Ikeda, until we can get some readings done, we won't
know-"
But whatever Gretchen was going to say was interrupted when
Kota's voice objected, "Oh hell no!" as she pushed Gretchen aside.
The young man could see the agitated dark toned woman again,
but her gaze was not focused on him but on someone on the other side
of his bed. Following her gaze, he saw her looking at a nurse
who was fumbling dangerously with a needle. He suddenly became
very nervous.
"Who the hell is that?!" the woman with Kota's voice shouted as
she pointed to the nurse with the needle. "She's incompetent!
There is no way she's sticking anything into my son."
'I'm not sure who her son is,' the young man thought, 'but I
agree with her on this. I don't want her sticking me with
anything, either.' Apparently, luck was on his side, as another
nurse took her place. It was amazing that all of that happened
over the woman's ranting. Whoever she was, she was barely
holding it together.
Just to make everything more surreal, at that moment raised
voices could be heard from the hallway. "He's my brother. You cannot
keep me out of that room," the voice asserted before footsteps
were heard.
'Sayko?' the young man in the bed thought in surprise. 'It can't be!
He died when he blew up the stadium.' But, a few seconds later,
his eyes cooperated with him enough for him to see Sayko standing in
the doorway of his room. It was definitely Sayko, right down to the
scar over his right eye. Now he was really confused.
The older Koemna also seemed to recognize him. "Samuel!
Thank God. Here," he said as he pushed ranting women into Sayko's
arms. "Take your mother into a waiting room and calm her down.
She's on the verge of collapse."
"What?!" the woman objected. "I'm not leaving. I'm not.
That's my son!"
It seemed that no one was listening to her as Sayko gently
Dragged her out of the room as she shouted, "If anything happens
to my son, anything at all, I swear I'll sue. I'll sue this hospital into
the ground. Don't you kill. Don't you dare-" Whatever else she
shouted disappeared in her sobs.
Koemna sighed as he turned to Gretchen. "You'll let us know,
as soon as you know anything. Anything at all," he ordered.
The surprised woman just nodded.
As Koemna began to leave the room, the young man
managed to call out to him, "Wait!" in a depressingly weak voice.
Koemna managed to hear the cry and turn around. Seeing
the young man reach out to him from the bed seemed to affect the ruler of
Spirit World in a strange way. As he began to tear up he said,
"We'll help you. I promise. We will be there to help you in
any way you need. I'll be back. Just rest and let these ladies
look after you." After a pause, Koemna quietly said, "I love you."
Then he turned on his heel and left the room.
So as the young man lay there, in a constant state of confusion
and pain, he wasn't sure what to think. And he also wasn't sure
why the sight of those strange people comforted him in some strange
way, as if, somewhere deep inside, he knew who they were.
Why did nothing seem to fit right?
- to be continued -
be such a happy day. Out of all of the patients that
rolled in and out of ICU, Andrew Ikeda, or AYI, as he
was called, was their favorite. This was for a variety
of reasons. First, his family was amazing. They all
clearly cared about him AND still managed to be nice to
the nurses. In fact, when the new nurse on the wing
had to work through her birthday to deal with complications
related to AYI, the family threw her a party the next day.
That still blew Gretchen's mind.
Second, (and there was no denying this) AYI was HOT! Black
hair that fell in his face, a well-defined body, a few well
placed scars...he looked like the original bad boy. Unfortunately,
as he hadn't opened his eyes in the twenty-seven days he'd
been in the hospital, no one was sure what color his eyes were.
Did he have his mother's soulful brown eyes or his younger
brother's piering green ones? There were several bets around
the hospital on his eye color.
But, the real pull toward AYI was the story behind what
got him in the hospital in the first place. No one talked about the
accident, but it was a doozy. His life-story was a Lifetime
movie in the making, if he would just wake up.
No one really wanted to think about what would happen if the
young man never woke up.
But the day he did was not the dream for which everyone
had hoped. In fact, it was more of a nightmare, especially for her.
Gretchen had been late to her shift that day. Her sister had called
and rambled on, rather selfishly, about pointless stuff in her life.
While Gretchen tried to talk and get ready at the same time, she
managed to stub her toe, pour hot coffee down her front, and scrape
her leg. Three outfit changes and one pointless phone conversation
later, Gretchen walked onto the floor to an argument between Alia
and Bahavani, the newest nurse. It appeared that Bahavani's mother
had taken a turn for the worse and she had put her up in a rival
hospital. Alia, in part because of her work with the administration,
was screaming at Bahavani for that choice. But that was just the
beginning.
It was that day that Doctor Blake decided to suggest that the
family remove AYI from life support. That, of course, did not
go over well with the parents. Alexandria Washington-Ikeda was
near hysterics scant minutes after the interview. Mitsuru Ikeda
was extremely cold in his own right. Whatever Dr. Blake had said,
it wasn't good. Which wasn't surprising. The doctor could be
amazingly insensitive and seemed to take issue with having to help
the boy in the hospital bed.
So, before noon, Gretchen had a mini-war between the nurses on the
floor and distraught and agitated parents. Although she would never
admit it if asked, she prayed that AYI would stay asleep one more
day, if only to allow everyone to calm down. When she saw the frantic
call signal from his room at one that afternoon, she knew she wasn't
going to like the answer that she got to her prayer.
As with all the other nurses on the floor, she rushed to the door of
the room, noticing that Alexandria was in their midst as well. She
heard the women cry out to her son and her husband, her fear evident.
It may have been better if her husband had answered her right away,
but he had turned back to the bed to hear something that AYI had
whispered. The look of confusion on his face as he answered was the
last straw for Dr. Washington-Ikeda. She pushed throw the nursing staff
in the room until she reached her husband's side.
Gretchen sighed as she looked over all the confusion. Damn, she
needed a vacation. NOW!
"Okay everyone. This confusion helps no one. Let's all calm down
and check on the viability of our patient."
This Side of Living
Living Flat on Your Back - Chapter 2
If the young man thought he was confused before, the commotion in
the room now made his first moments of awareness seem almost crystal
clear. He didn't understand why he was in a hospital. He didn't
understand why Koemna was calling him Andrew. He didn't know who
that strange dark woman with Kota's voice was. And that not knowing
was pissing him off.
"Mitsuru," the dark woman insisted of Koemna when she got
close to him, "what is it? What's wrong with him?"
The older Koemna sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
"Maybe Blake was right."
That obviously wasn't the right answer for the female who
Asked the question as her eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?" she
demanded.
"He doesn't know who Andrew is. That's what I mean." Older
Koemna sighed again. "At best, he's got amnesia. I'd rather not think about
the 'at worst'. Not just yet."
"No," the woman whispered in denial, although her voice didn't stay
quiet for long. "No! I don't believe it. He does not have amnesia.
My Andrew Yusuke Ikeda hasn't forgotten who he is! He hasn't!"
At that point, it seemed that the woman with Kota's voice started
to cry, but he really couldn't tell as he was surrounded by
nurses, who started to poke him and look at the various machines in
the room. He wanted to object, to complain. He wanted to scream
at someone to remove the damn tube in the back of his throat. Yet
he couldn't seem to force the words out.
As he laid in the bed, surrounded by nursing and objecting to
their actions in his head, he saw one of the nurses go over to the
Koemna/Kota couple. He was able to see her nametag for a split second,
and, although it was clearly not his native Japanese, he could read the
name Gretchen on it. This Gretchen blocked his view of Koemna and the
hysterical woman with him, but he could still hear the three of them
in conversation.
"Dr. Washington-Ikeda, Mr Ikeda. I realize that you are both
upset,but we promise to do what we can for Andrew."
"What is wrong with him? He can barely speak!" Koemna
asked, obviously not happy with the what was happening.
"Mr. Ikeda, until we can get some readings done, we won't
know-"
But whatever Gretchen was going to say was interrupted when
Kota's voice objected, "Oh hell no!" as she pushed Gretchen aside.
The young man could see the agitated dark toned woman again,
but her gaze was not focused on him but on someone on the other side
of his bed. Following her gaze, he saw her looking at a nurse
who was fumbling dangerously with a needle. He suddenly became
very nervous.
"Who the hell is that?!" the woman with Kota's voice shouted as
she pointed to the nurse with the needle. "She's incompetent!
There is no way she's sticking anything into my son."
'I'm not sure who her son is,' the young man thought, 'but I
agree with her on this. I don't want her sticking me with
anything, either.' Apparently, luck was on his side, as another
nurse took her place. It was amazing that all of that happened
over the woman's ranting. Whoever she was, she was barely
holding it together.
Just to make everything more surreal, at that moment raised
voices could be heard from the hallway. "He's my brother. You cannot
keep me out of that room," the voice asserted before footsteps
were heard.
'Sayko?' the young man in the bed thought in surprise. 'It can't be!
He died when he blew up the stadium.' But, a few seconds later,
his eyes cooperated with him enough for him to see Sayko standing in
the doorway of his room. It was definitely Sayko, right down to the
scar over his right eye. Now he was really confused.
The older Koemna also seemed to recognize him. "Samuel!
Thank God. Here," he said as he pushed ranting women into Sayko's
arms. "Take your mother into a waiting room and calm her down.
She's on the verge of collapse."
"What?!" the woman objected. "I'm not leaving. I'm not.
That's my son!"
It seemed that no one was listening to her as Sayko gently
Dragged her out of the room as she shouted, "If anything happens
to my son, anything at all, I swear I'll sue. I'll sue this hospital into
the ground. Don't you kill. Don't you dare-" Whatever else she
shouted disappeared in her sobs.
Koemna sighed as he turned to Gretchen. "You'll let us know,
as soon as you know anything. Anything at all," he ordered.
The surprised woman just nodded.
As Koemna began to leave the room, the young man
managed to call out to him, "Wait!" in a depressingly weak voice.
Koemna managed to hear the cry and turn around. Seeing
the young man reach out to him from the bed seemed to affect the ruler of
Spirit World in a strange way. As he began to tear up he said,
"We'll help you. I promise. We will be there to help you in
any way you need. I'll be back. Just rest and let these ladies
look after you." After a pause, Koemna quietly said, "I love you."
Then he turned on his heel and left the room.
So as the young man lay there, in a constant state of confusion
and pain, he wasn't sure what to think. And he also wasn't sure
why the sight of those strange people comforted him in some strange
way, as if, somewhere deep inside, he knew who they were.
Why did nothing seem to fit right?
- to be continued -