Chapter 6
Gauze and Disinfectant
I was standing there. I wasn't sure where 'there' was, but the cool summer air was refreshing. I soon became aware of my surroundings, though. I was standing at the edge of a cliff, a wooden railing separating me from a fifty foot drop. I'd like to think that becoming conscious in a spot like this would normally scare the shit out of me, but I was calm for some strange reason. Was it the fresh air? Maybe it was the night sky, covered in more stars I'd ever seen. Or maybe it was the view of the small town below. I could see some lights on through the windows of various buildings, and a lone car traveling down a main stretch of road. It reminded me of my dad's home town, so peaceful and quiet. I stood there for a bit, enjoying the relaxing scenery. Then it hit me.
"Where the hell am I?" I asked myself. I turned around and found that I was standing on an observation deck in the middle of some woods. Aside from the observation deck, there were a couple of worn looking benches, a small structure that looked something like a gazebo, and a dirt path leading into the woods. "Weird," I found myself saying, "Is this another dream?" I raised my hands into view, and saw, well, my hands. They were the same as they always were. Nothing special here. I looked down and saw I was wearing the same clothes as when I fell asleep; a slightly oversized Canucks T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans held up with a belt. On my feet were a pair of white, well-worn runners. They were an old pair that I hadn't worn since last fall because they had holes in them.
I had no clue what to think. It didn't feel like a dream. The breeze, the greenery, the ground under my feet, it was all too real. Yet, it all seemed artificial, as if I were watching a movie or playing a videogame. I figured that the best thing I could do was head to the town. I could find out where I was and even call the police. So I started walking towards the path.
The night was pretty quiet. All I could hear were the crickets in the grass and the sound of my own foot steps. It was nice at first, but then I got the feeling that someone was watching me. I suddenly remembered the hopping figure, but before I could turn around and make sure I was alone, I heard a twig snap. After that, I just bolted.
I was huffing and puffing by the time I reached the road. I came to a stop just before the pavement; hands on my knees and gasping for air. Once I had caught my breath, I looked up and down the road. There didn't seem to be anything out here. It was just a plain old country road. Then I saw it, a light in the shape of a rectangular box just up the road to my left.
"A payphone, thank god." The words left my mouth in-between gasps for air. The fact that a pay phone was this far from the town was questionable, let alone the fact that it stood to the side of the road by itself. I was about to set foot on the road, when I heard the sound of leaves being pushed aside. I spun around and met the yellow eyes of a black cat. It was sitting in the middle of the path, staring at me. I sighed, "It's just a cat."
"Hey little guy," I said as I walked towards it. "What are you doing way out here?" I knelt down in front of it and started petting its head between its ears. I don't think the cat liked it, because as soon as I did so, it lashed out at me with its sharp claws.
"Shit!" I jerked my hand back to avoid them. Pointless, considering that its claws made contact anyway. The cat hissed at me and looked me in the eyes before running back into the forest. I raised my right hand to get a look at the damage. There were three straight cuts that stretched diagonally across the palm of my hand, all of which stung as they bled.
"Awesome," I said to myself sarcastically, "As if I didn't have enough problems." I turned toward the payphone and started walking.
The payphone was a glass rectangle with a metal frame and a folding door. The actual pay phone inside was a bright yellow, a colour that made it seem like a beacon in the night. The door was already open, so I stepped in and grabbed the receiver. I reached into my pocket for some change, but the only thing in my pocket was an old coin with the number '100' on it. I checked my other pocket, but found nothing. I didn't even have my keys.
I pushed the coin into the slot and dialled my home phone. It rang a few times before a woman with an automated voice cut in. I was caught by surprise when it stated, "The number you have dialled is not in service, please check the area code and dial again." The old coin then fell into the change slot. I raised my hand onto the phone hook and pressed down on it, thus ending the call. I then reached for the coin and pushed into the slot again. I dialled the same number as before, and got the same result. "The number you have dialled is not in service, please check the area code and dial again." I set the receiver on the phone hook before putting it back to my ear and dialling once more. Again, same result. I set down the handset; no, more like dropped it. Why the hell would my phone number not be in service? It just didn't make sense.
"I. Am. Fucked." I whispered, staring at my feet.
"Hello?" The voice made me jump. I turned to see who it was and found that a little girl was now standing just outside the booth. She was wearing a pink summer dress with a little red bow in the middle of the chest. Her long blue hair extended down past her waist and her purple eyes gazed into me.
Wait a minute. Blue hair? Purple eyes? I must be seeing things.
"Is something wrong? Did I startle you?" she asked, cocking her head to the right a little.
"Uh... yeah."
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"It's okay, just try not to sneak up on people." I said as I stepped out of the booth. Now that I was up close I could get a better look at her.
"Okay." Her voice sounded cheery and childish. After a quick look over, I noticed that she was also wearing a pair of sandals with white socks, and she definitely had blue hair and purple eyes.
"What happened to your hand?" Her eyes had drifted down to my bleeding hand.
"A cat scratched me." I turned my palm toward her so she could have a better look. She examined it for a few seconds before speaking again.
"When?" She gave me a concerned look.
"Just a few minutes ago." Her concerned look suddenly turned into a smile. Before I could comment on the odd change in facial expression, she bolted a few feet down the road and then spun around to face me. The way she spun around though, her long hair fanning out slightly from the sudden moment, reminded me of something.
No, I told myself, It just feels as though I've seen this before; like déjà vu.
"Come on," she gestured for me to follow her, "I'll take you to the Irie Institute and have Irie and Takano fix you up." With that said, she began skipping down the road. I was hesitant to follow, not only because the 'Irie Institute' sounded somewhat menacing, but because one of the names sounded familiar.
Takano... Where have I heard that name before?
"Hey Mister!" I looked to find that the girl was already a good distance down the road, "Are you coming?!"
"Yeah!" I started to jog after her.
It was about three minutes into the walk that I could no longer stand the silence, so I decided to break the ice.
"So, uh…" The girl glanced back at me.
"What?"
"I kind of have a couple of questions to ask you."
"Oh?" She looked up at me with curiosity.
"So, um… What time is it?"
"I don't know, why are you asking?"
"It just seems kind of late for you to be so far outside of town."
"I was walking to the observatory."
"What's the observatory?" I asked as we rounded a corner.
"It's this big deck with a view of the whole town." The spot where I became conscious came to mind.
"Huh, I think I was there earlier."
"Really?"
"Yeah, but I don't know how I got there." The girl gave me a puzzled look, which was replaced with a slight smile when she averted her eyes. I was about to ask her another question when she cut me off.
"We're here!" We stepped foot into the unpaved parking lot of a concrete, two story building. The building had evenly spaced windows along the front of it; a set of double glass doors jutting out from the mid-left. A wooden post with Asian lettering on it stood by the parking lot entrance, and a streetlight stood on the opposite side of the road.
I guess I'm in Japan again...
"So," I started, as I looked up and down the building's length, "This is the institute?"
"Yep."
"And how is coming here supposed to help?"
"What do you mean?"
"What I mean is that I was expecting a hospital, or a clinic at least."
"But this is a clinic."
A clinic? There's no way. The building had nothing on it that would signify that it was what she had said it was; a clinic. There was no red cross, not even an ambulance in the very parking lot we stood in.
No wait, I'm thinking of a hospital. In actuality, there wasn't anything on the building that told of the buildings purpose. I would just have to take her word with a gain of salt. Taking a glance around the parking lot, I realized something.
Forget the ambulance, there isn't even a single car parked here. I turned my gaze back at the building. To accompany the empty parking lot were the pitch back windows. Who does she expect to bandage my hand?
"If it is a clinic, then why did you call it 'The Institute'?"
"Because that's what it's called." She stated flatly, "The Irie Institute."
"That's an odd name for a clinic." I noted as I stepped towards the double doors. Standing on the doorstep, which was actually a low angle ramp, the interior of the building looked just as black as before.
Who knows, I thought to myself, maybe it's still open. Reaching out, I grabbed the right door handle and tugged. The door moved outward slightly before stopping, jiggling the left door as I heard a loud tone 'clank.' It was locked, no doubt about it. I then cupped my hands, pressing my pinkies against the glass and my forehand against my pointer fingers. This way, the light emanating from the roadside streetlight wouldn't reflect on a portion of the glass, allowing me to get a better look inside. I was met by more darkness.
Not even the faintest source of light. I took a step back from the door. Maybe there's a night guard who can let us it. I raised my hand, forming it into a fist, and prepared to knock.
"What are you doing?" I looked to my left to find the girl standing next to me.
"I'm checking if anyone is inside." I returned my gaze to the door, and knocked.
"There's no one in there," the girl said directly after I knocked, "It's the middle of the night, so it's closed." I suddenly noticed that her voice had been slowly losing its cheery pitch, reverting to a more mature tone. I also felt like a character from one of many ghost stories. A specific kind, about picking up a ghost hitch hiker, driving to a requested location, and then dying at the hands of the ghost, come to mind.
"Isn't there a night guard or something who can let us in?" I asked, "I could just patch myself up while he keeps an eye on us."
"No, there isn't."
"Then what was the point in coming here?" Silently, the girl turned, stepped off the ramp and walked toward a nearby window to the left of the double doors. "Hey, what are you…" The girl grabbed something on the far right of the window and used it to slide the window open.
"What do you need?" she asked, turning back to look at me. There wasn't a trace of cheeriness left in her voice, which now sound unnaturally like that of an adult.
"How the hell did you open that?" I was knocked for six, "Isn't that breaking and entering?"
"I know the people that run this place," the girl hoisted herself up onto the windowsill, "I'll tell them about this tomorrow morning." With that, she shuffled off the windowsill and dropped into the darkness. A few seconds passed. I knew that I had to follow her, but following a girl I didn't know into a closed clinic in the middle of the night wasn't the kind of situation that I wanted to be in. The fact alone that she was 'Breaking & Entering' was enough for me to say no. It's not to say that I haven't done something similar, because I have. I had a friend who got an awesome videogame for his birthday, and I 'B&Eed' into his house to play it shortly after his family had gone on vacation. However, that was back when I didn't know better. Hell, the only reason I got in was because they didn't lock the sliding door to the backyard patio, and once I got my fill of the game, I turned everything off and made sure to locked all the doors.
"Are you coming?" The girl had poked her head out of the open window.
"Uh," I took a quick look around, "sure, as long as you actually know the people that run this place." I then walked up to the window and climbed in.
After walking down a hallway and climbing some stairs, the girl lead me to what looked like a nurse's office. She then walked over to a glass cabinet underneath a window and opened it.
"What do you need?" It was the second time she had asked me that. When it comes to medical stuff, I'm far from being an expert, but I know enough to understand what I needed.
"Gauze and disinfectant." I answered as I stepped up to the cabinet and knelt next to her. I immediately spotted the gauze on the top shelf and grabbed it while the girl ran her finger over the labels of various bottles.
"Here." She handed me a bottle that was roughly the same size as a 250ml water bottle. With both items in hand, I stood up. Setting the roll of gauze on top of the cabinet, I unscrewed the bottle cap and poured some of the liquid onto the cuts on my right hand. It began to sting on contact. I set down the bottle, biting my lip and flexing the muscles in my hand in a fruitless effort to lessen the intensifying pain. The pain soon died.
Now for the gauze. I grabbed the gauze and start wrapping it around my hand. When I was done, I realized that I needed a little more than gauze and disinfectant. I knelt back down and scanned the cabinet's three shelves until I spotted a pair of scissors. I wedged the roll of gauze between my gut and my thumb, allowing me to grab the scissors and cut the gauze. I then returned the scissors and gauze and scanned the shelf again, but I didn't see the last required item. I turned to look at the girl, who was still standing next to me with an intent expression on her face.
"Are there any safety pins?" I asked. My eyes followed her as she left my side and walked over to a desk on the opposite wall. She opened and closed a few of its drawers before returning with a number of pins in hand. I determined that I only needed three, and began threading them through the gauze one by one.
"You look like you know what you're doing." It was a precursor to her question. "Are you studying medicine?" I couldn't help but grin.
"Thanks for the complement," I replied, "but anyone with the slightest of medical knowledge can clean and bandage a few cuts." There was a moment of silence as I threaded the last pin.
"So it seems." She said at last.