Chapter 15
The mood when Greg entered Declan's room was decidedly more serious than when he'd left. Dr. Nakano had returned, and was accompanied by two other doctors whose names Greg didn't catch. They were in deep discussion with Declan's parents and seemed oblivious to Greg's presence. He wandered over to his friend's bedside and watched the silent form breathe in, breathe out. He studied the numbers on the machines again, and saw that Declan's temperature had gone up a bit more. He hoped that it didn't go up too much higher before the antibiotics had a chance to work.
When the doctors had gone, Declan's parents filled Greg in. They had gotten some test results back, and it appeared that things were a bit more complicated than they'd originally thought. Dr. Nakano was still confident that once the antibiotics began to work things would settle down and Declan would start to get better. Until then, they would just have to wait.
Greg sat down next to the bed. He hated waiting. It was one of the few things he did worse than just about anything. He looked around for something to read, wishing he'd thought to bring a book. There were a couple of magazines on a side table, but they were written in Japanese so he didn't give them another thought.
After several long minutes of nothing going on except answering questions from Declan's parents about how he liked living in Japan, how he liked the school, whether he had heard from his dad - all very generic questions to which Greg gave very generic answers - Greg announced that he was going to go get some coffee and offered to get some for the Hanovers. They both declined and Greg made his escape, suddenly feeling a desperate need to be anywhere but there. It had become obvious that Declan was not going to wake up anytime soon, and the silence in the room as his friend's parents paced and hovered over their son had become so awkward at times as to be almost deafening.
Greg wandered the halls of each floor as he made his way back down to the cafeteria. He watched the efficient movements of doctors, nurses, and other staff. It occurred to him as he stood in the hall of one ward, casually watching through an open door while two doctors appeared to argue over a patient's condition, that every patient was like a puzzle - some easy to diagnose, some complicated - but each one unique with variables. There was something to it that Greg found almost as intriguing as the mysteries of the universe, but the downside was having to interact with so many people on a daily basis.
Approaching the cafeteria from a different corridor brought Greg past a small gift shop. He picked up a couple of English-language magazines and a book to keep himself distracted upstairs, then decided to forgo the coffee and bought a couple of bottles of Coke instead. He nodded at Declan's parents as he reentered the room, taking up his place in the chair next to the bed and all but ignoring them as he settled in while they sat on the other side of the room talking quietly between themselves.