I
There was no clock in the room, but someone with certain knowledge in geography could that it was approximately 4 p.m. when the boy woke up. Around him, there were many cables connecting him to a great diversity of machines, like the umbilical cord connecting a son to his mother, guaranteeing his existence. A young nurse was sitting in an armchair destined to the accompanying familiars, his workaholic mother who rarely came or the multiple caretakers. They read a thick book, which he could not decipher the title - it was in a unknown language or the letters were confusing in that writing style -, and they didn’t even move their eyes away from it when the boy awake. They were not one of his common nurses, and looked quite inexperienced.
He looked at them, expecting that almost-pity look that everyone had, but they just ignored him. “What time is it?”, “Too late to be lunch time, too early for dinner”. That didn’t answer much, except that he would feel hungry for a little longer, but he was already used to it. He tried to get away from the cables to go to the toilet, but he got even more entangled. “Hey, you! Would you help me, I need to go to the bathroom! Quickly!”. They turned the book’s page, ignoring he completely. “Don’t pretend to be deaf, I just heard you talk!”, “Not everyone who is deaf is mute”, they slightly looked at him, almost daring him to get up and do something. He tried to raise his upper body, but felt dizzy and lied back. “Better stay quiet, before you get hurt”, “So do your job and help me!”, they went back to ignoring him, focusing on the book. The boy’s anger was about to turn him red, “I’m gonna complain to your superior!”, he threatened, but their response was a look of mockery and a contained laugh, “I don’t work here”.
His face really color changed, from a hospitalar-pale to a I-think-that-person-is-gonna-kill-me-pale. The boy started frantically pressing the button on the side of the bead, trying to call the nurses at any cost. “It isn’t gonna work, they aren’t gonna hear you”. He remembered that was one of those rare days in which his mother promised to visit him, “My mom…”, “She went to solve a problem, she’s not coming back so soon”. His heart was beating stronger and stronger in his chest, and all his body seemed to be pulsing at the same beating, his pulmon was deepening, deflating like a balloon, unable to capture the air. They laughed with that strange situation, “Breath, you don’t need to panic”.
The boy tried to regain some control over his bodies, and the empty balloons that was his pulmon started to inflate. “What do you want?”, “Me? Nothing”, “You are a pervert, a serial killer or something like it”, “Nope”, “I don’t believe you”, “Believe in what you want”. His heart was slowing down, and he was in better control of his breathing. “You want money. Is that it?”, “From where I come from, you money has no value”. He felt his pulse getting faster, he calculated ways to run, and tried to contain his breath to scream if necessary. “Don’t be so apprehensive, I’m not someone who is gonna hurt you. Let’s say that I have a one-time opportunity to you, if you wanna hear it, of course”, “I don’t want anything from the likes of you”, “Like me? You don’t even know me”, “Nothing good, that is it”, “Okay… As I said, it’s your choice”.
He tries to untangle the cables again, without progress. “You could help me, at least”, “You already refused my proposition without even hearing it, so no, thanks. No helping from me”. He swears, while the cables entangle more and more. He finally gets free and walks to the bathroom. His dizziness is still there and it’s too hard to stay still. He needs to seat to urinate. He washes his hands and look at the mirror, and what he sees is not the face of a teenager going through puberty, but a sick person who hasn’t left that hospital room in days - exactly what he is.
He goes back to the bedroom and lays down, and tries to put all the cables back where they belong. He looks at the nurse, still reading the book. “What’s your proposition?”, “Thought you were not interested”, “My interesses can change”. They laugh and closes the book delicately, laying it on her lap. “But who are you in the first place”, “Let’s say I’m just a storyteller”, “What the fuck is this?”, “Exactly what I said”. He breaths in, doubting more and more by the minute, while other part of his brain questioned - what do you have to lose?
“What do you propose?”, “I will tell you some stories and, in the end, I will fulfill a wish of yours”, “Are you a psychiatric patient or something?”. They ignores the comment and proceeds. “A very specific desire, one that you have been thinking about since you arrived here. One that terrifies you, but is also the hope that carry you on. What perturbs you from the moment you wake up and see those machines you are stuck to, until the moment you go sleep, when it doesn’t invades your dreams. That you see reflected at yours mother eyes and tears, in a mix of fear and relief. The beginning and ending of everything”.
A scream gets stuck in his throat while he reflects. They were crazier them he could imagine. “You have been stalking me”, “In a way”, “But how… I never told…”, “You didn’t have to”. The despair hit him, the tears formed in his eyes and his pupils dilated on fear. “There is no way you could know, there is no way”, “They don’t need to tell me those thing, because I feel them. I know because I’m the one that can fulfill it. The one who waits in the end of everything”.
He tries to press the button again, that doesn’t works, but he doesn’t give up. “That’s in unnecessary. I don’t do any harm, as so many believe, for some reason. I don’t trace the lines of destine, I’m just a messenger, from here to the other side. I’m like Caronte navigating it’s boat, without even knowing what is on the other side. I’ll let you think about it, it’s not everyday that you get this kind of proppose. Give it a good thought. Auf Wiedersehen!”. They leave through the only door, except the bathroom’s, and he keeps pressing the button, that works again as soon as the door closes. A scared nurse comes inside. “What happened?”, “There was a woman here”, “I was at the door, noone came in since your mother left”, “But…”, “The drugs must be making it, some can have that effect… Soon the dinner will be served, your mom will come back, OK? Don’t worry. And if are feeling pain, we can get you something.
***
Some days passed since the nurse, who was not a nurse, had visited him, and now, there again they were, sitting at the same place, with another book in their lap, this one too without a recognizable title. The boy had time to think, it was the only think he could really do in that hospital room, even his dreams where full of that.
He was sleeping, far from pacific, while they waited for him to wake up. “I noticed that you decided”, they said as soon as the boy regain conscience, “I didn’t say a thing”, he was rubbing his eyes and repeatedly blinking, trying to make sure that that was real, “There is no need to say a thing. Are you ready to start?”, “Now?”, “Why not? Is there something impeding you? In any case, I can wait as long as you want, ‘cause time is only a human fiction, that doesn’t apply to me. But for you, like any other human, does not have this kind of freedom, and, I guess, wouldn’t like to waste your time”, “Of course, of course. We could start now”, “Great”.
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