Orestes - A Perfect Circle

          "Please, help me." the boy asked Chloe.

          Night shifts were always the most difficult to handle since all personeel was left to minimum requirements.

          "Thank you for volunteering Chloe." Doctor Ralph acknowledged earlier in the afternoon.

          "No problem Doctor. I know that I'll have to face this shift eventually, so I figured it would be smart to reach it first by volunteering rather than it reached me by surprise."  she said with a smile.

          "No need to worry, everything should go smooth, just follow the patients' records and everything shall be on its way. However, if there were any emergencies, I say, *anything* just call me" He said just before leaving the hospital.

          "I've revised your record. Everything's on schedule and there's no indication for further medication, of any kind. I'm afraid I can't override Doctor's orders." she replied with a soothing voice trying to traquilize the boy.

          The boy was trembling. He stared at her long enough to make her feel uncomfortable. The pain in his eyes was beyond any physical explanation. Chloe knew it. It was emotional pain.

          "Let me see what I can do." She murmured. "Just try to be quiet, ok?"

          The boy laid down, sinking his head on the pillow, shaking his hands with desperation.

          "I promise I'll be back." she said holding his hand.

          Chloe took the small medicine bottles from the table next to the bed and went outside the room. Closing the door, she sighed alone in the white, sterile corridor. There was no one. Night shifts required one nurse per floor and she was assigned floor number 11. Sooner than later she realized this wouldn't be a normal shift as she was told.

          She examined the boy's record again. Bycicle accident, nothing serious. The broken leg was already in its plaster cast, pain relievers every 6 hours, nothing more. Doctor Ralph notes mentioned he arrived alone, no company and no family to call.

          "Nothing, Doctor Ralph wrote nothing else." she murmured. "Now, what am I supposed to do? There's nothing I can do for emotional discomfort. Maybe some induced sleep might help."

          Chloe left the boy's record on top of the nursery desk, took a small crystal bottle and a syringe. She took some steps heading to the boy's room when she stopped with uncertainty. She looked at the small bottle in her hand, looked behind to the desk. "Everything shall be written in the medical records" she recalled her med school lessons. She returned and grabbed the medical records with her.

          The boy was restless waiting with eyes wide open, looking for some relief in the dark room. He jumped frightened when the door opened.

          "This will help you sleep." Chloe started preparing some sedative dose.

          "Please, make it go away. This... this war inside."

          "War inside? What do you mean with "war inside'?"

          "It's too much doctor. I can't deal with it. It's burning... here... inside." He said pressing his chest.

          "Don't worry. *This* will end it all little boy. I'm not your doctor, but I'm your assigned nurse tonight.  Everything will just be fine. Tomorrow you'll wake up in perfect shape."

          "No... it will not be ok... Make me sleep. Help me go away..."

          "Shhh... breathe. Don't fight it." She said staring directly into his eyes. She pulled the blanket away, took his left arm, tried to reach for his arm vein but his blood vessels were so weak she had a hard time finding it. The boy was trembling, looking at her with desperation.

          "This will help you sleep. That's all."  She put the syringe in his arm and pushed the plunge, blending that marvelous liquid into his bloodstream, fading him away with the pain...


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NGB.DA20131021. "Orestes" - A Perfect Circle.
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