The Disability Chat

Cricket

" . . . Aye." Oi my my, I missed the sound of my own voice. It didn't feel quite like a promise. More like a thought that never got spoken aloud.

Dr.Mencha:

"...Alright. I guess we're done... though the session is suppoused to go on for another fifteen minutes. Hm... Let's see."I paused for a moment, wondering how to spend the next fifteen minutes, since an escort would be taking him back to his room. "Did you happen to notice what they were having for dinner downstairs? I'm trying to decide if I should just eat here or order something in."

...I'll admit that part of this was a ploy to make myself more personable. The other part of it was a genuine inquiry.

Cricket

Oh goodie. Small talk. Better than deep talk at this point, but it would still be small talk. I'd found that I was less of a small talk person nowadays. "Ah . . ." I sighed and started listing stuff off. "Th' noodlish stuff . . . some sort o' soup . . . salad . . ."

. . . Why was I grinning at that? Who invited the odd little smile to my face, and what was funny? . . . Salad. Pft.

Dr.Mencha:

Ah. Spaghetti. I felt like I'd had noodles last night. And he was smiling for some reason. Interesting. "I miiiight get chinese then. I could really use some good Kung Pao Chicken." I mused aloud. "...And can I ask what is so funny?"

Cricket

. . . I don't know. I probably looked half insane right about then. "Salad . . . you wouldn't get th' joke."

Dr.Mencha:

...Ah. Inside joke. Alright. "...Oh. Ok. Don't mind me..." I said calmly, not at all concerned about why salad was amusing.

The rest of our time passed awkwardly, with me starting several odd brief conversations that were rather short lived. After a time, the escort guy showed up to take him... wherever.

"Alright... well.. I'll see you around..." I stated, still kind of wanting to book him for later in the week.

Cricket

"Hm." was my only response before I slipped out the door with the one guy. I was always either sitting in a room or being taken someplace. There was never taking myself anyplace. Granted, I might not be able to find my way around all that quickly on my own quite yet, but I'd learn after getting lost a couple times. I mean, honestly, I felt like I was on a leash.

Eventually, I was back in the room. Soon after that I was back in the same old place on the bed I'd used for the past couple nights.

Mysterious third person pov:

They wheeled him back into the room on an immobilizer; which probably could have taken the place of the bed theoretically, it did about the same amount of things with the advantage of wheels. It was a bit of a tight fit in the room, but the technicians had had much practice moving beds around, and finally put the brakes on when he was on the far side of the room, imbetween his usual bed and the window with the tree.

Though the techs were quiet through the procedure, there was little silence, due to the fact that there was a beeping machine with a linear display suspended on the side of the cart. There were a few other things suspended from the bed, bags of clear fluid that had tubes which led down to the bony arm of the young man lying face down on the bed.

It was highly unusual to see him sleeping, and particularly so calmly. It didn't stop the dark circles from continuing their residence beneath his eyes, nor did it really work to alleviate the somewhat pained expression that frequented his face. All the same though, the drug induced sleep was probably good for him.

Cricket

I was near asleep. Well, not asleep, but curled up and definately not at full attention to the white-walled world around me. I'd been in the room for a long while, trying to put the pieces of my thoughts back together. How would talking about the past ever help? It wouldn't. There was no way to go back and change things for anyone. It was no use crying about it.

I felt something nudge the bed frame and my eyes shot open.

What was that?

It looked like some giant machine they were pushing in. What were those tubes? I sat up on the edge of the bed for a closer look. It was a bed . . . I think.

Was that T.Mor?

Continued mysterious third person:

As they put the brakes down so that the bed would not unexpectedly team up with gravity to in some way cause property damage, one of the technicians noticed that the other occupant of the room was in fact, awake. While the other finished up with the installation, she went over to address the one with the sheet of hair. " We went ahead and brought him up here now because the anesthetic is going to be wearing off soon, and we needed the floorspace down in the ICU. Uhm... So... You miiiight wanna call someone when he wakes up, but if your both doing alright, don't stress over it too much. Oh... And if he's not up in three hours call... Because that would be really...really bad." she explained quickly.

Cricket

Oh bother, someone was coming over to talk to me. I tried to act like I was listening while slipping the paper out of my back pocket so I might sneak a look at what she was talking about. The only thing I had time to catch was 'because that would be really . . . really bad.'

Oh bother. Alright, lady. Whatever you say . . . I'll avoid the really really bad. No problem. I glanced at the machine bed and then nodded.

Mysterious third person:

She seemed satisfied with that affirmative head nod, and after a few more moments of messing around with seemingly trivial bits of the bed, left the room with the other tech, leaving a bright pink laminated piece of paper in the slot on the outside of the door before closing it.

Cricket

I waited for a while after they all left to go investigate from a small distance. Nothing I saw made much sense. The suspended bags, the tubes in his arm, any of it. Including the fact that T.Mor was fast asleep. They must have somehow knocked him out before taking off everything he'd put in his back. Even so, it was odd. He never stayed asleep long.

Should I wake him up?

I climbed across the more-normal-looking bed that was his before the machine showed up and had half a mind to shake his shoulder. I reconsidered that. Aye. I could hurt him or . . . something. I hesitantly reached with a finger and poked his face instead. He didn't really move.

Alright . . . I'd just have to wait, then? Was that what I was supposed to do?

I ended up back on my own bed, wondering what the nurse had been talking about.

T.Mor:

... ... ... ...

... Uhngh. ...What...

I slowly realised I was awake. That... What... Was I done...? Was... What was happening...?

... .... ... ...what if I wasn't suppoused to be up yet...?

I kinda felt... I dunno... Like everything was bricks. I hesitantly tried to open my eye and my eyelid weighed like... Twenty craptonnes. At least. I got one slightly open but it was too bright so I slammed it shut again... Which was more like letting it fall than actually slamming anything.

... "Mmnnghhh... ... ...?"

Cricket

A half hour later or so I could have sworn I saw something move just a tad out of the corner of my eye. With a second look I realise that nothing's really happening . . . or changed, for that matter. It was probably the tree swaying. But I keep watch just in case.

T.Mor:

... I waited a while before doing anything else. Partly because I didn't know if I was suppoused to even be up yet... And partly because I felt kinda horrible. Like... Just... Exhausted. I peeled my eye open again...this time slower... Much slower, so I didn't get burnt by the light again.

... Was... ... Was... Cricket on... Wait. Cricket was here...? So... How... Wait-- was he on my bed...? Was this... How did I get...? I was in that other... Wherever...

I closed that eye again and prepared to force them both open. ... Somehow I felt like that didn't quite work all the way. Uhm.

Some part of me that was probably insane wanted to like... Actually go back to sleep... Because... I dunno... I dunno. But... I wasn't going to let that happen. No. I just wish I knew... ... What was going on...?

I wanted to try to talk to Cricket. So... Yeah. " hrrrrggh... ... Crrrrickkkkket..." all my words were coming out all weirdlyand difficultly... And... And then I remembered... He... He couldn't even... He... He couldn't even... Hear me...

Expletives.

I tried to move an arm or something. ...That... Epic failled... I didn't even... It was...so... Heavy... So I kind of just ended up staring weirdly and trying to keep my eyes open.

Cricket

A while passed, and I didn't see anything. I looked boredly out the window for about two seconds before getting the feeling I was being watched. T.Mor had the most dazed, drunk and straining expression that I couldn't keep down a laugh. " . . . Ah . . . you a'right . . . ?"

T.Mor:

...Cricket talked. ..Hm. ...Ok. Waitaminute... Cricket was here... No I think...I think I knew that already...

...ugh... whatever happened... made thinking so... so... hard. ...And like... "... ...I... ...I... waiiiit...whadidyosay..?" and... it took a lot of work to like... uhm... ...make words. ...And....and to separate them.

I tried to move my arm again. ...It still wasn't... really... It maybe wiggled. Sorta. I dunno. ...I couldn't really feel.. much of anything... and...like... yeah...

Cricket

Now where did I put that paper? It was sometimes a bit annoying having to keep track of it, but what else was there to do? Read peoples' lips? I may as well read peoples' minds.

Ah. Lovely. I'd been sitting on it.

I fished it out just in time to catch that last bit. ". . . you . . . alright?"

T.Mor:

...oh...Was...Was I alright...?

...Uhm...

I didn't know how to answer that. "...I dunno... ...sometimes...?" I answered, but it all ran together, and I got the feeling that that wasn't even a totally right answer... but... uhm.

I would kind of have to actually remember where everything...was... before I knew if it was alright or not... "... ...kind of... tired..." I added after... like... some time... or something... I dunno... One eye tried to close again and I didn't want it to... and so I made it open itself again...

Cricket

Well, he seemed a bit more out of it than I thought. "Aye . . . I can see that . . ."

T.Mor:

"...what... what do I do... I mean... like... I... I mean... uhm... I..." I tried to ask...but like, It kind of got lost a little bit. ...Ok, a lot.

I... I just...didn't really want to sleep... even though... like... I could just feel it. ...Right there. ..The sleep. ...Like... ...It was being all... lying to me. Like... as if it would feel nice... to sleep... I knew it would be bad... but... mrrrrhhhh...

I tried to move my hand again. ...There was something in my way...some...like... fabric or something... I dunno... ...oh... hey... sheets. Sheets... were made of fabric...

Cricket

'What do I do?' That's what the paper said, but his mouth was barely moving. How did that happen? "I think . . . you simply lie there? Wait for things t' clear up?"

T.Mor:

"...but... ...what if... like... what if..." I started out all... how I had been... all... like... slow... and stupidly...hard and like... how English does... "Idunwannasleep." Came out way too fast...and like... I don't know why I was suddenly really freaking out...and like... there was some kind of fast beeping... and I didn't know and I was confused... And I wanted to bring a hand up to my face but fabric was still...so... heavy... and like... I don't even.

Cricket

First his words were so slowly showing up on the page that I had a hard time paying attention, and then they were all there at once. I glanced at his face again, which was then contorted into a more frightened sort of confused. "W-Wait, T.Mor, just . . ." I wasn't sure what to do. "It'll be a'right."