Past Five PAST FIVE A short story by brian mey ©brianmey 2009 PREFACE This book is dedicated to all my facebook friends whom made my days lovelier A special thank you to Ms. Jane Long Special dedication to a very dear friend Azalina Abdullah whom once told me “don’t’ leave your talent to waste” 1 July 21st. All he could hear was buzzing sounds inside his head in the stillness of pre dawn. “What in the WORLD have I done?” Broody muttered as he leant his seemingly weightless body on a wall he so eagerly wanted to piss on. A stray dog growled nearby sensing his presence. Not wanting to draw anymore unwanted attention, Broody limped to his bike and cycled aimlessly around the neighborhood seeking solace in the stillness of that hour, but soon surely the sun would rise and “What then am I going to undo the calamities of the past five hours?” kept resounding in his head. He has always been lucky, but this time….. Broody is a boy of his past, no now, never the future. His heartbroken mother gave him life on a warm July midnight abandoned by her husband at Dconception hospital run by a renowned ruthless Doctor Akken who defiantly turned down a prestigious award last year. Could it be that April’s constant thoughts of aborting her flesh made ‘Junior’ a name his mother likes to call him, felt so detached from her since then. Bright and talented her little boy came to age, yet mysteriously distant and darkly quiet most of the time. But one thing kept April smiling and hoping through the years is their shared kindness of heart. He looked at the dawning sky again and again as if something of divine intervention would come from heaven. A nearby coffee is opening at the light of Tuesday as Broody sought relief from a hot cup of coffee. He managed to eased himself in front the growling dog so as to make it go away, and the mutt did just so. While his nerves are mending he quietly calculated his options sighing with each count. “No school today?” the coffee shop kindly inquired. Not intending to lie any further Broody quickly gulped down his last drop of coffee and limped again to his ‘old faithful’ his cranky bicycle. Home is where he should be heading sooner or later. “Oh, what am I going to say to my mother?” he indirectly asked his ‘old faithful’ as home approaches at the next curb. He has been creeping in and out his house of much lately, as he now crept silently into his room as the first light of dawn also crept into in bedroom. Shall he pretend he overslept or creep out again after he showered his drained body. Oh how he hated Mondays but Monday yesterday was way too much. How could so much cruel truths unfold in a brief five hours of a Monday, as Broody shakes his head in defeat.The ringing of the telephone in the hall jolted Broody from his next move. He heard his mother opening her door and picking up the phone. His whole body and mind went absolutely still as he try to decipher the conversation. Surely this must be it! ….”yes doctor,….tablets?….my Junior…still in..e.tal…condition?” is all Broody could barely hear April through his bedroom door. His bedroom seemed to close in on Broody as he waited for April to hang up. Still perched at his bedroom door, his feet took Broody to the edge of his bed and as he lifted his head all he could see the the shocking horror of his mother’s wet face. “Who are you” she asked in deep sorrow and collapsed on the floor crying and kept muttering “Oh my Junior! Mommy should have kept you”. 2 Due midnight July 21st (ten years ago) Dr. Akken was in deep contemplation in his sparse office located in the furthest dark corner of Dconception Hospital. Should he or should he not… He was approached by a man who demanded his secrecy a week ago to perform a very controversial task who in return will make Dconception Hospital debt free for once. A hospital Dr. Akken felt so deeply rooted and attached. “Do it just this once Doctor, she must not know of it, nor me”. “This is a once in a lifetime request” the man then shook his hand and left in a haste only to call back five minutes ago. “Dr. Akken speaking”, he mumbled into a receiver he had no notion of even picking it up. “She is having some complications and due for labor”, a nurse operator informed him. ”I’ll be there in a minute” and he quickly and nervously replaced the receiver and hurriedly to labor ward. April was crying when Doctor Akken enter the bright room with two nurses assisting. “I don’t think i can go through this doctor” she moaned. “I think you better abort my baby”, “I can’t bear to have my bay grow up without a father” April sobbed uncontrolably while Doctor Akken gently held her wet hand. Out of a sudden she went into a fit and nurses rushed to her aid while Doctor Akken shouted “Inject Morphine QUICK!”. It was as if April slept for a brief hour when she woke, staring into a dimly lighted ceiling of some kind of a room. She glanced around and noticed she was alone still in a hospital bed. Millions of thoughts rushed through her head in an instant and at the core of each thought was her baby. She searched for a telephone or a buzzer of some kind to speak to someone trying not to get up from her aching body still with her arm attached to tubes. As if sensing her movements, a nurse opened the door and entered with a glass of water. “How are you feeling April?” she inquired. “You must be hungry by now having slept a week”. Another million thoughts went through her now alerted mind.. “Where’s my baby?” was all April could dare muster. And as if sensing her demand, another nurse walked in with a fully toweled baby while smiling, “Here’s your boy”. All April could do was cry when she saw her little baby being gently handed into her lap. “Junior….my baby”. The two nurses turned to each other grimacing nervously April noticed from the corner of her eyes. “What?”..The senior nurse hesitantly shuffled to her bedside while patting the baby and touched her shoulder. “What?!” April asked in a quivering voice while gently unfolding her baby. “You named your baby Broody when he was born April, remember?”. April’s hand shivered when she both heard and felt her baby’s legs. “Broody had a slightly deformed leg as Doctor Akken told you but he’ll still be able to walk” the senior nurse told April trying not to look into her eyes. April wanted to say so many things, but she finally succumbed to holding her baby close to her breast and kissed him gently humming some kind of tune not even noticing the nurses leaving the room to her and her baby. Doctor Akken was on the telephone when the two nurses who just attended to April walked hesitantly into his never shut office. “Tell me Joyce” he requested. “I believe she bought it Doctor, but I think we….”, “Enough!” Doctor Akken demanded. “It’s all for the good of our hospital, you of all person should know very well Joyce”, he grumbled. “”Take a week off to clear your conscience both of you”. “I’m leaving nurse Lee in charge of April from now. 3 July 21st 5pm Broody was a quiet and distant boy naturally due to his handicap but quite inquisitive ever since he attended school. Now in his fourth grade he soon learned that friends can be cruel acquaintances too. Classmates giving him awkward wincing looks at his walk and questioning his father’s existence. Broody managed to take it all in stride despite his young age only to quietly question back the pebbles around his favorite river shore he tries never to miss in his afternoon ventures. Broody could easily dismiss any cruelties and doubts hurled at him but after his class organized a learning trip to a Hospital this morning, little did kind Broody realize that his brief ten years of childhood has dealt him his cruelest blow ever. He sat down and gently touched the surface of the sparkling river water as if it could somehow bathe his life anew, not realizing drops of his tears mingled with the flowing stream. “I will still love you April”, Broody sobbed uncontrollably for the first time. “I will still always love you…mother”. Earlier that morning April packed an extra sandwich and a tumbler of water for his little boy’s learning trip to Dconception Hospital. “Remember to stick close to your class and don’t go wandering all by yourself” she quipped while somewhere in Dconception Hospital senior nurse Joyce dropped her glass of hot coffee and was jolted out of her trace like stance. “Oh dear God..I have to do something to ease my conscience”. She then out of impulse let her feet took her down to incubation ward knowing quite sure that Doctor Akken is still in his office monitoring the cctv’s in the Hospital online. “So help me God!” she reassured herself as she turned the knob to the secretly located ward. Broody casually walk last in line while his classmates shuffled excitedly into the main reception of Dconception Hospital. He knew someone there who called herself Joyce who likes to visit him in school with his favorite goodies every week. “Broody?” the tour teacher inquired and he quickly raised his hand in acknowledgement of his attendance as the Hospital receptionist keyed in his name into her database which at the same instance Doctor Akken’s monitor switched opened an privately protected file named ‘JUNIOR2’. He stared at the file unbelievingly both in awe and surprise. He has locked away that file for ten long years always believing it would be buried deep in the Hospital software’s abbeys. Suddenly out of the corner of his eyes on his same monitor he also noticed nurse Joyce opening the door of incubation ward. Doctor Akken slumped back down into his swiveling chair not even aware that he stood up when the file opened. He didn’t know whether to act or sit back and watch as his whole body pulsed with sudden curious excitement. Senior nurse Joyce blatantly ignored the presence of cameras in that room as she let her feet took her to a glass covered cubicle with all kinds of humming machinery and tubes attached. Joyce picked up the file holder beside the cubicle as her tears stained the the only letters she wanted to see….’JUNIOR’ and frequent notes written below by attending nurses the first being hers dated ten years ago. She could hardly even read her own handwriting as tears blurred her vision but oh she could clearly remember every word she wrote there Words hardly decipherable now like ‘aborted’…’dna retrieved’…’fetal sleep’ was all she could see for now. She replaced the file holder and gently opened the glass cubicle…. 4 Broody as what came to his inquisitive nature ignored his mother’s advise and went wandering all by himself in the brightly lighted hallway of the Hospital. He heard from Joyce who said she worked there and that the Hospital has a very technologically advanced swimming pool meant to help those with weak muscles and has always advised broody to visit her there and she may help strengthen his weaker leg . He once asked his mother’s permission for the visit and was awarded with a tense silent look by April and he quickly took it as a no. He also knew his mother paid frequent visits to this Hospital with return trip stuffed with new kinds of tablets to place in the toilet cabinet, names he could still not decipher yet. His mother never told him where he was born only to be told by distant relatives that Broody was born in his deserted father’s house in a not far away town. He suddenly stopped near a closed room thinking he heard someone crying inside. Broody wanted so much to find the swimming pool just to see for himself if it’s really that cool. His feet refused to take him further as he leaned closer to the door hoping it’s just a patient inside somewhere, but how could be patients be housed here at the far mezzanine corner of this Hospital? Broody quietly mused. He always has a kind heart like his mother Broody never hesitating to lend a helping hand to those in need especially when people are crying. While somewhere far below he could hear his classmates briefed, lectured and led like robots he smiled to himself. His heart finally led his hand to open the door into incubation ward. Doctor Akken still slumped motionlessly in his swivel chair not willing himself to make a move yet. Ten years ago he accepted a challenging request from a mysterious man, a secret he kept till today. Senior nurse Joyce and her assistant who is now emigrated to the mid east were the only ones who helped him out of obligation. He knew deep down inside one day one of them would regret that day. And that day has come for him to make his final task. A shrilling bell from his desktop jolted Doctor Akken from his manipulations. “Oh my God, Joyce….NO..oo!!” he jumped from his seat as he watched Joyce opened the glass cubicle of JUNIOR and ran towards incubation ward to finally face the three souls there Broody halted a moment from opening the door as he thought he heard another noise deep from within, was it a baby crying or it sounded more like a hissing sound of some machinery? His hairs stood from his skin as he stood still outside only to be jolted by another louder sound this time from within. He quickly opened the door and stepped inside looking for source of the noises. What he saw next stayed etched in his memory forever. Joyce has to do it, she kept reassuring herself to God as she lifted a premature fetus from its abode kept alive till this day by the brilliant mind of Doctor Akken for reasons she could not accept. She suddenly stopped in her next move as she saw with utter surprise Broody near the entrance. “Broody..” she said in her quivering tearful voice, “its time you know the truth!”, “please tell me what to do…..” By the time Doctor Akken entered incubation ward, the only presence left there was the hissing sounds of the machinery attached to the state of the art glass cubicle which nursed ‘JUNIOR’ for ten years. He removed his cell phone from his pocket and keyed in a number not knowing to be fearful or glad that things has finally unfolded, for the better or worse, only time will tell. 5 Joyce held Broody’s hand as they both knelt down beside his favorite spot beside a small flowing river as his tears fell into the river to be carried to somewhere safe she hopes. “We did what’s right Broody, your mother will still feel loved by a special boy like you. He finally was able to lift his sodden face and hugged Joyce as he gently removed his favorite pebble from his pocket and placed it on the freshly covered soil beside a stone Joyce has placed with inscribed JUNIOR on it. “It’s not that she didn’t want you then Broody, it’s just her fragile state of mind at that stage not wanting you to be lonely without a father”. July 22nd Broody woke with a lingering dream still playing on the back of his mind while morning light slipped into his bedroom window. He dreamt he was walking beside his favorite river stream. He noticed it was unusually quiet all around except the sounds of the flowing stream. He noticed a little boy of his age sitting beside the stream looking at something he held in his hands. He gingerly walked towards the boy and saw that he was holding a pebble quite alike one he found and kept. The boy then turned towards Broody…that’s when we woke. He was also aware it was also unusually quiet this morning. He looked at alarm clock and it showed five past eleven. His mother is usually making clattering noises in the kitchen by now, preparing lunch and her soup recopies. Broody slipped out of his bed and saw that he was still in his outdoor clothes instead of his pajama. . He was aware he slept past five in the morning. He went to the toilet to wash his still soiled face and saw bottles of April’s unused tablets on the trash can. He opened the cabined and all that was left inside was toiletries. April was the first thing on his mind as he walked into the hall and was halted in his steps when he saw his mother dressed beautifully and smiling at him lovingly beside the hall table lavished with goodies and a wrapped parcel. He walked as if without his limp anymore towards April, “Mother, I’m sorry….”, ”Shhh..” April tenderly held his hand and his whole body to hers. “Mother’s the one who should say sorry dear”. “Now I know Broody, I now know my regrets are done and gone and, and…” she could not utter anymore through her sobs. Broody wanted so much to tell her the words she so wanted to hear, but all he could do is hold her closer and smell her fresh skin who happened to smell like the boy in his dream and also happens to be his favorite shampoo’s fragrance. “…and I now know how much you loved me instead my dearest son”. And they both knew in that instant. “Happy eleventh birthday Broody” April smiled sweetly at him. “Open your present” she cooed. Inside Broody smiled when he saw his favorite pebble beside heaps of new comics. The next day at school Broody met up with Joyce during recess. They both sat down on the field and stared at the sky smiling. “Your mother will be fine says the Doctor Broody”. “You a really special you know that Broody?” Joyce smiled shaking her head gingerly. “Refused to stop kicking even when aborted, you loved your mother more than she ever dared hoped, and science gave you both a second chance, and it should stop at that!”. Broody kept his eyes on the sky and finally said “I’m now here and there”. The End
Copyright © 2009 Brian Mey |