39. Clark
THIRTY-NINE
CLARK
Olly grabbed the nurse call button and on the intercom said, “Houston, I think we have a problem. Can you send someone down with supplies to treat burns on the palm of the hands?”
Thank goodness it was Nurse Fatima, the woman in the pink outfit, who I knew from her accent was from Kenya.
Olly had told me her story, and I remembered how hard the medical team near us in Kenya worked to save Rosie, to no avail.
I had kind of thought I would be triggered being around Fatima, but everything seemed fine and I wasn’t going to borrow trouble over it.
“Now, what’s the problem in here? Someone burned their hands?” She looked from Olly to me, and I thought, if you can’t be honest with a ghost, who can you be honest with? I held up my hands, but I asked,
“Nurse Abdallah, could we please look at Olly, first? That’s how I got these, doing a bit of an experiment. I’d like to see if it was worth it before we fuss over my hands.”
“Fatima, please?” Olly asked.
“An experiment, hmm? I don’t know if I can say I approve of unsanctioned medical experimentation, but we all have our own talents, and maybe yours helped our wee lamb here.”
“Wee lamb?” Olly repeated, laughing. “More like stubborn old goat.”
“You said it, not me!” Fatima joined Olly in giggling.
Olly pulled back their blankets and pointed to the dressing around their torso.
“I was hoping you could have a look and see if we were at all successful in healing this up. It still won’t make those hands worth it—I feel awful about that—but it was done in the name of science and discovery.
” Fatima nodded and didn’t complain about how the other nurse had just finished examining the incision site and fixing up the bandages fresh, she just dove in and let out a small gasp as the three of us stared at a completely healed looking tummy.
Fatima put her hands on Olly the same way I had, and said,
“I think we need an ultrasound in here, just to check and see what’s going on underneath. Hang tight for a few minutes, okay? I’ll go grab one from next door.”
“Holy shit,” I said, the minute Fatima was out the door. “It actually worked, at least superficially. Are you in any pain?”
“No, no pain at all. I don’t feel like I just had a baby. I think you might really have the gift of healing, Clark.”
Fatima chimed in, as she wheeled in the ultrasound machine.
“If he does, he could always help out at the hospital. A bit old to be a Candy Striper, but you know, if there was a way we could get him in here...maybe with a therapy dog? Even just to close wounds and remove the scars would be a blessing to so many children here. Anyway, let’s not count our chickens before they are hatched.
” She put a bit of the cold ultrasound jelly on Olly’s belly, and moved the wand around, looking for tears in the muscle and womb, essentially.
“Well, I don’t know how, but your internal stitches have melted way earlier than they were supposed to, and your flesh has knitted itself back together. You’re healed.”
“Holy flying fuck, are you serious?” Olly asked.
“Just look for yourself. Here, here, and here,” Fatima was saying, pointing at the screen, and showing us layer by layer Olly’s internal anatomy.
“There should be some evidence of having a C-section yesterday. There’s nothing.
You are intact, whole, healed. Now, let’s look at the hands of our very own Dr. Strange, here, okay? ”
I pulled my hands back a bit and said, “I’d like a doctor to look at the ultrasound, if that’s okay.
I believe you, Fatima, but my brain which gets way too anxious when it comes to Olly, and I’d like it confirmed independently.
Is that okay?” Fatima nodded, smiled, muttered something about nervous first-time parents as she walked away and asked for a minute to round up the nearest doctor, who she happened to know was finishing up her break in the lounge.
About ten minutes later, the doctor breezed in, gloved up and sat in the stool Fatima had just occupied.
She turned on something on her iPad and began to dictate what she was doing, so I stayed quiet, as did Fatima.
“So I can confirm that this is Olive Elaine McLeod, twenty-nine, who yesterday morning delivered a premature girl via C-section while unconscious. She should be doing light exercise such as walking while she heals. I’m not sure why I’m doing an ultrasound on her at this point, but here we go.
” She lifted the sheet to expose Olly’s abdomen and gasped at what she didn’t see.
“Oh, ha-ha, guys. You do realize that you are a newer hire, Nurse Abdallah, and shouldn’t be participating in pranks on the senior staff!
And you! She looked down at Olly. Who the hell are you, and where is my patient? Hiding in the washroom, maybe?”
Olly looked very taken aback and said, “It wasn’t my intent to play a prank or to get Fatima in trouble.
But I am your patient. Look, how could I get all this done on my own?
” She pointed at the two hospital bracelets, one with identification, the other indicating allergies, and the IV that was inserted into their hand.
“And no, Fatima didn’t do all this. I really am your patient, and I’m concerned.
I just had surgery yesterday, and right now I feel like I could fly.
I never was a huge fan of The Exorcist, so I was hoping you could use that ultrasound on me and tell me what you see.
Then I need someone to examine my partner’s hands, which are burnt. ”
Dr. Smith, as her tag read, looked at Olly and caved.
“Okay, just a short look. I’m not derailing my entire schedule for whatever this is or isn’t.
” She squirted the lubricant on Olly, and used it to examine the surgical site.
She spent quite a bit of time in a few areas, and said, finally, “This is the belly of someone who has had a child via caesarean approximately six months ago. I can see there are small imperfections, yet you are healed and ready for discharge. How am I to discharge a patient that squeezed six months of healing into two days?”
“I will let you study me if you want to. In exchange, please...his hands?” Dr. Smith nodded.
“Well, I’d say that this is probably very painful, Mr. Evans, is it?” I nodded, and managed to hold my hands out straight. “We have some options here to treat burns like this, so I’d really like to admit you onto the burn unit and get moving on that ASAP.”
“Before you do that, doctor, may I try something? This is going to come off as a load of malarky, I know it will, but would you give me five more minutes of your time while I try to heal them myself? I don’t know if I can, or if the burns will just get worse.
I got them ah...I got them healing Olly.
They didn’t know I would get hurt, or we wouldn’t have tried it. ”
She sighed and looked from Olly to me. “You have precisely five minutes of my time, Mr. Evans. Not a second more.”
I nodded in thanks, and then held my hands together, almost looking as though I was praying.
While I held them together, I closed my eyes, and I could smell the wild roses that grew by the sea and could hear distant laughter on sandy shores, quickly replaced by the nothingness and sheer volume that was space.
I blocked Olly from my mind as much as possible, and focused in on Sirius, the dog star, my father had called it.
I looked at it in my mind, concentrated, and I felt my hands heat but not in pain.
About two minutes after I started, I parted my hands and the burns were just...
gone. I had accessed something inside myself, not borrowed from Olly, and I had managed to heal both of us.
Dr. Smith was rapidly making notes, her iPad dictation forgotten. “You two, you were survivors of whatever contaminant was released on that corporation’s Annual General Meeting, weren’t you?”
“Yes,” I said, heading over to Olly and taking her hand in mine.
“How long would you say you were exposed to the air and other items in that room? They evacuated everyone when they woke up, correct?”
“He never fainted,” Olly said from the bed.
“In fact, now that we’ve got your expert opinion, I think it’s time to make the last stressful half hour of your shift just sort of float away.
Why don’t you head back to the break room?
Fatima will go with you, and you get yourself another cup of matcha and let this bother you no more. ”
Dr. Smith stood, adjusted her white coat, and said, “You know, I never finished my break. I think I’m going to fix myself another cup of matcha and de-stress a little. Take care, Olive. Clark. And congratulations on your little bundle in the NICU.”
And that was that.