21
Tuesday, June 6, 2006 – 10:21 a.m.
Aspen Memorial Hospital – ER
Maisie’s curls lay splayed across her pillow, a look of peacefulness on her face. Her eyes were shut tight and she was sleeping soundly. A tray of half-eaten cheeseburger, fries, utensil wrappings and dishes sat next to her on a tray. Since receiving her shot a little after 9:30 a.m. and after having filled her stomach with food, Maisie had drifted back to sleep. Karen sat nearby watching her calm, rhythmic breathing. She was glad that Maisie’s pain had finally subsided enough to allow her to rest. The nurse had told her that the medication would probably make her tired. Karen was still nursing her turkey and ham sandwich that the nurse had brought in. A Cappuccino sat next to Maisie’s tray, and a bag of Doritos was opened next to it.
Karen sat quietly eating thinking about the last few months. What a year. Her husband had left, blaming her for the instability in the marriage. He was gone all the time. He never had much time for her or Maisie. He said it was for work, but Karen had suspected otherwise. No matter what she did to patch things up, it seemed that Dave always had a way of twisting things around and making it appear that she was at fault. She hated that. She tried her best to make the marriage work, a marriage that had lasted some 15 years up until last year when he left. As usual, he made his leaving seem like it was her fault. With his smooth reasoning and his ability to lay the guilt on her, Karen had begun to believe she was to blame. It wasn’t until her father had moved in after Dave’s leaving that he was able to get her thoughts re-directed in such a fashion that she was able to see the real truth behind the situation. He helped her to see that she had done everything she could and that she was not to blame for the way things turned out. Her dad had always had a way of being able to see into things and because of that, he had helped her immensely.
Maisie missed her dad, but Papa’s constant doting on her made up for the loss. As smart as she was, Maisie realized something wasn’t right about the situation and was able to ascertain when her dad wasn’t telling the whole truth or even twisting it. Although she had begged him not to leave, when he finally did, she realized how much nicer her life had become. Of course, when Papa moved in, life became grand. Maisie’s every waking moment was spent with him, sometimes to the chagrin of Karen. Karen had to tell herself, though, that it was good for Maisie and in the end would be of great benefit.
Then, one Saturday morning eight months or so after moving in, Karen and Maisie found Papa still in bed at 9:30 a.m. It was extremely unusual since he was always up at 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. at the latest. When they walked in the room, a strange feeling overcame them, a feeling of lifelessness, a feeling that something was wrong. Walking to the side of his bed, Karen had reached out to gently shake him she immediately noticed how cold he was, how lifeless he felt. Shaking him a bit harder, she could tell he was not as supple as he should have been were he just sleeping. Rather, his whole body moved as if all one unit. Beginning to panic, she shook him harder. No response. Reaching for his carotid artery, she felt no pulse. She screamed for Maisie to call 911. Maisie, although intelligent beyond her years, was nevertheless still a kid. She cried out “why?” Yelling again, Karen had told her to just do it now! Maisie, in a panic ran to the phone and dialed 911. Within just a few minutes, the ambulance had arrived. After a quick examination, Karen and Maisie were told that Papa had died of a heart attack in his sleep and there was nothing they could do. That day had been the darkest in their lives to date.
Karen’s mental journey of the past year was suddenly snapped back to reality when she heard Maisie’s EKG monitor go off. Looking up, she saw that Maisie’s heart rate was beginning to climb. Turning to look at Maisie, she watched as her body began to squirm as if agitated. Hearing the commotion and receiving a warning at her station, a nurse rushed into the room to check on the situation.
***
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Maisie opened her eyes only to be greeted by a void of light. Blackness surrounded her to such an extent that she couldn’t see her hand resting across the bridge of her nose as she laid it on her face. It felt as if she were in a room filled with black fog. The eerie sensation she received from being in this place that was void of light was so unusual and disturbing that she felt herself slipping into an almost coma-like state. She attempted to reach out and touch something, but nothing was there. She didn’t even feel any wind resistance as her hand moved rapidly back and forth in front of her. It was a total void. Although she was standing, there was nothing under her. Stomping her foot, she felt no resistance, yet she didn’t sink or fall. Maisie turned her head left and then right. She turned completely around and looked up and down. Everywhere it was black. Maisie attempted to move forward. In doing so, she felt like she was pulling this black void with her. It felt as if the blackness were part of her, somehow connected to her body and that as she walked, the blackness was being drug with her. Although there was no resistance, she still felt as if she were walking through thick tar. As far as she could tell, she might be moving forward, then again, she might not. By now, Maisie’s heart was racing. She felt trapped and confined somewhere, but where? Although she was a little girl, her strength of character preceded her. Although confident, Maisie nevertheless was scared.
Was this another nightmare she wondered? She’d been having them, but hadn’t told her mom about them for fear of causing her mother more stress and worry. If this was a nightmare, it was the strangest and weirdest she’d had yet. Her eyes began to ache as they strained to see into the blackness surrounding her. Then, up ahead, a tiny point of light appeared. Her eyes instantly grabbed hold of the photons like tractor beams. She began to walk toward the light. As she got closer, the tiny dot of light grew. It got a little bigger with each step. Then she heard the low frequency rumble of something unnatural, something uncanny coming from the same direction as the light. Stopping in her tracks, the light continued to move toward her. As she watched in terror, the single dot became two. The two dots then changed from intense snow-white to an orange and then a glowing brilliant red. The roar continued to grow in intensity and Maisie’s ears began to ache. Her heart was pounding in her chest like a captured and frightened animal. Maisie turned to run, but found that she was confronting the same phenomena coming from behind her. Two sets of red glowing points of light grew in size as they came closer and closer. Maisie tried to run but the black “tar” kept her from moving more than a few inches at a time. She was moving in slow motion while the objects continued toward her at regular speed, the din now so loud that she thought her eardrums were going to burst. Then the roaring stopped. The two sets of round, red objects were no more than 20 feet from her on both sides. It was now apparent that the objects were eyes, eyes of something terrible.
As she stood staring at them, they flickered like candle flames casting off an eerie red glow that made her skin look like it was covered in blood. Jaws snapping shut and the sound of clashing teeth filled the void and echoed repeatedly slowly fading away as Maisie’s imagination sat on the precipice of insanity. A bright green orifice opened and closed just below the flickering red eyes and the black outline of hundreds of wickedly sharp teeth stood in contrast to the green glow. Snarling, drops of saliva splashing on the bottomless black floor and the scent of putrescence filling the air caused Maisie to gag. Her heart was beating so hard she thought it would explode.
***
Karen’s panicked voice and trembling hands indicated her height of anxiety as she watched the monitors go crazy. “What’s happening?” she cried.
“I’m not sure yet. Let me take a look.” The nurse, although working at a frantic pace, didn’t seem unnerved. She dealt with situations like this every day, so this was nothing out of the ordinary.
“Why did her heart rate go up?”
“It could be a number of things. Everything else seems normal. She could just be dreaming.”
“Is it normal for the rate to go up that fast?”
“Sometimes.” The nurse continued to check over Maisie glancing at the monitor, checking her pulse and observing her. Just then, Maisie began to squirm uncontrollably in her sleep while at the same time whimpering and throwing her head back and forth on the pillow.
“I don’t like the looks of this,” Karen said pushing up next to the nurse and reaching out for Maisie’s head. “She looks like she’s having some kind of seizure or something.”
“It’s not a seizure Miss. She is very disturbed though. I’ll page Dr. Slaterbaugh to come have a look.
***
Paralyzed, Maisie had nowhere to run. Then she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand straight up. A searing hot blast of air blew down on her from behind. Whatever this thing was, it was right behind her. A hot drop of saliva dripped onto her neck and trickled down inside her shirt leaving a burning trail of pain behind. Maisie closed her eyes, but she could still see everything. In this place, eyelids were of no use. Maisie’s mind was racing as another blast of furnace heat rippled through her hair and over her body. The smell of singed hair filled the air surrounding her. Then Maisie heard the sound of two rocks being banged together. Looking around, she realized that what she was hearing was actually the sound of teeth snapping together, not rocks. Then a deep, low rumble began to sound. It started out quietly, but quickly reached a crescendo. Maisie reached up and covered her ears, but to no avail. About that time, Maisie remembered something.
***
Within just a minute Ken was at Karen’s side. Again, a wave of calm settled over Karen as if someone had thrown a warm blanket over her on a cold night.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s hard to tell,” Ken said, a reassuring calmness in his voice. “She’s not seizing, but she is agitated about something. She seems to be having a nightmare.”
Ken reached out and touched Maisie’s forehead. To his surprise, she felt as if she was burning up. Keeping his composure so as not to alarm Karen, Ken looked at the monitor that was attached to Maisie’s finger. The display read 103.8º. Concerned, but not panicked, Ken reached over with warm, calm hands and gently rocked Maisie.
“Wake up Maisie. Wake up.”
Maisie continued to squirm and whimper as if trapped and unable to speak. She gave no indication that Ken was attempting to awaken her.
***
Recently, Maisie had been reading on how to overcome nightmares. She was particularly interested in getting out of them once they started. Again, she had not told her mother about this, as she did not want to worry her or cause her more anxiety. Thinking about what she’d read, Maisie realized that the suggestions for using lucidity to overcome nightmares might work now in her current situation. Turning around and facing the thing face-to-face, Maisie told it to go away.
“I’m not afraid of you. Go away. Leave me alone.”
The thing growled and snarled at her, globs of sputum landing on her face. It stepped closer. The breath was now so hot that Maisie figured she was going to burst into a flaming pile of flesh.
“I said go away. You’re only in my imagination. You can’t hurt me.”
Reaching out, Maisie swung her hand and connected with something in the dark. The thing roared in pain, snarled, and hissed again. A long, wet, spit-covered, scaly tongue ran down the side of Maisie’s face and across her neck. Maisie jumped back, terrorized.
“Quit it! Go away!”
Reaching out again, Maisie shoved her fingers into the eyes of the thing in front of her. Screaming in pain, the thing backed away. The two red, flickering eyes disappeared as its eyelids went shut. All Maisie could see was the green opening of its mouth howling in agony.
“I’m stronger than you! Go away! I’ll kill you! Leave me alone!”
The image in front of her began to fade and the roaring subsided. Turning around, Maisie saw the other thing fading as well. After just a few seconds, both things were gone. The blackness around Maisie began to brighten until finally Maisie found herself standing in a bright empty place. Her eyes fluttered open and she found herself looking up into the eyes of Dr. Slaterbaugh and her mother.
***
“Maisie, wake up. It’s Dr. Slaterbaugh. Papa.”
Maisie stopped moving for a moment and then whispered, “Papa?”
Karen looked at Ken as if to say, ‘say it again.’
Ken caught the look and again shook Maisie. “Maisie, it’s me, Ken, the Dr. who looks like Papa. Can you hear me?”
Again, Maisie stopped and said “Papa?”
As Ken and Karen watched, Maisie’s heart rate settled down and she became less agitated. Her breathing slowed and her eyes began to flutter. Then she opened them fully. A glassy look emanated from her small eyes as she stared off toward the ceiling. Slowly, her eyes cleared and she turned her head and looked at Ken and Karen.
“Papa?” Then she smiled a sheepish grin.
“Who am I really?” Ken asked.
“Dr. Slaterbaugh.” A mischievous grin spread across her face.
“Are you okay? It took some time to get you to wake up.”
“Ya. I think I’m okay. I was in the middle of a nightmare and couldn’t wake up. Then I remembered about some stuff I was reading a couple of weeks ago.” Maisie stopped to yawn and construct her next sentence. “It was about how to wake yourself up from dreams. Since I’ve had other nightmares, I wanted to know how to get out of them when they happened. And it worked.”
“What kind of stuff were you reading?” Karen asked, an instant look of concern and fear crossing her face. “I didn’t know you were having nightmares.”
“I didn’t want to worry you more mommy. I just thought I could take care of this myself. Besides, it wasn’t that hard. Once you get the ideas in your head, you can use them to help you avoid having bad dreams. You should try it for your nightmares.”
Ken turned and looked at Karen. An embarrassed look crossed her face.
“I’m fine. Really. They aren’t that bad. Just nightmares like everybody have sometimes.”
Ken turned back toward Maisie so as not to make Karen more embarrassed than she was.
“Was your nightmare bad?”
“It was worse than I’ve had before. In fact, it took a lot of work to get away from, but what I’ve been learning about lucidity really worked.”
“About what?” Karen asked.
“Lucidity. That’s dreaming while you know that you are dreaming. It gives you the ability to guide your dreams. You can add to, create or enhance your dreams for the good, or use lucidity to break free from nightmares. I wasn’t sure it would really work, but it has. That’s how I was able to get away from the nightmare I was having a minute ago. This nightmare was harder to wake up from though. It felt different. It was like it wasn’t from my head but was put there by something else. It was strange.”
Ken glanced at Karen and noticed she was unsure of what her daughter was talking about. Ken looked back at Maisie, reached over, and moved a strand of curls from her eyes. Her temperature seemed to be dropping too.
“Well, I’m glad it worked. I’ve never heard of lucidity, but it appears to have worked for you.”
“It did. And I’m glad it did. I didn’t want to keep dreaming. It was really scary.”
“You seem okay now. I’d like to keep you here for a little while longer though. I want to keep an eye on you and make sure you’re going to be okay. How’s the head?”
“Okay. It hurts a little, but not too bad.”
“Good. It sounds like the medicine is working. I’ll give you some other medication to take home. I told your mom to give you one pill daily for the next two weeks and then to come and see me again. Sound fair?”
“I guess. Can I stay overnight?”
“Why would you want to stay here?”
“Because I feel safe. The nurses are nice and it’s like having my Papa around again.”
Ken’s faced blushed. “I’m flattered,” he said. “I don’t think I can take the place of your grandpa though.”
“I know. But I still like you and wish you could stay with me for awhile.”
“Tell you what. I’ll check back with you in awhile and see how you’re doing. I’ll determine then whether or not you should stay. In the meantime, you need to rest. We don’t want anymore of those headaches attacking you.”
“Me neither. They hurt!”
“Thank you doctor,” Karen said reaching out to shake his hand.
“You’re welcome. I’ll check back a little later. I’ll let the nurses know what’s going on.”
Looking back at Maisie, Ken winked at her.
“Hey, Papa did the same thing! He always winked at me.”
“Well, you did say I reminded you of him. Rest up, okay?”
“Okay.” Maisie lay back down on the pillow, her small frame dwarfed by the bed. “I’ll be waiting for you.”
Ken smiled at her and winked again. He then nodded at Karen who sat back down next to Maisie.
“He’s a nice man. I like him.”
“Yes, he is,” Karen replied. “I like him too.”
Ken headed for the elevators. Passing the nurses station, he was nearly run over by an ambulance crew wheeling another unfortunate victim into the ER. One paramedic sat atop the victim administering CPR. Two others were pushing the gurney surrounded by nurses and doctors. Commands and requests were being yelled out over the cacophony of noise. It faded as the group disappeared down the hall and into a curtained area. Ken pushed the up button on the elevator. As he stood waiting, the intercom crackled overhead.
“Dr. Ken Slaterbaugh to room 507 stat! Dr. Ken Slaterbaugh to room 507 stat!”
What now? Ken thought. The elevator doors opened and Ken stepped inside. Turning around he pushed the button for the fifth floor. His mind was racing trying to ascertain what was happening in Hank Maverick’s room. Could his day get any more confusing and hectic?
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