| The World of Jack LeBlanc | |||||||||||||||||
| Short Story Fiction | Poetry or Prose | ||||||||||||||||
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The following journeys, dreams and perceptions will be updated at random times. Come in and share some time...relax...enjoy these stories and please request and critic. Let Jack know what topics you would like to see expanded on. |
To paraphrase St.John of the Cross ONLY SOMETHING THAT COMES ON RANDOMLY WOULD I GIVE MY LIFE FOR OR TO. | ||||||||||||||||
| THEY SEE YOU. | |||||||||||||||||
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You can see the doctors have done all they can. Gauze bandages are completely soaked with blood and surround an open incision that was made over four hours before. The air is crisp. The sounds are distant and full. Six nurses stand by anticipating any needed directions from the team of three surgeons. They are not idle. The walls, a grayish white, are stark and plain. Very little is attached to the walls in this room. There are two signs next to the only doors, one on each side. You can see that these stainless steel doors are the side-by-side swinging types. Both signs are at eye level between five and six feet from the floor, and both are six inches tall by 24 inches long, with bright white backgrounds. Both are in bold black block lettering. You can see the simple information printed on each one. The one on the left tells you, "CAUTION; DOORS OPEN IN BOTH DIRECTIONS". Thanks. It states this is a two-way relationship of coming and going. Living and dying. Doing and not doing. An arena of contrasts, of opposites that complement each other. The other one on the right states, "MAIN SURGICAL THEATRE: NORTH WING, OPERATING ROOM #1". You know what this means. You are here now. You had other plans. The dinner with the family was almost ready. The aroma of the foods being served filled your nostrils. You served the hors d'oeuvres, so enjoyable, you think. It is. This was going to be the highpoint of your day. You think of all the times with your family in the backyard. You love this. This is good. You notice that faintly in the background Alexander Borodin's Symphony Number One in E Flat is playing softly through the audio system of O.R.#1. It is so pleasant. You would choose this piece yourself, perhaps. It permeates your entire essence. The body that is lying on the surgical table is breathing regularly. This is good. The nurses and doctors ar calm. This is good. You know that the floors are clean. You know there are shields and troughs that are in sections as well surrounding the body on the surgical table. Stainless steel everywhere in this arena; sinks, doors, the framing around the light fixtures, including the light switch covers and so on. The brightness of these items penetrates the atmosphere, constantly, radiantly. Nothing is ever truly at rest, it seems. Is physics true? Who knows? Who cares now anyway? The air is so clean, and has a distinct particulation to its composition. It is so easy to move through, almost as if there was no resistance or friction. A soft swishing can be heard as they part fo your flowing passage. This is good. You can almost see the molecules moving within in the room, if you look hard enough. Go ahead, look, it won't hurt. The Medicinal Alcohol is suspended in the air, along with other disinfectants that ar in use. Your being is consumed. The doctors are looking into each others eyes. What is it they are looking for? The same nurses are cleaning instruments and putting them back on the tray on top of the table next to the body. Why? The family is in the waiting room next to the Doctor's Lounge. The lounge is empty. In the waiting room there are four couches and eight chairs. Modern. All of them are upholstered in new beige vinyl, with chromium legs and trim. Four tables, one in each corner. Like a chessboard. The linoleum tiles of the floor alternate their black and white colored pattern in twelve inch pieces underneath the furniture and throughout the facility. Easy to clean. This is good. Though not friendly, it is a continuous companion that takes you everywhere within this complex system that explores, changes and repairs inner materials and substances of the body by choice or necessity. The people here look stressed, trying to be calm. They communicate this without voices only in faces and eyes. These are visual messages they transmit. Occasionally there are disruptive noises. The moment is punctuated with blurting footsteps of fast bodies pushing carts with heavy solid chrome casters spinning as quickly as the bodies moving them. There are other sounds that are less clear to the ears and almost irritating. Not quite. What are they? Listen, carefully. Again. Once more... Then again... And again... Maddening almost... Not quite.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Traveling through this enclosed shopping mall of health care vendors and prime locations where the services rendered creates questions you don't want to ask. Value. Quality. Durability. Function. You cannot understand yet. Numb feelings run deep inside as changes take place, like being enclosed in a cocoon where a metamorphosis occurs automatically. A vague warm and tingly sensation holds part of your awareness as you continue on this journey. You notice now that having your body limits your sensory awareness. You no longer only see 10% of visible light...you see all of it, if you call this seeing. It is so much more. Now you can feel colors, smell them, hear them, as well as see them. Sounds, and the sense of touch are expanded beyond limitation. This is nothing like you have known. What you would have called a chill, now masks all of these feelings. What is the destination? How will you know when you haver arrived? This is a dream. It must be. What else could this be? Constant currents of air alternate from warming to cooling sensations as you pass through each section of each wing. These differ in speed at various locations as you move in a vaporous manner. Searching...searching; the looking, the touching and doing are the activities you notice. You want to do these things again. You are aware of the meals that are prepared individually...in mass, for everyone, as you pass the kitchen. The heat here is dripping down the skin inside the clothing of the attendants, as they do their tasks. You can see this before they wipe their foreheads. They toil, some with exhaustion. The chill leaves you here. As the location moves so does the temperature of the air you move through. The chill returns, as you enter. In the pharmacy, techs prep the scripts that are only read by microscopic actors within each of the customers being entertained in their own biological theatre. You are ushered by the constant currents of air through the oversized hallways towards what appears to be two doors, side-by -side. You notice there are two small square windows about six feet up from the floor side-by-side. It is bright. The stainless steel is piercing and radiant. These must be the doors of O.R.#1. Read the sign What does it say? Missed it. You enter the passageway. You do not know, you are uncertain. Where is the sign? Left? No, on the right...remember? This room is the same room you saw the body in. The sign reads "MAIN SURGICAL THEATRE: NORTH WING, OPERATING ROOM #1. Only the orderlies are cleaning up. The doctors and nurses are gone. The body with the incision is gone. The room now glares with yellow white light, that is above the observation windows. The audience of doctors, residents and interns are gone. The smell of steak on the grill is not present. Neither is the person standing in front of it. They have seen what clogged arteries look like, one more time. They know the solution. They know the procedure. You feel the constant currents of air move you again out the door to an unspecified destination. The sensation of air movement increases. Quickly, now there is necessity for you to arrive at the room where the body is. You enter a room where there is only one bed, that is in front of a large window. You know the body on the bed. The incision is closed. This is good. The body is breathing This is good. There are tubes attached to the body. Monitors are just above the bed, and show that the body is in an unstable condition. The nurses appear useless, yet actively moving around where the body lies. You know you want to inhabit your body again. You know that you do not want to lose this vessel that you have been given. Not now. Not yet. Time to re -enter or perhaps lose contact with this instrument forever. Enter now. Live. The monitor above the bed stabilizes. The nurses are moving around the room still, as you open the body's eyes. You see them. They see you. | |||||||||||||||||
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