“Not a chance, lad. My gift sack is multi-dimensional so it actually doesn’t have any weight to it in this dimension. The science behind it is all a bit complicated so I leave the technical stuff to my head elf, Bobo.”
Jerry laughed at the natural chemistry in the banter, then a new migraine spiked his skull. He winced, ground his fists into his temples and tried not to throw up in the hallway. Eventually he felt steadier and returned slowly to his office, one hand on the wall for balance.
ANA STOOD AT the window, the sun streaming in, bathing her in its warmth. She held one hand up to the light, examining herself for solidity, and was pleased with the results. Jerry’s forgotten iPhone vibrated on the coffee table and she turned to look at it but made no move to answer it.
JERRY’S HEADACHE SLAMMED into him without mercy. He made it back to his office eventually but now leaned hard on his desk, trying to catch his breath. He risked taking his hand off the desk and fumbled through a drawer where he stashed his pills. Before he could open the bottle, though, the agony crushed him and he collapsed to the floor, knocking over his in-basket with a crash on his way down.
STARTLED BY THE sound, Jerry’s assistant, Mika, called out from her office across the hall. “Jerry? Boss? You okay?” She wandered over to see what was up and when she stepped around the corner, she saw Jerry on the floor. “Someone call 9-1-1! Jerry’s collapsed!”
Chapter Ten
@TheTaoOfJerr: “If I should ever die… let this be my epitaph: The only proof he needed of the existence of God was music.”
MIKA, RED-EYED and emotionally frazzled, sat next to Jerry’s hospital bed, keeping vigil while Jerry slept. She tried to read a magazine from the nurse’s station but couldn’t concentrate. She was reading the same paragraph about ski vacations in Utah for the fifth time when Manny slipped into the room. “Hey, Boss.”
“How is he, girl?” He put a comforting hand on her shoulder and she reached up and squeezed it.
“Sedated. They took x-rays and have scheduled an MRI for next week, I guess. I’m not family, so they’re only giving me hints of what’s going on. Damned frustrating.”
“An MRI for a headache?” He picked up the chair next to the empty bed across the room and placed it next to Mika’s, careful not to let the feet scrape the floor.
“The doctor says the symptoms look familiar.”
“How long does he expect to keep Jerr here?”
“Overnight, at least. He’ll know more in a couple hours.”
“Damnation.”
“Yeah.”
ANA DRIFTED UP out of her book and glanced around the flat. The lights were off, so she thought that maybe Jerry had come home and gone to bed, although she really wish he’d said hello before he went to sleep. She shook off the remnants of the darkness that seemed to cling to her less and less when she exited the book’s other realm, and stood solidly on the floor. Jerry’s college sweatshirt lay folded on the table, so she slipped it on over her dress. She then tiptoed over to peek behind the privacy screen, but was stopped abruptly at the end of her ethereal leash, a yard short of the screen.
This is rather silly, only being able to travel a few yards. She stalked back to the coffee table and the tiny book with the weight of a world. Why do you do this to me? Why can I not simply—? And then it dawned on her. Very carefully, as if expecting to be shocked or burned, Ana reached over and picked up the book.
“O, moy dorogoy Gospod’!” Oh, my Dear Lord! She hugged the book tight to her chest and giggled. Mashka would mock me so, for being silly and not thinking of this sooner. To test the new development, Ana walked back to Jerry’s privacy screen. Unlike her first attempt, this time nothing stopped her. She did a little skip of joy and peeked behind the screen. The bed was empty.
She turned back to the main room. “Jerry?” Now that she knew he wasn’t asleep, she could risk calling out. She could see that the door to the toilet was open and the small area beyond was dark, but she knew that meant nothing conclusive. Afraid of what she might find, she walked through the kitchen to assure herself that Jerry wasn’t lying out of sight on the floor behind the counter. Relieved that he wasn’t there, she tapped lightly on the bathroom door. No answer came. “Jerry? I am about to invade your privacy. Please say something before I embarrass us both.” Her only answer was silence, so she reached in, flicked the switch to open the electric light, and poked her head around the corner. The tiny space was empty. Jerry was not at home, and the glowing numbers on the electric heating box in the kitchen said that it was nearly midnight. Ana made her way back to the sleeping area and sat on the floor, leaning back against the bed, keeping vigil.
“Jerry? Where are you?” She slid the book into the sweatshirt’s pouch, wrapped her arms around herself, and remained like that, rocking back and forth, lost and unsure what to do, until she was so exhausted that she was unwillingly drawn back into the book. The sweatshirt crumpled to the floor next to the bed, with the book still tucked away in the pouch.
JERRY REGAINED CONSCIOUSNESS suddenly, as if a noise had awakened him. Alert as he was, though, he was confused. He recognized a hospital room when he saw one, but he had no memory of how he got there. He was also alone. Yes, of course he was alone. His family was back east and Ana was either a figment of his imagination or a ghost attached to some old book of poetry. The only light in his room came from the tall, narrow window flanking the half-closed door. No, he was wrong. There was a glow above and behind him, probably from some piece of health-monitoring equipment. As his eyes adjusted he saw, too, that there was light from a glow of dusk or dawn outside his window. His mind was fuzzy around the edges and his confusion wouldn’t go away.
“Ana? Shvibzik? What happened?”
At the sound of Jerry’s voice on the near silent ward, a nurse poked her head into the room. “Mr. Powell? Good morning. I’m Stephanie. How are you feeling?”
“Lost. Where am I?”
Stephanie came into the room and began checking the monitoring equipment and Jerry’s pulse. “Royal Jubilee Hospital. You collapsed at work and gave your co-workers quite a scare.” She laid the back of her hand against his forehead and seemed satisfied that he wasn’t burning up. “You’re looking much better now. Your colour has improved.”
“I collapsed? During my headache?”
“Well, that’s one of things we don’t know, and now that you’re awake, I’ll page the doctor. As soon as he arrives at the hospital he’ll come up and ask some questions. Hopefully he’ll even answer a few.”
“Gee, that’d be nice. What time is it?”
“Almost eight in the morning. Why don’t you lie back and relax and I’ll page Dr. Kelly? I’m sure you’re hungry, but we’ll wait to see what the doctor says before we bring in breakfast. He may need you to fast for some tests. Relax. If you need anything, the call button is here on your left.” She held up the call button strapped to the bed frame.
“Sure. Thanks.” He was suddenly exhausted, like someone had cut his strings. “Maybe I’ll just close my eyes for a bit, until the Doc gets in.”
“Good idea.” Before Stephanie had finished opening the curtains and shifting the two chairs back from the bed, Jerry was snoring.
EVENTUALLY JERRY DREAMED, and in his dream Ana pulled on his foot, trying to coax him off of the couch to go for another walk. But even as his dream gave way to reality, the gentle shaking of his foot continued. Crawling up from the dream, Jerry struggled to open his eyes only to find a short, round man somewhere over forty, standing beside the foot of the bed, shaking his foot.