the last four days... day 1, a short story by jay. Date added: 2009-12-28. Times viewed: 540.
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- Intro: sometimes life isnt so easy on us.... but everything happens for a reason.
The last four days.
Dominic. J.
Day 1.
27th December 2009.It was the first of the last four days of the year.
Since I was a child, this day in particular was the dullest day in the entire Christmas -New Year season for me. The after taste of Christmas had vanished on the 26th itself and there was nothing to look forward to on 28th. The morning and the following afternoon were entirely spent analyzing exactly what I felt about Catherine's engagement. Not that I was upset about it, but it sure did feel strange... and in some way very unreal.
The entire episode had been ringing alarm bells in my head. I hadn't been serious enough about life. I never noticed it whizzing past me. And now suddenly things had drastically changed. Everybody else had grown up and I was still a kid!
I don't know why... but suddenly I felt the dire need to settle down. To re-think previously failed relationships. I guess the meeting with Alice was a primary catalyst to that thought. I have to admit that I was glad to see her. Although I owe it to Shawn, I believe we just had to meet that day. Christmas day... to be precise.
A trade fair in the adjacent town had brightened my spirits by early evening. We (me and Shawn) had talked about it in the engagement party and it didn't seem much of a good idea then... now, it was the only thing interesting. A couple of calls later I was able to convince Roy to tag along with me and Shawn. We were scheduled to leave around five in the evening. I was as always over dressed. The fact brought about the revelation that the others should too. When we finally decided to leave, it was already almost twenty minutes past seven and Shawn had bailed with a clumsy excuse.
Without dampening our spirits, the two of us decided to go anyway. Roy is a nice guy. But eccentric would be too small of a word to describe him. Usually (like million other guys of our age) the main topic of our conversation was girls. The only difference was that I had lots of names to talk about and he had just one...Lisa. I liked Lisa. I thought she was perfect for Roy. But I detested the way they acted as though they were married to each other. (As if I didn't have enough of that marriage nonsense already!). Roy knew about Alice. And we were in serious discussion about me and her as I drove my army green 250 CC motorcycle. The evening air was wonderful and the motorcycle was an impulsive decision. The traffic was loud so Roy leaned against me tilting his head sideways listening to what I was saying.
"...it's your decision Jay... Alice isn't a bad person but I guess you do remember why you broke up in the first place... see it's different with me and Lisa... you know we- aaaaaaaaarrrrggghhhh......"
I had seen it fly near my face before I heard his agonizing grunt. A small wasp, about three fourth of a centimeter. I dodged it instinctively and I believe Roy hadn't been that lucky. My first reaction was to think that the wasp had gotten into his eye...I am not much of a medical person, but I was positive that things would get nasty if it had stung him there. Fortunately it hadn't gone in his eyes. Unfortunately...it went inside his ear.
How many times has an average person come across an acute case of bug in the ear? And how many times was a person actually a victim of it? Laughter was my first reaction... but then I realized that it had to be serious in some way... (Like I said before... I'm not much of a medical person.)
The current task at hand was somehow killing the bug which was fluttering its wings in a futile attempt to get out of the ear. Strangely enough Roy confided that it had happened to him before and to the same ear although the bug was of an entirely different species. (Twice...What are the odds of that?). Drowning the bug in hair oil was the option he had tried last time and it had worked... so we decided to try that first. But before that, I came up with the idea of going to the hospital... just in case. We drove to the portion of the city having a large government hospital surrounded by many private ones. I hoped the bug had died by now... but he was a tough basterd...he wasn't going out without a fight.
I was not sure whether the man slumping in front of us was a receptionist or a patient as we entered the large old building of the government hospital. He slowly looked up at us and in a tone that overflowed with boredom asked what the problem was.
"My friends got a bug in his ear..."
"So?"
"So... could you please tell us where to find the E.N.T. section?"
"Go straight down the hall and turn left."
Hospital meant nurses... Beautiful kind and loving... And they were the only thing to look forward to, as my trade fair trip had been completely jeopardized. Of course, dreams don't always come true. Nurses were there...but the beautiful kind and loving part was missing.
The man sitting on the doctor's chair looked nothing like a doctor and I seriously believe he wasn't. He studied the insides of Roy's ears with the help of a flashlight and lens.
"Its not there" he said.
"But I can feel it inside my ear"
"I don't see it... maybe it got out."
"But I can feel it"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes... yes I am positive there's a bug in my ear"
"Well then... we got to kill it."
Finally he had said something that made sense. Hair oil was the first thing to come to my mind but I stopped myself from blurting out hoping to get a better suggestion. He suggested warm water and salt... (What was he trying to do... cook it in there?)
A grocery store keeper opposite to the hospital suggested another ‘private' hospital at the end of the street. By now the bug was getting seriously pissed off. A wasp once stung me in the neck. It was nasty...and I couldn't even begin to imagine the damage a seriously upset wasp would do to the insides if a person's ear. The idea of warm water and salt had been unanimously dropped by now and we headed towards the hospital. Upon reaching the entrance of the small clinic I realized that it was impossible to get a doctor at this hour. My suspicions came true. As we half ran towards my motorcycle still parked in the government hospital parking lot, Roy declared that the bug had started to bite.
So there we were... on the middle of the road.(over dressed.) One putting oil in the others ear. I had decided to kill that basterd. (The bug... Not Roy.) I kept pouring oil till the little hole of his ear was overflowing. ‘That's definitely got to take care of it' I thought.
"Is it still moving?""No... I guess its dead"
"Are you sure?"
"...Yeah. I'm sure. Let's go"
"Let's go back to town and see if we can get it out there."
"Fine lets- aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhh"
"What's wrong?"
"The bastard was faking it... he's still alive."
The bug was tough but not immortal. I finally succeeded in killing it. Now the only thing left to do was to go back to town and take it out. That was when another idea hit me.
"Isn't there another hospital on the way back to town?"
"Yeah ...but..."
"Come on... it'll save time."
The large building complex of the hospital was architecturally very appealing and being a student of architecture, I immediately began analyzing it. Although I thought it best not to talk about it to Roy as a mechanical engineering student with a (dead) bug in his ear wouldn't care much for the buildings aesthetics. Inside a man who looked somewhere between a watchman and a maintenance person inquired as to what our problem was.
"My friend's got a bug in his ear...oh and we killed it."
"Go to room number fourteen...and good thing you killed it. Those bugs can be a problem..."
‘A kindred spirit' I thought as I walked towards room fourteen.
"What seems to be the problem?" the face of the man behind the desk had a striking similarity with some species of rats... I can't recall exactly which one... but they all look pretty much the same.
"I got a bug in my ear."
"Hmmm... so are you students?"
"Yes"
"What do you study?"
"Engineering..."
"Which college?"
I was about to snap when Roy did my work for me.
"Does that matter....? Just get the bug out of my ear."
"Oh... it does matter. We only treat medical students at this hour...you see...the medical college we run is our main source of income... so..."
Before I could perfectly place my sour and humiliating remark on him, a medical student...more like an intern entered the room. He inquired about the problem. His tone had a hint of doctors concern. By now I had started believing that the bug would never come out of Roy's ear but this guy showed me a ray of hope.
"Bug in the ear huh?"
‘Good' I thought. ‘The guy knows how to deal with it'
"Did you see it go into the ear?"
"What"
"Do you have a witness?"
The hospital in town was a good one and finally we reached it. The Christmas decorations were still hanging around. Most of the halls were empty but still the hospital looked lively. We had to wait a while before the doctor arrived. She then took him in a room with a large machine with magnifying lens. There she put a pair of some kind of scissors into his ear. Finally she pulled the little dead soldier out. I wonder why she was so interested in showing me the bug, but I humored her. That's when I realized that somehow... it all had to do something with Christmas... something with me... That's also was when I realized that a female doctor's hands are beautiful...
But that's another story.... For another time.
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