Monday, March 30, 2009

Hurtling Through Space on the Millenium Falcon

Daniel was sure he’d been in the ambulance for an eternity. He couldn’t even hear the sirens anymore, his ears had been registering them for so long. The cot wasn’t lumpy beneath his back anymore, and the EMTs no longer looked so red-faced and frantic. That was probably the drugs talking.

Daniel wondered how epic this journey would be, from the street corner to the hospital, to face his colleagues and see the sympathy on their faces when they learned that a surgeon had lost a hand.

The ride was smooth and unhurried, and he thought he could hear the driver laughing, but that might have been a radio DJ or someone he was talking to on the CB. There were too many turns to count, though Daniel suspected that the ambulance was really driving in a maze and in the center they would find a minotaur but he wouldn’t be able to slay it because his sword hand was gone.

Daniel tried to watch the world flash by through the windows, but all he saw were shining lights, rushing cars of indeterminate colors, and the night sky above. It was like hurtling through space on the Millenium Falcon.

And then the ambulance had stopped and the EMTs were red-faced and frantic again, and Daniel thought maybe the medicine was wearing off, because he could feel the burning agony at his wrist where his hand used to be, and then someone said,

“It’s Dr. Thomas.”

1 comment:

Madness said...

That's sad. A perspective that I had not thought of. When I think of a journey, I think of a good trip. But I know that a journey can end badly too.