Created

Chapter Two

It wasn't long after my first week at the hospital that I saw him. The man who would take my simple, plain life and turn it on its toes. The man who would have me struggling to catch my breath as I fought the odds that were so set against him. The man I would fall completely and utterly in love with.

I met him, this remarkable man on a beautiful summer's 'morn. The sun was high in a baby blue sky that day, with a few clouds, so pure-white and innocent, drifting across the lovely natural backdrop. I stepped outside onto the front lawn, spirits high and optimistic with the lovely scene overhead. A light breeze blew, gently fingering my thick, curly brown hair back from my face. I smiled brightly, ready to start my day at the hospital.

That Monday morning as the beginning of my second week as a volunteer nurse at the local hospital. I had just barely finished my last year of high school and was trying to decide what to study in college. Now with my volunteer work as a nurse on full blast-5 days a week from 8:30 AM to 1:00PM, I was pretty sure I wanted to study in medicine. My time at the hospital had by far been the best time I'd had in a while. When I was in the crisp, clean uniform, walking along the white-tiled halls, talking to patients, I felt so calm. Yes, calm, serene, even among the frantic rush of the hospital. Of course, I wouldn't lie. It wasn't so happy and calming all the time. It was a hospital, after all! If you happened to be in the wrong place at the worst time, it could be downright terrifying. Looking back on it, during all my time at the hospital (I spent all summer volunteering), I learned one very valuable thing. The most contagious disease is no illness of the body, no cancer, flu, or poison. This disease is fear, and it spread through the hospital like wild-fire. I had felt that fear during my first week, and I had thought there was no way I could feel more than that. But the minute that man first spoke to me, the minute, no second, his wide eyes met mine, I knew more fear from his steady gaze than from the whole hospital.
Technically, I wasn't supposed to know him past a casual 'hello' and 'goodbye' as I took care of the doctors errands that had me running so frantically around the hospital. Trust me that's all I had done my first week. Really, that's all I expected to do that day.

Running errands was not as easy as it sounded. It might have been a less taxing job had the hospital all been one building. But the whole hospital was laid out in several buildings, one for each wing or special treatment center. The lobby and office sat in a petite building at the head of the circle. The hospital in itself was almost like a miniature town. Unfortunately, I hadn't been able to visit every building, but I had been to a few. One of my goals that summer bad been to see every one.
I arrived at the office building right on time for my shift to begin. The sliding doors opened for me and I stopped inside. The lobby was a neat little room with a few TV's and couches. Along the front wall were lines of small screens, computers that signed you in. I walked to the far end computer and tapped the screen to wake it up. 'Welcome,' the screen greeted me. 'Guest or Employee?' It asked. I tapped the 'Employee' button and typed in my name and code number, fingers flying, tapping gently on the plasma screen. I loved computers. I always had. My talent with the electronics I came in counter with had been passed down from my father, who had been an electrician before he had died.
'Claire Brummer; Volunteer Nurse,' the computer announced my name and position, completing my log-in. I smiled, satisfied, as my profile began to open. Everything looked normal at first, with the expected information like the date (June 11, 2066), my name, status, ect, until a small announcement window popped up, blinking, on the screen. 'New Assignment,' the grey window told me. A bit confused, I tapped the forward button to open the window's information.
'Claire Brummer, assigned patient,' the top of the screen read. I blinked. Assigned patient?! But, I was only a volunteer! Formal assignments were for the trained nurses, nurses with years of college and experience, not for new volunteers who had hardly been there a week! There must have been some mistake!
Down below my name was the profile of a man. There was a hastily-taken picture of his face. He was sleeping, his head against the hospital bed pillow. That was another strange thing. I knew most patient profiles had a picture of them awake and alert, unless the patient had been brought in unconscious. The man looked young, maybe just a bit older than me with tousled, wavy hair the colour of a maple tree's bark, and kind, gentle features. His skin was flushed of must colour the time this picture had been taken, and you could tell he was sick. His forehead glistened with sweat. Worriedly, I wet my lips. This was highly unusual, to say the least.
Hastily, I clicked out of the computer and went to find Nurse Weedman. Nurse Weedman was a fierce, no-nonsense woman who always looked like she was doing something very important. I always hesitated to talk to her because I feared interrupting her work and making her angry. But, she was the Head Nurse, and there was no way I could get out of speaking with her. No way she had assigned me a patient!
I turned around, ready to begin a search for her when I heard my name called. I turned back around, looking for the voice's owner when Nurse Weedman came rushing up to my side, thick brown hair pinned to her head in a bun, clipboard in hand.
"Claire!" She cried again, stopping in front of me. "Claire Brummer, isn't it?" When I nodded, she continued. "Oh, I've been looking for you!"
"Sorry, I just got here," I apologised. Nurse Weedman nodded.
"It's fine, don't worry about it, child," she told me. "But, anyway, I had to tell you, you have an assignment."
"That's why I was going to try to find you," I started. "My profile said I was assigned a patient, and, even stranger, there was no information about him. It's even illegal, isn't it? To assign a volunteer? Surely this can't be right!" Nurse Weedman sighed.
"No, all that is correct," she admitted. "Come walk to Building One with me and I'll explain everything." She began walking for the door, so I followed her.
"It's true that you were assigned a patient, but it wasn't my doing. I didn't want to put something so stressful on your shoulders. You're only eighteen, and a volunteer, no less!! I was completely opposed. 'This is a bad idea,' I told them. 'I've seen this end badly!' I told them!!" Nurse Weedman closed her eyes and shook her head, disappointed. "Of course, they went right ahead and assigned you anyway." They, they, they. I knew who she was talking about when she said 'they'. She was talking about the Board. The Board was an almost mysterious higher-up organization that decided the larger scale things in the hospital, like, when to get a new building or how much funding to give the hospital. Their word was law.
My assignment scared me. Nurse Weedman was right! I was only an eighteen year old volunteer with barely a week of experience! I couldn't take care of a patient! This was too much responsibility! My head began spinning and I stopped walking. Noticing I had stopped, sheturned and looked at me. My eyes turned to hers pleadingly.
"Please, Nurse Weedman, can't you do something!? I can't do this, I know I can't! This kind of assignment, it's for someone better than me, someone with years of college and experience! I can't do it, I can't!!" I blurted frantically. "Please, you're Head Nurse, can't you change their minds?!" I begged. Nurse Weedman looked at me with a pitying expression I'd never seen on her before. She sighed.
"I'm sorry, Claire, child, I really am. But once the Board makes a decision, there's no going back, you know that. But, also know that they didn't place you here randomly. They had a whole meeting about just you , the Board did. You got several good reports from past teachers and friends. They said that you are a hard worker, great with computers, smart, three things the Board loves to hear. The Board wanted to... to, well, to test you, see how you do in these circumstances. It also doesn't hurt that you're here most of the day, working." My breath caught.
"So the Board... is playing with me?!" I breathed, shocked. Nurse Weedman stopped and turned to me. Now it was her pleading with me.
"Please, Claire, don't think of the Board that way. They are only curious to see just how good you are. They mean no harm, I promise. Sometimes, they appear to be more sinister... than they really are, please trust me Claire, child!"
I didn't know what to think. They were using this patient, this assignment to torture me, to trick me into becoming their little lab rat! I didn't know what to do, how to respond. How could they do this to me?! I had no degrees or classes to certify me in any way for this, no experience with nursing, no nothing! And they wanted me to walk into this man's room and work miracles! I was their pet, jumping through hoops and catching balls, and the worst part was there was nothing I could do about it. The only thing available for me to do was to keep going and try not to mess up so bad I killed the man! I was trapped.
"Claire, Building One is just around the corner. Think you can do this?" Nurse Weedman asked me quietly, with a strangely uncharacteristic sympathy in her voice. I nodded. Mind as well keep going. It couldn't get much worse than this.
"I can do this, I can do this," I can do this! Still, I was so afraid! Afraid of messing up, afraid of the Board and their creepy test, afraid of everything. Nurse Weedman didn't think I could do it, and no matter what I said to myself, I didn't think I could do it, either. I turned to the Nurse while we were still standing still.
"Is it really so hard, really horrible? What do I have to do?" I asked her quietly.
"Well, you assist the doctor in any way you can, of course. That's the point of an assignment. And you keep track of all daily progress, any change in condition. You keep track of all his prescriptions and all information. If something happens to him, you are the first to know. You're closer to him personally than the doctor, so you're kind of his moral support and well... that's just the beginning."
"Oh..." I moaned, my head in my hands. I felt sick. "I'm not even here a full shift!" I cried. "I'm only here for a few hours!"
"If something of importance happens while you're not here, I will handle it personally for you. I will help you whenever you need it, Claire, child. Now, come on, I must take you to the Test Building so we can, hopefully, end this nightmare soon."