The Concealed Culture Deep Within (part nine.)

The little girl had been lying in the hospital bed where she had been transferred up from the emergency department, for just about a little over an hour now. Her mum had been sat fast to the typically uncomfortable hospital chair, next to Josie's assigned bed all that time, willing for her daughter to show some sign that she was coming round. But so far, nothing. No flickering coming from the girl's eyelids, which for all the years up until recently, had been so bright and cheery, normally wide with bright green pupils the color of sparkling emeralds, interlaced only by tiny gentle flecks of light blue in their centers, which had almost always glistened when Josie had been excited or happy about some part of her life.

But at this moment in time, there was nothing of the sort. Her eyelids remained closed and with that, an absence of any slight movement in her eyelids too, indicating a lack of sensory activity alone, of her eyes, that they were even responding to the harsh lights of the ward, indeed no signs that her brain was even in any tranquil dream state at that time. Her mum sat next to her eleven-year-old daughter lying in the bed only a couple of feet away from her. The last thing on her mind was that this freak incidence would have ever occurred just a week since they had celebrated her birthday at home. Other than Josie's mild period at home, shortly after her father had been killed, had she ever seen her daughter appear so helpless. When Josie had been told of her father's death out on the road, her mum had been trying to hold together her own mental health so as to ensure that she could support her young daughter through that horrendous period but, all she could do was just watch her daughter sitting in her bedroom quietly, refusing to talk to her mum or even any of her friends, only ever picking at her meals that her mum made for her. She became so very isolated and low in mood, but this, this was far worse. When Josie had secluded herself after her father's death, she had surprisingly, and very quickly, turned herself around from sinking down into the depths of despair, and had so quickly bounced back into the land of the living.

For now, all these feelings of helplessness returned to Lucy's mind. Lucy could not do anything here to support her eleven-year-old, this time something had happened to Josie, something as yet unknown, and far more serious. Back when Josie had been isolating herself within her bedroom, refusing to engage with anyone or anything, Lucy was at least able to get some semblance of liveliness from her then, even if it ended up with Josie telling her mum to 'get lost, go away, and leave me alone!' it was a least something. At this moment in time, there was nothing, no noise, no screaming, or shouting, just quiet, not even any slight movement coming from her now. In this environment, Lucy sensed it to be emotionally cold, fearful, strange, and an unduly apprehensive place to be in right now.

Dr. Carmichaels walked ever so silently back into the ward where his latest patient, Josie, lay in the bed. Lucy did not even notice his arrival back on the ward after he had been speaking with the paramedic crew that had earlier brought the young girl in, it seemed to the mother that he had simply glided back in. The doctor laid a gentle hand onto Lucy's left shoulder and spoke gently in such a soft and quiet tone, that she hardly even noticed his prompt arrival. "Hello Lucy, how's our newest patient been then?'

In an almost snappy and fraught response, she unexpectedly came out with, "don't you think you should bloody know how my daughter is, I'm the one that's supposed to be asking you that!" For just a couple of seconds, Dr. Carmichaels stepped back, removing his hand from her shoulder before responding more calmly and almost grandfatherly to the woman, "Yes I am sorry Mrs. Crevin, I should have taken my size ten boots off before sticking them in my runaway mouth, I meant no disrespect to you."

Josie's mum calmed and sighed loudly before answering the doctor who, she felt that she had just bitten off his ears, when he most probably had enough of that happening in his role every day, she was pretty much sure that he really didn't need that. "I'm sorry I'm not usually snappy Dr. Carmichaels, I know that you were just trying to be friendly, and making conversation." The doctor placed his hand tentatively back upon the mother's shoulder, knelt down to meet her eyes, and tried once more, "you look very tired, why don't you try and go for a walk or, if you can, why not go home and try to get some rest. Dr. Carmichaels cast a wary eye across Josie's life signs at the various monitors that regulated her current health state before continuing, "your daughter is resting now, her cardiac rhythms appear stable at the moment, and she seems to be taking in the oxygen we're giving her, through that nasal spec now quite well, if anything at all changes we will call you." A little begrudgingly, Lucy replied with simply, "yes, maybe you're right," and slowly started to ease herself up out of the chair that had been giving her a slight backache by now.

Josie's mum took hold of the doctor's hand and attempted a weak and unsure shake of it before walking slowly from the bedside, with the doctor looking on, noticing how she took a long hard stare back her little daughter before finally walking on, out of sight of the ward.

For the next few minutes, Dr. Carmichaels now remained, having now stood up and approached more closely to examine his patient lying limp and unresponsive in the bed. His eyes darting between the various monitors and the girl. He shouted for the nurse that was milling around the ward station out in the main corridor, "Jen, can you come over to bed four please." A few minutes of time passed by, before the nurse, Jen, walked into the ward bay, all four-and-a-half feet of her, more of a blink of the eye and you miss her type of woman, "Yes doctor, you wanted me?"

The consultant looked down toward her face, his six-and-a-half-foot build necessitating it as he hated barking orders out when he couldn't see their eyes. He had always believed that ever since his younger days as a junior medical student, that eye contact provided a deep, warm connection with those around him, and he had made a mental note all those years ago, to never stop doing just that. "Hi, yes Jen, can I take a look at this young girl's fluid replacement plan, and will you put up a bag of normal saline too, stat, as her lips and her fingers appear rather blue, take blood from her too and send it off to the lab, let's make a start on improving her fluid and electrolyte levels. Her admission to the emergency department earlier showed a marked indication of dehydration." The nurse nodded in agreement and understanding, "I'll get right on that now." as she scurried off to delegate the actions amongst her team members.

************

Lucy had walked off from the ward and left the hospital after calling the parish priest to see if he could come and pick her up from where she was. Since the time when she had attended that CPR course some time back, she had gotten to know Geoff Donaldson, the local parish priest, pretty well. It wasn't one of those intimate relationships types of bond, no, it was more of a commonality-based friendship that they shared amongst one another. Geoff had been there for her during the time she had been so critically grieving for her husband's death. He had offered her a listening ear just at the exact time that she had needed it. Of course, she argued, telling herself that, 'he was a priest, and it was his calling,' and all but, it was nevertheless the kindest and most caring attitude that anyone in the village had ever shown to her, in her moment of grief. She wouldn't drive anywhere now since then. After being told of how her husband had died, had thrown her world into complete disarray. Lucy could not even step foot near a car again, let alone get into her car, she was not able even, to switch on the ignition. Although she had not even been a passenger in her husband's car during the grueling and fateful road collision, simply getting in any car (let alone her own) which was sat unmoving on the driveway back at home at the moment, it was just too painful to even stand next to her own car, as it would instantly take her head back to the time of the crash, despite the logical fact of the matter was, that she had not been involved in any of that disastrous moment. She had been far more affected by this negative experience than she liked to think. It was almost as if Lucy herself had been in that car and witnessed the collision personally, it was no shame that she had been suffering moments of flashbacks since that day, but she had been feeling shameful of it ever since, and certainly was not going to see her family doctor about it either. Yes, it was certainly true that the 'doctor patient' ethic was alive and well but, gossip of any type got around the village of Stumptom, in much the same way a brush fire rages through a dry forest area.

Geoff picked up the phone at his end and calmly answered. when he discovered Lucy was on the other end he immediately spoke worriedly, "Lucy how wonderful you called but, the time, is there something wrong, are you okay, how is Josie, I heard she is in the hospital?" a million questions he fired in rapid succession.

************

Josie was still in a semi-conscious state lying in the hospital, although rather more unresponsive, her eyelids were showing some minor responsiveness, and more often, indicating that her eyes were responding to some sense of a dream-like state, at the very least. The doctor had left shortly after having spoken to Jen earlier, to go off to one of the less appetizing moments of his job, the weekly consultant's meeting, where this week's meeting was centered around the reporting and discussing the ongoing and sudden admissions, & the recent mortality rates in the outlying and local area, that had unexpectedly risen. It was not going to be along the lines, of the more 'yawn, doze off' type that was so common in these meetings this time though. The sudden growth of admissions with patients who had presented as being severely paralyzed, and almost at the point of 'no return,' by some, as yet unknown organism, was defying the local health services, of what could only be classified by the many local hawkers employed by the newspapers, as 'an expediency of people being diagnosed as having delusional ideation tendencies.' Sure, it made headline news, and the media world was lapping up the many who bought their papers, but this was also taking the more socially aware communities by a developing confusion & panic.

And right at this moment in time, the hospital just didn't need or want the publicity.

Jen had set up the infusion of fluid as per the doctor's request to do so, and the monitoring of Josie's fluids & electrocyte levels were now waiting on the results from the lab after she had taken blood from her, and had fast-paced the sample. All that could be done, for now, was to keep on monitoring the young girl lying supine and motionless in the bed and maintain her levels of life-indicating signs. No primary diagnosis was forthcoming from the medical team, but for the basic fact that Josie was unconscious at this time. The sole action performed by the team at this time was, simply to 'wait and watch.'

************

Geoff broke off to collect his breath. He was suddenly aware that he was anxiously waffling at Lucy down the other end of the phone line. "Geoff, is there any chance of you picking me up?" hesitated Lucy when she found herself able to actually get a word in at Geoff. There appeared to be a moment of uneasy silence before he spoke again, "erm, yes of course Lucy, where are you exactly?"

"I'm outside the main entrance doors of Southern City General Hospital," stated Lucy. "Okay, give me, what, erm, 40 minutes or thereabouts to pick you up?" responded the parish priest, "get a cup of coffee and wait inside the reception area, and I'll be with you as quick as I can be."

Stay tuned for the 10th part coming soon, of this fiction, 'The Concealed Culture Deep Within.' If you missed the first eight parts of this story, you can click on the links below, to catch up.

Part one:

Part two:

Part three:

Part four:

Part five:

Part six:

Part seven:

Part eight:

If you liked this story then please let me know by giving me a heart. Tips are always optional but, they keep allowing me to push my creativity forward too, and keep the lights running into the wee small hours of the night, with a steaming mug of coffee...

I love writing articles & fictional stories. They give me scope to express myself and free my mind. After working as a mental health nurse for 30 -years, writing allows an effective emotional release, one which I hope you will join me on.

Follow me here on Vocal here and subscribe here too, so you can follow what I write on here. You can also follow me on Twitter, and on Medium too.

I also have a short story insight ebook published with Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, about the life of a young woman who suffered the terrifying trauma of rape, and how the ensuing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, began to affect her life afterward; which can be purchased below:

✨I can't wait to hear from you soon... Jonathan💕.