The Shocking Truth Book 1
Copyright© 2025 by somethin fishy
Chapter 2
15 September
BEEEEEP ... BEEEEP ... BEEEP ... BEEP ... BEEP
Alex groaned. He hated mornings, and his damn alarm was going off. “All right, all right,” he mumbled. Alex went to smack his alarm only to find his arms couldn’t move. It took a moment to realize they were tied down. Alex’s first thought was that he had been kidnapped. He knew some things his mother was involved in and wouldn’t put it past some of those “people” to use him as leverage. The joke was on them because his mother didn’t care about him.
Cracking open an eye, Alex realized he wasn’t being held prisoner; he was in a far worse predicament: he was in a hospital. At least with captors, he probably could have talked his way out of it. There was no chance of that in a hospital. Seeing the faded cartoon wallpaper, Alex deduced he was being held in the pediatric wing.
All Alex could figure out was that someone must have drugged him with something outstanding. He felt as if he was flying as high as a satellite. It only took a moment for Alex to give up and fall back asleep.
A noise to his left woke Alex. While it only felt like hours, it was actually three days later. Looking over, Alex saw it was a nurse working at a computer. Something was off, though. Alex could clearly hear her talking, but her lips were closed and not moving.
What’s more, what he heard wasn’t medical or even related to him; it was about the nurse’s girlfriend and how, if the nurse wasn’t home, she didn’t know whose bed her girlfriend would end up in. Male, female, trans, non-human, non-animal, it didn’t matter to the girlfriend. Her only care was that she had a good time.
Alex was thoroughly confused. Not only because he could hear others in his head, but also why anyone would put up with such behavior from a significant other. Listening, Alex began hearing background noise, which grew louder the longer he listened. Trying to figure it out, he tried to focus on the noise, only to discover that each part of the background noise would increase in volume before decreasing and disappearing. It took several minutes for Alex to realize he was hearing the thoughts of people walking past his door.
Armed with this new insight, Alex had to figure out how to filter or tune out the noise so he could only hear what concerned him. As he tried to figure out how to properly use his new ability, his movements caught the nurse’s attention.
“Well, welcome back, Alex. My name is Stacy, and I’m one of your nurses.” Alex took the nurse in. Standing about 5’6” with short black hair and caramel skin, she was cute.
“Hello. Where am I? What happened?”
“You are in the pediatric wing of University Hospital. As to what happened, what do you remember?”
“Ummm ... not much.”
“Anything else?”
“Umm, not really.” Stacy grew concerned but figured he was suffering from amnesia.
“Okay. Let’s start with your name.”
“Well, you said it was Alex, but I couldn’t tell you. I don’t know where I live, how old I am, where I go to school, or who my parents are. Although I remember that my parents hate me, and my mother is involved in some very shady stuff.”
“Oookkkeeeyyy. Let me get your doctor. He is going to want to know all this.”
“Sure.”
Stacy dipped out, and Alex looked out the window. ‘How can I forget everything? Why do I think my parents hate me? Who am I?’ Alex was still blankly staring out the window when he “heard” Stacy returning with someone, the doctor, he assumed.
The doctor led the way through the door. He was a rather unassuming man, but from what Alex could hear, he was a devoted doctor whose goal was to see every patient walk out of the hospital happy and healthy. Alex didn’t realize any of these doctors were still around.
“Hello, I’m Doctor No, and yes, that is my real name. No connection to the James Bond villain.”
“Who?”
“Doctor No. Villain in the first Bond film. A Chinese-German criminal who set up base in the Caribbean and tried to knock down American space missions. Member of SPECTRE.” Alex had a blank look on his face. Seeing that, Doctor No sighed. “People have no respect for the classics anymore.”
“Ah, doctor. I might have seen it, but I don’t remember.”
“That is what Stacy was saying. Considering what you went through, that doesn’t surprise me.”
“What did happen to me?”
“You were struck by lightning after exiting the aquatics center. When you were struck, you were thrown fifteen feet and landed badly on a car.”
“How bad?” Seeing the doctor’s hesitation, Alex was angered. “Damn it! Just tell me, and don’t bother sugarcoating it,” he snapped.
“We don’t know yet, but you broke both femurs, your hips, and two of your lower vertebrae. We couldn’t run the test until you woke up, but given your injuries, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that you are paralyzed from the waist down. You’ve also been unconscious for six weeks.” Alex nodded.
“That explains the gizmos,” nodding to the traction device at the end of his bed. “Can we get the test out of the way?” Stacy and the doctor gave Alex a strange look.
“I must say, Alex, you are the calmest patient I have ever had. Depending on developments, I might recommend you speak with a psychiatrist.”
Alex shrugged as he didn’t care. If he were paralyzed, there was nothing he could do about it, and becoming angry wouldn’t change anything. He had been in literally the exact wrong place at the exact wrong time. Doctor No looked at Stacy and cleared his throat.
“Well, let’s take a look here.”
Stacy held a cloth up so Alex couldn’t see what the doctor was doing. That didn’t matter because Alex was reading his thoughts anyway. Still, he wanted to perform the test like a normal person. Doctor No brushed the bottom of Alex’s foot with a light touch. Alex didn’t react. Then, a needle came, and Alex still didn’t react. Doctor No looked at Stacy and cringed.
“Well, Alex. In light of your earlier comment, I will tell you straight up. Early indications are telling me you might be paralyzed.” Alex looked down at the doctor, who wore a worried expression. “Although it is still early.”
“Don’t worry about it, doc. You didn’t cause this, so don’t feel bad.”
“For your information, I always feel bad when a patient is so severely injured, especially one as young as yourself.” Alex determined from the doctor’s thoughts that the guy was sincere, so Alex cut the guy slack.
“Well, where do we go from here?” Alex asked to change the subject. From Stacy’s thoughts, Alex could tell that, while she was impressed, Stacy’s personal life was a significant distraction for her.
“Well, I would like to get a CT scan and an MRI of your lower back and head. Stacy said you don’t remember anything either, so I would like to see if there is any bleeding or other injury that might be affecting your memory. Additionally, results from your unconscious EEG show some irregularities that I’d like to investigate,” turning to Stacy. “Can you get these scheduled ASAP?”
“I can try, but you know the lab is only taking emergency cases right now.” Doctor No sighed.
“I know, but do the best you can. Damn socialized medicine. And it’s not even that we didn’t have plenty of warning, because we did. Despite everything, damn people are too fucking stupid to accept reality,” he paused, then added, “me included.”
Stacy smiled. Doctor No was famous for his rants against the socialized medical system. The quality of care had dropped so rapidly that it had taken everyone by surprise. But instead of course correcting, the government doubled down. They had even begun arresting people who criticized the system. Dr. No escaped this only because he was so good at his job. The idiots in power refused to accept that they had caused a major screw-up. But then again, they didn’t care because their health care hadn’t been affected. Only everyone else’s.
“I’ll do my best.”
“I know. Thanks, Stacy.”
The doctor left the room, and Stacy logged onto the computer to try to schedule Alex’s test while mumbling about lazy men and having to do everything for them. This was despite knowing how busy the doctor was, as he was the only one on the floor, whereas there would have been three before. She was surprised when she was able to get Alex scheduled for both tests the following day. After everything was scheduled, Stacy got Alex some water since his voice sounded rough. Alex sucked the first cup down without pausing, and Stacy smiled as she brought him another.
To Alex, the water tasted like ambrosia, which was strange because he rarely drank water before. Being a hardcore nerd, Alex had been hooked on Mountain Dew and drank it by the case. Now, Alex couldn’t remember any of that. After taking a sip from the second cup of ice water, Alex smiled at Stacy.
“Thank you,” Alex was so sincere that Stacy couldn’t make her usual rebuke when a male thanked her for anything. She couldn’t imagine losing her memory and ability to walk on the same day. But it was more than his memory Alex lost; he lost his entire identity, and there was no knowing if he would ever recover it.
Quietly, Stacy left, and Alex turned back toward the window. While she was a hardcore militant lesbian, Alex had shaken her to the core with the calm way he seemed to accept everything. She knew the true test would be after some time had passed and he had a chance to think about everything.
Alex was thinking, but not about his back. He was working on developing his new ability to read people from further away and block out the noise. It was interesting that he could read other people’s minds, and what he uncovered was fascinating. A couple of nurses at their station were discussing one of their colleagues’ upcoming dates, while a nearby orderly did his best not to ogle them. A different orderly was also watching, but in his case, it was to ensure they didn’t see him stealing medical supplies. Alex had to admit the man had a good reason, though. His sister was sick but couldn’t get a doctor’s appointment for the next three months. The only reason she was still alive was because of the supplies he was stealing.
Taking a break from eavesdropping on people’s thoughts, Alex looked around his room. The room was sterile. There wasn’t one thing that would have come from his family. No flowers, no teddy bears, no cards, no nothing. Not seeing anything certainly didn’t help Alex remember who he was.
Sighing once more, Alex looked back at the window. Something told him not to be surprised at the lack of well-wishes. It would have boosted his spirits if someone had given him any indication that they were thinking of him. Instead, he lay in his bed alone with his thoughts. It had become boring invading people’s thoughts, as most were not worth listening to.
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