Chapter 1: Down for the Count

It was about dusk, and I was driving west down this two-lane country road, when out of the blue this bright yellow something came crashing into the driver's side of my truck. That is the last thing I remembered until I woke up in a hospital room with all kinds of tubes, wires, and bandages all over my body. I closed and then opened my eyes once again, because when I opened them the first time, the room started spinning. Finally, I closed them and drifted off to never-never land again.

The next time I remember that I awoke there was this matronly nurse, who reminded me of my mother, checking my pulse and temperature. Well, this seemed normal. At least, the thermometer was an oral one, not a rectal one. I croaked out something that I thought was 'water', but I think it came out as "woooor" around the thermometer and scared the nurse half to death.

"You're supposed to be asleep, not scaring the nursing staff half to death. I suppose you would like some water, but you only get some ice chips to suck on. Let me get you some; I'll be back in a jiffy."

I could see the room more clearly now, but there was still some blurriness around the edges, kind of like an out-of-focus picture or when the background is out of focus. The immediate surroundings were in focus, but anything beyond five feet was blurry.

About then the nurse returned, with a Styrofoam cup and a real spoon in her hand. She took the spoon and fished out a small chip of ice and said, "Open up." I opened my mouth and suddenly felt instant relief. The chip was fairly small, but the pleasure I derived from that small thing was off the charts. I moaned and it almost felt orgasmic to me.

Suddenly, the nurse was leaning on my bed, moaning herself; the cup of ice dropped to the floor along with the spoon that clattered as it hit the tiles. She appeared to swoon, and grabbed her right tit with her left hand and clutched the crotch of her whites with her right. Just as suddenly as it happened, she shook herself and looked around to see if anyone saw what just happened.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Morgan; I don't know what came over me. I'll get you some more ice and be right back."

She bent down to pick up the spoon and cup and tried to gather up all the ice, but some of it melted and slid away from her. I could tell since I could hear her silently cursing the ice and wondering what had just happened to her. She felt an instant orgasm; it was fleeting, but so intense that she couldn't help crying out in her pleasure. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before, why would it now? It couldn't have anything to do with Mr. Morgan, could it? I mean he hadn't even moved; he just moaned when she fed him the ice chip. Yes, that would have felt nice, but that reaction was beyond the realm of possibility, wasn't it?

How did I know all this about what was happening under the bed? I couldn't see anything. I could hear her inaudible musings. Wait; that was it. I could hear her silent musings, her thoughts. I could hear her thoughts in my head. Wow, now this was different. Was it just her or was it everyone? I listened, really concentrating and soon I could hear many voices in my head; almost too many. It was like being in a crowded room, but a little hard of hearing and blind. You could hear all the noise, but not being able to see you were confused as to where to look. So all you got were snatches of conversation, and a lot of murmuring. Sure I could catch a word here or there, but it didn't make much sense without context. Then it was as though some invisible curtain had parted and I was hit with a wall of sound. I cringed in my bed and tried to shut the din out. I mentally yelled 'STOP IT, Please stop all this noise!' I got an instant reaction; it was a collective 'HUH!!', and then I passed out again. I drifted in and out of consciousness for some time. When I woke up the din would start, gain in strength and I would shut down again.

I became aware of my surroundings sometime later, how much later I couldn't say, but there were two doctors discussing something over by the door. I seemed to be able to turn up the volume of my hearing or maybe it was that I tuned in on their conversation. Whatever the reason, I heard most of what they were saying.

My doctor, well the one I seem to remember seeing earlier during one of my more lucid moments during my fading in and out was saying, "But I just don't understand Dr. Hewlett. Mr. Morgan seems to be able to hear exceptionally well, or he is reading minds, well hearing thoughts. How do you explain that?"

Dr. Hewitt replied, "Jerome, like I said, head injuries like his can cause some very weird, temporary symptoms or manifestations that appear to be impossible. However, it is all explainable. The nurse, Ms. Wrachett, said she spilled the ice cup and was trying to clean it up. What is so hard in understanding that she would be cursing under her breath and that the patient could hear her? As for her saying she was startled by a profound feeling of satisfaction ... well that could be a reaction to the patient's extreme reaction to the ice, after all the man has been in a coma for over a month. So I am sure that ice chips in his dry throat would feel extremely satisfying and Ms. Wrachett could have been vulnerable to an intense emotive jolt. I have seen this before in people who are maybe a little more empathetic than most people. Nurse Wrachett is one of those people. She really cares for her patients, and that is why she is in this ward, right?"

"Yes Edward, but some of the other things. The patient has woken several times and tried to put his hands to his ears and has shouted, 'Please stop all the noise, I can't think'. That's surely not normal."

I tuned them out and pictured a heavy curtain in my mind and then all I heard were quiet whispers. This room was a normal two-person room, kind of like an 'L' with the beds kind of back in the alcove area. The bathroom filled the rest of the square room. The door was about fifteen feet away from my head, so I shouldn't be able to hear them, but I did.

I lifted the curtain again, and I could hear their conversation clearly again, but next several other voices started leaking in and pretty soon it was like I was in a crowded room with everyone speaking at once. I tried to close the curtain again, and the noise dropped in intensity and then stopped. This is really weird.

I guess I should introduce myself; I'm Henry Archbold Morgan, USA Major (Ret). Yeah I know, Captain Morgan the pirate and the brand name for a rum. Well, in actuality I am a somewhat descendant of the original Admiral Sir Henry Morgan. Not a direct descendent, however, my family goes back to Henry Archbold, his cousin's child. Henry Morgan was the godfather of Henry Archbold and Charles Byndloss. Henry's mother was Johanna Archbold, the daughter of Edward Morgan, his uncle and father to his wife Mary Elizabeth Morgan. Yeah it's a real mess trying to sort it all out. Henry Archbold and Charles Byndloss were instructed in Sir Henry's will that in order to inherit his estate; they were legally to change their surname to Morgan. This they did in order to gain access to all of Sir Henry's wealth. I suggest that you look it up to see the tangled mess.

Anyway, I spent twenty-two years in the Army and retired as a Major. I started out as an enlisted man and went to college on bootstrap at one of my stateside assignments. I'm an architectural engineer by degree and normally work contract work, so I can move around like I want. I got used to moving when in the Army, and I liked to travel. I was on my way to Austin, Texas for my next job when I was delayed. I'm forty-five years old, and in great shape ... well I was before all this happened. I'm 6' 2" tall and weigh in at 205; I try to stay in shape by running and practicing my martial arts forms. I'm divorced, no children ... that I know of anyway. My ex-wife couldn't take all the travel and alone time when I would go on some of my temporary duty assignments since I might be gone for a week or six months. I am an expert marksman and I did have many assignments in black ops over the years, after my wife left me.

That's about it. Oh yeah, I wondered about my next job since I had been here over a month and I'll bet no one has contacted my employer. Plus the fact I have no idea where here is, or how long I'm going to be cooped up in this bed.

I drifted in and out of sleep for a couple of days, with me staying awake more, the longer it was. I was feeling a lot better and asked the nurse if some of these wires and tubes could be taken out. She said she would check with the doctor. I had been moved into a four-person room however, I was the only occupant at the time. I was now able to talk, and be understood; but due to all the hook-ups, they had me pretty well tied down to the bed with not much wiggle room. My doctors were back in the room by the door talking again ... consulting would be their term.

"Excuse me doctors, but can someone get me my cell phone, so I can call my employer, so he knows what has happened to me, as if I know. However, first where is here, so I can to let my employer know where I am and how soon I can leave. I need to find out if I even have a job to go to, since I heard I've been in a coma for over a month."

"Of course, Mr. Morgan, I'll get someone on that right now." said Dr. Jerome Levitz.

They both left in a hurry, and soon a different nurse came in. This one was young, pretty, and built perfectly in all the right places. She was tall, about five feet, eleven in her white nurse's shoes and had a long starched white dress type of uniform on that did nothing to hide her body. She exhibited the haughty snobbish upbringing of a rich and privileged child. She seemed to exude this snobby bitchiness that she was so much better than any mere patient. She thought of herself as above most people and especially old Neanderthals like me.

"Dr. Levitz said you needed a phone and some answers. Your cell phone is in the drawer, and no one brought in your charger, so it's dead." She haughtily spat out at me. "I'll have a phone in here so you can make your precious calls. Your bags are in the secure storage; I'll see if I can find someone to bring your bags up. Then we can go through them to see if we can find what you need for right now. Good day, Mr. Morgan." With that said she was gone again. I never even got a word in edgewise.

A candy striper came in with a phone, and plugged it into the wall behind me. She then said, "You have to dial nine to get an outside line and after that zero-nine for long distance."

She started to leave and I stopped her, "Miss could someone please tell me where here is? I don't even know where I am or what the date is."

"Oh I'm so terribly sorry about that Mr. Morgan. I'm Cindy, Cindy Moore. Here is Waco, Texas and it is Monday the sixteenth of July. And this is the Providential Hospital"

"Thank you so much Cindy. You're the first person who has allowed me to speak long enough to ask some questions. Is everybody so unfriendly here?"

"Oh no, Mr. Morgan; I think there is a lot of confusion going on because of you, and they are trying to figure out what ward you really need to go into. Dr. Hewlett wanted you to go into the Psych ward, and Dr. Levitz wanted you to go to a regular ward, but a private room. Then again, Dr. Hughes wants you gone from here. He's the administrator here, and he says you're not a paying customer so you get the boot or at least transferred to the VA hospital down in Temple. He found out today that you're a vet, and he wants you gone from here and to the VA hospital."

"Thank you so much Cindy. I have gotten more information from you in two minutes than I have received from anyone else since I woke up. Why would the administrator just find out that I am a vet? Cindy would you check to see if my wallet is in that drawer, please?"

"Certainly Mr. Morgan ... yes here it is."

"Open it up and see if you can see my driver's license and Military ID Card. You should see both of them once you open the wallet."

"I can see your driver's license, but I don't see your military ID. Do you want me to look for it?"

"Yes please, it should be in the opposite compartment from the driver's license."

"Here it is, it behind a photo of six guys in uniform. Hey, you're in there, aren't you?"

"Yes I am; that's a photo of the guys I worked with in the Army. Well, that explains something, but why was it moved? Come around this other side of the bed and we can go through it and see what else is not where it belongs."

Cindy came around to my left side and opened my wallet again on my stomach. I immediately knew someone had rifled through my wallet. The driver's license was in the ID slot, and one of my Visa cards was in the other slot. Cindy pulled out everything that was in my wallet, and I confirmed that someone or for that matter, several someone's had gone through my wallet as there were many things missing. One was the close to three thousand dollars that had been in there hundred-dollar bills. Now there was just a twenty and three ones. My platinum American Express card was missing and one of my platinum Visa cards as well. I would have to see what I could do about that. I suspected that I had huge bills on both of them. This whole affair was getting weirder by the minute. I had Cindy put things back the way she found them, with a little help from me and put it back in my drawer. I asked her to see if she could get a police officer to come to my room to discuss the theft. I also wanted to talk to someone about my accident as well.

"By the way, the way Cindy, who was that beautiful, but grouchy nurse who was in here a minute ago?"

"That had to be 'Battleaxe Betty' ... well that's what most of us call her, of course not to her face. She is Elizabeth Hughes, yeah his daughter. Can I get you anything?"

"No I think I'm fine for now. I need to call and see if I even have a job anymore. Thanks and I won't mention anything about 'BB' if you don't."