Chapter 10

When Mikel exited the train station, he gave pleasant goodbyes to his train mate, wishing her well. The astonishment of no one wearing a mask was a new experience. He stood under the lights of the small station, waiting for a sign of where he was supposed to go. A young woman with purple hair drove up with a sign with his name hand printed on it. He approached her and introduced himself. She offered him the backseat of her small sedan. After he took a seat, he noticed a large handgun in a holster adhered to the dash of her car where the radio should be.

“Nice handgun,” Mikel said. “Have you had problems with riders?”

“Yes, I did,” she said. “Now, I don’t. Your order says you are going to Spackenberg Facility for Special Surgery. The hospital is further out than most of the others, which means we have a twenty-minute ride. Any type of music you prefer?”

“Opera?”

“Percell’s ‘Dido’s Lament’ coming up,” she said. “I thought you would have been one of those death-metal kind of guys.”

“I get that a lot,” Mikel said blandly. “I rage on the inside only; no public displays are allowed.”

“Gotcha,” she said. “Keeping up appearances is a full-time job for you.” Luckily, the first strains of music began, and Mikel slumped back in his seat. Tannersville may have been something to see, but there were no streetlights or house lights illuminating the front doors on a cloudy night.

By the time the car pulled up to the front door of the facility, Mikel was a bundle of nerves. He was met at the steps of the glass and steel facility by a man in a doctor’s coat complete with an embroidered name above the breast pocket and a woman in ordinary green scrubs.

“Mr. Barajas, it is a pleasure to welcome you to Spackenberg,” the doctor said. “I’m Dr. Benjamin Duchamp, assistant director of the facility. As we check you in, I do have a few questions for you.”

“Lead the way,” Mikel said with a sigh. “It’s been a long, long day.”

Inside, the doctor led them to a nicely appointed room with an examination table, a cabinet with a counter, and a laptop. “As Ms. Burton takes your vitals, we need some more information.”

When Mikel nodded as he sat on the table, the doctor continued. “The requested procedure is quite leading edge, truly ahead of its time. Have you read the literature that we sent you and the documentation?”

“No,” Mikel said, wondering what horror show he was now a participant in. “I did not order the procedure as it was ordered for me. Circumstances being what they are, there is no other choice than to go through the procedure despite the risks. No, I do not want to know the risks.”

“I see,” Dr. Duchamp said. “The procedure was ordered by Gee Major, who is responsible for payment as well. Did she send you with payment arrangements?”

“Yes,” Mikel said, shaking his head in disbelief. He fished through his bag and handed over the blank credit card. “This should cover any eventualities. However, I would be very careful what you charge to this account. The auditing is nigh instantaneous and thoroughgoing.”

“We adhere to the highest standards, I assure you,” the doctor said, unable to keep a bit of annoyance out of his tone. He held up the card before exiting the room through another door.

“They never learn, do they?” Mikel asked the nurse as she pumped up the blood pressure cuff.

“No, they don’t,” she said.

“Would you like a Choco Chews? I have a few left.”

“Those candies are dangerously addictive,” she said. “If I start, I won’t be able to stop. When did you last eat?”

“I bought a crappy sandwich on the train about two hours ago. I’m done with Choco Chews for the day too. You reach a point where you look at the next unwrapped piece and say to yourself, ‘Nah, can’t do it.’”

His phone chirped. Ignoring the nurse, he pulled out the phone and tapped to retrieve the message. “Nexus cannot be actualized without implementation of human-A.I. conduit. Surgical procedure will be conducted by subroutine Treble Clef. Stop eating Choco Chews. The product interferes with neural networks within the human body because of HCF’s and PCB’s in the formula. -Aria.”

“Damn, it’s almost like giving up sex,” Mikel remarked.

“What is?”

Mikel shut down the phone. “I have been ordered to forgo Choco Chews from this point forward. I feel like I’m being told I can’t jerk off anymore.”

“Well, if you had not so cavalierly dismissed the reading of the risks for this procedure, you would have learned that impotence is a potential consequence of the surgery. Brain surgery is a precise and delicate procedure. You may not be jerking off ever again.”

Mikel sighed again. “How long does the surgery take?”

“Eight to twelve hours,” the nurse said. “Depending on brain swelling, they may keep you in an induced coma for up to fourteen days. Afterward, you will have intensive physical therapy to reintegrate your body with your brain – relearning how to walk and feed yourself.”

“Sounds gruesome.”

“Usually our patients for the procedure are paraplegics or quadriplegics,” the nurse said. “They arrive by ambulance instead of Uber.”

“Is this facility secure?” Mikel asked after a dreadful thought surfaced.

“The door was locked and sealed after we brought you inside,” the nurse said. “Many of our patients require lockdown security procedures. I even have a room here because I won’t leave the campus until you do.”

“This must cost a pretty penny,” Mikel said, mulling over his immediate future.

“You have no idea,” the nurse said, repeating herself. “Hop in the wheelchair. We’re going to the lab where I’m going to insert a picc line to begin hydrating you and introducing various fluids necessary before the surgery begins.

“Carry on,” Mikel said with false bravado. “Shit happens.”

“Indeed it does.”

When he awoke, Mikel first noticed the daylight streaming through the window. The beauty of it delighted him. The light had a clarity to it that was obscured in the city. He watched a little brown bird flit past the window that left him in awe for a moment. Birds, what amazing creatures to witness upon waking up from...

“Oh shit,” Mikel said, remembering where he was and what he had allowed. A persistent soft chime kept sounding off outside his door, annoying him. He considered jumping out of bed to turn off the accursed bell, but when he looked at the bed rails holding him in, the IV’s in both arms and leads all over his body, he let his head fall back into the cushiness of the pillow. He turned his head to check out the rest of the room. He wondered why there was a single, yellow budding rose in a small white vase on the tray table. Flowers were rare things these days and expensive too, yet here was a lovely example waiting for him to wake up.

He knew his mind was wandering. He had a decent clue that something was off because Mikel in the city would not have gone gaga over a bird or a flower. He hoped it was a benefit of good drugs. If it was the medications, he speculated whether he could get a script for aftercare.