Capítulo 8: Saturday June 24th, 2056
It is silent in the hospital room. Noises of ambulances arriving and departing can be heard throughout the night, but Andrew sleeps through that. The moonlight shines through the large window, into the room. Andrew is laying in the shade, covered by his blanket. He opens his eyes and looks at the clock. It reads 3:24 in the morning. He opens the curtain next to him, and his face gets washed in the moonlight.
[I wonder if you're still thinking about me, May. Keil, Sarah and Lin, too. And my family. Anyone I've ever known. I hope you all didn't forget me.]
His thoughts make him dreamy, and he turns around and closes his eyes. The moonlight vanishes from the room, as the moon goes behind a tall building. Andrew goes to sleep.
"Andrew. Hey, Andrew. It's time to wake up." Helen whispers. Andrew opens his eyes and looks at her. "Good morning, Andrew."
"Good morning." Andrew slowly lifts his head. He looks at the clock again. It's around ten in the morning.
"I already got your breakfast here, but I'll let you wake up first."
"There wasn't a choice this time?" Andrew asks.
"No, sorry. We couldn't give you anything else at this point in time." Helen apologises.
Andrew looks at the plate, and the glass of water. On the plate are simple toasts and breads, with bowls of generic toppings like cheese and ham, and packages of jam and butter.
"It's fine. Don't be sorry, it's not your fault."
Helen helps Andrew sit up straight, and she rolls the makeshift table in front of him again. She sits down on the bed next to him.
[She hasn't got a plate herself, so she probably already had breakfast. Makes sense given the time.]
Andrew starts eating. The toasts and breads don't taste well, but it works for Andrew. He only uses the jam and the butter, as the cheese and ham don't look too appealing.
"Say, Andrew." Helen starts. "How come it that you're so calm about the situation?"
[I thought we weren't going to discuss difficult questions.]
"I don't really know. It's just that… " Andrew pauses for a bit. "It just feels like I've been asleep like normal, so I guess it hasn't really sunk in yet."
"I see." Helen responds. "Sorry for asking, but most patients aren't this calm after realising where, or when I should say, they are."
"Don't be sorry, and I don't know what it is. The feeling that my friends and my family still know about me, keeps me calm in a way. I think." Andrew sounds unsure. "And the fact that they still exist, also warms me up. It would've been way worse if I woke up hundreds of years later."
Helen nods. She looks at the floor.
"Thank you."
"Wait, why?" Andrew says.
"The past patients I've gotten… almost all of them were immediately in a state of panic after the realisation, so I'm just thankful that you're a calm one. You're also my youngest patient yet, maybe it has something to do with life experience."
Andrew is silent, and looks from Helen to the floor. He nods, and smiles.
"Ah, nevermind." Helen says. "I'm just rambling. You should eat up your breakfast first, then we'll start to relearn walking."
Andrew finishes his breakfast, and Helen makes room around the bed.
"I guess we should practise walking to the toilet for today, which is more than enough."
[Now that I think about it, I haven't felt the need to go to the toilet for the past few days.]
"I know what you're thinking." Helen says. "It might sound a bit gross, but you were 'emptied' somewhere during the past week."
[Emptied, as in, that way emptied? It makes sense, but… ew.]
"Anyway." Helen says, as she walks towards his bed. She grabs hold of his arms. "Let's see if you can stand first. Try to pull yourself up on the count of three. One… two… "
[Can I already stand? Right after waking up? I heard people who have been in a coma for only a few months had to relearn to walk.]
"Three!"
[I feel her pulling on me. I don't think I can do this. I feel heavy.]
Andrew starts to work with her anyway. He is lifted from the bed, but immediately after, his legs give up.
"Woah!" Helen exclaims.
[I can't stand. There is no way after not doing anything for thirty something years, that I'm able to stand, let alone walk. What is she thinking?]
Andrew falls back on his bed.
"Well, I didn't expect this to happen." Helen says.
"What?"
[You know I've slept for thirty or more years, right Helen?]
"No, no, it's not your fault, but usually people are able to stand at least. I hope that didn't hurt you."
[What does she mean? There is no way. How would anyone be able to stand feeling so heavy?]
Andrew holds his head.
[Stop thinking, brain. This isn't something to bother yourself about. I just need to keep going.]
"Can we try again?" Andrew asks.
"Sure." Helen responds. "If you're okay with it." Helen holds his hands again.
[Let's do it properly this time.]
"One… two… three!"
This time, Andrew tries to stand up without uncertain thoughts, and pulls on Helen's hands.
His legs slip away again and he falls onto his bed.
"Let's try again!" Andrew says.
"No, wait." Helen tells him. "We need to anchor your feet first, because it might not be your muscles that are weakened, but the floor that's slippery. I'm going to ask for some help."
[The floor isn't wet, so it couldn't be slippery.]
Helen leaves the room, and Andrew waits on his bed. She returns with a middle-aged man. He has a muscular build, but because of his glasses and his greying hair, he looks fairly timid.
"Hey there, Andrew." The man reaches out with his hand, and shakes Andrew's. "My name is Robert Carter, I also work as a rehabilitation nurse here, like Helen."
[Still no surname for her. She isn't wearing a name card either, Robert isn't as well. Doctor Mirad always wore it.]
"Sorry for calling you over so suddenly, Rob." Helen apologises. "I'll hold his feet, so if you can help him up."
"Seems like a plan to me. On the count of three…" Robert holds Andrew with one hand, and puts the other behind his back.
Andrew nods, and he settles his free hand on the bed.
[He seems like a nice guy.]
"One… two… three!"
Andrew uses his arm on the bed to force himself up, and Robert pulls him further. His feet don't slip away this time, and he is standing up straight. Helen lets go of his feet.
"So, looks like that worked." Helen says.
"I feel really heavy, I don't think I can keep this up for long."
"That's to be expected." Robert responds. "Your vestibular system has been inactive for over thirty-seven years, so it's only natural this puts an effect on your body."
[But didn't Helen say most people were fine standing up?]
"Vestibular system?"
"They are a set of tiny organs inside your ear that makes balancing possible. Most people are able to stand and walk after waking up, because we activate the sensors in the vestibular system during the week of recovery outside of Stasis. It's a way to give you a head start on relearning to walk."
"I see." Andrew responds.
[I didn't really pick up anything of that. It felt like he was speaking Chinese or something.]
"Anyway," Helen says, as she gives a signalling look to Robert. "we have the entire day to practise your walk to the bathroom, so let's see if you can take a few steps."
Robert lets go of Andrew, but he sticks close to him in case he falls over.
[It shouldn't be too hard. I just need to move my leg as if I were walking. The weak leg that is keeping up this heavy, unstable body. Can I do that? What if I fall over and Robert can't catch me? Well, he should be able to catch me if he's standing that close. Okay. Take a breath, no need to worry, and just lift your leg and place it somewhere in front of you.]
Andrew takes a deep breath. He lifts his leg, and feels the lack of balance kick in. The grounded leg is shivering. He leans his head slightly forward, and moves his leg accordingly. His leg lands on the ground, approximately three feet in front of his other leg. Andrew breathes out and looks up.
[That wasn't as hard as I expected.]
He moves his other leg in the same manner, but a lot quicker and less dramatic than the first step. His legs are now next to each other, and he looks at Helen and Robert, surprised.
"Well done!" Helen says.
"Looks like the problem was in standing up, I've had that with two or three of my patients before." Robert adds.
"Well, I haven't." Helen says. "Let's try walking to the bathroom door."
"Sure, although I still feel heavier than normal." Andrew takes another step.
He continues taking steps, concentrating on not falling over. Robert waits at the bathroom door and Helen walks with Andrew. He reaches the bathroom.
"Good job, Andrew." Robert says as he raises his hand for a high five.
[I'm not a little kid, but sure.]
Andrew gives him a high five.
"Well, looks like you two can continue now, so I'll be on my way." Robert says, as he waves. He walks out of the room. Helen opens the door to the bathroom and shows Andrew around. A toilet, a shower, a sink, all the usual bathroom objects are here. Throughout the room are multiple red buttons, the same alarm buttons as the one near Andrew's bed. After Helen has showed Andrew the bathroom, they go back into the main room. Andrew walks back to his bed and sits down.
"Here, this might help with standing up." Helen places a small, rugged mat next to Andrew's bed. "There was a spare one in the bathroom. You won't slip and fall using this."
"Thanks." Andrew says.
"It's almost two o clock, so I'll get us some lunch. Any special orders?" Helen asks with a smile. Andrew tells her what he wants, and Helen leaves the room. Andrew lays on his back and looks at the ceiling.
[I completely forgot about my phone, and the other stuff in the box.]
Helen returns to the room with lunch.
[Why does it look like she is in a hurry?]
"Here you go, Andrew." Helen says. "Sadly, I can't lunch with you this time, as I have other business to attend to. I'm already running a bit late, maybe you noticed."
I did, it's pretty obvious.
"Anyway, try walking around the room for a bit, maybe you can look in that box again, it's on the first platform in that closet." She points to the closet. Helen is out of breath from talking too fast, and waits a short while before continuing. "Okay, I really gotta hurry now. I'll be back for dinner. See you then!"
"Until then." Andrew says back. Helen leaves the room.
[She reminds me of mom, when she's being hasty like that.]
Andrew starts on his lunch.
After he is done, he gets up from his bed. Using the rugged mat, he is able to keep his balance and able to stand up quite easily. He walks to the closet and opens it. The box is indeed settled on the first platform. He lifts the box, which was surprisingly light, and places it down on his bed.
[The phone's first.]
He opens the box, and the phone and charger are laying on top. Next to the charger is an adapter.
[Oh, I completely forgot about it. Nice of her to put it here, where it's easy to find. Probably brought it over during the night.]
He plugs the adapter into the wall, and starts charging his phone. Moments after he put his phone in, the screen lights up with a picture of a battery, and a charge symbol in it.
[Looks like that still works. Let's see what else is in here while it charges.]
He places the phone on the bedside table, and starts unpacking the rest of the box. He pulls out two jeans, three shirts and a sweater, the ones he used to wear most often. Andrew smiles and puts his clothes to the side. He pulls out a book from the box. The picture book he loved when he was still young: The Rainbow Fish, a story about sharing. Andrew opens the book and starts reading. He reads through it fully, and closes the book and places it on his legs.
[To think that they even thought about this.]
A tear falls down from his eye, but he quickly wipes it away.
[Mom, once I meet you again, I'll thank you for this.]
Andrew puts the book next to his phone on the bedside table, and looks at the closet.
[I wonder if they have a library here, I'd love to read some books from the future. Sci-fi and Fantasy most likely changed too.]
He pulls out more stuff from the box. Small and large, cheap and expensive, useful and useless, all these things were once in his room. He goes through all of them, and thinks about where he got them, or why he collected it. On the bottom of the box lay three letters. They are all larger than a typical birthday card, and are coloured blue, red and purple from left to right. Without giving it much thought, Andrew grabs and opens the left, blue letter first.
-----
To our dearest son and brother,
We don't know when, or where, you will read this, but we hope you are doing okay. Together, we filled this box with your most precious belongings, we hope we picked out the correct stuff! We asked May and your friends to put something in too, but they stuck to only letters. May put something in her letter too, but let's not spoil that here. We were devastated when it happened, but we quickly realised you could possibly wake up again, so our grief turned into hope. If you are reading this only thirty or forty years later, be sure to give us a visit! All of us are hoping we can hear your voice once more. If you are way ahead into the future, past our time, be sure to check if Periwinkle and Hillton Fishing Co. are still up! We decided to add this picture of us five during summer vacation, in Spain in 2019. Right after sending in this letter, Melissa will move out to London to study English Literature, and Connor is planning to study a physics related topic, although he is not sure yet which one. We hope you find a place in the world too, once you wake up. We miss you, Andrew, but we hope you can look back at the past with joy, and continue to live a prosperous future.
Much love and hugs,
Mom, Dad, Connor and Melissa.
-----
While reading the last sentence of the letter, Andrew starts crying. He couldn't keep the sorrow within him, after reading it. Andrew wipes the tears away with his arm, and looks at the attached picture. His mother smiling softly, his father looking proud, Connor expressing excitement, and Melissa showing exasperation. All of their personalities the way he remembered them, in a single shot. He stares at it for a while longer, before breaking out in tears again. The depressive feelings overwhelm him, and he decides to read the other letters later. In his mind the same thought repeats itself over and over again.
[I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.]
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