I don't remember how long I spent in this zen. --- was our cleaning girl. She bought me a drink my second night here. I don't remember why. We ended up sitting in sauna, talking to each other. I was supposed to meet Lenon at the airport. But instead I just sat on the bench talking to her, staring her in the eyes. It seemed I forgot the notion of time. I then saw lights of a cab pulling into the hotel lobby.
“Speaking of the devil...”
“Heey, Mike, you old stud!” Lenon came crashing in hugging me by the shoulders. “I didn't believe you at first but now I see it all. Hot tub, sauna, incense, some ladies, I see. Hello! Lenon!”
“---”
“Heey come on man, you're gonna let all the heat out!” I gave him a playful smack.
“It's fucking Bahamas, man! I'm gonna go get changed.”
“There is more beer in the fridge!” I yelled after him. “Get it?” I turned to her, “Beer in the fridge?”
We kissed again. It just seemed my life couldn't get better.
***
I was startled when my phone rang the same afternoon. When I picked up a female on the other end of the line addressed me in a stressed tone.
“Mr Temkine? We are calling to inform you on the condition of your friend. She appears to have suffered a concussion.”
“Where is she?” I cried. “Where are you keeping her?”
“Relax, Sir, she is in the hospital.”
“Can I talk to her?”
“She is currently non-responsive. She told us to inform you of her condition right before she fainted.”
“Where is the hospital?”
“Sir, we don't take visits at this hour.”
“I don't care, mam, where is the goddamn hospital?”
Lenon tapped me on the shoulder.
“It's on the same road as the airport terminal. But the buses have stopped working. You'll have to find a cab.”
I hung up the phone.
“It's not safe, ” he added. “The sun will set soon.”
“I don't care, I'll find it.”
I grabbed my wallet and ran to the door. The streets where empty. No cabs. The indulgent party people have never taken into account the times where some of us would be in a desperate need of transportation. Several cars rolled by on the next street. I waved to them but they vanished as if they never saw me. Maybe they truly didn't. Maybe they simply couldn't.
I had to get to the hospital, I felt that need with all my senses. Something troubled me in the back of my mind. The had been a blank-out in my memory. How did that girl end up in the hospital so quickly. What happened?
I ran back the way I came, past the hotel, in the other direction in search of a taxi or a car, or anything to take me down town. Nothing. The streets were empty as if war had really started. I turned around the corner. Several old chevvies had been parked along that street as if on purpose, to taunt me. Angrily I hit one on the window. The window broke.
“Ah shit!” I yelled out loud.
“HEY!” someone yelled behind me. Owner of the car maybe? I could offer him cash for his window as well for the ride. I had enough money to buy the whole island.
I turned around. It was Lenon. My excitement choked on the vision of him like fish chokes on air when it is brought out of the water.
“I'm a little desperate!” I yelled in his direction. “Have you guys found a car?”
“You won't need it.” he said. I didn't like his tone of voice. “Look over there.”
He pointed at the downtown. So much like Crypton. It got me thinking. Maybe it wasn't Bahamas. Maybe it was Crypton.
“You expect me to go on foot?”
I made a step. Suddenly both of us ended up on the other end of the road, the direction where I came from.
“Nice, you've been sedated? And this time it's not codeine!” Lenon was chocking with laughter.
“Yeah, very funny! Where is the goddamn hospital?”
“It's that building over there.” He leaned in. I could smell the beer in his breath. That guy just never stops drinking... “But you have to jump only to where you can see,” he added “otherwise you will shatter this world and all your friggin dreams.”
Zip! I skipped a block, and turned my head onto the next intersection. Zip! Down to the end of it. Zip! Up onto the railroad bridge. Zip! Zip! The world started collapsing like it was made of cardboard. I was teleporting too fast. But so close. The hospital was so close now. Just one more... Zip!
I fell on the ground and pressed my cheek onto the asphalt. That's right, the warm rough asphalt of the street right next to the Nassau Hospital. And warm air breathed down my face. I am not lying on my bed... I am lying on the road next to the hospital... The more lucid we are the more control we have. The more lucid we are the quicker the dream collapses leaving us nothing to play with. My teleporting has cause massive changes in this world. The sea was now further away. The buildings have become less, as if really destroyed. And maybe the girl I was trying to find was no longer here. But it was the risk I had to take.
I got up and started looking for the door. I had forgotten I was dreaming. Lenon was right. Advil is a good sedative. I ran around the building but there had only been the back door. The sign read “Employees only.” But they will forgive me, those doctors and nurses who had been trying to save lives in this place. Ran down the corridor. The first of the 3 emergency rooms. I ran through the plastic curtains. And froze.
It looked more like a butcher shop than a hospital. L-shaped beds made of recyclable papier-mache rose all over the place in this room. On those beds lay various patients. These had been the patients who had just undergone surgery. Some had stitches. Others were severely bandaged. But even through these bandages I saw their woulds, bleeding still. Some paper beds were empty Blood mixed with other fluids filled the void of where once a person had been. Have they died? Have they been taken to the next room, with the more healed patients? I didn't know. On the way out I tripped over some black cables. I looked down and to my horror I saw that they were part of a life-support system for a body lying right on the ground inside a clear sac filled with yellow fluid. An adult fetus? Or the last stage for someone about to be unplugged?
“Sir,” a nurse's loud voice brought me back to my senses. “Your friend is this way.”
Like in a dream I followed her to another room. Here the patients looked a little more healthy. Some of them were getting dressed, ready to leave, all healed. A woman was practicing slow karate moves, testing her body to be ready for checkout. I walked to the darker part of the room and there, right by the window I saw her. She sat on the bed smiling at me.
“Hey,” I came to her and took her hand.
“Hey”
“What happened? Was this when we clunked our heads?”
“I think so.” she giggled. “I have a very weak mind.”
“You have a very strong heart.” I sat next to her. “When will you be ready to check out?”
“When are you leaving the island?”
“In 3 days.”
“Then we have 3 days together!” she laughed “Lucky you...” she suddenly added.
“I know,” I leaned in closer to her face.
“We have 3 days.” she said again. “Don't worry though, you'll get to shag me. I always shag with the guy 2 days before he leaves.”
“What?” I jumped as if cold water had been poured on me.
“Don't worry, you will have 2 days to ravage me!”
“Yeah, that's not the part that worries me. I had a girlfriend in Canada. Now what am I going to tell her?”
“Tell her you met someone who was your fantasy. That's what you always wanted isn't it?”
I got up.
“Yeah, but that's not what you just said.”
“Come on you...” suddenly she rose and jumped on top of me. “Haven't you always wanted to make it with a hot blonde? Like me?”
“Yes...” I didn't know what to say. “Yes, but...”
“Shhh” she kissed me.
We lay there for a while. Not too long of a while.
“Ohh!” she suddenly let me go. “All you men are the same! Give you a little bit of a head and you are all over a woman!”
“Little bit of a head?” I tried to sit up. “You were all over ME!”
“We still have 3 days. Let's take this slow, okay?”
“Okay...”
“Okay!” she jumped me again.
“I thought you wanted to take this slow...” I began.
“Make up your mind, Misha.” she said in a strangely familiar voice.
“I... I can't...” was all I could say.
“Oh god I'm so wet.”
“If I take you now, will you resist again?”
“Take me and find out...”
We started again. This time I was a little more gentle. She liked it. But it didn't last.
“What's wrong?” she said.
“I am sorry. It's just what you said. I came running here as fast as I could because I thought you were perfect. And you were. But I think I changed the world a little too much when I came running here. And, after what you said, how you shag other guys, I can't help but think you are somehow different.”
She got up. She walked forward so I could see her entirely.
“Nobody is perfect. Not even I, but tell that to the old you. Maybe you are different? Maybe you changed? Tell me though... Ain't I cute?”
“You are... You are...”
“Well you have 3 days...”
I sighed.
“No I dont, ---”
And I woke up.
