Nothing Ever Ends

“Jesus, can’t you go a minute without checking that thing?”

“I`m just replying to Marks text, chill will ya”

“Well at least don’t do it while dri…. TRUCK!!!!”

The phone tumbled out of Tony`s hand as he looked up, his right foot going to the brake pedal too late to make any difference. His mind having just enough time to register the pickups glowing brake lights, and the bundle of steel rods jutting out past its lowered tailgate.

Mary`s terrified scream was drowned out by the shriek of steel on steel as they collided, and the staccato explosions of the cars airbags deploying almost simultaneously.

When tony came to, dazed, struggling to breath, the car filled with a dense white chemical fog, he heard a voice say, “Jesus Christ, oh Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Hello there`s been an accident..” then he passed out for the second time.

When he came to again the fog was gone, but the car seemed to be filled with steel bars, he could feel some of them pressing into his chest; Outside blue lights were strobing. I`ll have to tell them to turn them off, he thought, I have Photo-sensitive…. Photo-sensitive… but for some reason he couldn’t think of the third word.
He heard a man`s voice outside the window and turned his head, intending to ask about his wife. His head felt too heavy for his neck to support, so he tried to rest it on the glass, but it flopped against the empty doorsill; that`s funny, he thought, I was sure the window was up.

He tried to say, “Is Mary alright?” but all that came out was “Ih Mayhe Awwwhi?”

The man glanced at him, then looked away again.
“We`ve got a two vehicle collision, two occupants badly injured, one male, one female. To Tony he appeared to be talking to his left shoulder; great, he thought, a lunatic.
“The male is responsive but incoherent; the female is non respon…” Tony blacked out again.

When he awoke the fourth time, two men in heavy jackets were kneeling on the bonnet of the car; they appeared to be holding what looked to Tony like the world’s largest scissors. The one nearest him noticed his eyes were open and said, “We`ll have you out of there as soon as we can. Now hold on, this is going to hurt a little.” There was a mechanical whine from somewhere to his right and the jaws of the scissors began to close on one of the steel bars.

You`ll never cut that Mate, he thought, as the blades met steel, and then gurgled a shriek when it felt as if someone had just stabbed him in the chest; he passed out for the fifth time.

When he next awoke he was on his back, rocking slightly from side to side, as white lights went past overhead. Don’t go towards the light, he told himself, whatever you do don’t go towards the light, gotta stay alive for Mary and the kids.

A female voice said, “His heart rates erratic, not surprising really, couldn’t they have cut it a little shorter? His blood pressures 100 over 70 and dropping.”

Tony wanted to tell them to stop moving so fast, it made the pain in his chest worse, but all that came out was, “Muh huuh guu uh.” No-one took any notice of him, and he wondered if he`d only imagined making any sound.

“We need to get that thing out of him fast,” a man said, “But first we need to know how bad it is. You two take him to X-ray, I`ll page Sorenson, he`ll need to be in on this, And….” Tony didn’t get to find out what else the man had in mind as blessed darkness descended again.

When he woke up in the hospital bed the next day he had no idea how he`d gotten there. He grinned stupidly at the pretty nurse as she bent over him, giving him a close up of her cleavage, fussing at something on his chest.
Whee, he thought, this is better than weed. He would have asked the nurse what they`d given him, but it felt like a snake had slithered down his throat and had gotten stuck half-way, making speech impossible. He managed to think how peculiar it was that he wasn’t alarmed by this. He knew he should be outraged at the idea that the hospital allowed serpent’s free reign to go crawling into the open mouths of sleeping patients, but really he didn’t have the energy, besides it didn’t appear to be doing him any harm, he slipped back into sleep with a smile on his face.

The sensation of the bed moving under him woke him next. He opened his eyes to find a chubby, balding, middle-aged man in a white lab coat, sitting on his bed, he was in the act of stripping back the blanket when he saw Tony`s eyes were open. “Ahh, you`re awake, good, good.”

“Whehes Mahhee?” Tony said, struggling to get his words past the thing still nesting in his mouth and gullet.

The man looked around, “Nurse!” he spoke in the tone of someone used to being obeyed.

A nurse, not the same one; but a man, a black man with muscles so large they deformed his white short-sleeved top, appeared on the other side of the bed, “Doctor?”

The bald man pointed to Tony`s mouth, “Remove that will you.”
The nurse loomed over Tony, who stared up at him in wide-eyed terror, weakly flailing at him with limp arms. “All right Mr Anderson,” the nurse said in the same soothing tone Tony used on his own children after they`d had a bad dream. “I`m just going to remove that tube in your throat; this is going to be a little unpleasant, so bear with me alright?”

Still bug-eyed, Tony watched the man`s enormous hands close in on his face, and in a panic grabbed one of the wrists, the hand stopped. The nurse smiled down at him, “It`s okay Mr Anderson, I`m not going to hurt you, I`ve just got to remove that tube so you can talk; will you let me to do that?”

Tony replied by releasing his grip, letting his own hand flop lifelessly back onto the bed, the nurse`s smile broadened.

He explained what he was about to do before he did it, “I need to remove this tape that`s holding the tube in place,” this was followed by a “Zzipp,” sound Tony knew only too well.

“Sorry about that,” the nurse said, “But I always think it`s better to just get it over with quick, don’t you? Now for that nasty old tube,” and even he grimaced slightly as he slowly pulled on the plastic pipe.

“Okay?” he asked when he was done.

And when Tony croaked a “Yes,” his smile broadened, “My name is Patrick by the way.” And it was then that Tony understood what had been nagging at him about the man, he had a thick Kerry accent.

“You`re a very lucky man,” the doctor told him, as he began to prod at Tony`s chest with both index fingers, “If that bar had been a couple of millimetres to the right you`d have been killed outright. As it was you`re old heart only lasted long enough to get you into theatre. I tell you I don’t believe in coincidence but…..”

He stopped when Tony grabbed his forearm, “Mary?” he said in the same hoarse whisper, “Where`s Mary?”

The doctor looked from him to Patrick, who was still standing beside the bed, “He doesn’t know?”

The nurse shook his head, “This is the first time he`s been lucid…..” he said, faltering into an awkward silence.

Tony looked from one man to the other, then squeezed the doctors arm to get his attention, feeling his heart begin to pick up speed as panic threatened to swamp him, “Mary?” he begged, knowing the answer from the way the nurse looked away.

“I`m sorry Mr Anderson, I assumed you`d already been told. Your wife…. Mary, she passed away on the operating table. We did everything we could….” He shrugged, as if that explained everything.

He patted Tony on the shoulder, “If it`s any consolation, a lot of people will benefit from her organs.” And then quite tactlessly went on, “Why if it wasn’t for her, you wouldn’t be here. Damnedest thing, It`s rare for spouses to be tissue matches, but a heart transplant from one to the other, don’t think it`s ever been done before. Just think, you`ll always carry a little bit of her wherever you go.”