Devastated, I sat down and started crying, while storeowners in the food court were panicking. I didn’t understand what I was capable of, what I could do. That took me a long time to understand, and even then it wasn’t me who figured it out. I curled up into as small of a ball as I could, and lay on the floor unmoving. This was how my dad and the police found me minutes later.
I’m sitting in the police station in one of the interrogation rooms right now. They let me take out a notebook to do my schoolwork once they found out that I attend summer school. But I didn't actually have any homework, so instead I'm writing down my story. I have a feeling that I’ll need it soon.
Hunter
Mhm. Yeah. Blood flow normal. Nutrition normal. Heart rate normal. Brain activity normal. Well then. The doctor thought that I was just crazy and knocked myself out by falling to the floor, but nevertheless went through the motions and scientifically proved that, yes, I was indeed crazy. Hm.
So anyway, I seemed to be fine, so the doctor let me go home. He advised that my dad keep watch over me at all times, however. He didn’t seem to think that another visit was necessary, but upon further prompting from my dad, agreed to see me again tomorrow at around the same time.
So, I went home. Nothing really exciting to talk about. I watched Netflix the entire day, with Robert standing by as a sort of guardian angel in case I should randomly start beating my head with the remote control. Parents are great.
Lucas
The doctors didn’t talk to me about the fact that my brain waves were going crazy. I guess they thought that if my brain waves were freaking out like that while I was resting, they didn’t want to risk seeing what my brain waves would be like if I was also freaking out. However, they spoke at length with Dad, who came back looking older than I’ve ever seen him.
Everyone treated me like I was going to die. It was a little liberating at first, but it got aggravating enough so that I would want to get out of bed and whack them with a dinner tray just to prove that I could.
While my dad wasn’t exactly happy with the fact that I could potentially have seizures and perish any moment, he was glad that he had an excuse to spend more time with me. We watched TV into the night, waiting for the doctors’ responses.
Eventually, they decided on a risky plan. They knew that my dad could not afford to stay in San Francisco for more than a day due to the responsibilities of his job, so they allowed me to embark on a trip back to Boston. However confusing the behavior of my brainwaves were, they all agreed that it was unlikely that I would be further harmed, and that as a matter of fact, the pain I felt was most likely shock from the activity my brain was experiencing.
My dad was not so sure, but not only did the doctors urge him to take on this plan, so did I. Although I loved spending time with him, I knew how important his job was, both to him and what it meant for our family. Since Mom passed away in labor, my dad has had to work overtime, all the time, in order to provide for me. I couldn’t let him throw his career away because I had gotten a headache.
So, by 6:00 PM, we had gotten to Boston, and been admitted to room 58 at Mass General.
Hunter
So, like expected, on my second visit to the doctor, he didn’t find anything wrong. To be truthful, I had almost expected, even wanted him to find something this time. Even though I hadn’t had an episode like the one on my birthday yet, I couldn’t just forget about what had happened. For those few moments, I felt so alive. I felt like a superhuman, seeing and hearing everything. It was such an empowering feeling that I had fainted. But it was okay. It was probably for the better that I hadn’t had any more episodes.
Because Robert had told me that he would drop me off, run an errand, and come immediately back, I still had a few minutes because of how quick the examination had been. I decided to take a stroll around the hospital. I had forgotten my phone at home, so there really was nothing else for me to do. Who sits down and reads those magazines anyway?
Somewhere along my stroll, I realized that the room numbering system was funky. My room had been room 157, but every room skipped two numbers, so that the sequence went 157, 154, and so on. It wasn’t a big deal, it just seemed like an odd quirk at the time.
But as I approached 71, I heard a group of doctors discussing a patient inside. I couldn’t hear much, because the door was closed and they were speaking quietly. I put my ear to the door to listen. I heard bits and pieces of sentences:
“He …. normal”
“........brain….”
“..please…….”
“But it is simply exceptional!”
That last part I could clearly hear because it was said excitedly and loudly.
Were they talking about me? It was a long shot, especially because they were so far away from my room. It would also make more sense for the doctors taking care of me to be discussing this, but who knows?
I started straining, trying harder and harder to hear. Of course, I don’t know why I even bothered. It’s not really easy to hear better on command. But suddenly, I could. My hearing became so crystal clear that I could hear rooms 65, 68, 71, 74 and 77 simultaneously. And it was too loud. Too. Loud.
I stumbled backwards and fell into one of the armchairs lining the other wall. I pressed my hands to my temples. “Stop. Stop. Stop. Please, stop.” I whispered, over and over again. And, as miraculously as it came, my hypersensitive hearing faded away. Then, cautiously, I tried to concentrate and listen to only what was coming from the room 71. Waves of sound came to me again; and I had to take a minute to stop it again. It was painful, but exciting. After ten minutes of deliberation, I could switch from room to room.
Other than a heart beating, breathing, and other medical sounds, there was nothing to be heard from either room 74 or room 77. Room 65 housed two heartbeats, but it would seem that they were both sleeping. Both their heartbeats and breathing were constant in pattern. Room 68 was interesting. When listening in at first, I yelped in pain. The patient in room 68 was watching TV, but the patient was not alone. There were two heartbeats in there. They were watching the news, something about a local girl having been arrested for destruction of property, but under extremely odd circumstances. I made a mental note to myself to look it up later. It seemed interesting.
In room 71, the doctors were discussing the patient of room 68. It would seem that he was perfectly fine and healthy, yet the EEG, or as I later found out, the Electroencephalographic scan, showed that he was exhibiting unusual amounts of brain activity. The amount that he was experiencing was so unprecedented that there was a real possibility that he could die, and they didn’t know whether or not to keep him at the hospital. Hm. Poor kid. Although, the fact that all his vitals were normal except his brain reminded me of my own situation. I had half a mind to walk into his room right then and ask him if he had been experiencing some new sensations. I got hearing, maybe he got some weird brain hijack, I don’t know. But right then, Robert called. Time to go.
Lucas
That poor girl. She looked terrified in the news. It had been her birthday also, like me. I can relate to bad things happening on your birthday. It sucks.
I was released from the hospital, but they want me to come in weekly so that they can take my vitals. My instincts tell me that they’re worried I’ll die, but since they can’t come up with a plausible scientific reason that my brain activity is acting so erratic, they feel that they can not try to keep me away from home.
That’s a very detailed first instinct, isn’t it?
I think I can explain why.
When I came home today, my dad apologized and said that he needed to go to work. I understood. He had a lot on his plate already without