04.10.08
In the Hospital.
When Kathleen O’Neill woke up, she was no longer ill. She knew this as certainly as she knew her own name.
The earsplitting shriek of the monitors around Kathleen’s bed was getting on her nerves. If she was well, then there was no reason to stay in the hospital any longer. Kathleen stepped out into the hall.
Two nurses moved to intercept Kathleen. When they were ignored, their polite this-is-for-your-own-good masks crumbled, and they began moving rapidly towards her. Kathleen promptly changed course, walked over to the window, and dove out of the hospital’s seventh story and into the nighttime gloom.
The nurses ran for the window. Far below them, Kathleen stood up and walked off toward Main Street, brushing glass shards off her hospital gown. There was no blood on the window or on the concrete below.
The two nurses looked at each other, then went back to call the doctor.
