Tyler

It’s late and I’m tired, but my notebook is sitting here between my eyeballs and my computer monitor, so I might as well transcribe a little before I head to bed.

***

"Any change in his condition?" Dr. Freed spoke to the nurse on duty about Tyler Dann. The doctor was on his way to check on Tyler himself but wanted up-to-date information from someone most likely to know.

"No, Doctor," said Nurse Belenchuk. "He sits up, he eats meals, but he hasn’t spoken a word since they brought him in."

Dr. Freed glanced over Tyler’s chart. "Poor kid. I can’t imagine what he witnessed. I talked to Sandy about the autopsy, such as it was. He said he’d never seen anything like it. There were so many pieces of both victims, he had a hard time telling what bits belonged to who." He grimaced and put the chart back on the desk.

Nurse Belenchuk also grimaced at the image in her mind. "Do you want me to come with you to check on him?"

"Sure. Let’s go." He strode down the brightly lit hall toward Tyler’s room. Because of his catatonic condition, Tyler was in a private room. Most of the patients in this ward were in private rooms. Some of them were strapped to their beds to prevent them from hurting themselves or anyone else.

Dr. Freed opened the door to Tyler’s room and preceded the nurse inside. The walls were a pale colour intended to induce calm feelings in the patient. At the moment, Tyler sat in a chair by the window, staring out at the grassy areas below. Or perhaps beyond the grass into a place in his mind, or beyond the edge of the world. Dr. Freed watched the boy for a few moments to see if he would register their presence. Apart from the occasional blink of his eyes, Tyler remained utterly still. "Did you put him in the chair, Nurse?"

"No. Sometimes he gets up by himself and sits there or stands by the window for hours at a stretch."

"He’s never left the room?" Dr. Freed didn’t want this patient wandering around the hospital unattended.

"No. Never. There’s a buzzer at the nurse’s station that goes off when the doors open. It lets us know when the ambulatory patients are up and about. Besides, he can’t get out of the ward. The patients don’t have the codes for the security locks."

"Of course. I forgot. I’m not used to having patients in high security." He gave her a tight smile, feeling somewhat stupid at the moment. He went across the room and crouched down beside the boy in the chair. "Hey, Tyler. How you doing?"

Tyler gazed out and said nothing. 

***

Back with more over the weekend.