“I don’t seem to be feeling any affects from the treatment any more,” Liz said. She was sitting on the edge of the examining table in Doctor Roger Callan’s office.” I’m starting to have more bad days again.”
“I’m sorry things worked out the way they did, Liz,” Roger said. He was a medium framed man in his mid thirties. His light brown hair was parted almost in the middle, but just a little to the left side. It hung full around his ears and a lock curled on his forehead.
“Maybe, once things are straightened out, we can try again. I really don’t think the drug is dangerous. I think when we find out what really happened to the Pruitt woman, we’ll find that the drug wasn’t really at fault.”
“What do you think the problem was?” Liz asked.
“I don’t know. She must have had some other condition that couldn’t handle the drug.”
“Has the hospital been in touch with you about it?” Liz asked.
Callan looked into her face, seeming to struggle with the question.
“Of course,” Liz said, seeing his uneasiness.” You don’t need to answer that. I probably shouldn’t have asked. What with all this privacy stuff and all.”
“Oh, no. That’s quite all right. You have every right to know. Besides, I’ve already talked to Michael about it. He said you were concerned that you might be involved in an investigation. And that’s really what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“I was afraid of that.”
“Don’t worry about it though. Nothing was your fault but you may be called to testify. I don’t think you need a lawyer and I told Michael that. I’m sure we can work things out together ourselves.
“The brunt of the investigation will be on myself, Doctor Blakeney and the hospital chief of staff, as well as the pharmaceutical company. These types of things tend to take a long time to straighten out. Sometimes, years.
“You may be called on from time to time, but I don’t think you’ll be involved for any prolonged period of time in each instance. The real bad news is we can’t continue with the experimental drug, until this is cleared up. For now, we need to try something else to help you get by.”
“Haven’t you already tried everything?” Liz asked.
“As long as science keeps working on this thing, we’ll never have tried everything. But for now I’m going to try something else on you for a couple of weeks.”
He went to a cabinet, opened a drawer and took out an envelope designed for dispensing tablets.” These are samples,” he said. He wrote in pencil on the envelope.” Take one tablet four times a day before sleeping.”
“Let’s try these and see how they work. If they help, I’ll write out a prescription and put you on them for an extended period. Fair enough?”
“Fair enough,” Liz agreed.
Liz slept fitfully. She tossed and turned, unable to get comfortable, even when she rolled over onto her stomach, which was her preferred position. Although not quite awake and not quite asleep, she still felt pain with every movement. Flashes of images and a crackle of sounds flickered in her brain; many so fleeting that she couldn’t grasp them and this distressed her even in her twilight state.
She began to writhe in the bed and started to breath heavily, as if she were living through some awful ordeal in an alternate universe buried somewhere in her sub consciousness. Her head began to ache and loud sounds filled her ears and made them hurt. Shadows rolled in beneath her eyelids as they slowly opened to slits. The noise in her ears grew louder and louder. Suddenly she jerked wide awake, rolled over on her back and sat up abruptly, clutching the blanket to her chin. Her mouth opened wide and she screamed with no sound. Her heart pounded in her head and sweat beaded on her brow. She was like a little girl awakening from a bad dream filled with terror.
Then as quickly as she had awoken, she realized what had happened. She slumped back against her pillow and relaxed. Her breathing slowed and her heartbeat began to subside.
She glanced toward her bedroom window and could see lights moving outside in the dark. The noise had continued, but reverberated in a normal level. As she came fully awake now, she realized the sound was the clatter of the tractor engine.
Liz smiled, even though a bit ashamed of herself for her night terror. She now realized that Deb must be home from work and couldn’t resist trying the tractor out before going to bed. She lay back and rested a bit, listening to the drone of the machinery as Deb drove it all over the back lot. Occasionally, she would see beams of light flash past the window. Deb’s presence was somehow reassuring and Liz couldn’t remember when she finally drifted off to sleep with the drone of the tractor still in her ears.