Humility

by Magdalene Hornbeam

  - I understand your concerns, but without a special notice from the doctor I cannot do the lab research. This dates five days ago. Wait for the rounds, when the doctor will come to you and share with my colleague.

  The patient complained about something, but she could not hear clearly what it was. Then the nurse started talking:

  - I propose to go along together with Dr. Rivar to assist you for a tomography prescription. What do you think, Dr. Ziyad, it is most appropriate, right?

  - Okay, I'll go get a coffee from the vending machine downstairs, but I’ll immediately go back. If you come before me, wait for me - he had a very deep male husky voice.

  Anna got sweat of anxiety that they would come in the booth for undressing of patients where she was, but they did not. The three of them left the tomography ward through the other door and she heard the doctor locking the door. Thankfully, they forgot the door of her booth. Ana stormed into the office, looked around and noticed that there was some room behind the opaque glass in the other corner, diagonal to the large X-ray machine. She went there, opened the door and saw the specialist’s jacket and his cell phone on the desk. She took the wallet from his jacket, chose a credit card, then came back and took the mobile and car keys that lay beside him. She come back in the booth and again in the long corridor. She walked in the opposite direction. She met from time to time some medical staff, but nobody paid any attention to her. She took the elevator. A man with an empty cart got out of it. It must have been the boy from washer. There was no one in the elevator. Anna pressed the button for the basement. She found herself in an underground car park. She started walking, slipping her bare feet in the big shoes that belonged to Doreen. She began pressing the remote control to find the car. Soon one of the cars, a Peugeot, beeped. Anna got into the driver's seat and shut the door. She inserted the key and started the engine. She was thinking frantically, if she gets caught, exactly how to behave -like a stupid idiot or like someone who has lost speech skills. She started humming, to make herself sure that she could speak. Set the heater because in these thin nursing clothes she was quite cold. She came freely from the parking lot directly on the city street, she drove confidently in one direction and soon, by the signs, she realized she was on the right track.

  When she was at the parking lot she took off the badge and slipped into the doctor’s big jacket, which was lying on the back seat. A very circumspect man was this doctor Musa Ziyad, who was the chief “culprit” for her rescue and whom she robbed in such a haughty way. Soon she left the city which was situated at the foot of the Alps. She headed to Paris. The tank was full, but it would not be enough for the whole trip. She would have to stop and fill in and this hospital pants under his jacket would make an impression. While driving, she dialed Louis from the stolen doctor’s mobile. She was trying to calculate if they had already discovered her absence and Dr. Ziyad had reported the cops, how quickly the police would be able to overhear and track the conversations. But there was little choice.

  - Hello - the voice of Louis had the familiar carelessness.

  - Louis, hello, please bring me the documents and the suitcase luggage at the airport in three hours. I think by then I'll be able to get there.

  - Anna, you're OK! Well done, how did they let you from the hospital?

  - I’ll explain when I see you- it hung up.

  When she entered the next town, she stopped at a pharmacy. Deliberately she unbuttoned the jacket for the medical equipment to be seen. She asked for some expensive drug and paid by a credit card. The doctor had most diligently put pieces of paper with pin-codes for each individual card. She had stolen paper, too. Then he had a second thought about the drug, took only some aspirin and the pharmacist returned a large amount in cash. Anna knew all did that to avoid big fees when withdrawing cash from ATMs. At the next station she filled the tank safely without caring about the way she was dressed. Gradually she was getting tired and exhausted. The adrenaline was not enough, but she kept driving. She lost track of time. When she came to Paris, she quite automatically stopped at the first store and bought a sweater, pants and sneakers. Still he continued to have the doctor’s jacket on. Only shortly before reaching the airport, she found a parking lot and stopped the Peugeot there. She looked at what number was dialed by the doctor most often, she put it down on the sheet of paper with the pin-codes, tore this part of the sheet of paper and locked the car. At the booth, she said the guard:

  - My husband has to come in two hours to pick up the car, but he is a doctor and is very distracted and absentminded. If he doesn’t show up, please call him on this number. I leave the car keys because he may have forgotten his.

  She left the parking lot before the guard could react. She took a taxi and arrived at the airport, where Louis was already waiting for her.

  - You've left hospital without permission, right?

  She took the documents from his hands, the ticket was inside the purse, and the two suitcases on wheels stood on the floor of the waiting room.

  - What happened Louis, would you mind telling me?

  - You fell and hit your head. There was a lot of blood and you had lost consciousness. Around all the people shouted, an ambulance came and I without saying anything else and showing that I'm with you, I told them to drive you to the best private hospital. Then I got in the hotel, took the luggage of both of us, I left through the back door and went down on foot to the city to not get caught.

  - Didn’t you think about how I would pay, right?

  - The important thing was to survive, so that everything else can make sense!

  - Okay, now what date is today?

  - You're holding a mobile in your hands and you ask for the date. You got it right, tonight is your flight - he knew that quality of hers to ask about things that she already knew.

  I can barely stand on my two feet.

  - Come on, let’s sit on a bench.

  When he made sure that she was sitting comfortably Louis said:

  - With Janet … we are still in progress in the relationship, so I'll go. Tonight we are doing to see an operetta. Call me when you arrive in Sofia, not to worry.

  - OK Bye.

  Louis left and Anna fell asleep. The bag with documents and tickets was with her, she was clutching it under her arm, under the large jacket stolen from Dr. Ziyad.

  Dr. Ziyad came with a plastic cup of coffee and went into the studio to drink in comfort and peace. His nurse was an elderly woman, but a very good and capable assistant. She would manage to deal with the patient. The car keys and his cell phone were gone. He thought that he didn’t lock the door of the booth for patients. But who will dare to enter and steal. Such a thing had not happened to him. He sat down to drink his coffee and relax. He heard the nurse close the door and went to his room. She knocked

  - Dr. Ziyad, can you? - It was not typical for her to bother him.

  - Yes - he thought she wanted to tell him about the patient, who insisted every five days to make tomography.

  - Doctor Jane Doe has escaped – that’s how they called the patient with a brain hemorrhage after falling on a ski slope, who was comatose ever since.

  - How come? This morning she had not woken up?

  - During visitation hours she was still in a coma, but now she’s gone.

  - It is not possible after such a trauma to be alone and to go anywhere.

  - They seek her through the whole department, she is nowhere to be found. She has taken down the electrode system, everything. Well, she will not go far, probably in another department, but it is a very unpleasant incident.

  - What happened to our insistent patient? - He spoke with a thick mentoring tone, equal and authoritative as ever, but now the notion that his mobile and keys were not accidentally lost. He didn’t want to be associated with unexplained circumstances surrounding the woman who had laid in a coma for two weeks.

  - We agreed with Dr. Rivar and I had just convinced her that the new tomographic study is unnecessary, when they cam
e running to tell us about the missing woman.

  - Okay, is there someone waiting to be examined?

  - No, Doctor, will you call you, if there is a patient. The woman came out of the ward and the doctor began to sip the coffee. He could not decide what to do. He decided to wait to find the unknown lady, who had come out from the coma and then alert and announce about the theft.

  There were new patients, gradually the working day finishing but there was still no result. Of course Dr. Ziyad was not curious, but at the expense of his nurse, who was very curious and communicative, so there was continuous information running. At the end of the day the administrative reception of the hospital called him on the office phone. They put him through to a parking lot

  - Hello, Dr. Musa Ziyad?

  - Speaking. - Your wife said you were absent-minded, but it is already five hours that the Peugeot is in our parking lot, then I do not want to get angry when you have to pay. When will you come to pick up your car?

  At that time there were no patients and the nurse waved him, indicating that she’s out. The doctor nodded in agreement and continue the conversation.

  - Can you tell me where the parking lot is, ‘cos my wife did not warn me?

  The man began to explain about the address and how close it was to the airport "Charles de Gaulle" in Paris.

  - Excuse me, I forgot and I can come at the earliest after three or four hours, would you be still there?

  - Do not worry Doctor, if not me, my colleague will give you the keys to the car. He could not believe it. The patient had not only escaped, but she had his car taken with the clear thought that she committed an offense because she had told them to call him. It seemed she had already left the country by plane. He took out the card catalog an X-ray of the head of this unknown woman and examined it again. The hemorrhage was very serious. Dr. Rivar had not bothered to prescribe a new one and relied only on the encephalographic because he was not sure about the solvency of Jane Doe. The specialist in image diagnostics, a respected young doctor Musa Ziyad went into the studio again. He took off his apron and put his jacket. The wallet was in his pocket, thankfully. From the office phone he called for a taxi. The nurse came. There was no trace of the woman who had left after being comatose. The chief doctor ordered not to announce the missing and to look very carefully at all levels, wards and floors. - Dr. Ziyad, it’s about twenty minutes to closing time. For the first time I see you leaving earlier! - Said the nurse.

  – Nurse, lock and fix everything. Goodbye. They had called that the taxi arrived.

  ***

  Dr. Musa Ziyad arrived in the parking lot in Paris after four hours. He immediately get the keys, then he paid and took the car. He drove to the airport. There, in the central waiting room he found Anna, sleeping on a bench, dressed in his jacket. There were no people next to her. He sat beside the patient and felt the pulse of her neck. She opened her eyes and looked at him and said:

  - But, Dr. Musa Ziyad! You have come to pick up you cell phone and credit card ... Then she reached into his jacket, pulled out a purse and opened it. She handed his mobile phone and credit card.

  - Airline tickets bought are before – she showed him the ticket - with your card I bought clothing and gasoline. You will be elongated, and the hospital, too, but later. Then her head drooped again and she closed her eyes.

  - Anna open your eyes, you will miss your plane. They are calling the passengers. - Oh, Musa, you saw my name on the ticket and you know where I'm going! - She opened her eyes again.

  - Yes, let's help you to check.

  He took it, she got up, rubbed her eyes and looked at the suitcases on wheels. The doctor took them with his other hand. She clutched her purse.

  - Doctor, I see that you have a coat, it is not necessary to return your jacket, right?

  - No, no.

  He was tall, very dark, around thirty-year-old man with European facial features. He almost carried her to the terminal. He helped her with the luggage, then held her while they were calling the passengers to board.

  - Thank you for healing me - said while departing, she had already got to her senses, she looked lively.

  - I have not healed.

  - You said that you should not open my skull and that I can handle myself – the young fragile woman was looking at him in a special way. - As for the other, do not tell anybody that you have helped me to not get into trouble. I'll call you when I arrived in Sofia, don’t worry about me.

  After kissing him on the cheek, Anna started to the exit without turning back. He was looking at how funny his large jacket suited her and thought he could not explain his behavior, but somehow internally, inside of him, he felt that this was the normal attitude to this thief and fugitive. He knew that if they happen to know about his “participation” in the case, he will be fired and could even lose his medical rights after so many years of work and deprivation for the acquisition of them. But he could not do and act otherwise. Especially since she looked at him this way. After this look he was ready for anything. This woman was very close to him. They have known each other for centuries. It was not typical of his calm, relaxed nature to experience such feelings, but it was stronger than anything else. He could feel Anna very close, so very much.

  Dr. Ziyad went to the small town in the foothills of the Alps at dawn. He entered the rented narrow apartment and for the first time he felt lonely.

  ***

  The people in the hospital realized that Jane Doe had used the clothes worn by Nurse Doreen, but everyone thought that her condition she could hardly gotten away. The cameras didn’t show her to be going out through neither of the exits. In fact, there were no cameras on the floor, because here lay very severe cases, mostly VIPs. They did not check the underground parking lot where the cameras were not working, because the exit door could be opened only by an office remote control. Then there was only the whispers and rumors that maybe she had died and had been buried in municipal cemeteries and were deliberately playing that farce for the waking and disappearing, lest some relatives occur suddenly and lest they sue the hospital.

  The staff did not like Dr. Rivar, although he was a brilliant brain surgeon. And after this mysterious case, they began to be afraid of him. Absolutely no one came to suspect Dr. Ziyad in connection with the case, although his office was located near the room where the patient had been lying. For this - there were two reasons. The first was that he could enjoy unquestioned authority of a decent man and a good doctor, and the second that he was working with the eldest nurse who knew everything and loved gossip. If the specialist working on the tomography knew something, it was going to be spread around and known for the nurse that is all the people in the ward.

  ***

  Dr. Ziyad Moussa returned from lunch earlier. There was another twenty minutes till lunch break. The nurse had not returned. He went into his office to check his email from his smartphone. Since he sent Anna to the airport he checked his email several times a day. He suddenly received a message from a nickname Jesus Granny for adding into contacts. From the country where Anna was. Well, so was the name of the mother of the Virgin Mary! He felt a flush heat wave. He allowed the access and got the French message that read: "Doctor, hello. To be able to pay for the clinic treatment, I signed up for a television reality game produced by an international agency. External production, so to speak. I signed the contract, can I send it to you to look at it?

  "He somehow automatically confirmed and a minute later the file contract was in his folder.

  "You are still very weak and it is not appropriate to participate in such a project." - She wrote, but this time the nurse shouted that there was a patient.

  "I have a patient, call me tonight" - he was getting out of his chair when he got back a message from her:

  "Tonight I am travelling to Africa. I have no relatives, my father died last week. I wrote your phone as a close relative. "

  The doctor sat down again, but she logged into Skype. Throughout the afternoon he
was very distracted, which made an impression on the nurse.

  - Dr. Ziyad, are you in love?

  He did not deign to respond, although she often tried to know whether he had a girlfriend and did something about his intimate life.

  In the evening, as she got home after work in the apartment, he opened the file with the contract that Anna had sent him. Twice he read it and he could not understand how such a smart woman like her could sign such a one-sided document. All clauses were in favor of the company that was recruiting participants in a reality show "Surviving like an ancient man." This is a recreation of how life fifteen thousand years ago in what is now the Sahara desert, which was then a thriving savannah with many lakes and rivers, respectively humans and animals were living there. In injuries and accidents the insurance amounts were small, only death cases guaranteed payment of a large sum of relatives. But in victory in the race, the first, that is the winner received a huge amount, and each who has dropped out in proportion to how long he has been in the race- it was also a nice sum of money.