Day 28 - Only Laugh - Chapter 28 (2258 words)

 
©Wayne Webb and constantwriting.blogspot.com, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Wayne Webb and constantwriting.blogspot.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

ONLY LAUGH WHEN IT HURTS

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 28

 

The hospital was full of noises, there was a certain sense of quiet yes, but it was far from silent. That layer of hushed tones was a softening blanket above the tapping out fingers on keyboards, shoes of visitors and beeps and clicks from various machines.

Tony was in a bed, waiting on another scan, he’d been wheeled into a busier part of the hospital, his private nurse accompanying him the whole way, but really just a moving part in the daily machine of life in a hospital.

It had been three weeks since the lightning strike and he had lost a lot of the more immediate symptoms of shaking and tremors in his limbs, but still did not have the power to form words out loud. There were more and more tests coming his way, but to him they focused on the psychological aspects rather than the physiological. There were MRI’s and scans every second day so far but they were carried out with less and less care and attention to his condition, maybe to make him feel like there was a symptom physically to look for. That was much more palatable to the patient than pointing to the mental possibility.

It was not like he had not considered the possibility; he questioned his sanity more than once. A part of him had questioned his very existence at times, it would be freeing to discover that he was not real, merely a fevered dream in someone else’s psyche, but no matter how many times he wished for this epiphany to be true, it never altered the actuality of where and who he was.

Who he was, that was an issue now.  Aida visited him every day and Vito came as often as she could tolerate his questions to Tony. She sat with him and spoke, the most they had ever spoken about anything, and mostly it was details about life and happenings outside the hospital walls. There was a question in her eyes every day but she never posed it to him, she accepted that he had a past and that it was a difficult one. She had not felt betrayed or untrusted, the more she found out about the old Tony the more it made sense that he would hide from that part of himself. Vito came in and wanted to know about things from his past, things that Tony simply could no longer answer, even if there were a way to speak he did not have access to that part, of his memory or of himself.

Vito’s questions were mostly about “what was it like to…?” or “What did it mean when… or why did you do …?” things that just had no meaning anymore. Vittorio was bringing in updates on Tony’ newfound celebrity. The world had woken up to the fact that Tony was back again, his lightning strike video had gone viral and was earning the tourist who had taken it some serious attention he just did not want.

Everyone wanted to know if he was in on it, Tony was known for this self-harm comedy stunts and this, while seemingly impossible to fake was spectacularly well filmed and choreographed. The debate was not about whether he had faked it or had staged it, but how he had done either of those things. So this tourist was hounded and chased by various media commentators to explain his involvement in the act. At first he had enjoyed it immensely, being the bystander at the right place and at the right time he had been able to capture lightning in a bottle so to speak. When the subject of the video was ‘uncovered’ then suspicion and cynicism grew and without Tony around to ask questions of the media turned on the one person who was attached to the video and had been making himself available. His 15 minutes of fame was evenly divided into positive and negative experiences, and he wanted it all to go away.

He appealed to Tony’s people for a statement from them clearing him of any association with Tony, but they stayed silent as required by their employer. Among the barrage of mail that he now had to deal with that he was ‘back’ Tony found the requests and pleadings of the man who had unwittingly thrust himself into the spotlight and dragged Tony back into that as well.  He had no sympathy for the man at all and just ignored the requests. His standing orders were to not interact or engage with any media questions, and no comment was the action they took as well as the answer to all questions posed.

Aida and Vittorio were the only visitors he allowed, his location was a well-guarded secret for the most part. He had spent a considerable amount of money to secrete himself away and now that he had been outed it was worth every cent. Oriana did not visit apart from the one time, which ended very badly. She still felt so bad every time she saw him, and as much as he wanted to console her and tell her it was not her fault and it was not that bad, he could not do so. She had burst into a sobbing mess of tears the first time she heard that grasping in his throat for words that did not cooperate. He wrote her long and rambling notes, designed to placate her guilt and defuse the sense of loss and sadness he felt when they saw each other.  

So he told Aida that she did not need to come in again, so they sent her to stay for a few weeks with her grandparents who were more than happy to see her for an extended period of time. Vito on the other hand was getting a lot of attention from his friends, and it was known amongst them that Vittorio was on the inside with the return of this iconic entertainer.

Tony wanted to warn him of the threat that being at the centre of that kind of attention, how bad it was and how bad it could be but once again, could not find the way to say it without the feeling behind it. So far he had been lucky and no one had pointed the cameras at Aida or her children directly, some respect for that fact was allowed. It was obvious to most people looking in that she had no idea about who he was, no one really did.

When interviewed most villagers clammed up about the person living in their midst. They all thought differently about this man hiding in their village, but in the end he was one of them and they did not turn on him just because some outsiders wanted to peek into his life. Tony had been a quiet, happy and useful part of their lives for the last 4 years, and while he had not been that honest about his past, they didn’t care, they would deal with that with him when he came back and this whole mess went away. Right now they just closed their doors to the people who came to the village, they did not discuss Tony, his business or his relationships with anyone. Gossip amongst the villagers was normal, but to step out side that to interlopers who did not belong, that was not. And now it was not only a matter of protecting Tony, and his place in their world, but also Aida, and Paolo’s children, these were now under the protection of the group, and whenever people were seen snooping around the various places, look like they did not belong or were not just staring at the spires and cobbles of Tuscan tourism, they marked them, watched them and kept them at arm’s length from finding anything at all.

The machines beeped, the air moved around him subtly and the nurse busied herself with whatever she needed to do to prepare.

“Ok, we’ll be in the machine in about ten minutes, and then the procedure will take about twenty more, then we’ll move you back to your room. Ok?” She, like the doctors and everyone else since his incident, was looking directly into his eyes and speaking very clearly, as if by loosing the power of speech his comprehension and hearing were somehow impaired.

Tony nodded and the nurse looked the chart over once more before checking her watch and the door a few times.

“I’ll just go and find the doctor, make sure it is all on track. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” She waited for his nodded assent then left.

A few minutes later the door opened and a man walked in, he was wearing a lab coat but he was fussing with it as he came in and then he stopped as he saw Tony, his eyes working quickly taking in the whole picture.

Instantly suspicious Tony sat up a little in his chair, he had been wheeled into this part for the scan, even though he felt fine and this legs and arms all worked properly without the shaking he had initially.

The man saw his reaction and then smoothed out his coat, calmed his movements and tried to act the part he obviously was not.

“So how are we today? Tony, is it?” The man pretending to be a doctor hmmed and reached for the chart which was attached to the bucket by the door, looking over it but comprehending none of it.

“Can you tell me how you are feeling Tony?” the question came clipped as if it were a professional query, but Tony was unable to answer, and had  the man understood what he was reading then he would have known that. Tony got to his feet and the man took a step back with the chart.

“No, no need to get up now, there’s just… tell me why you did it Tony, why did you do it? How did you manage it, we all want to know!” All pretense was gone now and Tony opened his mouth to yell for assistance, but all he got out was a large exhalation of frustrated air.

He pointed to the door and frowned as severely as he could, the man took out a cell phone in a short time took a photo of the chart as Tony lunged forward to take the chart or the phone from him. The man pushed him back to the chair, and while he was capable of walking he was still tired and not fully better, so the force of the shove planted him back into the chair with a thump and it took him a few seconds to gather himself again.

The phone was now trained on him and the man was fliming him and firing questions at him.

“Why won’t you talk Tony? How did you manage it? Was the camera man in on it? Is this a comeback? Are you back?”

Red faced and enraged Tony lept from the chair and swung at the man, knocking him down and landing on top of him as he did, the man kept the camera on his phone and pointed as best he could at Tony.

The doctor came in at that time, the door swinging open and striking his patient and interloper on the top of their heads with a thunk.

A few moments was all it took to understand what was going on and the doctor screamed for security on Tony’s behalf. The man got up and groggily tried to escape the room, hanging onto his phone. The Doctor and now the nurse got in his way and blocked the doorway. He retreated and started tapping on the phone furiously, trying to send the photo and the video to somewhere else. The nurse, angry and upset about this breach into her professional domain, tried to take it off him, struggling as he yelled in English about his rights, while she wrested the phone from him and then pulled the phone apart violently, removing the battery by shattering the case on the ground, stomping it with her feet.

The man was in the corner, Tony still on the ground as the doctor was trying to examine him for injury before getting him back in the chair.

The man started in on the doctor, asking for information, demanding answers about Tony’s condition, how real it was, was the whole thing faked, was it consistent with lightning, was it real? The doctor was still yelling for security in Italian when the two biggest orderlies/security guards arrived and removed the man with no fight whatsoever. Once they entered the room he fell silent and raised his hands above his head waiting to go peacefully, walking to the door.

The doctor whispered a hurried and violent suggestion to the larger of the two and the man was handled very roughly from there out of the room. There was a noise of scuffling outside the door and the man could be heard complaining that he was going to leave peacefully, but the scuffling noise increased and there were some uncomfortable noises as he was bundled away.

Finally there was quiet and things settled down.

This was his life again, but this time without any control or power to alter his situation. This was his life, and unlike before he was no longer alone, and he was imposing the violence of celebrity on innocents attached to him.