Lee Anders leads a relatively simple life. He works as a doctor for 14 hours a day—sometimes more, God forbid one of his patients dies and he feels the need to work himself nearly to death and anyone that knows him would soon enough find no controversy agreeing on that much. But that’s just it—someone has to know him to appreciate it. His patients probably don’t mind one bit, but he just doesn’t understand that what he needs is beyond him, it has gone over his head and been crushed in the highway of life.
Lee slouched in the couch of the employee lounge and struggled to keep his eyes open as he waited for another file. He then looked over to the coffee maker and stood up. As he got out a cup and poured the coffee another resident came in.
“Mr. Anders, I have a patient that I need assistance with if you wouldn’t mind?” As Lee turned his head the resident asked him if he was all right, which he nodded to.
“I’ll be right out, just drinking some coffee.” A warm sensation on his foot quickly turned hot. He looked over at the coffee cup and realized it was overflowing onto the floor and into his shoes. “Shoot!” he backed up and grabbed paper towels to clean it up. When he looked back up at the door the resident was gone.
“Anders!” someone shouted.
“I’ll be right out…I was wondering where you went.” Anders was bent down cleaning up the coffee.
“This proves my point. You need to go home.” Lee looked up at the door and saw his boss standing there shaking his head.
“Sir, I can—“ he was interrupted.
“Look! I’m going to give you the promotion but only if you leave my hospital and don’t come back for an entire day. I’ve got enough of you about to fall on your asses and I really don’t need my senior resident being a role model for that kind of behavior. Now leave.” His boss turned around and walked away, chuckling.
Lee yawned and threw the paper towels away. He went into the locker room and got out of his work clothes. Two other residents came in laughing.
“Hey guys,” Lee said to them.
“Hey Lee, you finally leaving?” one of the residents asked.
“I guess I’ve got to…until tomorrow of course.” Everyone respected that Lee was somewhat addicted to his job, he loved his patients but they silently wept for him behind his back. “What are you two up to?”
They looked at each and laughed. “We’ve got some hot dates with our ladies.”
“May I ask why it’s more exciting than all of the other times you’ve gone on dates?”
“We’re going to that fancy French restaurant since we can finally afford it. You want to come with?”
Lee looked at them then looked down at the floor. It was a sad truth that he wasn’t so open about and he had to confess to himself that he didn’t think about that much either. No lady friend. “Nah, I think I’ll just sleep…some.”
“Alright, cool. Been here 19 hours…probably a good idea.” They both walked out of the lockers smiling at Lee.
Lee stripped and got into the shower, turning the water to the hottest it could get—which in this hospital is somewhere around lukewarm—but at least it manages to stay lukewarm for hours on end with such a huge water heater. He gazed at one of the tiles in the shower and his sight fixated while everything else vanished. After a while of standing in the shower of water he leaned his head up against the tile and bit his lip.
“I brought it upon myself,” he thought, “I guess I deserve it.”
**
“No, Mr. Lune, Roger is going to be fine, he doesn’t need any medication—he has a cold.” Norah glared at an old man whom she could tell was obviously just worried sick about his dog.
“Well he has been making noises with his nose…maybe just a little—“ he was interrupted.
“Mr. Lune…Roger has a cold. Just think about the noises that you make when you have a cold and try to incorporate them with the noises that Roger makes. He’ll be fine without medication.”
The old man walked away with his dog but Norah got the feeling that he wasn’t happy with his results. She shrugged it off and turned around to find her boss looking at her. He’s the loveable type of guy that you just want to strangle most of the time.
“You—leave.” He pointed to the exit. “You’ve been working for 12 hours and a vet does not need to be working for 12 hours…a small mistake can kill those damn things.” Everyone in the room gasped and looked away. “…I didn’t mean those damn…never mind. Norah, you need to go.”
She rolled her eyes and agreed with dissatisfaction—she loves her job. Instead of arguing she just walked out and jumped into her BMW, taking off her coat and putting it in the backseat.
“I’ll have to wash that again,” she thought to herself as she looked at all the dog hair on it.
She backed out of the parking space and got onto the street, quickly turning on her radio to keep her concentrated on driving. ‘Just Like Heaven’ started playing on the radio and she started dancing at the wheel as she drove down the beaten road. It started to rain and Norah abruptly stopped at a red light.
**
Lee looked out his car window as the rain raged outside.
“Wow…where the hell did this come from?” he thought. Through the blur on his windshield he could see the light was red and he stopped next to another car. “Just a few more turns,” he said to himself.
Another glance out of the window got him an odd sight. A woman was dancing to some music in the car next to him and he laughed. Although her face was distorted, he saw her look over and laugh with him as she banged her head. Lee shook his head then looked back to the street. The light turned green but there was something wrong—a blinding white light pierced his eyes and blinded him. He heard a large truck ram into the front of his car, but everything soon turned black.
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Alright, Chapter 1 is done now. Hope you liked it and still made each character to connect with people. Will try to get through Chapter 2 either tonight or tomorrow
