literature

Study HM-01: Neighbors -Part3-

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The tests they ran on Linus that evening really took a lot out of him—more so than usual. All other tests aside, his arm hurt from multiple injection sites—the phlebotomist that they had that time was new to the field, and she had missed his vein twice when doing blood work. "I could have done a better job myself," he muttered, looking at his bruised arm and marveling at how easy it was to see his veins, even without tying his arm.

The doctors had also altered his medication slightly, and it had given him an insane headache by the time they had finished measuring its effectiveness through various probes and scans. He steadied himself against the wall as he made his way back to his room, thanking his lucky stars that he knew the place well enough to navigate it while half-in and half-out.

By the time he had gotten out of the testing room, he could barely focus on watching where he was going on his way back to his room, let alone remember to go into Room 110 to say hello to Ellen.

Little did he know that he wouldn't have to remember—Ellen remembered for him. "Oh, hey!" she called to him. "That you, Linus?"

He glanced into her room. Oh yeah, that's right—I said I'd be back, didn't I? Yeah, probably. "Good evening," he grumbled and pulled up a chair.

"You okay?" Ellen asked and tilted her head. "You look like crap."

He was too tired to be offended. "Look at that," he said and held out his arm. "I hardly ever get mad, but honestly... never, ever, ever get your blood tested here—or at least hope you don't get the new girl. My veins are hard to miss, so if she can't hit mine, then she can't hit anyone's."

Ellen had no roommate, but there was still a vacant bed in her room—Linus flopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. "Might you know what time it is?"

"8:38 PM," she replied.

"I might be heading to sleep for the night soon," he told her.

"Hey, before you leave, I have a kind of weird question for you," Ellen began.

"Yeah?"

"Well, you know how doctors sometimes give you a certain time to live, right? I mean, if you're terminal and all..."

"Yes, I've heard that before."

"Did they ever tell you how long you have left?"

Linus laughed, still staring at the ceiling. "My natural lifetime was fourteen days and twelve hours... so theoretically, I should already be dead! Were it not for that daily injection, I wouldn't live to the next morning."

Ellen felt a pang of sadness for him. "Wow, I'm so sorry..."

"Not your fault," he assured her, not getting the idea of someone apologizing for someone else's circumstances. "I'm still here, yes?"

She smiled sympathetically. "Yes—that you are."

It felt like the force of gravity had gotten three times stronger as Linus tried to lift himself off of the bed. "I think I'm going to turn in for the night. I'll see you later, then?"

"Yeah," Ellen said and nodded. "See you later."

When Linus went back to his room, aside from the fact that his arm was hurting and his head was pounding, he was thinking about Ellen. She was one of the first people who had been indiscriminately nice to him—she was not paid to take care of him, like Stacey was. His condition was not kept a secret from her, like it was with one of his friends—and she did not stop being nice to him after she found out, like so many others before her.

He thought she was interesting. And he had pleasant thoughts of his new friend as he stared out the window at the night sky.

~

The next morning, Ellen was gone.

Linus had slept very late in order to feel normal again the next morning—it had worked, but he didn't expect her to not be there when he checked. The hospital bed looked unusually vacant without her sitting there, and even with the blankets folded, it still almost felt like she had just gone out for a second and would be right back.

Even though he had said "see you later", it felt like he didn't get a fair chance to say goodbye to her.

He turned around, left the room and walked down to the receptionist's desk. "Hello, Linus—what can I do for you?"

"Is Ellen Hester still here?" he asked. "She was staying in Room 110."

"No, she went home this morning," the receptionist said, needing only to glance at the check-out list. She then picked up on his thoughts and peered at him over her glasses. "Were you looking for her?"

"I suppose," he responded bluntly. "I said I'd see her later, and since it's 'later' now, I thought I'd see her."

The receptionist smiled at him as he left.

When he got back to his desk, he saw something that hadn't been there before—it was a simple white envelope, addressed simply "To Linus".

He opened it and grinned.

"Linus,
Thank you for spending time with me during my hospital stay—and thanks for playing repairman and replacing my batteries so quickly when the remote wasn't working! I really appreciated all that.

Enclosed is my information—my home address, my cell phone number and my e-mail address—so please keep in touch. I don't want you to get lonely, and I'll keep you from doing so if I can help it. I'm not sure how often you get around to other places, but believe it or not, the Hyatt District is not all that far away (even if it is across the state line). I'm sure you could get a map there, should you find the opportunity.

If you can't find the means to visit my place in person, we can keep in touch through means like calls, letters and e-mails. I want you to write often! Keep me in the loop, and for god's sake, don't die on me.

I'll see you on the Internet!

-Ellen
The last part of the story arc of Linus and Ellen.

Do you think it has an anti-climactic ending? Perhaps. But I think it still ended happily, yes? :D

I suppose it would have been quite sad for Ellen to just be removed from the picture completely--with no way for Linus to keep in touch with her at all, not even an e-mail address or anything like that--just like every other neighbor that Linus has ever had. It would have been especially sad for her to just leave because it appears here that she has taught him a little bit about loneliness and, more pleasantly, how to avoid it.

I'm so glad Ellen decided to leave that note. As the writer of the stories of these two characters, it was an honor to enable her to do so. :D


In other news, there's two hours left until 2009 for me. Things are just as boring around here as they were before posting this last bit of art of 2008. :XD:
© 2009 - 2024 StaticFactory
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fudgyvmp's avatar
no i didn't know that