Day 55: A Preview of My Novel

Well, it took a while to come up with an idea and outline for my novel, but here goes nothing I figure. So, here is a small glimpse without proper spacing due to the blog......... It was four minutes after three in the morning. Ethan Huckins lay in his bed listening to footsteps lightly patter down the hallway. The constant beeping of machines and the tubes that connected to his body were as annoying as they were helpful. Were they really helpful?
Ethan had grown tired of this place. He tired from the constant sterile odors of disinfectants, and the muffled sobs that he endured the last four days. Ethan was a sincere old man. His wavy white hair often hung above deep blue eyes that could pierce the most guarded heart. His face was thin and worn, and his large chest gave a whisper of a hint to his once proud figure. He was tall, a fact disguised by his current state, and he bore a woven bracelet on his left arm that had a sapphire attached to the last knot.
Too weak to sit up, Ethan moved his head slightly in order to make himself as comfortable as possible. Many thoughts began to reverberate inside his mind. Will I ever escape this place? It feels like so long ago since I felt normal.
Suddenly, something remarkable happened…
Light started to pour into the room. Ethan tried to close his eyes, but he was unable to resist his curiosity. The sounds of the beeps began to fade, the lingering aroma disappeared, and Ethan seemed a bit light headed. He took in one deep breath, and a long tone was the last thing that he could make out in the room.
A nurse soon rushed into the room to inspect her patient. She was startled by the sound while making rounds, and hurried upon Ethan’s body in surprise. His head was slightly turned towards her, and his eyes were making contact with her own. She stood there frozen for a moment.
“Martha! Alert the code team!” she screamed.
“Not again Susan, I just can’t take this again” Martha mumbled to herself.
Another nurse rushed into the room. Susan was grabbing the crash cart and bringing it next to the bed.
“Help me get him lying flat Patty” Susan requested.
After some struggle, the nurses placed Ethan onto the crash cart. He was flat on his back, and a vacant empty expression glazed over his eyes. The attending physician, Dr. Adams arrived and looked directly at Susan.
“We need to get him hooked up to the defibrillator”
“Yes, Patty, your turn to record what happens” Susan said.
Soon Ethan was hooked up to the defibrillator, and Dr. Adams noticed the on-call anesthesiologist make his way into the room to ready the patient for an open airway. Ethan’s gown was removed, and his bare burly chest was exposed.
Ethan felt the first shock run through his body vaguely. His consciousness held firm for a few seconds as he recalled a long forgotten memory.
Ethan had just walked into the coffee shop…
He was attending his brother’s high school graduation…
He had written his last letter…
The second shock was not as kind as the first. Ethan’s body convulsed as the medical staff desperately attempted to revive him. It took the elements that Ethan had escaped when he heard the long tone, and it returned them all for a few moments. The beeping and the tubes he could hear and feel. He was still unable to see or smell however, and for that he was somewhat thankful.
“I’m clear, you’re clear, everybody clear?” yelled Dr. Adams.
“Three hundred and sixty Joules” replied Susan while nodding her head.
The third shock was sent through Ethan roughly, and his memories continued to stream through his mind… He was sitting in a flat bottom boat in a lake at the foothills of the Appalachians. His father was teaching him how to fish as a boy…
His best friend had moved in with him to attend the university…
Dr. Adams began to administer the CPR. The light seemed to dim again, and Ethan rose away from his bed, detached from what was transpiring. He looked around the room, and a dark figure was in the chair in the corner. He had the feeling that it was watching him. He turned his attention to the medical staff that was around his body. Dr. Adams had placed the ambu bag on his face.
“No response. An amp of Epinephrine” Dr. Adams yelled.
“He’s not going to make it” Susan replied.
Ethan really hadn’t understood what was happening, but he estimated that he was either dreaming or dying. The flat line sounded in the room. Several times the staff administered some drug, attempted CPR, and Dr. Adams would reply “no response”. A look of defeat enshrouded the physician, and he gazed at Susan and gave her the last drug to be administered.
“Levophed” he said.
Susan nodded, and administered the drug. Ethan looked around the room, from the bed where he was lying, to the dark figure, and out to Martha the secretary.
“Leave them dead with Levophed” she muttered quietly.
Several moments later Dr. Adams looked at his watch, and then he looked to Susan.
“Time of death, three thirty-four am. I will notify the family.”
“The patient has no family.”
“I’ll notify the morgue then.”
And so it was that Ethan Huckins died.