The Colored Lens: Spring 2022 by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Light Spring LLC
Published: 2022-06-30T22:00:00+00:00

* * *

The blood that was being pumped into me burnt like Thai chili soup ordered by mistake. I lost any ability to fight. I couldn't even manage the muscle coordination to scream. Not that it would have mattered, plenty of people were screaming for various medically authorized reasons.

Dr. Blindt, or Samantha as she wanted me to call her, stayed by my side throughout the ordeal. She smiled and told me why she so very much did hate the cold.

I drifted in and out of consciousness, but I learnt that when she first graduated from med school she took a job helping rough sleepers. Normally, she was polite, reserved, and just offered them treatment for obvious conditions. One day, she reached out to touch an old woman with a red face calloused with dirt who had an open sore on her arm. The woman, like me when I was happy, was as cold as ice. Samantha screamed. The woman panicked, ran, and knocked her over.

Laughed at by her partners and the other homeless people huddled under the bridge where they were working, the young Samantha resented the woman who rejected her sympathetic touch. After that, she looked out for ‘the cold’ as she called us. It was apparently always the same. We didn’t want help and recoiled from her stifling touch. But she had found a way of fixing us. It was not something that she could document and claim a Medicare rebate for. After all, who’d believe that there were a group of people out there who functioned best when their body was below freezing?

On my third day in hospital, she came into my room bright and early. She had a cream linen suit on. No wool. I looked out the window. It was a clear sunny winter day. She obviously hadn't felt the need to rug up.

"Good news, you're all set. How do you feel?"

I felt like I was melting. Every breath pushed scalding steam down my throat and into my lungs. All my muscles were in a continuous cramp, and the new blood made the tips of my fingers and toes burn.

"I can't breathe," I said.

She leant down and put her ear close to my mouth. "Sorry, I didn't catch that. What did you say again?" She chuckled. "I guess you want to know what happens next?"

I nodded. It was a tiny movement, but it made her smile.

"Well, you're obviously too weak to be let out of hospital. We'll keep you in here. Don't worry, the nurses and I will take good care of you. I'll make sure that we keep that nice warm blood topped up, and the nurses will make sure you're fed and tucked up snug in this lovely soft bed. Anyway, I've got to dash, must look in on some of my other patients."

I tried to grab her jacket as she stood up, hoping she'd pull me into a sitting position. She grabbed my hand, hard, and looked at my face as her grip wrenched my already aching skin.

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