THE SILENT SCREAM

 THE SILENT SCREAM

Trent lay quietly in the bed, mentally assessing the damage. His head was swaddled in some kind of gauze bandage, his left arm wrapped in a heavy plaster cast, and tubes were running here and there across his chest and into his nostrils, hand, and finger. There were several monitors beside the bed, emitting quiet beeping noises. Although his arm ached slightly it was his head that felt like someone was playing conga drums inside it.

 He cracked his right eye open a fraction but closed it quickly as the lights on the display over the hospital bed hurt his eyes. He flickered his eyes open and closed a few more times till his eyes grew accustomed to the lights.  This was obviously a hospital, but how did he get here? With some difficulty, he rewound his memory to the last moment of clear recollection.

 Everything seemed a little jumbled and he furrowed his brow to attempt to pinpoint the fine details of his recent events.

He remembered that he had been on the roof of the one-story office building that he and his two business partners had established several weeks ago.  The only building that they could afford at the time was smaller than they would have liked and had almost no storage available. On the flat roof, they had built a small shed to hold all the extra things that wouldn't fit in the utility closet on the main floor of the building. 

He was the brains of the business and his partners Marcus and Dwayne were the brawn. It wasn’t exactly what he had in mind for when he earned his business degree, but it was a start.

In the normal scheme of things, Trent would not have partnered up with the likes of Marcus and Dwayne, but he hadn’t been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He had worked two jobs to pay for his university expenses.

One of the places he had worked was the campus bookstore and the other job was as a personal trainer at the local gym. It was at the gym that he had met Marcus and Dwayne. 

He had always been good with people and found coaching and encouraging the gym members to be satisfying and meaningful. Marcus and Dwayne were regulars and they would often strike up a conversation with each other. Over time he had revealed his desire to go into business when he finished his business degree. He expressed to them that he had the knowledge to run a business, just not the finances to make his dreams a reality. The next day at the gym Marcus and Dwayne suggested that they all become partners in Trent’s endeavor.  Trent wanted to start a gym of his own on the far side of town. The two iron pumpers would be excellent eye candy for prospective gym members.

 Trent jumped at the chance, not looking as closely as he might have or should have into their credentials. They flashed some cash around to prove they were sincere and Trent was sold; hook, line, and sinker.

Trent remembered how he had come back to their storefront business from several meetings with potential equipment suppliers, doing the banking and stopping in at the computer store to get an upgrade on the company's computer. It had all taken a lot longer than he had anticipated and he had to admit that he was a little leary about leaving his two partners to run the business alone, even if it was only for a few hours.

Marcus was street savvy and talented and could be charming when necessary but Dwayne was… how did one describe Dwayne. Rough and Ready were the closest Trent could come to describing the crude, unpolished, and often dim-witted giant of a man. Trent always tried to see the best in people, it was just the way he was raised, but he found that dealing with Dwayne was often challenging. He did serve a purpose, however, and was well served for the moving of heavy gym equipment and was an obvious incentive to the gym rats and gym bros who frequented gyms.

Trent returned to the business to find the gym empty. He found this curious as he had been very specific with Dwayne and Marcus as to what needed to be done while he was away. There were no scheduled deliveries of new equipment to come in this morning, so why were the metal shutters covering the door and windows?  Trent then remembered hearing about the robbery at the bank on the other side of the plaza. Perhaps the police had suggested that businesses close down while they completed their investigation.

Trent parked his car in the small parking lot behind the building and hurried inside.

He stood looking around the back room and then moved to the open gym area. There was broken glass on the floor and Trent noticed that several items were also lying on the ground. He called out but there was no answer.

He remembered looking for a broom and a dustpan but after several moments he realized that they must have put all the cleaning supplies in the shed located on the roof, due to lack of space. He quickly climbed the narrow staircase. The sooner he got the mess cleaned up below the sooner he could open up.

 He hadn't been up here for a long time, Marcus always volunteered to come up and either put things away or retrieve things from the shed. Trent had no tolerance for heights, just standing on the roof gave him the heebie-jeebies which is why the shed stood dead centre on the roof. Trent never looked down when he needed to come up to the shed. He kept his eyes on the goal, the door to the shed and once he had finished and was leaving the shed his eyes were firmly trained on the trap door on the roof that led to the back room which was their inventory room.

With Marcus and Dwayne mysteriously away from the shop, Trent gathered his courage and crossed over to the rooftop shed to get the necessary supplies. He needed to get everything tidied up downstairs and opened up ready for the public.

 Trent moved restlessly on the hospital bed searching his memory, going deeper. He remembered opening the padlock, then the door, and reaching out for the broom in the corner.  As he reached out he knocked over several boxes labeled cleaning supplies. He remembered the shock when stacks of large bills fluttered to the ground.

 Suddenly Trent heard the door to his hospital room squeak open and he instinctively closed his eyes. Through almost closed eyes he saw two figures enter the room. Marcus and Dwayne.

 They came close to the bed and stared down at him.

“He's still out of it,” said Dwayne.“It's been six whole days now. Do you think he's ever going to wake up?”

“The Doctors aren't sure? They don't know if he will be in a coma for a few days, weeks, months, or maybe forever. They say there is a lot of pressure on the brain.  They said there were too many variables to know at this point.” He looked at Dwayne's questioning face. “Too many possibilities. They said he may just come out of this naturally, have temporary memory loss, or wake up with amnesia,

 which could be either temporary or permanent. There could be any of a dozen possible side effects from his … accident.”

“So he may never gain his senses.” Dwayne nodded, finally grasping the idea. “Look at him lying there. Why did he have to go up to the roof?”

“Yeah! Things were going just fine until he had to go and stick his big nose in our business,” agreed Marcus.

Dwayne studied the figure on the bed. “It's not an especially big nose”

“Dwayne, it's just an expression. Don't take it literally.”

  “Oh, ok.”

“You know what will happen if he wakes up and remembers,” asked Marcus.

“Yeah, he will spill the beans. He's like that.”

“You know what we will have to do?”

“Yeah, we already discussed it.”

“Well, visiting hours are almost over, we have to do it now.”

“What tube do we take out?” asked Dwayne.

I don't know, there are so many, maybe all of them?”

“ No! That's way too obvious. We have to make it look like an accident; like maybe he came to and rolled over and pulled them out. We will roll him onto his side, change his position a little to make it seem believable.” stated Marcus.“Sh! Someone coming.”

A nurse bustled in. “Excuse me, gentlemen. It’s 8:30, and visiting hours are now over. Y’all have a good evening now.” 

Dwayne looked at his watch. “It's 8:26 and we still have six minutes.”

The nurse gave him a strange look and Marcus gave him an elbow in the ribs.  She glanced at the I.V. bag on the I.V. pole and stated. “I have to fetch another bag to hang up here. Y’all better be gone by the time I get back in FOUR minutes.” She headed out the door.

“Ok,” said Dwayne. “Which tubes do we pull?”

“Not now you idiot. We kill him now and that nurse will I.D. us in a minute. We will have to come back another time and finish him off when there are no angels of mercy floating around.”

“Gotcha.” nodded Dwayne.”Will they let us in, they haven't let us in for the past six days.”

“ He was in intensive care before. They say he has stabilized now so that's why we can visit him.”

Trent heard the door close slowly and let out his breath. It seemed like he had been holding it forever. He heard the door open again and was relieved when he smelled a strong flowery perfume mixed with the smell of vomit and urine. The nurse was back.

He continued with his deception, he didn't quite know why but just felt safer with everyone thinking he was still unconscious or in a coma or whatever he had been in for the last six days. Was it really six days?

 He once again viewed her from beneath his long eyelashes as she went about her business, then lowered the lights, stood at the foot of the bed, closed her eyes, folded her hands together, and seemed to be murmuring a prayer of sorts. It was endearing to see such a compassionate caring soul and he suddenly felt a lot safer.

 He lay awake for a long time and bit by bit the pieces of the puzzle started to fit back together.

He shuddered when he remembered Dwayne and Marcus climbing up the narrow stairs and finding him frozen at the door to the rooftop shed.  He recollected the altercation that had ensued after they found him staring at the door to the shed,  staring at all the money, he remembered the yelling, the scuffle, and then the last thing he remembered was Marcus and Dwayne grabbing him and throwing him off the edge of the roof.

A short time later, he heard the door open and immediately thought that Marcus and Dwayne had come back, snuck into the hospital, and were here to finish the job. He tried to scream but no sound came out. He tried again. Nothing. Just then he realized it was his nurse and she had a younger girl dressed in pretty pink scrubs and carrying a clipboard. 

“This is a sad case," said his nurse. “This gentleman’s been in a coma for almost a week. He either got mugged and disposed of in a dumpster or flew off the roof of a building, luckily he landed in a dumpster behind the building otherwise he would have been toast if you get my drift. The police are still investigating the matter. I have seen his eyes moving around in his head, so something is still working up there in all that gray matter that didn't ooze out in the dumpster, but he hasn't moved a muscle or made a peep.” 

“I guess he’d be more like a pancake than toast if the trash in the dumpster didn't break his fall.” said the younger girl.

The nurse laughed quietly then gave a few instructions to the younger girl and then they both slid quietly out of the room.

 Trent nodded off shortly after but awoke during the night. He was feeling a little better now, more alert. His brain started working in overdrive. He found the control to the hospital bed and raised it slowly until it was upright, he carefully moved both legs to the side and held onto the IV pole he stood on. A little wobbly at first not having used his legs for many days. And then with more confidence he took a step, then two, still holding onto the bed and taking a deep breath he crossed the room leaning heavily on the IV pole. He reached the window sill and held on for dear life. His breathing was ragged, his heart was pounding and his legs barely supported him. He stared out the window taking in the night sky, a few stars barely visible competing with the lights of the city.  Traffic was extremely light on the street in front of the hospital; it must be late evening or early morning. A few cars were scattered in the hospital parking lot.  Something caught his eye in the parking lot. The doors of a white panel van suddenly opened and by the tall lights in the parking lot, he could just barely make out two figures moving towards the hospital emergency entrance. Marcus and Dwayne had returned. He opened his mouth to scream. Once again no sound came out.