Part 1 (2/2)
”Dr. Nagas.h.i.+ma, you have an urgent phone call.”
As he lifted his gaze slowly, he saw Asakura's face in the doorway, her mouth trembling slightly.
”It's from the hospital. Y-your wife. She's been in an accident.”
”What?”
With that he rose.
2.
The streets around the University Hospital were congested, rows of outpatient cars spilling over onto the public roadways. Unable to suppress his mounting impatience, Tos.h.i.+aki sounded his horn furiously.
The person on the phone had been a staff member from the emergency ward. Kiyomi was driving her car, he said, when for some reason she veered off a turn, cras.h.i.+ng straight into a telephone pole. Considering how bad the wreck was, he doubted she had even tried the brakes. Kiyomi had suffered a potentially fatal impact to the head. Tos.h.i.+aki asked about the location of the accident, only to discover that it was a main drag he used too. It was an easy road to speed on, but its un.o.bstructed view made it anything but dangerous.
”Dammit!” he shouted, turning the steering wheel sharply as he peeled out from the middle lane and made a U-turn. Car horns blared everywhere like pigs, but he paid no attention to them. He circled around to the hospital's back entrance, skidded into a parking area reserved for personnel, and dashed inside through a loading bay. On the way he managed to grab hold of a pa.s.sing nurse to ask where the emergency ward was.
The hallway felt endless as Tos.h.i.+aki ran with all the speed he could muster, his leather shoes making skittish sounds upon the linoleum floor. His Hps shaped Kiyomi's name in a continuous murmur. He turned right at the next pa.s.sageway, nearly knocking over an elderly woman in his haste. Noticing her at the last moment, he jerked his body around to avoid her and continued hurriedly down the corridor. He refused to believe it. What had gone wrong?
Hadn't Kiyomi smiled that morning like always? Tos.h.i.+aki thought of breakfast. They ate fried eggs with fish and miso soup with tofu. Not that there was anything unusual about it. It was as common a breakfast as one could imagine, a meal that implied she meant to continue their life just so. This was all too sudden.
They'd left together that morning. Kiyomi was going to the post office and took her own car. She had just gotten the car, a used compact, six months ago because she needed it for shopping. She liked cute things and was attracted to its red color.
”Excuse me, but are you Kiyomi Nagas.h.i.+ma's family?”
Tos.h.i.+aki caught his breath. An aging nurse had come running up and was peering into his face.
Tos.h.i.+aki cleared his throat, swallowed, and forced out an affirmative reply.
”Kiyomi-san is in critical condition,” the nurse explained. ”It appears she sustained a strong impact to the head from the accident. When she was carried here, she was already hemorrhaging badly and not breathing.”
Tos.h.i.+aki walked past her and sat himself down on a couch in the hallway. He gazed at the nurse's face in blank amazement, unable to wrap his mind around what she had just said.
”Can you save her?”
”We've taken her straight into the operating room for emergency treatment. Her condition is serious... I would advise that you summon her relatives.”
Tos.h.i.+aki groaned.
Kiyomi's parents came at once. Her father managed a surgical clinic in an old housing district nearby and lived right next to his workplace, only a few miles from the University Hospital.
Both their faces were pale. Kiyomi's father askedTos.h.i.+aki how she was holding up.
When he learned of her critical state, he gulped, closed his eyes, and slumped onto the couch.
Kiyomi's mother, normally the epitome of unwavering composure, was badly disheveled. Concealing her face behind a handkerchief, she showered the nearby nurse with cries of anguish. Tos.h.i.+aki stared blankly at the hunched figure of his mother-in-law. He hadn't expected this.He realized with a jolt that Kiyomi's parents were human beings after all.
When he was invited to Kiyomi's house for the first time, Tos.h.i.+aki's impression was of a peaceful, elegantly dressed family, smiling, sipping tea, enjoying each other's company surrounded by high-cla.s.s furniture. Her father was an easygoing and reliable man and her mother, while reserved, wore an inextinguishable smile. He had always thought them perfect, like a family one might see on TV. He could hardly picture the couple before him now as the comfortably tranquil pair they always presented themselves to be. Theirs now was a show of raw emotion.
”Calm down, ”Tos.h.i.+aki's father-in-law chided his wife, but he was unable to mask the trembling in his voice. She turned around with a start, her eyes wide open. Then, letting out a great sob, she leaned her body brokenly into her husband's.
It was well past noon, but they had no appet.i.te. They relocated to the waiting room at the nurse's suggestion and sat down, staring absentmindedly at the clock. The nurse came occasionally to update them. By applying ma.s.sage, they had been able to restore Kiyomi's respiratory function, but she was lapsing into gasping fits and was now on a respirator. After undergoing some CT scans, she had been moved to the Intensive Care Unit.
After thirty long minutes, a doctor finally came in. They all rose from the couch. The man wore gla.s.ses and had a certain aura of frailty. He was still young, probably in his early 30's. But his facial features were chiselled, and his eyes gentle. Tos.h.i.+aki had a good feeling about him. The doctor introduced himself as a brain surgery specialist. He turned his face almost defiantly towards them and explained everything in the most sincere tone.
”Kiyomi-san was suffering from a serious cerebral hemorrhage. As soon as she was brought to our ward, we operated on her brain and attempted to resuscitate her heart and lungs. She's breathing now with the aid of a mechanical respirator; she has lost the capacity to breathe on her own. We will continue to medicate her with heart stimulants and keep a close eye on her. However, she is in a deep coma right now. It's extremely regrettable for me to have to tell you this, but she is heading toward brain death...”
Kiyomi's mother hid her face to smother the pain-stricken voice that escaped from her mouth as a strange ah.
Tos.h.i.+aki did not know how to respond. Terms like ”mechanical respirator,” ”deep coma,” and ”brain death” coiled into a vortex in his head. He could hardly believe that his beloved wife was being described in such terms.
Suddenly, Tos.h.i.+aki sensed heat. He looked up. His body felt hot, like it was on fire.
The room hadn't gotten any warmer. It felt more like he'd ignited from within. The temperature shot up. Unsure what was going on, Tos.h.i.+aki looked around him, but his vision clouded with crimson and was soon gone. He opened his mouth to scream, but only a dry rasp came from his throat. The back of his throat had vaporized. Flames would rise from his fingertips at any moment. He was going to burn, he thought. He was about to start burning.
”What will happen to her?”
The heat left him. His mother-in-law was interrogating the doctor.
”We are monitoring her brain waves, blood pressure, and heart rate. If the blood flow to her brain stops, she will start losing brain cells. We are performing CT scans to monitor the situation. After reviewing the results, we will examine whether brain death has occurred.”
Tos.h.i.+aki could hardly tell where the doctor's voice was coming from. He blinked. He saw a hand. It was his left hand. He tried closing and opening it and saw that his fingers were moving. They did not flare up as he half-feared.
By the time he came to his senses again, Kiyomi's mother had drawn near to her husband, and the doctor was informing them that the first brain-death examination might have to be conducted that evening. Tos.h.i.+aki felt dizzy and sat on the couch, still reeling from his hallucination. There was a throbbing in his temples.
”Are you okay?” said the doctor.
Tos.h.i.+aki waved him away.
Kiyomi was going to die.
He felt deceived. Everything seemed to be happening in some distant world. His entire body was still flushed. What was that anyway? He wondered amidst the banging in his head.
What on earth was that heat?
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