The Iron Man [Serial]

Saif

I exited the hospital lift, with Alpha and Garin. I saw Me'rah and Sina standing in the hall with Dr. Abu Shadi, a mid-aged man in a light brown suit. I'd met him briefly the night before, he'd visited to check the tape recording Murphy's heartbeat.

Sina looked up and waved as we walked along the hall.

Alpha touched my arm. "Is that Tyron's mother?"

I assumed so, given Me'rah's distinctive veil; it was more like a Spanish mantilla than the common headscarf Sina wore. I told Alpha that Hedone and I had met Me'rah the evening before, along with Micaiah Tofer.

"He was here?" Inflection suggested Alpha recognized the name.

"You've met?"

"I've seen him in passing. He's Murphy's...kiltmaker."

"Oh." I understood. "Yesterday he was family friend."

"Just one reason Tyron's mother doesn't like me." I wondered if his avoidance of her given name was out of respect or discomfort. Alpha walked forward, and waited until Dr. Abu Shadi finished to speak, "Have we chosen a poor time to visit?"

The doctor, hair combed and parted in the current style, and wearing a gold tie-pin in the shape of a bee, smiled widely.  Alpha held a finger before his own lips.

Sina looked to Me'rah, who nodded once. "I am glad to see you," Sina said. She greeted me with cheek kisses and then continued to offer the same to Alpha. Garin gave her his hand. "Me'rah, I do not think you've met. Garin Arinnian is our friend from Armenia. He's a genius with wires."

"I am pretty haute," Garin agreed.

"Garin, this is my older sister, Me'rah Smith, she is also Tyron's  mother, and almost like a mother to me."

Me'rah inclined in a slight bow.

"May we see Tyron?" Alpha asked. 

"There are some nurses with him," Sina explained.

"I will check their progress," the doctor said, clutching his clipboard, "Please, excuse us a while longer."

"Did he say anything new?" I asked. I looked to Me'rah, as she had been with me last night.

"Sina...."

Sina seemed to look between Me'rah and I, then smiled and spoke. "Dr. Abu Shabi tells us that Tyron showed what he called-- 'responses', I think, is the English. General or minor responses." She looked again at Me'rah, who again nodded. "From last night, there was a slight change in heartrate that may be a response to something in his room, but the doctor cannot say. And, this morning, we think he moved slowly from the sunlight."

"So, he can move?" Garin asked, "It's not like being paralyzed."

"On the Zephyr," I said, "he didn't seem to move at all."

"On the Roc, also," Sina said, "these responses are new, but small signs of recovery."

"Godspeed that," Garin said.

"Inshallah," Sina whispered.

The door on the small private room opened and several nurses exited. We hadn't had nurses in the Nightingale tradition in Queensfort. We'd had doctors and those who assisted them; medicine people, and herbalists; and midwives, nurses, and nursemaids for tending women, infants, and children. However, the Lady with the Lamp had been considered a rather famous Briton during my brief time in school in London. So, I understood medical nursing was a common professional occupation, and increasingly so since The Great War.

Dress Code for nurses, necessary for hygiene, was in some areas not easily distinguishable from that chosen for modesty in women of religious orders, but I supposed these to be secular professionals by their shoes and the snoods over their hair.

Dr. Abu Shadi came to the door to inform us that "Mr. Smith," as he called Murphy, might have visitors.

The room was much the same-- not well suited to accommodating six guests --but I noticed a change in Murphy. "He looks more like himself." I had only mentioned his beard in Me'rah's presence last evening, so I looked to her.

She bowed over Murphy; her fingers touched his recently shaved face. She looked up from her son, "Thank you, Doctor."

"It is part of our duty of care. Please, feel welcome to communicate how we might better honor our patient's wishes." They had not only shaved Murphy, but combed his hair more neatly, dressed him in a sturdier robe, to which his watch was pinned at the neck, and put soft boots on his feet.

Sina, at my side, thanked the doctor, "Shukran."

He excused himself then to see to other patients.

Sina put her hand in mine, and whispered to me. "Me'rah told me what you said. I did not know if it was a proper request, but Dr. Abu Shadi said it was. He apologized for not better explaining our rights to make requests on Murphy's behalf."

"It's been a lot to expect from you. I know."

She nodded. "Do you like his shoes?" Sina slipped her hand from mine. "It is not right to wear outside shoes in bed, but the doctor told us some could be necessary to keep his feet from drooping later."

"They are fine. Did you choose the new robe?"

"I know it is not to his taste."

"Who brought this?" Alpha asked, taking one of the magazines from the bedside table: Blue Glasses. No one answered, but Alpha opened it and skimmed through. "Murphy reads this. My father, also." He laughed.

"It's an independent Nationalist journal," Garin explained. It must be illegal under the Pax; clackers and splicers likely helped distribute it.

"Murphy would appreciate this, '...includes among top advisers those with fine arts and fiction writing degrees on matters of national security'."

Me'rah laughed.

"Tyron would make his speech on literature as tool of understanding cultural identity to inform foreign policy," Sina said.

"I've never heard it," I confessed.

There was a sound, as if someone in the center of the room very quietly said, "Safe."

"Ty?" Alpha whispered.

"Was it Arabic?" I reached across Murphy's body to assure myself that his cane sword was still there.

"Saif is one of his brothers," Sina said.

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Chapter 61! Almost up to 2,100 Reads. That's an average of 32-ish reads per chapter....but I know a lot of that is people only checking out only the first chapter. But, it's good, because I feel that if people read as far as chapter 4 or 5, they seem more likely to keep reading. You are all awesome for reading this far!

The media is Katy Perry's Wide Awake. I picked it because, although Murphy is not yet wide awake, I felt the visuals of labyrinths, gardens, and blue hair reflected what he might see in his current level of consciousness. It's like he's trying to find his way back at this point.

Blue Glasses is based on the historical publication sometimes known as Rehlat Abou Naddara Zar'a, founded by Yakub Sanu. It was, apparently, the first magazine published in Egyptian Arabic. 

But, this quote about a leader having advisers with 'fiction writing degrees' is a paraphrase of something some talking head said on Fox News about the current US President's administration, which, political affiliation aside, I took offense to as a writer.