Winner The Crystal Awards 2016, Best Multimedia Story (3d Place).
A spinster doctor rents her spare room to a brain-damaged patient who doesn't know he is a former undercover agent targeted for execution by a powerful criminal.
~o~ ~o~ ~o~
...
Jean sneaked back into the hospital successfully, after visiting Mitchell, but Hector boasted about the successful escape, and the hospital grapevine spread the news quickly. Now we wait to see how Mitchell will respond to Jean's midnight visit.
Enjoy Pt. 1 of Chapter 25 of DUBY'S DOCTOR: "Readjustment."
~o~ ~o~ ~o~ ~o~
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
By the time the 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift arrived at the hospital the next morning—the fifth day after the rescue raid—a new legend about the exploits of Jean Deaux was circulating throughout the corridors and nursing stations. Reactions to Jean's secret outing the night before were mixed.
Hector and his camp shared high-fives and thumbs-ups and, if possible, would have carried Jean through the hallways on their shoulders. These romantic thinkers (made up of many staff members, and even some patients and their families) celebrated Jean's successful escape, which they surmised was attempted in order to woo his lady love.
On the other hand, Nurse Erskine and her compatriots (employees and non-employees from all levels of hospital society) were more pragmatic and authoritarian in their outlook. In their opinion, Jean had been irresponsible, had flouted hospital rules—endangering his own health in the process—and deserved censure, not praise, for his ill-conceived adventure.
A few people, Doctor Goldberg among them, refused to take sides. When visiting Jean's room on morning rounds, Doctor Goldberg took the time to speak privately with Jean and to learn all the details from him about his conversation with Mitchell. Satisfied that progress had been made, and that Jean had spoken to Mitchell in a manner of which Goldberg approved, the doctor patted Jean on his (uninjured) shoulder and said, "Now, you don't disobey any more orders. Take your meds, and work hard on your therapy, and we'll get you out of here as soon as we can. Then you can work on phase two of the plan."
Jean received his daily visit from Mandy Stone just after lunchtime. He told her the story of his nocturnal Coconut Grove expedition. She, too, of course, wanted all the details of Jean's negotiations with Mitchell. She joined Hector's pro-escape faction, though she did not perform high-fives or belly-bumps in the corridor, as some were wont to do.
No one saw, or heard from, Doctor Mitchell Oberon that day.
On the sixth day after the rescue raid, the hospital grapevine carried juicy news indeed: Doctor Oberon had returned. She had been seen conducting rounds alongside Doctor Goldberg, and it appeared that he was briefing her on "his" cases, so that she could take over those responsibilities (again).
When Doctors Oberon and Goldberg visited room 2114 to discuss the condition of Yves Dubreau, the patient was absent. Goldberg joked that they were "pretty sure he's in physical therapy at this hour, but it's always possible he's escaped again."
