Jack

Jack is in bed,
“c-c-c-a-n I get s-s-s-some water.”
The ward is cold and orderlies make there rounds like traffic up and down the hall.
“here you go Jack, nice full cup for you”
Jack looked up at the nurse
“th-th-tha-thank you Annie”
The nurse seems excited and rushes to the office at the end of the ward.
“Judith call Dr David, Jack just engaged with me.”
“What like the last time. “ Came the reply from a flat face with looping chains hanging from Dennis Taylor spectacles.
“No not like last time.”
“Judith.” She says with more penetrating gaze. “He looked me in the eye and thanked me by name.”
The two nurses walk straight out of the ward. They made for an awkward pair to look at. Annie was slim and tall, and she had that awkwardness that tall women often have and an apologetic gate. Judith was on the larger side and sauntered in her step, swaying her way down the corridor. Both women had adopted the nurses habit of holding their clipboards as close to their centre of gravity as possible.
Jack sat up and drank his water.
His face was loose and abject of expression.
His hair patchy and thin mainly due to an obsession he had for hanging his arms off his head for hours at a time, until his hands eventually slipped past his ears. Then he would start again, and begin to rock his body.
Today there was no moaning, no rocking and no hair pulling as he hunched over his cup.
‘Thank you Annie..... th-th-thank you Annie... thank...’ You could see his eyes were moving just a little this way and that, as he relived the moment in his troubled mind, you could see him begin to quiet, begin to soften.
The clicking of high heals on a hard floor.
“ Exactly as I said Dr, and I felt warmth from him when he said my name”
“This is very promising, how long ago did this happen?”
“About 20 minutes ago now.”
The three medical staff enter the ward.
Shouting, clattering, nurses holding down a man.
The Doctor pulls an orderly to the side.
“What’s happened here?”
“It’s Jack, he’s throwing one of his fits, but this time.... Well it’s the worst yet.”


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