Uninvented Stories of Invented People

Svetlana Isaenko

“Listen up, DEAR COLLEAGUE. The likes of you, in general, should not be allowed to people at all. Have you completely lost your human face? Do you at all have mother or wife, or son at home? Then just imagine any of them to get an ambulance with the same kind of… I don’t even have a proper word to name you… non-human, like you yourself. Karma is a Goddamn tricky thing, you know. It returns back all your bloody favors. Have you completely stopped seeing people behind earnings? Look at you, worked too hard, yeah? I’ll grind you down to death by complaints and reports, bitch. Pick your shit together and bring him to the department, now!”

The ambulance doctor waved his hand, turned around in an emphatic manner and left, but brought Misha Nameless to the department.

At these very words Ivan comes to change me at the duty shift. “Clover, why are you raging?” he asks kindly.

“Oh, it’s a nightmare, who the hell do they think they are?” I briefly retell the story to him.

“Sweetheart, this is what he is, what did you expect? He is to hand in the shift and there you appear with your imbeciles. Plus, you, our little sparky, sent the guy for an MRI. Well done, you are all passion to work, I was the same at your age. By the way, looking good!”

“Thank you, Mr. Willow, your praise is extremely valuable to me.” “Did everything go smoothly?”

“Well, what can I say? It was a bit complicated,” I narrate all the episodes, which in fact becomes my meeting report.

“All right, go and have a rest. See you tomorrow.”

Mr. Willow is the head of the department. I am overwhelmed by his erudition, literacy and clinical instinct. He has been working in the hospital for 30 years already. A true luminary he is. He is always there to help and to prompt. We work with him together in the same building. I respect him immensely.

“Sir, I left you an apple, on the table, to have a snack before bedtime.” “Marie, are you afraid I’m gonna lose weight?” he looks at me cheerfully with a squint. “I agree, 117 kg should be nourished properly, but don’t you worry, my Allie gave me a lunch box to go.”

“Oh, give the best of my regards to Mrs. Willow. Well, that’s it, have a calm shift.”

We have a superstitious belief that if one wishes the other good luck for a duty shift, there will be an influx of complicated patients. It seems no one wished me anything at all in the morning, but still, as usual, it turned out to be a multitask issue.

“I will definitely do. That’s it, go and have a proper sleep. You are as pale as

a ghost. Apparently, you endured the entire patient ‘impact’, which means todays I am going to rest. I love taking the shift after you. It’s all peace and quiet and I can even take a sleep. That’s it, child, until tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow Mr. Willow.”

No ‘good nights’ are pronounced also for superstitious reasons. Although, we are all definitely not superstitious, it works out at the checkpoint.

I say goodbye to Marina and Valera, thank them for the duty, while they are washing the floors.

“Take good care of yourself, seems you have grown completely thin. Eat, for the first thing, I can give a banana. Want one?” asks Marina attentively.

“No, thanks. I’ll go.”

Before leaving, I dial up the 11th department using that horrible telephone. “Good evening, this is the doctor on duty, how is Michael doing?”

“Oh, doctor, thank you so much. He’s asleep and everyone is happy!” Karina will come tomorrow and adjust everything. It’s great, means the therapy worked out. Fine.

“Goodbye.”

I am dialing up the 29th department. I inquire how Mr. Nameless is doing. “Well, not really good. He is lying down with high pressure. We’ve injected

magnesium, but there is nothing else we have in the department.” “Got it. Well, hold on.

Finally, I say goodbye to everyone and go out into the street. The air is fresh and frosty. The sky seems to be strewn with multi-colored bright lanterns. It looks beautiful and bewitching. I remember when a child, when I felt lonely, I sat down and gaze at one single star for a long while. I fantasized that out there, in some corner of the planet, there also was a boy sitting and looking at the same star. So, like that it became warm and cozy in my heart. You are not alone. Where are you? The Universe is very wise, but impassive. Everything comes exactly when it should.

I sit down into my cold combat ‘speed bird’ and start it up from the sixth try, wait till it’s warmed up. I see eight missed calls and one text message from Alevtina: “Are you comming?” Everything inside of me resists and turns over. But I have to go. Writing: “Leaving already.”

I can’t calm down because of the thoughts. At which point does a person loose humanity? We are kind and empathetic by nature, but for some reason we lose it all. Like that ambulance doctor. Millions of people I have encountered along my way, why do their hearts harden? Everyone wants love and it is only through love one may learn of the happiness. And I am not speaking of the generally accepted concept. When you bring love, the world becomes amazing. Love should be in everything. It is a bright emotion that inspires, lends wings and makes you want to share. It is literally everywhere, in people, dawn, books, profession, life. If we carry no light, the world will darken. Because, light and love are inseparable. They illuminate the path we walk, through the darkness of our everyday routines. It is only us to choose, whether to dwell in light on this planet or produce darkness and decay.

I go to the pharmacy and announce the list of medicines to the pharmacist. She obediently assembles the package and declares: “672 hryvnia, please.” I open up my wallet and there is one single 200-hryvnia bill in it. ‘And nothing on the cards, damn it.’ Then, it has dawned upon me: “Alevtina’s gift! Bingo!” I hesitate … I get into the envelope, take out the sacred five-hundred note, pay and leave.

“Misha’s in need of it more than Alevtina’s in need of a new lip-gloss.”

I go back to the hospital. Ring the door of the 29th department. A nurse opens up. I hold out the package.

“Today it’s Michael’s birthday. That’s his gift.” “What birthday, Miss Clover? We are unaware of…”

“Who cares? Let it be today,” I smile and say goodbye.

The nurse stands puzzled. I arrive at of Alevtina’s feast of life. Everyone is dressed up and in the full play, while I am hardly able to speak. I’m tired.

“Oh, Marie, you are not joyful today,” Alevtina notes disappointedly. “Hon, just after the shift and I am without a gift, will congratulate you

later.”

“No worries, sweety. That’s okay! It’s cool you could make it and you remember, I love useful gifts, preferably in cash equivalent,” she winks at me.