On the Edge

Markus started the next day exactly as he had the one prior. He brushed his teeth, combed his hair, and tried his best to appear presentable. He was about to head out when he was stopped by Doctor Hughes.

“Markus, good morning,” he greeted, walking into the room, seemingly not noticing Markus’s attempt to leave. “The nurses tell me you’ve gotten used to your crutches?”

“Yeah,” Markus said, annoyance creeping into his voice. He wanted to get on with his day as quickly as possible. “I walked around the hospital a lot.”

“That’s good,” Doctor Hughes said. “I’d like to do a few tests and scans, and if they all come out clear we can discharge you tomorrow afternoon.”

“Oh,” Markus said, surprised at how downtrodden he felt hearing that news. “When are the scans?”

“Right now,” Doctor Hughes said. “And we have a lot of them, so it will take a while.”

“How long?” Markus asked, already attempting to plan around this new development. If he was getting discharged the next day, then he didn’t want to waste more time than he had to on tests and scans.

“Sorry Markus, but these things usually take a lot of time,” Doctor Hughes said, scratching his head in thought. “Ideally we’d be done in a few hours, but more realistically this will probably take all day.”

Markus couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He wanted to argue but knew it would be fruitless. Doctor Hughes was only doing his job. A job that happened to be making sure that Markus wasn’t dying any faster than he had to. How could he fight against that?

As promised, the various tests and scans Markus was subjected to took all day. It felt like they had stuffed him into every room in the hospital. Ultrasounds, CAT scans, PET scans, X-rays, he was subjected to them all. During it all he desperately hoped that the radiation from the machines would cause him to spontaneously develop superpowers so he could break out and finally get to where he really wanted to spend his day.

By the end of the gamut of tests he was subjected to Markus was exhausted. His body ached all over from the strain of the day, but he still made his way to the girl’s room. He wanted to talk to her again, and more importantly, he wanted to get her name. He wasn’t sure why he was so set on doing that, but he didn’t really care either. When he got to her room he was disappointed to find it empty. He stepped back into the hallway and stopped one of the nurses, asking him if he knew where the girl had gone.

“I’m afraid not,” the nurse said. “She wanders around the hospital sometimes, and we don’t stop her. It’s the only exercise she really gets. She’ll probably be back in a few minutes if you want to wait.”

Markus thanked the nurse, then resigned himself to waiting for the girl. He sat down in the same chair he had the previous day, and cast his eyes out of the window, admiring the view the girl got every day. The sky was tinted orange as the sun drew close to the horizon. The day was drawing to an end. From his vantage point, Markus could see another wing of the hospital. His eyes lazily scanned it from the bottom up, searching for anything of interest to captivate his attention. Unfortunately, they found something.

At the very top of his visual sweep, on the edge of the roof of the hospital, he could see an almost silvery-white halo glowing in the setting sunlight. Markus could feel his blood freeze in his veins. At the same time, his skin felt like it was boiling. He immediately rocketed out of his chair and launched himself at the open doorway. In his desperation, his crutches had become a distant memory, and the pain shooting through his leg with every step didn’t even register in his mind. He rounded the corner as fast as he could, sprinting to where he knew the elevator was, dodging nurses and assorted hospital equipment blocking his path.

“Hey, stop running!” One of the doctors shouted. He reached out to grab Markus by the arm, but Markus managed to rip it away from his grasp. The doctor chased after Markus, but he wasn’t ready for Markus’s determination to not get caught. Markus sprinted past one of the cleaners, grabbing a bucket of water and throwing it out behind him. He could hear the doctor lose traction and fall to the floor.

“Sorry!” he yelled over his shoulder, dropping the now-empty bucket in his wake. He rounded another corner and had a clear shot to his destination. The elevators. He nearly crashed into the doors as his momentum carried him.

“Have to get there,” he said, panting. “Have to hurry!” He quickly mashed the elevator button and wasted a few moments waiting for it before he noticed the service light blinking. From the corner of his eye, he caught movement from the direction he’d came. He looked and saw the doctor that had chased him, his pants now soaked, rounding the corner. Markus cursed, and glanced around, quickly assessing his options. Across from the elevator was the door to the stairs. Markus bolted through them, slamming the door shut right in the doctor’s face.

“Sorry!” he yelled again. He was going to apologize properly when he was done, but right now he couldn’t waste even a second. He took the stairs two at a time, sprinting up them with all he had. After a climb that felt like an eternity, he finally reached the maintenance access door that lead to the roof. He didn’t even think twice, throwing his shoulder into the door.

“Wait!” Markus yelled, bursting through the door, hoping beyond hope and praying beyond prayer that he wasn’t too late. To his relief, she stood on the exact spot he had seen her from her window. The setting sun cast gentle orange rays, silhouetting her.

“Markus?” She asked, not turning to face him. Markus could hear the tears in her voice. “What are you doing up here?”

“I should ask you that,” Markus said, his breath ragged. He doubted that he could pull off the speed he had when he was in peak physical condition. After spending two months in a coma he was definitely not in his peak physical condition. “What the hell are you thinking!?”

“I’m thinking that I want to see one more sunset,” she said, reaching an arm out in front of her as if she wanted to grasp one of the beams of sunlight.

“Why?” Markus asked. He paused, taking a few deep breaths before continuing. “Why are you doing this? I get that life might not seem great right now, but once you get discharged there’s a lot to look forward to.”

“Once I get discharged?” she asked with a mirthless laugh She looked at him over her shoulder with a pained smile. “Wouldn’t that be nice?”

“What are you talking about?” Markus asked. He suspected that he understood perfectly well what she meant, and the thought made his heart plummet.

“I’m going to die in this hospital, Markus,” she said, turning fully to face him. She still had that same sad smile on her face, as if she was trying to comfort Markus “I’ve been here since I can remember. ”

“You’re terminal?” Markus asked. Her situation clicked in his head, and her behavior finally made some sort of sense. She tried to keep her distance from him to protect him.

“Yeah,” she said. “I have been since I was four years old. I don’t even remember a world outside of this hospital. My whole life was here. Every birthday, every Christmas, it’s all been right here. And it’s going to end here, too” She looked down, her smile fading as she fought back her tears. “What’s so bad about it if it ends a little early?”

“Because there’s still life left to live!” Markus yelled, anger welling up in him. “There’s still so much left for you to do!”

“Like what!?” she yelled back, her eyes shooting up and boring into him. Her anger surpassed his, and tears freely flowed down her face. “I’ve been here for so long that my own family doesn’t even visit me anymore. I haven’t seen my parents in more than a year, Markus! They gave up on me, and now they’re just waiting for me to die so they can stop paying my medical bills. I’ve been here longer than most of the nurses and doctors. I have nothing left. I had to teach myself everything I know. I never even got the chance to make friends, let alone have anything close to a fun, normal childhood. I don’t have hobbies or a favourite food or song. I’m a shell of a person, Markus, and for years I’ve only been treated as a patient. A number on a fucking door.” Her anger had reached its peak on her last statement and quickly seemed to subside, replaced with a mask of misery.

“Until yesterday,” she continued, hanging her head. “For the first time in years, someone came to me and treated me like a person, and not a patient. You gave me the best day of my life by far. That’s why I’m up here. I wanted to go out on a high note.”

“Shouldn’t that be proof that you still have a lot more good days ahead of you?” Markus asked. “If yesterday was so fun, imagine what tomorrow will be?”

“You mean tomorrow when you get discharged?” she asked. “I was so happy to finally talk to someone. I got so excited to see you again that I asked a nurse where your room was. I got there just in time to hear what the doctor told you. Tomorrow you’ll leave and I’ll never see you again. I’ll be alone, back to being nothing but a number on a door, staring out that window to the same sunset until I finally die.”

“Who said you’ll be alone?” Markus asked, his voice softening. He hadn’t expected her to lash out at him, but he wasn’t upset by it either. He could tell she needed to get all of that off his chest. She looked up to meet his eyes.

“What, are you going to visit me every day?” she asked sarcastically, wiping the tears from her eyes.

“Yes,” Markus said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. She was taken aback by the seriousness in his voice. The steel in his eyes made her feel like she just might be able to believe his words.

“You shouldn’t,” she said, turning back to the setting sun, now almost completely below the horizon. “I’m a timebomb, Markus. One whose timer has been ripped off. All the time you spend with me will mean nothing. Once I’m gone I’m sure you’ll regret wasting it. You can do so much more if you just forget about me, so please do that. You’re a good peson, and I can’t let you waste your life on me.”

“How about you let me choose what I do with my own life,” Markus said. He grabbed her arm and pulled her off the ledge. He quickly placed himself between herself and the dizzying drop. “I’m going to show you how much you have left to live for, and how much joy you still have to experience. I’m going to give you a good life, even if there isn’t much of it left.” She giggled softly.

“That sounds almost like a proposal,” she said, smiling. She took a deep breath to gather her composure. “Why are you doing this?

“Because I know how you feel,” he said. “Probably not to the extent you do, but I know how awful it feels to feel like you are alone and abandoned. I know how it feels to put on a brave face and pretend like everything’s ok. You act like you’re dead to the world, and you think it’s fine, but it kills your heart.” He looked away from her, towards the last rays of the sun shining through the brilliant skyline. “Recently someone made me feel like I should grab life as hard as I can and really experience it. I want to do the same for you.”

“You don’t even know my name,” she said. “Why would you go through all this effort for someone you can just leave behind?” Her tone saddened slightly. “For someone who’s going to leave you behind?”

“I don’t know,” Markus said, shrugging. The serious tone was gone from his voice, replaced by a more upbeat attitude. “I have no reason, really. All I know is that this is the first time I’ve really wanted to do something in a long while.”

“Fine,” she said, crossing her arms. “Go ahead and be my knight in shining armor.”

“Why thank you, Princess,” He said, bowing sarcastically. “Now, can you finally tell me your name?” She laughed at this, before giving him a bright smile.

“Christine.”