"Migraine"
Susan was sitting on the bench. The Spring Sunlight dappled through her light, brown hair. A breeze rustled the leaves in the trees, their branches hanging over her.
Birds twittered nearby.
Traffic noises-a car door slammed. An engine started. Tires grinding on the pavement.
People walked past. A womans high-heels clacking on the cement. A man walking by, his leather shoes squeaking. Children getting out of a minivan, flip-flops slapping on the sidewalk.
It was a warm, Sunny, Spring day. Anyone would almost say idyllic. Anyone but Susan.
Susan was in tears. Clutching her head, rocking in anguish and agony.
It was the noises and the light, the warmth and the breeze. Everything made her feel as if her head was going to explode. As if her eyes were going to burst from their sockets to relieve the pressure.
She felt as if a crew of demolition men were inside of her head pounding away at her brain. She swore she could hear and feel the jackhammers and pick axes driving in and out. The acrid tastes of bile rose in her throat as she toppled forward, face-first onto the ground, The ground;littered with old cigarettes and scraps of gum wrappers, torn and dirty receipts, a dried-out half-chewed cigar. The flotsam and jetsam of society.
The ground which was now also littered with Susan.
*****
She awoke. The overhead lights, now pointed towards her face, were excruciatingly blinding. She yelled, her arms flailing over her face and groping-she hit the metal rail and felt the sheet she was on slip on the plastic mattress. The pillow. She pulled the pillow from under her head and held it to her face-blocking the light. There was a beeping noise-stabbing into her brain like an icepick. She closed her arms over the pillow, scrunching it to her ears to stop the sound.
"TURN OFF THE LIGHTS!" She screamed. "PLEASE!"
Faint noises, rustling and movement, a door swooshing open. Hands grabbing her.
Aware of all these things-each movement sent a wave of nausea through her. Jagged shards of pain went through her brain like searing lightening bolts.
Voices, male likely a doctor. She could hear bits of the conversation:
'Susan Todd, age 34, born....Records show History...Migraines...Nurse, two-hundred milligrams...I.V. BiD...Start with injection I.V.,...”
A sharp prick in the crook of her arm and blackness rushed over her taking away the pain....
She awoke twelve hours later. It was three A.M. and she was in a darkened room at the hospital. She moved her hand by her head and felt the call button for the nurse and pressed it. The door swung open and a brief stab of pain from the hallway lights caused her to wince, almost shying under the covers.
"Hi, how are you feeling honey?" The musical, yet strong voice came from the shadows.
"O.K., I guess....what happened?" She responded.
"Well the ambulance brought you in. Apparently you passed out on the street or in the park."
"I must have had a migraine,'She said 'They have gotten worse lately-it feels like someone is digging through my skull..."
The large, black woman with such a kind face patted her shoulder "Oh, my momma had those. Terrible things they must be! She would hide for days on end.' She smiled gently 'Why don't you just rest some-the doctor will be here in a few hours.." The nurse proceeded to bring her some water and showed her how to work the television controls from the bedside remote. "I will look in on you in a bit but you just push that button if you need anything at all!"
Susan thanked the nurse then lay back on her pillow. The pain had subsided. She felt light-headed and her head still hurt but not nearly as bad as earlier. "Must be break time for the guys in my head with the rock picks." Sighing she shook her head then rolled over, glad the pain had subsided but worried about the bills and her insurance...And her job. 'Damn!' -she had been on lunch when this happened.
******
At six-thirty the day nurse looked in and they talked. Susan's head still hurt but still no where near as much as the day before. It was just starting to get light outside and Susan asked if the nurse could open the blinds so she could see the Sunrise.
At Seven as the Sun just broke the horizon and the sky turned a bright blue burning into the white of the day her headache began again.
At seven-thirty she began pushing the call button for the nurse.
"Please, the pain is starting again!" She sobbed into the speaker. The nurse on the other end responded by telling Susan she was on the highest rate of the pain-killer they could give without a doctors orders and to be patient.
At seven-forty five the pain was becoming unbearable and the patient in the next room called the nurse to have them check on the woman they could hear wailing through the walls in the next room.
The doctor and his assistant entered the room three minutes later to see Susan thrashing on her bed. She was nearly screaming in pain while holding her head spasmodically curling into a fetal position then kicking out with her legs.
They managed to get her sitting upright as the doctor tried to examine her.
"Ms. Todd, this is Doctor Karls, can you understand me?"
"Ye-Yes..." Susan moaned.
"What are you feeling and can you help us pinpoint it?"
Shuddering and sobbing Susan tried to answer clearly "It feels like someone is digging through the front of my skull from the inside!"
The doctor motioned to his assistant "Have the nurse get sixty milligrams of...."
The look on his assistants face made him stop. He turned to look at Susan.
Susan had sat up straight. Her face was a frozen rictus of pain and fear. Her hands now lay in her lap, palms up and fingers slightly curled inwards. There was a faint noise coming from her...a scraping, rattling noise, not from her mouth or her chest but from her head. Her eyes were glassed over and unmoving, her jaw hung slack, mouth open.. Then the doctor saw what looked like tiny, black spiderwebs growing around her face under the skin. Puzzled he leaned in closer, pulling out his penlight for a better look.
They were not spiderwebs. They were cracks. Hairline cracks forming around the edges of her face. They seemed to be growing!
Shocked, he stumbled backwards knocking the bedside tray across the floor. He had seen movement in them!
“What the HELL?!?!?” He gasped.
The noise got louder, the sound of a ring being repetitevely tapped against a water glass. Dust and bits of debris began puffing out of the cracks as they grew steadily larger. Now everyone in the room could not only see movement in there but lights from inside the cracks as they grew wider and more pronounced..
Susan's face, still frozen in the silent rictus, slid off of her head and fell into her lap.
The doctor's eyes took everything in at once. Where Susan's face once had been the doctor could see the remnants of her upper back teeth. Susan's lower jawbone and tongue hung loosely, straight down, resting against her chest . He could see the opening into her sinus cavity. Then, where Susan's eyes and her forehead should be was just a cave-type opening shrouded by the hair from her bangs. No blood, no tissues...just four tiny men in dungarees wearing miners helmets and holding picks. The men stood there looking as shocked as everyone in the room must have felt. They were slightly Asian-looking with almond eyes and olive skin. Dark hair was pulled back and tied behind their heads.
The doctor took a step forwards and the men suddenly screamed and began yelling in a strange language. One threatened the doctor with the pick, using it like a prod in the air as if to say "Keep away!"
The tiny men began scrambling backwards, grabbing their tools and lights and fleeing back into the darkness.
The doctor stood speechless watching the lights and shadows reflecting off the walls of the tunnel as the miners fled. He heard the babbling voices echoing and fading. Watched the lights get smaller until they dissapeared out of sight around a bend in the tunnel leading to the front of Susan Todd's face.
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