FULL BLEED

– an excerpt from ‘Journey (on a Gurney)’ –

There was a rhythmic beep, and a breathless lull. The peach-hued light from a wide sconce cozied-up the stucco ceiling and curtains that lay limp in the space between two gurneys. Peas and cold carrots steeped in the sweat of a hospice prep-cook stewed in the shallow recesses of glinting Styrofoam cups, upon a nightstand that had been pushed into the corner. Clipboards full of scribbled faces began cluttering up on the floor by the eastern wall – faint pencil showed cowboys, talking toilets, eggs dressed-up as super-heroes. A respirator persistently gushed inward and cooed out the room’s tepid air through sterile gills. Propped up for comfort, the gurney lay L-shaped, with its pillows awash in full light of the lamp.

A halo of shadows filled a still man’s closing eyes, and in moments black slumber arrived. It came into a hushed room of comfort, and lay down between two sitting, slow breathing bodies on the wrinkled, twisted sheets of a nursing home deathbed.

The room grew subdued, then still. Feeling warmth on the periphery of the patient’s hands, a young man in glasses let out a pitiful sniffle.