Friday

“Eugenie, are you happy at the hospital, doing this internship?” Dr Brugg had asked her in her office some fifteen years back. He was ambidextrous, which sometimes led him to take a pen from his box while he was already holding a pen in his other hand without realizing it. She had admired once more the Latin American style of the decoration of his office, the warm wood, the delicate intrusion of some mate metals here and there, the soft light falling on the massive oily plants. It had happened to her before that she thought she could see those plants breathe.

“Hmm”

“I mean, I don’t intend to put my nose in your personal business, but you seem… unsure”

She had not been happy at all and at the young age that had been hers, she had despaired. So many years of studies, so many sleepless nights, so many chemical bubbles of energy drinks inflicted to her digestive system, and she was failing miserably. What would she do? Was her life over?

Eugenie eyed the gaping hole in the middle of Barry’s stomach after turning the top part of his superhero magic suit into shredded cheese and discarding it. Underneath, his shirt was blackened with old blood mixing with the new, redder, flashier, wetter. And yet, Barry was right about one thing, she had indeed seen some shit when she had attempted to be a nurse and failed at it. She was not someone who fainted at the sight of blood or guts, or protruding bones. She wasn’t bothered by it, only concerned that it was there, in such huge quantity. She rolled up Barry’s shirt, saw that a touch of purple was pulsating at the center of the hole. Now, in the absence of scanning equipment, she was going to have to figure out where the projectile that had dug that hole was located, and in a completely different way. You seem unsure. She was quite fucking unsure.

She cleared her throat. Barry lifted himself up on his elbows in fright, clenched his teeth, “WHAT is it is it like is it bad”

“No no no, no looking” she pushed him back again “Barry, I need to ask you a very important question. When those ro… those r—” she couldn’t bring herself to say the word robots and not think that she had followed Barry into madness and had begun to lose her mind too, “when those uh things shot at you, did the bullet come from an angle? Or from in front of you?” She felt bad interrogating him this way, recalled that, at school, memorizing things had not been his forte, “maybe you don’t know I mean—”

“Oh I know v vvery well” he retorted with a scandalized tone “because when it h hhappened, I was still inside the bolt bubble, so I saw it coming in total slow motion, right in front of me”

“You are shitting me”

Barry shook his head in utmost seriousness, angered at the events he was recounting “for real. But I want to c c cclarifffy that” he closed his eyes and reopened them, appeared to think about his story “there were like twenty five of those motherfuckers, and I d d dod dod dod—”

“Dod what” Eugenie encouraged him

“Dodged them all… except that one”

She did her best to smile at him with warmth, “you did well, and you remember well, this is very helpful, Barry, now” she had to get started “tell me who gave you that suit”

“You’re trying to d distract me”

“Yes” she hurried to run her fingers around on his stomach, pushed, pressed delicately, and then hard, “just uh hang on”

“Fuuu— Hobbes gave g—”

“Hobbes gave you the suit?”

“Y y y yes” Barry’s hands rolled into fists, one of them punched the table with refrained force, “Holy shhh”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“He sounds nice, that Hobbes guy”

“No he’s” he gasped, “he’s an ass”

“Almost finished, hang on Barry”

“He told me… if I needed the suit to feel like the Bolt, then maybe I shouldn’t have it”

“Wise words” Eugenie didn’t really care about the tale, so she completed her examination, replaced the two rags on top of Barry’s abdomen, seized his right hand, “un-fist your hand Barry, come on, try to relax now” she pulled hard on his fingers to unroll them, topped the pile off dust cloth with his hand, “hold yourself like this. Listen, this wound, it’s not deep, actually, just some five or six centimeters. Your suit is very thick and it helped you a lot. I can feel that bullet with my fingers”

“Oh yikes” he said, disgusted

“Yeah, but that’s good news, perhaps you didn’t suffer so much uh, I don’t know… internal damage, I mean hopefully” Unsure. Unsure.

“So…” he was drained now, exhausted, slurring his words, “like a flesh… flesh wound”

Eugenie squinted, “yes uh… like a uh… flesh wound” not really but okay

“So you mean” she could hear the feeble hope in his voice, some vague cheer, “I kind of… overreacted?”

“Mmmm?” she looked at the ceiling, unsure, “look, you did something earlier, you told me, in a bathroom, to patch yourself up?”

“I went to a brasserie and” his eyelids flickered, “rolled myself into some tissues, but I lost them later, when I… walked to here”

“How did you get into a brasserie”

“I uh… bolted”

“Ah yes, of course. You did extremely well, muchacho”

He smiled in his drowsy state, “I had forgotten you’re… Spanish”

“I’m Swedish. Barry, here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to trash that old wet hoodie that’s covered with blood, sandwich you under some towels, and you will dry. Alright? You have one job: to dry off”

“Dry” he repeated obediently. She had not seen obedient Barry before. It was troubling her.

“If you are cold, you can use that blow drier here” she plugged the device into a cord, “and then I’m going to tape you to the table so you don’t fall off while I’m gone”

“GONE” He squealed in apprehension.

“To school, I need some things, like a lot of things. I need to sanitize this whole room before I can do anything to help you. I’m not going to be long, and look at this thing” she waved the phone receptor in front of his eyes, “I will call you steadily on this device to check on you every ten minutes, have you ever seen this before?”

“Yes it’s a landline”

“I never know with you teenagers”

“Noo don’t leave me please don’t leave m—”

“It’s going to be fine, Barry, I’ll be very quick”

He swallowed what seemed to be some very thick stale bread crumbs, “Can you bring some painkillers”

“I don’t think they have very strong ones at… at school” she almost said our school. Eugenie ran to the entrance of her apartment and picked up a huge puffy jacket that her uncle had forgotten a couple years before and that she loved to wear during the cold season. She eyed it, between her hands, thinking that she might never flaunt it again at the park smoking a cigarette and looking up at the crisp sky. Opening it completely, she shoved Barry’s right arm into the left sleeve of the jacket so he would wear it in an inverted position, like a blanket, “you need to get warmer, as soon as possible” The skin on his bare chest and stomach was covered with goosebumps. The hand she pulled out of the sleeve presented her with a thumb up. “Don’t fall asleep, Barry, now, let’s see, you said you were shot in the arm too”

“I guess it was two bullets” he said grumpily, “but that second time, they attacked me from behind, those c c cowards”

“Shitbags” Eugenie agreed, “HOLY MOLLY” She lifted his arm up a little bit, his skin pasty with some darker blood, some of it crusty around two very clean holes, another projectile having gone through the part between his elbow and shoulder almost impeccably, as if the shooter had wished to show great precision skill. She didn’t know anything about guns but, at least, the damage was drier.

“Gross”

“Does it hurt, your arm?” She grabbed another square of cloth and wrapped it around it.

“No”

“No?”

“Only when I’m breathing”

She squeezed his hand affectionately this time, pet it like a little hamster, “always hilarious, it seems, Barry Masquevert”

“I still beat you at arm wrestle”

“You’re a tough cookie” she smiled an honest smile, “high five”

“No please not one of your stup—”

“GOOD JOB” she teased him. What are you doing

Obviously I’m trying to keep his spirits high, what do you think I’m doing

You’re hoping this is going to work out. While you’re leaving him here pinned and taped and exposed on your dinner table with a hole in the middle of his body and surrounded by potential incendiary machines “GOLD STAR” she recalled he especially hated that expression when he was a student in her class.

“Uuuhghhgh, cringe” his face crumpled like a raisin “damniit”

“Stay still” she pushed his left arm into the right sleeve of the sweater.

“I wasn’t planning to m mmove”

“Who will clean my house? It looks like a war zone”

“Oh my gggod. I’m so sorry”

“Hey that doesn’t matter, I’m kidding. Barry, stay still, lie flat. I will be back, so remember? You have to stay still and DRY”