Part 7: Consequence.

"You're caught up in me?" Leah asked, her hair still damp from the shower she just took.

"Yeah. Is that bad?" asked Mike, scratching the back of his head.

"No, no... it's, it's actually kind of good," said Leah. "Best thing to come out of this past week."

"Well, I'm glad it's good," said Mike, standing up and getting closer to Leah.

Leah sighed. "Can you just kiss me already?"

-----

Gabriel paced back and forth inside and outside his room, telephone in hand. He had tried calling Evelyn's cell phone, but she still wasn't picking up, and now he had the house number on display, just waiting for him to press the green button to call.

He hadn't spoken to Evelyn in days, and she really didn't want to talk to him.

"Fucking women," he mumbled to himself. "They're the ones who go off and cheat on you but in the end you're still the fucking bad guy."

He pressed the green button.

Four rings passed, and then, the answering machine. Gabriel didn't want to leave a message that made him sound desperate, but he had to, if he ever wanted to talk to Evelyn again.

"Hey Ev. Gabe. Please pick up. I know you're there."

There was only the sound of static over the telephone line.

"Please, please pick up."

He heard the other side of the line pick up, and he breathed in to talk, his heart quickening.

Then, the other line slammed the phone down.

-----

"You say sorry to someone, and you get to wait and see whether or not they take it. And the worst thing is, they can leave your apology alone because they're in fucking control," Joseph continued.

"I love you, so what, right? You know, I've seen you everyday because I think I can somehow will some part of me to help you wake back up. And when you wake up, you'll realize that it was me who helped you out this whole time, the only one who cared enough to stay by your side and watch you breathe and get better.

"You're in control, David. You're in control. And it's going to break my heart if you never wake up, because I can't stand watching you just breathe in and out and not know what you're dreaming of. You wake yourself up, because I can't do it for you.

"I'm a masochist, David. It hurts me to see you like this, but it's the brightest part of my day, because you're still here.

"I'm a consequence of you."

-----

A few more days passed, and the visits to the hospital grew more sporadic. Joseph was still the only regular -- now known by the nurses as "Smilin' Joe" because of the big smiles he had every time he went up and down the elevator visiting David -- and was the one who kept Nate somewhat updated with the goings-on of the outside world.

Nate developed a dependency on his sleeping pills and painkillers, but he hid it well from his nurses and doctors. He even got them to up the dosage on his prescriptions, and his health was good enough that he was out of County General in mere days.

-----

It was nighttime. County General was running on midnight staff, and the place was again eerily quiet.

The fluorescent lighting in the hall didn't let shadows appear on its taupe walls, and the white flooring seemed to reflect the light twice as brightly.

Room 415, the machine jungle, hummed and beeped and whirred along like it did every night, monitoring David's existence, robotic guardian angels who didn't exactly care either way if their guardee lived or died.

David was dreaming of flying. He was soaring, high, above the clouds. People looked like dots on a comic strip, forming an ever-moving print of the funnies, each dot filled with its own melancholic tragedies and heartfelt comedies.

He was above the city at night, which looked like industry and progress on fire. Urban sprawl had stretched up to the base of the mountains and as far as the beaches and the deserts, and all of it, lit by electricity, looking like embers on coal, smoldering and pulsating in vibrancy and heat.

And then, he felt himself falling, slowly at first, headed towards thereabouts of County General. He was falling, down, plummeting, hurtling ever faster to the ground.

His monitors started going crazy, and the machines let out a beeping that sent half the nurse squad to his room.

He fell, through roofs and ceilings and floors and beds, until he felt himsel hit something soft and somewhat comfortable.

He opened his eyes, and he was in the middle of it all: Joseph and a few nurses in a hospital room, all smiling at the fact that he was back.

He breathed deeply, and smiled. It hurt to smile.

Joseph grabbed his hand. "You're back. You're back!"

David felt exhausted.

Part 6: Eye-Opener.

Gabriel reached for the phone, and dialed the front desk. "Could I get more towels for Room 334, please?"

After the commotion that he and Evelyn caused in the parking lot, Gabriel headed home in pursuit of Evelyn. Once he got home, though, he realized he didn't have any of his keys, and Evelyn wasn't picking up the phone nor was she answering the door.

He realized soon afterwards that it was the Marriott or the hospital again, so he booked himself a room after buying clothes in the gift shop.

As far as he knew, Evelyn was at home, thinking of the next way to punish him.

-----

"You know that feeling," Joseph began, as he walked into David's room, "that feeling you get when you're apologizing to someone? I hate that. I feel like I'm giving all of myself, and the other person's in control.

"I hate it when the other person's in control.

"And then, you know that feeling you get when you tell someone you love them? You tell them first, and then... then, there's that instance of uncertainty and insecurity that you feel for fear of them not saying back. You're giving them everything, you're telling them you love them, and there you are sitting not knowing how they'll react, whether they want to smack you or kiss you or tell you you're just friends.

"Does it make me selfish, David, that I want to tell you I love you, and not expect you to say anything because you can't hear a word I say?

"I love you, you know. And it's okay if you don't want to say anything because I know you love me too. Maybe not in the same way I love you, but I know. But you know, it makes me feel kinda better that you can't register any of this right now because, really, this is some of the cheesiest shit I've ever said.

"Besides that, though, I really do love you."

-----

Leah and Mike grabbed their stuff from camp -- the place actually looked like it wasn't even touched after they cleaned up -- and headed to Leah's apartment, both in dire needs of real food and a nice, warm shower.

In Leah's car, Mike fell asleep as he tried to count the number of petals that had fallen from the sunflower in the flower holder. He slept soundly, as Leah listened to the Beatles strum and sing about Eleanor Rigby picking up rice from the steps of the church again.

She never realized how peacefully Mike slept before, and how the light played on his face and made him seem like he was smiling as he dreamt.

-----

Nate couldn't believe it. It was his fault, like the cop said, and it was on his mind that the death of a man he didn't even know was his responsibility.

It started to give him a giant headache, and so he reached for his sleeping pills and took four. Sleep was the only thing that was going to save him now -- deal with it later, he thought, not now, not when I'm trying to get better.

Officer Rogan left his business card on the nightstand, next to Nate's medication, a constant reminder of his guilt and sudden foray into manslaughter and imminent jailtime.

It wasn't his fault entirely -- the car in front of him should have let him pass -- but the truck's appearance, and the circumstances, would land him in deep trouble.

He knew he was lying when he answered Officer Rogan's question of being on anything mind-altering while he was driving. He had rolled himself a joint at Leah's place, taking a quick "cigarette break" in the middle of the treatment meeting, and getting angry on the way back, realizing while high that Evelyn was playing him.

But that didn't matter right now, since the sleep was starting to kick in, about to send him to somewhere where he didn't care that much, and where he could escape this ridiculousness that was County General.

-----

Leah and Mike arrived at her apartment, exhausted, wrung of sleep and deprived of anything of substance for days. As soon as they stepped past the threshold of the door, they both instinctively headed towards the kitchen, made themselves quick sandwiches, and sat on the futon.

After scarfing down her sandwich, Leah took a long shower. Mike continued to catch up on his sleep on the futon, playing some Chopin to lull himself to sleep.

When the c.d. played itself out, Mike woke up, and sat up on the futon. Leah, as far as he could tell, was still in the shower.

He let himself wake up, staying on the futon, as he heard the water in the shower shut off. Leah stepped out of the bathroom, clad only in a towel, and went to check on how Mike was doing.

She saw that Mike was up, and smiled. "You're all caught up?"

Mike smiled. "In you."

Part 5: Smokescreen.

It was raining hard; the storm had caught up to them and the visibility was getting more and more terrible for every mile they drove.

David was getting anxious. Nate was driving faster and faster, getting more furious and reckless. The oncoming headlights grew with the droplets of water, and the reds of the brakelights seemed to get closer and closer. The traffic on the Interstate was gtting heavier as the rain dropped faster.

"She's trying to ruin me!" shouted Nate, wiping the condensation off of the inside of the windshield.

"What the hell are you talking about?" David inquired, turning on the defroster.

"She's trying to ruin me!" shouted Nate again.

"Who's trying to ruin you?" David yelled back.

"Evelyn! Evelyn!"

"What the hell is going on?"

"I'm having an affair with Evelyn, David," Nate said, looking David straight in the eye.

Eyes growing wide, David knew he had to find out more. "How long has this been going on?"

"A few weeks."

"How is she trying to ruin you?"

"Just you watch for a few more days. She'll try to kill me if I don't--"

"Nate, LOOK OUT!" David grabbed the steering wheel, seeing that a truck was headed their way. Nate didn't have time to readjust himself; lights and tumbling and a giant crash soon followed.

David got out of the car, felt on his face that it was raining, and saw Nate hunched over the steering wheel. He stepped forward, felt himself pulled to the floor by gravity, and heard everyone gasp as he fell.

He woke up, and Nate was screaming in his ear again.

"She's trying to ruin me!"

And this was quite all right, since David didn't realize he was dreaming, and that he was reliving the accident over and over in his mind, etching and branding a capture of the accident in David's memory, some sort of mental conditioning that he was subjecting himself to.

-----

"Oh, look, he's dreaming again," said Leah, seeing David move his eyes under his eyelids.

Mike stood up from his chair. "I hope he's dreaming of something nice, you know, like babies and puppies and meadows. Things you see in a genital herpes ad."

Joseph laughed. "I'm gonna go grab myself something to eat. You guys want anything?"

Leah and Mike shook their heads, and Joseph headed downstairs.

The two were left alone in David's jungle, somewhat comfortable that Evelyn and Gabriel weren't ruining the mood and Joseph wasn't being his awkward, nervous self.

"Thanks, you know, for letting me know about this," Mike said.

"Are you kidding me? Of course I'd tell you first. I wouldn't know who to call otherwise," responded Leah.

Mike smiled. "I'm glad."

-----

"I knew from the very beginning."

Evelyn's feelings were in turmoil. She felt discombobulated and tense. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore.

She didn't even doubt that she and Nate were having an affair. "Gabriel, I wasn't trying to hurt you."

"You're probably right." He kept looking at his watch, as if time would go any faster if he looked at his watch more often.

"I wanted to end it," said Evelyn, "but he wouldn't let it go."

"You mean, you wouldn't let it go." Another glance at the watch.

"No, Gabriel. Listen, I --"

Furiously, Gabriel cast an icy stare towards Evelyn. "No, you listen. I know this is some fucking cosmic thing biting me in the ass for what I did to you and Nate a long time ago, but that doesn't give you the right to fuck around with some dipshit who doesn't even know how to treat a woman right, let alone drive a fucking car! I don't deserve this!"

"Maybe you do," replied Evelyn, "now that my worth is less than a car."

"I didn't mean that! You know what I mean, Nate driving and all."

"Gabriel, your best friends just got in a car accident. Be sensible. Have some tact."

"Tact shit. David can't even hear a word I'm saying."

Evelyn felt the words sting. "You are horrible."

"You destroy me, Evelyn."

"I despise you, Gabriel. Now shut the fuck up and get out of my face."

"And how are you gonna make me do that, Evelyn?"

"You will wish you never asked that question."

-----

The next morning, Leah and Mike went back downstairs to find the camp suddenly gone, save for a cleaned-up Joseph and their belongings.

"What happened to Evelyn and Gabriel?" asked Mike.

Joseph managed a smile. "It was the most horrible, terrifying, gut-wrenching hilarity that had ever ensued."

Leah and Mike gave Joseph very confused looks.

"Okay, okay, lemme explain," continued Joseph. "I get back from home -- that's where I ate, so I figured I should clean up -- and so they're arguing really loud here, right? And it's like fucking two in the morning. The night nurse tells them to shut up, and they move to another side of the lobby. Ten minutes later they're shouting again, and so an orderly tells them to get out of the lobby area. They go outside. They're arguing like mad, crazy. And then it starts to rain again."

"I can kinda tell where this is going," Mike said.

"Oh yes. It's raining. They're still arguing. Evelyn gets the brilliant idea to get out of the rain and go to her car. Gabriel's following her, right, and acting like he's going home with her in her car, but as soon as he reaches for the door, Evelyn's booked it. He got puddled, muddied, just plain dirty. And wet."

Leah tried to stifle a chuckle.

"So Gabriel's heading back inside, and he's spotted me. I'm trying to hold back laughter while he's almost in tears. He tells me, 'You guys should stay here. Evelyn and I need to sort stuff out.' And you know, how can I not agree to that? So I'm nodding my head, and he's going, 'And yeah, everyone's stuff is still there, so go look after it, huh? I guess you guys don't need your stuff as much anymore.' And he just turns around and leaves, and I'm like, what the shit, I'm left with your bags and jackets."

"Well, thanks for looking out for us," Leah said.

"My pleasure," said Joe. "But now I think it's my turn to go upstairs."

Mike nodded. "They're probably expecting it by now," he said.

"Wouldn't have it any other way," said Joseph.

As he headed towards the elevator, Joseph felt better than ever to go visit David and Nate, but he wouldn't let on to anyone his secret wish: that when David wakes up, he would be the first person he sees, and therefore the first he'll remember in a new beginning. Somewhat selfish to other people, Joseph found the thought completely normal if it were the plan to make David fall in love with him.

Grinning, he headed to Room 415, ready to tell David more of his secrets, things he never would and never could tell anyone else in this circle of friends.

He was a little too happy to be visiting a comatose person.

Part 4: Interrogation.

Leah entered the emergency ward, headed towards Room 415. The nurses and candy stripers were lounging about, doing their menial, everyday tasks. Attendants in OR scrubs were scattered through the ward. Nothing was too chaotic; the biggest thing to hit County General over the last week was the car accident.

Hesitantly, Leah inched further forward to David's room, afraid of what she might see on the other side.

She finally took a step into David's room, seeing the profusion of medical equipment surrounding David's bed and attached to David's body. He looked peaceful; his hair well kempt and his face, not tired. He was dreaming again, Leah could tell -- his eyes were moving under his eyelids. Yet he didn't know he was dreaming.

"Oh, look at you," said Leah. "You must be so tired."

David breathed slowly, steadily. The beeping and whirring of all the machines around him provided a chorus of constancy in the room, eerily relaxing and strangely comforting.

She held David's hand. "What happened out there, David? You don't deserve this, you know?"

As if awaiting a response, she looked at David's face, half-expecting him to wake up from his coma.

"When will you wake up?"

-----

Two days had passed in County General, and David moved from "guarded" to "stable" condition. Relief somewhat settled downstairs at "the camp," what the nurses and clerks affectionately called the five people in the corner.

Everyone had seen David and Nate at least once -- Joseph, in particular, saw both at least twice a day -- and had realized that for the moment, everything was going to be all right. Nate would only be in the hospital for a few more days for observations, but as for David, nobody knew.

Gabriel and Evelyn were still not talking to each other, and everyday, the tension mounted and mounted. Gabriel was getting fed up; Evelyn was already mad.

Then they got on each other's throats.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me you were coming?" shouted Evelyn, startling everyone suddenly. "I had to find out from Leah that you were coming!"

Gabriel's eyes grew wide. "Because I knew you were gonna pull something like this!"

"You are a piece of work, Gabriel," replied Evelyn. "Why didn't you think I needed to know that our best friends were in an accident?"

"Of course I thought you had to know!"

"But why didn't you tell me anything?!"

Gabriel hesitated for a second, unsure whether or not he should tell her what he knew.

Evelyn looked at him, confused. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you're cheating on me with Nate."

Leah and Mike looked at each other, almost telepathically telling each other to head upstairs and get out of the scene. They left, Joseph in tow, knowing that whatever was going to happen would get around to them when the situation wasn't too awkward anymore.

Evelyn's attitude changed immediately. She grew flustered, her face grew flushed, and her speech became almost incomprehensible.

"Wh-what are you talking about?" she managed to eke out.

"I know, Evelyn. I've known for a few days now."

"Gabriel..."

"You're killing me, Evelyn. You're killing me." He looked at her, intent on not losing his gaze.

"How did you find out?"

-----

A police officer -- young, in his mid-twenties, and a little too self-confident -- entered Room 417, equipped with a notepad and a mechanical pencil. Nate knew immediately what was about to happen.

"Mr. Nathaniel Furth?" asked the policeman.

"Yes, officer, what can I do for you?" replied Nate.

"Hi, I'm Officer Rogan. I'd like to ask you a few questions about the accident, if you don't mind."

"No, no, not at all."

Expecting the worst, Nate endured no less than forty-five minutes of intense questioning by Officer Rogan, fervently taking notes and notating what seemed like every other word. There were questions about the weather, the traffic, what "exactly" happened, Nate's recollections of the incident and the consequences of the accident.

Halfway through the process, Leah, Mike, and Joseph were about to enter Nate's room, when they saw the man clad in black grilling Nate about nitty-gritty details about the incident. They veered towards David's room instead, deciding to keep David company for the evening.

Finally, the end seemed to be in sight.

"Oh. One last question."

"All right," said Nate, exasperated and exhilarated at the last sentence. "Shoot."

"You do know you're responsible for the accident, right?"

Nate looked at him with a puzzled stare. "What?"

"I assume you've heard the truck driver's dead?"

-----

Leah, Mike, and Joseph sat aroud David's bed, all of them somewhat relieved that it was quiet and that David's status was better.

"So, Joe," began Leah, "why do you come visit these two kids everyday?"

"I worry too much," he answered. "I never get to hang out with them enough in the first place, so I figured I'd hang out with them now even though David can't even hear me."

"You never know," said Mike. "He could just be pretending."

"Yeah, that sounds like something he would do," replied Joseph.

"How have things been? I haven't really had the chance to catch up with you yet," Leah said.

"They're good. Could always be better, though," said Joseph.

"How much better?" asked Mike.

"A lot. I'm screwed. The department's 'downsizing' --" Joseph made quote marks in the air -- "and I'm up for review. Basically, I'm getting fired, and I don't know what I'm doing after this. Plus, now that I'm getting fired, I'm not gonna have enough money to pay for my apartment. My mom hates me, my dad hates me, my sister hates me. Everybody fucking hates me."

"I don't hate you," said Leah.

"I sometimes hate you," said Mike, smiling.

Joseph chuckled. "I hate you sometimes, too."

"Well, shit, all right, I hate both of you," Leah said. The three of them laughed, and for the first time in months, genuinely enjoyed each other's company, vigilant of their other friend, who was dreaming of the same thing.

Part 3: County General.

County General had the lingering scent of stale, sterile air; where it seemed impossible for any sort of microbe to live in its antiseptic taupe walls, where no germ could photoreact under its cold, fluorescent lighting. The staff was too nice (and at times too incompetent), and the setting felt like something out of a soap opera set.

The plants in the lobby were real, yet they felt like plastic. The lighting was too right. The computers all hummed at the same, quiet frequency. It looked as if the place had hired an interior designer to correct its feng shui, and in doing so, created uncomfortable spaces where people actually had to talk to each other while they waited.

Leah and Joseph reached the lobby and waited for Mike and Gabriel to show up. It was going to be a ridiculously long night, and none of them knew when it would even end.

Spotting an empty sofa section in one corner of the lobby, Joseph staked their claim on two sofas and two chairs, piling jackets and bags over them. Leah dragged in a coffee table, cleared it of all its prosaic magazines, and began to settle for the long haul.

Gabriel and Mike soon appeared through the automatic sliding glass doors, immediately finding their conspicuously situated friends ready and waiting.

Mike gave Leah a huge hug as Gabriel and Joseph exchanged nods of acknowledgment. As much in a rush as they were in to get to County General, they now wanted to delay as much as possible the inevitability of the next few hours.

Mike looked around at the four of them. "So," he began, "who wants to go first?"

-----

There was no parking in the emergency lot.

Frustrated, Evelyn drove to the enormous seven-story structure right next door, parked in the third floor, and rushed to the lobby, her head inundated with worry, anger, and fear all at once.

He knows, she thought, my God, he knows.

She quickened her pace and crossed the street, under the emergency wing of County General.

-----

Under a tangle of plastic vines and aluminum branches connected to giant trunks of complicated monitoring equipment, David lay.

The scene looked like a cross between an ad for Corona and a hospital: under two giant towering structures, David's bed made a hammock, coconuts replaced with saline drips, white sand replaced with white tile. No waves crashing against the shore; instead, the beep-beep of the heart monitor and the hum of its components composed the sweet summer sound in David's room. Beige walls, white ceiling -- it was as if the color palette was "shades of white." There was a sharp, distinct scent of lemon cleanser wafting about the room.

He wasn't awake, but he wasn't asleep, either.

His face was nicked with little cuts from where the glass particles forced themselves in. He had an enormous bruise on his right shoulder from the force of the seat belt through impact. All over his body, there were scratches, cuts, bruises.

The doctors had stopped the internal bleeding when they received him in the emergency room.

Miraculously, despite losing so much blood and his lungs almost collapsing, David was "in guarded condition," according to the chief surgeon.

He was in some sort of coma, drifting in and out of sleep consciousness, dreaming.

-----

Two doors down, in room 417, Nate was reclined up on his bed. Even more miraculously, even with the driver's side as the point of impact, Nate suffered only mild whiplash, a shard of glass cutting his forehead, and a pinched nerve. He had regained all feeling on the right side of his body, thankful for his luck but guilty for his inattention.

He was stable, at least. The doctors were quite surprised at his injuries, expecting worse things, but were relieved that he only sustained minor blows.

Rest was necessary, but in order to do so, he needed to take the painkillers they administered.

Sleep was a good escape.

-----

Mike stood in the middle of the group. "No takers, huh?"

Resignedly, Leah went ahead and volunteered. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

She headed to the elevators, and expected the worst as she stepped off at the fourth floor.

-----

"Anyone want anything? I'm gonna go get some coffee," said Joseph, standing up.

"I'm good," said Mike.

"Yeah, me too," said Gabriel.

Joseph searched his pockets for change. "All right. I'll be ba--"

"I'll take a coffee," said a woman's voice from behind him.

They looked up and saw Evelyn, keys in hand, at the verge of panting and wanting to slap Gabriel in the face when she saw him. She stared at Gabriel the whole time.

She smiled. "Are they all right?"

Mike shrugged. "We don't know."

Sensing the exponentially growing tension between Evelyn and Gabriel, Joseph looked for an excuse to break it. "Hey, Evelyn, you wanna come with?"

"I'd love to," she said.

All the while, Gabriel tried to avoid eye contact, but couldn't avoid Evelyn's trademark "death stare."

As soon as Joseph and Evelyn were out of earshot, Mike asked, "What's the deal with you two?"

"Nothing, nothing," said Gabriel, out of his element. "It's nothing."

"Yeah, and Nate and David didn't just get in an accident."

Mike pried, but Gabriel wouldn't budge. He gave up after realizing two questions in that Gabriel wasn't going to talk.

Joseph and Evelyn returned with their styrofoam cups, and the tension mounted yet again.

Joseph grabbed an issue of Highlights for Children from under the coffee table, leafing through the colored pictures and the words that were uncharacteristically large. As far as he was concerned, he was just waiting his turn.

Mike looked around, not wanting to deal with the drama. He eyed a vending machine on the other side of the lobby, and figured out that the best way to at least enjoy himself was getting a bag of chips and watching Gabriel and Evelyn duke it out.

He returned, noticed that Evelyn and Gabriel were still exchanging glares, and opened his bag of chips.

This is going to be good, he thought, as he munched satedly on a chip.

Part 2: Driving.

"Did you see that report on t.v.? They went ahead and had Gaile Peters cover the story. You know, breaking news kinda shit. I had to down two shots of tequila before I could force myself to believe it, you know? And then you called me."

"Yeah, well, Nate had listed me under emergency contacts, apparently."

"How are they doing, do you know?"

Silence took over Leah. She herself didn't know the answer to Joseph's question.

"I'm hoping for the best."

They went downstairs, through the dimly-lit hallways of Joseph's apartment building, past the neighbor who always had loud sex, down two flights, to where the light never stopped flickering.

As soon as he hit fresh air, Joseph lit up a cigarette. He took a long first drag, thinking that Leah's definition of best wasn't exactly in the traditional sense.

They got in Leah's car, a sickly sweet yellow Volkswagen Beetle, replete with the sunflower in the flower holder. It had begun to wilt; its petals were slowly falling off one by one.

-----

After an agonizing twenty minutes of silence, Mike decided to turn on the radio, fiddling with the receiver until he reached a station that was playing music that seemed to ease the tension and fade into the background.

Gabriel, usually extroverted and talkative, was not himself. He was physically disturbed and shaken over the fact that David was -- no, might be dead.

"I'm going to kill Nate when he wakes up," said Gabriel.

Mike kept his eyes on the road. "No, you won't. Don't say that."

"How could he do this to me?"

Mike wanted to say "He didn't," but couldn't bring himself to. Instead, he turned the volume up on the FM stereo, fiddled with the receiver one more time, and near-blasted country music. Gabriel tried to hide his discomfort by pretending to sleep.

-----

"... and the Interstate now clearing up after an accident involving two men trying to avoid a truck. More on this when we get back."

Joseph turned the radio off, both he and Leah obviously disturbed by the news report.

"Were they drunk?" asked Joseph.

"No," replied Leah, sighing. "We had just finished the treatment for the script, and they were headed back to their apartment. As far as I know, Nate was sober. And David doesn't drive."

Joseph nodded.

"Man, I hope David's all right," said Leah, after a deep breath.

-----

Evelyn and Gabriel were on tough times. Gabriel knew that Evelyn was cheating on him with Nate, but he never thought that karma would actually get Nate in an accident. He actually felt kind of guilty -- in college, he and Nate were best friends, and Evelyn was Nate's fiancee. For some reason or another, Evelyn called the wedding off, but remained good friends with Nate.

Gabriel, as soon as the engagement was broken off, began to woo Evelyn into his world. They eventually got married, but Evelyn was never too passionate about the relationship as she ever was with Nate. Gabriel knew this and was never afraid to use it against her in arguments and petty fights.

He found out that Evelyn was cheating on him no more than a few days before the night of the accident. He tried to act as if everything was normal, but at almost every spare moment he had, he cursed Nate under his breath and vowed to get rid of Evelyn as soon as he had secured another job, or at least a transfer, at another location.

Gabriel didn't tell Evelyn that he was headed to the hospital, nor was she watching the t.v. nor listening to the radio. She heard from Leah that Nate and David had been in an accident, and was outraged at Gabriel's silence and immaturity.

She grabbed the keys to her Toyota and headed for County General.

Part 1: Accident.

The car swerved to avoid the oncoming traffic, but the slippery asphalt careened it out of control, rolling it over once, and smashed against a telephone line.

David, almost unconscious, unbuckled his safety belt and mustered as much as he could to release himself from the mangled steel. He looked over to his left; Nate was surely blacked out, his forehead marred with a long cut, bleeding.

A small crowd had begun to gather around the scene, everyone on their cellphones calling emergency paramedics. The traffic on the once-desolate stretch of Interstate began to agglutinize, slowly but surely growing, a mass of headlights and taillights trying to figure out what had happened to cause the silver Lexus to crash against the enormous telephone pole.

David tried to survey the scene. For a moment, his heart sank for fear that Nate was dead; and all of a sudden, a rush of adrenaline propelled him to try to see if Nate was alive.

He stepped forward, and the world turned black. He was minutely awake -- he could still feel the raindrops dotting his face, and hear the chatter of bystanders -- but as he tried to take another step, he felt the weight of his own body drag him to the ground.

He heard everyone gasp as he felt himself fall.

-----

Nate blinked, once, twice, and looked up. He saw flashing blue and red lights, white cars and black cars, people wearing funny hats and shiny badges. He felt a dull sting across his forehead, and could smell petroleum and blood in the air. He couldn't move his right arm, nor could he feel his right foot... and everything began to spin.

He saw that the passenger door was opened, and David wasn't in the car.

Spinning, spinning, even though he was stationary, the scene looked more and more grotesque as four people approached him, using what appeared to him as giant pinking shears to open his door. It had finally stopped raining, noticeable only from the headlights' lack of pitter-patter shadows.

The sound was unbearable, and the steering wheel kept on moving as he tried to balance himself sitting down.

His door was finally removed, and he was relieved to feel a cool burst of air sweep across his face. But relief soon turned into vertigo when he uncontollably vomited, panicking the paramedics, making them rush to his side.

He heard medical mumbo-jumbo that he had only heard on "ER" before. Trying to concentrate as much as he could, he tried to stop his gag from inducing any more ejecta from coming out of his mouth, to no avail.

"Well, this one's still alive," he heard one of them say.

-----

Gabriel sat in his lounge chair, remote in hand, flipping nonchalantly through twelve channels of HBO. Evelyn, his wife, was reading through something on the kitchen counter, mumbling to herself as he chuckled every once in a while.

The phone rang.

"Hello?" answered Evelyn, still reading through her catalogue. "Yeah, he's right here. One second."

She handed the phone over to Gabriel, who was still engrossed on a documentary about the Masa'i in Kenya. "It's Mike."

Gabriel gladly took the phone from her hands, smiling at her as he did. "Hey! What's up, Mike?"

"I just got word from Leah that Nate and David got in an accident," Mike said, sullenly. Gabriel was stunned.

"Jesus Christ, what happened?" asked Gabriel, the urgency in his voice rising steadily.

"I don't exactly know. From what Leah told me, they had just come from her house, on their way home or something, and all of a sudden they crashed on a telephone pole trying to avoid a truck or something. It just started raining, the road was slippery..."

"Jesus."

"The worst thing is, David might be dead," continued Mike.

Gabriel was speechless.

"They're at County General right now. I'm supposed to meet Leah and Joseph there -- did you want to come along?" asked Mike.

Taking a few moments to collect his thoughts and catch his breath, Gabriel nodded and faintly agreed.

None of them knew what was going to greet them once they passed the thresholds of County General.

case of the mondays

seems as if
someone's got a case of
the mondays.

how horrible an ailment.

and no cure, either,
until tomorrow comes along.

feels as it
there's a contagious case of
the mondays.

what a horrible state to be in.

and no cure, either,
until we're out of sight
and out of mind.

the mondays
are sad days --
often bad days.

sad, bad, mondays.

lyrics to a song

ten second intro.

first verse,
first line, second line, rhyme.

chorus
for the very first time.

second verse,
third line, fourth line, rhyme.

chorus
for the very second time.

bridge --
something odd in the meter --
instrumental.

key change?
key change.

chorus
for the very third time.

half a verse
one line with the same rhyme.

chorus
for the very fourth time.

f
a
d
e

o
u
t
.

yellow moon

yellow moon
staring up above.
what have you in store?
yellow moon
making silly circles.
whom are you smiling at?
yellow moon
shining brightly.
aura of mystery,
mystique of persistence.
pervade, pervade.
yellow moon
stare.
yellow moon
glare.
yellow moon
don't ever set
and make me cry.

classic (ut pictura poesis)

fiat lux:
amor vincit omnia,
exitus acta probat.

amicitiae nostrae memoriam spero sempiternam fore.
omnia mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.

brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.
paucorum est intelligere quid donet deus.

et nos cedamus amori.

let there be light:
love conquers all,
the end justifies the means.

i hope the memory of our friendship will be everlasting.
all things are changing, and we are changing with them.

i strive to be brief, and i become obscure.
it is granted to few to comprehend what god gives.

let us too give in to love.

virgil
ovid
vulgate

cicero
lothar i

horace
syrus

virgil