"Uhh, yes, but he's not my husb..."
"And how did he get bit?" the nurse asked asshe futzed with a wireless keyboard and stared at a computer screen.
"We were at a punk concert, and this guy, he umm,well, he bit him on the face."
The nurse started typing information into the keyboard,so Clara continued speaking, "He was fine when we left."
"Has he been drinking?" the nurse asked rudely.
Clara, somewhat taken aback, answered truthfully, and thenurse just nodded her head, as if that explained everything.
"Listen. When we left the club he was fine, justbleeding from his face. He wasn't like this when we left."
The nurse listened punctiliously, but it was clear thatshe had already decided that Courtney was just another person who had overdoneit. From her days of pink hair, pierced eyebrows, and fishnet stockings, sheknew the look of instant judgment when she saw it. She also knew it waspointless to explain ignorance from a perceived position of inferiority. Shejust hoped that whoever the doctor was didn't have the same problem, or elseshe would have to fix the problem the way she did in the old days... with afresh set of bony girl knuckles upside the bridge of a nose.
"I'll just take his blood pressure, and then thedoctor will be in to see you." The nurse leaned in close to put the bloodpressure cuff on Courtney's arm, and that's when he came awake. For the firsttime, his eyes seemed to focus, and as the nurse went to tighten the bloodpressure cuff, he grabbed her hand, pulled it to his mouth, and took a meatychunk from between her thumb and index finger.
The nurse's screams were immediate. She pushed Courtneyaway, and he and the wheelchair he was sitting in rolled into the curtain thatseparated the rooms. His arms began to flail, and he became entangled in thecurtain.
Clara rose to her feet, concerned for the nurse, forCourtney, and slightly for herself. "Are you ok?" she asked thenurse.
The nurse held her hand away from her body as bloodsplashed on the white linoleum floor. "Does it look like I'm ok?" shespat at Clara. "Fuck."
Just then a male nurse came around the corner. "Whatthe hell is going on in here?"
Courtney had finally gotten to his feet and freed himselffrom the hanging curtain. Clara went towards him to try and calm him down, butshe took a step back when she saw the complete lack of recognition in his eyes.She didn't know who that was, but it wasn't Courtney. It wasn't the same guywho used to steal car stereos from unlocked cars at 2:30 in the morning. Itwasn't the same guy who had held her for days when her mom had died. The man infront of her was a savage creature.
The male nurse blocked Courtney just as he was about toattack Clara. The veins in the nurse's forearms stood out as he wrestled withCurtney. Eventually, the nurse flipped Courtney around and tripped him to theground. "Molly, get some Haldol in this guy."
Courtney continued to wrestle with the nurse, his teethgnashing and clicking together in bites that would be sure to take off a fingerif the nurse wasn't too careful. Molly opened up drawers feverishly until shefound what she was looking for. She pulled a syringe out of another drawer,stuck it in a vial of clear liquid and filled it.
"What are you doing?" Clara asked.
After squirting out the air bubbles, she plunged thesyringe into Courtney's arm. "Don't worry, doll. We're just sedatinghim."
There was nothing she could do. She just hoped it wouldtake effect quickly so that Courtney didn't wind up hurting himself. Theywaited, but Courtney wasn't becoming any less violent.
"Jesus, is this guy on drugs or something? He shouldbe snoozing by now," the male nurse said while straining to hold Courtneydown.
"You think I should give him some more?" askedMolly.
"Is that safe?" Courtney asked.
Without acknowledging her, the male nurse simply said,"Go get Joan. She can make the call."
Molly walked out of the room, yelling for someone namedJoan.
Clara sat patiently, chewing on her finger nails."Are you hurting him?"
The male nurse looked up at her and smiled, "Lady,if anyone is going to do the hurting around here, it's going to be thisguy." The nurse stopped smiling when she saw the worry on her face."I'm sorry," he grunted, "is this your guy?"
Clara nodded her head in the affirmative. She didn't wantit to happen, but a tear came to her eye.
"We'll help him out lady." He smiled again."My name is Miles. I'd shake your hand, but that might not be a good ideaconsidering the circumstances."
A group of people entered into the room, led by a tiredbut attractive lady with a brown ponytail and an air of exhaustion about her.She was followed by the frazzled Molly, still clutching her bleeding hand toher chest, and a few burly looking security guards.
The doctor took one look at the situation, and sighed,"Alright, you guys, let's get him strapped down."
The security guards moved to Courtney and grabbed him bythe arms. As Miles rolled off of him, the guards pulled Courtney to his feet.He dangled in the air, the toes of his boots scraping against the tile of thefloor as they dragged him to a gurney in the hallway. They dumped him on thegurney, and that's when Courtney made his move. He sat up quickly and bit thefirst man on the forearm. For as big as he was, the security guard's scream wassurprisingly high-pitched. The burly guard's first reaction was to shoveCourtney away, which sent him and his gurney wheeling away down the hall.
It would have been comical if the gurney hadn't knockedover another doctor who hadn't been paying attention. Courtney rolled off thegurney, blood smeared all over his face, and pounced on the back of the doctorwho was trying to get to his feet after being knocked over.
Before they could get to him, Courtney had sunk his teethinto the nape of the doctor's neck. The two security guards had trouble pryingCourtney's teeth apart. One
