Quadruplegic

Sam was paralyzed from the neck down. Sometimes, he felt like just a head lying in a bed that is much too big. That is when he was in a good mood. The doctors had told him he would never get better.

His room was nice and clean, and a nurse would come and wash him. People visited and talked about stuff. His best friend sometimes came to make him laugh.

But on bad days, he would just lie there and watch the rain outside. And think gloomy thoughts.

He had been in love, but the girl never knew it. She was married, they worked together. Sometimes, she would joke about how she would never even think of dating a guy like Sam, because he was so ugly and such a loser. On those days he would get home and eat angrily, or place video games until late into the night. Those were his bad days back then.

Then she appeared in Sam’s room. Six months after his accident she finally came. Why would she come earlier, anyway? They were just work colleagues after all.

She stood in the door for a little while. Narrow-shouldered, scared, kind of sad, but beautiful. Then she came in and they talked for a little bit.

After she left, he felt more depressed than ever. He could just lie there as she talked about her kids, and her work, and all the things that could have been his. But never will be.

He was so angry, that he started to send forceful commands towards his hand to lift. But the hand was not connected to the brain. In fact, Sam did not even know where it currently was. But that did not matter.

So he struggled, and struggled, and struggled until finally, miles away from his head, galaxies away, in a cold, dark place which he did not know, a little itch appeared. A little itch in the shape of a finger.

”Come on, I’m gonna flip everything off. Flip off the whole world.”

Posted by: Paweł Kowaluk