Aurelio's Dilemma

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

Rings of white light, different sizes, overlapping each other, a little blurry, a little blinding. That was the first thing Aurelio saw when he opened his eyes. Disoriented, he frowned and squinted and turned his face away, only to feel something pull at his temple.

With his face turned aside, he realized his head was on a pillow. He blinked--once, twice, thrice, and then the scene started clearing up.

A bed. A cold, white room. A large mirror window in the wall. People around, all wearing white coats.

Beeping.

An intermittent beeping sound echoed in the background. The rhythm matched his heartbeats; Aurelio realized the noise was coming from a cardiac monitor.

A hand reached for his face, and Aurelio flinched and pushed himself away.

"Let us take the electrodes off, okay?" A soft, careful feminine voice. "I'm sure it's uncomfortable. Taking them off won't hurt at all."

With baited breath, Aurelio's eyes followed the hand hovering near his face, up along the owner's arm, reaching her face. She was a doctor, judging by her mask and the coat.

Aurelio only watched her warily while she plucked wires and electrodes off his temples, and then she removed some more off his chest. Only then did he notice that it really did feel better without them sticking to his skin.

Splaying a hand along the bed, he tried pulling himself upright, half-expecting the doctors, scientists and nurses around him to yell at him, to tell him he wasn't allowed to move. But to his surprise, someone on his left pressed a button, and the upper part of the bed slowly inched forward to aid him into a sitting position.

A stool scratched against the floor, and another doctor sat on it near Aurelio's bed. Actually--this one was more likely to be a scientist or a researcher. She smiled gently. "Hello. Can you tell us what your name is?"

Silence, then, "Aurelio." His voice sounded a little raspy to his own ears.

"Do you know why you're here?"

Aurelio thought for a moment. "I...An...An experiment. This was an experiment, wasn't it?"

The scientist nodded. "That's right. We were testing the ability of your mind to heal its trauma on its own, because nothing else was working for you. Do you remember why we did this experiment with you?"

Aurelio looked at his lap, fiddling with his fingers. A few minutes passed, and no word came out of his mouth, but not a single person in the room complained. They waited patiently. Finally, Aurelio looked at the scientist.

"It's because my parents and I were in a car accident three years ago," Aurelio spoke past the lump in his throat. He surprised himself with the ability to keep himself together, to not cry his eyes out at the confession. Perhaps it was because he'd sobbed enough inside his mind. "I was the only one who survived, and ever since then I was in denial. I wouldn't admit that my parents died. I just..." He looked away, ashamed of how he'd coped. "I just pretended nothing happened."

There was a quiet rustle in the room now, people moving, papers flapping, pencils jotting down notes. The scientists were exchanging smiles, and for a split second, Aurelio couldn't tell why everyone was happy.

But then it clicked.

The experiment succeeded.

The goal had been to see if Aurelio would be able to break past his denial. And the moment he told them about his parents' death, they knew the technique had worked.