Winner The Crystal Awards 2016, Best Multimedia Story (3d Place).
A spinster doctor rents her spare room to a brain-damaged patient who doesn't know he is a former undercover agent targeted for execution by a powerful criminal.
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Copyright 2016, All Rights Reserved. No portion of this publication may be published or promulgated without the express written permission of the copyright holder; said permission will not be unreasonably withheld.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Dear Readers,
Prepare to love, laugh, muse, and even worry a little, as we embark upon your newest favorite story on Wattpad! Don't forget to tap in your votes and comments as we enjoy together: DUBY'S DOCTOR.
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As he fell, he wondered why he had jumped from a perfectly good aircraft. He assumed it was perfectly good because he heard the helicopter's rotor blades beating the air as its engine noise moved off into the distance somewhere above him.
Half-formed thoughts lumbered through his muggy brain.
Pain.
Pain screamed through every nerve ending of his body. So much of it, he couldn't even pinpoint its source.
Cold.
Wind whipped at bare skin as he fell.
Where are my clothes?
Self-preservation bellowed at him from deep within a mind-shrouding fog, "Look down, Dilbert!"
He seemed to be stretched out on his back in the air; he fought the up-rushing wind stream to turn his head slightly. In his peripheral vision, Caribbean-blue ocean stretched in all directions.
"Prepare to hit the water!" Self-preservation yelled.
He tried to pull himself into a tight ball, rather than smack the surface like a pancake, possibly breaking every bone in his body. If he could become a hydrodynamic object, and if he hit the water at a good angle, and if he could manage to swim, or at least float, an undetermined number of miles, he just might survive this. Whatever this was.
He tried to wrap his arms around his knees and pull them into his chest, but one knee wasn't following instructions. One leg bent toward his torso as he ordered, but the other leg was AWOL for all intents and purposes, being dragged along for the ride. Oh, well, he would just do the best he could.
Impact was sudden, loud, and painful at a level he had never dreamed possible. He was mildly aware of being warmer now that he was underwater instead of plummeting through air. But, the altitude from which he had fallen, combined with his weight concentrated into a small irregular ball, sent him many meters beneath the surface.
Briefly he hung suspended, virtually weightless, in a womb of warm, salty water. He sensed, close at hand, a great darkness that promised relief from the horrible pain if he would only relax and let endless blackness swallow him.
"Up! Up! Air! Air!" shouted Self-preservation.
Leave me alone. I just want to sleep.
"Kick!" Self-preservation insisted. "Kick your feet! Move your arms! Go up! Up!"
Reluctantly, he forced his limbs to move, though it seemed not all of them obeyed. Still, he followed the bubbles rising from his mouth and nose, and he defied the pain and blackness, until his head broke the water's surface. Involuntary gasps siphoned air into his aching lungs again and again until he was breathing almost normally.
"Float," was the last word Self-preservation uttered.
Lying on his back, the man floated upon the gently rolling sea and let his mind fade into the welcoming darkness.
He neither knew nor cared whether he would somehow survive the hours and miles of sea that lay between him and the nearest land.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Watch for Thursday's installment: Chapter 1. When a body is found on a nearby island, strange events are set in motion in a Miami emergency room.
Thanks for trying out the first segment of DUBY'S DOCTOR. Stick with us, for a unique and engaging adventure!
