Chapter 5: Bruck
Bruck had been feeling worse every day since Elliot went back to New Washington. Knowing that he would see Elliot soon made him forget his illness before the visit, but once that visit was done, he began to decline. The coughing was getting more frequent, and lasted for much longer intervals. It felt as if he were coughing almost constantly now.
The doctor had been uncertain what the cause of his coughing was, but attributed it much to the low air quality in his sector of the city, and lowering oxygen levels throughout the city. The air recyclers were working full time now, and weren’t able to keep up with the demand. Cheslie had been taking odd jobs here and there, saving up to buy a home unit air recycler, hoping to help with their air at home, but even that wasn’t helping much.
His body was feeling weak, and his muscles were starting to deteriorate. He could no longer work, the demands of his job being too heavy for his weakened body. He spent most of his time in bed, watching news reports, and reading books.
Cheslie brought the doctor into the room, and walked over to her father. “Dad, Dr. Schindler is here to take a look at you. Are you feeling up to it?” She gently rubbed his shoulder, and was disturbed by the way she could feel the bones of the joint without the muscular shoulder she was used to. She hated to see him this way, and could hardly stand to stay in the room for long.
“Hello Bruck, I just wanted to take some tests and let you know a few of the things we’ve been figuring out. How are you feeling?”
“I’m feeling ok Frankton. My lungs haven’t been hurting as much lately, but my stomach has been pretty bad. I can’t eat much anymore. Anything other than water makes me sick.” He began coughing, and didn’t stop for a few minutes. Cheslie left the room, at the edge of tears.
Dr. Schindler sat in the chair next to the bed, and avoided eye contact with Bruck while he coughed. He pretended to look through some papers, and study what they said, but he already knew what was on them, and reading again would not change that. He had been seeing more cases like Bruck’s for the past few months, and had heard from doctors around the world who were seeing the same sorts of problems.
As the coughing stopped, Frankton looked over at Bruck, “Well, Bruck, we’re starting to get a little more information about your cough. It seems that this has been happening more frequently lately. It appears to be a disease called Tuberculosis, which was common at one point a long time ago. The disease seems to have become somewhat eliminated at one point, but it has been showing up more commonly of late. It seems to thrive in the poor air quality that is in most cities. Unfortunately, the disease doesn’t show signs until it is fairly advanced, and by that point, it’s hard to change the course. We will try giving you some medication that should help, but most of the strains that have survived are drug-resistant due to over-medication in the past. I wish there was more I could do for you. I can give you some pain relievers to help with the aches. Otherwise, just get some rest, and eat if you think you can. I’ll be back in a few days to check in.”
He left two bottles of medication on the table across the room, and turned to look back at Bruck, he was falling asleep, and his body was trembling slightly from the muscle fatigue. He shook his head slightly and walked out into the hall closing the door behind him. He saw Cheslie slumped against the wall sobbing into her hands. He walked over to her, and sat down against the wall across from her. He put a hand on her foot, and she looked up.
“Sorry, Dr. Schindler, I have such a hard time looking at him lately. I remember a man who was so strong and independent. I don’t recognize the person laying in that room. That’s not the man who raised my brother and me by himself. I don’t know who that is, but the disease has taken my father from me. Is he going to be ok?” She choked back the tears as she asked the question.
“It’s hard to say, Ches, he is very sick, and we don’t know a lot about his disease, because it was thought that it didn’t exist anymore. I left two medications on the table. You can give him the pain relievers when he asks for them, but the other one he can only have one per day. Otherwise, he just needs to rest. Try to think about the Bruck you love, and hopefully that will help.”
Cheslie got up to walk the doctor to the front door. He gave her a hug as she opened the door, “Please, let me know if there’s anything Marylee and I can do for you, anything at all.” And then he was gone.
Cheslie went back inside and thought about all the great times she could remember. She remembered the day that Dad had brought home their first computer. She knew how much it must have cost him, but he insisted it wasn’t expensive, and that they needed it for their schoolwork. Or all the times he had taken a day off of work to watch her debate matches. Or the first time she had gone to New Washington to visit Elliot, and the tears she saw in the corner of his eye that day. She realized that he lived his life for Elliot and her. Everything he ever did was to give them a better life. He never thought about himself, only them.
She was sad that Elliot couldn’t be there for her right now. She thought about him, thousands of Kilometers away, off the planet at the moon base. She wished that he had known what was happening with their dad. But Bruck had insisted that Elliot not know he was ill. He put on a great show of being fine. He had worn heavy shirts to hide his thinning body, and held back the coughing as much as possible. Cheslie had to do everything in her power to keep from letting Elliot in on the secret, but it was what Bruck had wanted. He didn’t want his illness to keep Elliot from following this dream.
Everything he did was for Cheslie and Elliot.
Cheslie heard Bruck calling her name from his room, so she went in there by him. He was sweating and flushed, and his breathing was irregular. She brought him a pain reliever, and a glass of water, and held his head up while he swallowed. He coughed a little as she lowered his head back to the pillow.
“Cheslie, sit down.” Bruck’s voice was weak, almost a whisper, raspy and airy, as if coming out of a ghost. Cheslie took the chair next to his bed, and held his hand. She wiped his forehead with a towel.
“Is there anything you need, Dad? Are you too warm?”
“Just you…Sit with me Ches…” There were long pauses between phrases, as if each thing he said were so exhausting that he needed to gather strength to speak again. “Dr. Schindler…Says I have…Tuberculosis…”
“I know dad, I spoke with him. He said you should rest.”
“Elliot.”
“Elliot is at the Armstrong Base, Dad, he couldn’t be here.”
“He’s there…” Bruck coughed quietly, and pointed at the video screen on the wall. There was a video of Elliot’s team arriving at the Armstrong Moon Base. The news reporter was talking about the equipment and supplies they had brought to the base, and said they would be doing research at the Moon base for six months.
Cheslie squeezed Bruck’s hand, “He’s safe, Dad, the team made it safely.”
“Good…so proud of both…Tell…New Washington…”
“Dad, you’ve been there.”
“Elliot… New Wash…” A slight cough told Cheslie that the talking was hard for Bruck.
Cheslie wasn’t sure what he wanted from her. But she decided to tell him the story about when she had first met Sarah. She told him about how she had mistakingly believed she was Elliot’s girlfriend, and had treated her so awfully, only to later find out that she was his professor and friend. She said how they had laughed so hard over tea, and had become such good friends. That was the trip where Elliot told her about the Artemis program. She told him about the Surface Studies building, and how Elliot had taken her to the surface research platform one day, about how beautiful the view was of the open ocean, and the mountains. How wonderful it was to see for such a long distance, longer than even in New Washington.
She had been talking so much she didn’t notice how his breathing had changed. She started to feel his grip on her hand loosen, and she looked at him. His eyes were nearly closed, and his breathing had slowed. It was regular now, but weak. “Dad, do you need anything? Are you ok?”
“Love…Ches…Elliot…”
“I love you too, Dad, Elliot and I both do.”
His eyes closed, and his breathing continued slowly, quietly. His grip on her hand released, and she kept holding on to his.
His breathing was slow, quiet, rhythmic. His body had stopped trembling, he had stopped sweating. He was relaxed.
He inhaled slowly, quietly, a slight smile came across his lips.
Exhale slowly, quietly.
Inhaled slowly, quietly.
Exhaled.
There was no more coughing. No more pain.
1 comment:
you know, adam, this isn't very science fictiony yet.
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