Argon limped down the clinics eastern wing, checking the plasma chart of each patient as he passed their room. He winced each time his left foot touched the floor.
The two janitor pixies, Mervall and Descant Brill, were outside Opals room, picking up dust with static brushes. Pixies made wonderful employees. They were methodical, patient and determined. When a pixie was instructed to do something, you could rest assured that thing would be done. Plus they were cute, with their baby faces and disproportionately large heads. Just looking at a pixie cheered most people up. They were walking therapy.
Evening, boys, said Argon. Hows our favourite patient?
Merv, the elder twin, glanced up from his brush. Same old, same old, Jerry, he said. I thought she moved a toe earlier, but it was just a trick of the light.
Argon laughed, but it was forced. He did not like to be called Jerry. It was his clinic after all; he deserved some respect. But good janitors were like gold dust, and the Brill brothers had been keeping the building spotless and shipshape for nearly two years now. The Brills were almost celebrities themselves. Twins were very rare among the People. Mervall and Descant were the only pixie pair currently residing in Haven. They had featured on several TV programmes, including Canto, PPTVs highest-rated chat show.
LEP Corporal Grub Kelp was on sentry duty. When Argon reached Opals room, the corporal was engrossed in a movie on his video goggles. Argon didnt blame him. Guarding Opal Koboi was about as exciting as watching toenails grow.
Good film? enquired the doctor pleasantly.
Grub raised the lenses. Not bad. Its a human Western. Plenty of shooting and squinting.
Maybe Ill borrow it when youre finished?
No problem, Doctor. But handle it carefully. Human disks are very expensive. Ill give you a special cloth.
Argon nodded. He remembered Grub Kelp now. The LEP officer was very particular about his possessions. He had already written two letters of complaint to the clinic board about a protruding floor rivet that had scratched his boots.
Argon consulted Kobois chart. The plasma screen on the wall displayed a constantly updated feed from the sensors attached to her temples. There was no change, nor did he expect there to be. Her vitals were all normal, and her brain activity was minimal. Shed had a dream earlier in the evening but now her mind had settled. And finally, as if he needed telling, the seeker-sleeper implanted in her arm informed him that Opal Koboi was indeed where she was supposed to be. Generally the seeker-sleepers were implanted in the head, but pixie skulls were too fragile for any local surgery.
Jerbal punched in his personal code on the reinforced doors keypad. The heavy door slid back to reveal a spacious room with gently pulsing floor mood lights. The walls were soft plastic, and gentle sounds of nature spilled from recessed speakers. At the moment a brook was splashing over flat rocks.
In the middle of the room, Opal Koboi hung suspended in a full body harness. The straps were gel-padded and adjusted automatically to any body movement. If Opal did happen to wake, the harness could be remotely triggered to seal like a net, preventing her from harming herself.
Argon checked the monitor pads, making sure they had good contact on Kobois forehead. He lifted one of the pixies eyelids, shining a pencil light at the pupil. It contracted slightly, but Opal did not avert her eyes.
Well, anything to tell me today, Opal? asked the doctor softly. An opening chapter for my book?
Argon liked to talk to Koboi, just in case she could hear. When she woke up, he reasoned, he would have already established a rapport.
Nothing? Not a single insight?
Opal did not react. As she hadnt for almost a year.
Ah well, said Argon, swabbing the inside of Kobois mouth with the last cotton bud in his pocket. Maybe tomorrow, eh?
He rolled the cotton bud across a sponge pad on his clipboard. Seconds later, Opals name flashed up on a tiny screen.
DNA never lies, muttered Argon, tossing the bud into a recycling bin.
With one last look at his patient, Jerbal Argon turned towards the door.
Sleep well, Opal, he said, almost fondly.
He felt calm again, the pain in his hip almost forgotten. Koboi was as far under as she had ever been. She wasnt going to wake up any time soon. The Koboi fund was safe.
Its amazing just how wrong one gnome can be.
Opal Koboi was not catatonic, but neither was she awake. She was somewhere in between, floating in a liquid world of meditation where every memory was a bubble of multicoloured light popping gently in her consciousness.