Jay laid on a slab-like table in a gray, padded room. Parallel to the table was an adjacent room, with an observation window. Linda stared at her husband through the window as she stood in front of several computer terminals. Her mind was wandering as she stood their watching a research assistant apply electrodes to her husband's forehead. She was very tense to say the least. The episodes had subdued, but only because of the medication Jay had been receiving while in the hospital. However, he had been off his medication for twenty-four hours to undergo this experiment. An experiment to possibly ascertain why Jay's mind was having such flights of fancy and why it seemed he became a totally different person in his sleep.
"So how many of these have you done?", asked Jay of the research assistant.
She smiled at him, "You're about the fourth we have tried. Dr. Blake keeps perfecting the scans with each volunteer. The last one actually caught a brain tumor the subject was unaware of."
"Wow! It didn't cause the brain tumor did it?"
"No sir," the research assistant said, as she laughed.
**********************************************************************************
"He seems so normal right now," said Linda, watching on.
"He's going to be fine, Mrs. Trent, I can assure you of that," said Dr. Blake.
"Did you really find a tumor the person didn't know they had?", asked Larry.
"Yes. It was quite impressive. Unfortunately it didn't turn out to be such a good thing for that subject."
"Why is that?", asked Linda.
"They found out the tumor had metastasized from their lungs. The prognosis was only about six months for them."
"Six months...for what?", asked Larry.
Dr. Blake looked up at him, "For them to live."
Linda rolled her eyes and acted almost exasperated.
"But there is nothing to worry about here, Mrs. Trent. Your husband has already received MRIs and CT scans that indicate there is no tumor present. The truth of that case, I wasn't even looking for a tumor. It was mere chance that we found it."
"What were you looking for?", asked Larry.
"Basically a similar thing we are looking for here. How Dr. Trent's brainwaves respond during sleep. We can measure amplitude, frequency, and create an image of the brain to visualize what might be going on. In the case of the subject with the tumor, the waves were looping around an object that seemed like dead space."
"Like a black hole?"
"Precisely, Larry. It warped the waves, and the visualization of this was simply a side effect of the scan itself, but not something we were expecting."
"Well he's in trouble, he has more holes in his head than any other man alive," said Linda.
Dr. Blake looked at her and grinned. Larry chuckled a bit.
"Ah, marriage", Dr. Blake replied.
**********************************************************************************
"All righty, Dr. Trent, we've got you all wired up," said the research assistant.
Jay looked down his body at all the electrodes connected to his chest. He tried to look up at his forehead, but of course could not visualize the electrodes there.
"This won't electrocute me, will it?", asked Jay.
"No, Dr. Trent, it won't, I promise," the research assistant said, with a comforting smile as she leaned in and placed her hands on his right shoulder.
"Please, call me Jay", he replied, with a grin.
"Call me Dana, Jay."
**********************************************************************************
Linda didn't like this at all.
Dr. Blake was chuckling, knowing full well his assistant's demeanor was both soothing to men, and dreadful to other women. That was part of the reason he had hired her for this type of work.
"She's harmless, Mrs. Trent."
"Oh yeah, that's what you said about the last patient, and that the scan was harmless. Look how that turned out?", replied Linda.
"Yes, but I'm quite certain there's no threat from her of stealing your husband away from you. She's homosexual."
Larry's eyes lit up as he took a better look at her than he had already, multiple times.
"Damn, such a waste," said Larry.
Dr. Blake laughed.
Linda wanted to throw up from all the testosterone in the room.
Dr. Blake turned on the two-way speakers in the room as Dana exited and closed the door behind her. She looked at Linda and smiled, as Linda looked away from her in disgust.
"Dr. Trent, can you hear me clearly?", asked Dr. Blake.
"Like I told Dana, call me Jay."
"I'll take that as a yes then, Jay. Dana has prepped you and started your IV drip. The agent is Versed, a sleeping drug commonly used for anesthesia during surgery. Dana is a trained CRNA, so she will monitor your vital signs from here. I can assure you we have taken every precaution. We're using Versed to insure you will in fact go to sleep. At that point we'll begin the scan and monitor your brain activity in a sleep state. As far as you are concerned though, Jay, it'll be just like when you go to bed at night."
"That's what I'm afraid of."
Dr. Blake could see Jay's vitals were starting to alter. His heart rate and breathing were steadily increasing.
"There's no reason to be afraid, Jay. We'll be right here the entire time monitoring any activity that occurs. You'll just have yourself a nice nap."
"I hope you're right, doc."
Dr. Blake chuckled, "Do you have any questions before we begin, Jay?"
"Yeah, can I have one of those really good, juicy hamburgers from downtown waiting when I wake up?"
Everyone in the control room laughed at his question.
"Absolutely, Jay."
"In that case, doc, I'm ready. Let's do this."
The drip had already begun, with the Versed moving down the tubing and into the intravenous access in Jay's arm. It felt cool going into Jay's blood stream. Jay could feel a little tingle as it began to enter. Quickly the agent coursed through Jay's body, back to his heart, into his lungs, through the heart again, and out through his arteries allowing it to permeate his being. Jay was already beginning to feel the effects of the drug.
Dr. Blake assessed the vitals with Dana, who gave him the OK.
"Now, Jay, I'm going to countdown from ten. You will become very drowsy during this. Ten...nine...eight...seven...six...five...four..."
Before Dr. Blake was even through, Jay had already drifted off to sleep.
"And he is asleep. Beginning scan and imaging", said Dr. Blake.
Linda stared on at her now sleeping husband. This was the best he had slept in months, even if it had been only a few seconds. He was so peaceful, the total opposite of any of the activity she had experienced with him recently. Compared to that, he looked as if he were a body lying in an open casket.
The monitor brought up an image of Jay's brain, along with an algorithm that was assessing Jay's brain activity. It was showing low brain function, as it should with an agent such as Versed.
"He is in a deep sleep already. This is the type of activity you would expect with a brain under sedation. Little to no activity, so that the subject or patient doesn't experience anything during this sleep. That's why it is so readily used for surgery."
"So, how will that help us if he won't experience anything?", asked Linda.
"Well, the goal here is to see if anything will happen like you have described. You can't get in too much of a deeper sleep than this without being in the deepest sleep of all."
"You're talking about death, right?", asked Larry.
"Yes."
"You had to ask that?", said Linda.
"Hey, just clarifying", replied Larry.
"All vitals are normal, Dr. Blake.", said Dana.
"We are at two minutes under sedation", said Dr. Blake, for the record.
Video cameras and voice recorders took down everything being dictated in the control room, as well as any activity in the padded room. If something was going to happen, it would be documented.
"We are at ten minutes under sedation."
"It's like a watched pot," said Larry.
"Yes, whenever you want something to happen, that's when it doesn't," replied Dr. Blake.
More time passed.
"We are at fifty-nine minutes under sedation."
"What if we go through this and nothing happens?", asked Linda.
"Even a small amount of activity could be useful, but..."
Dr. Blake stopped as the scan began to detect something. The waves on the algorithm changed slightly indicating a minute amount of activity within Jay's brain.
"Fascinating," said Dr. Blake.
"What? What's fascinating?", asked Linda, leaning in more over his shoulder.
"We're picking up low levels of activity around the amygdala. It's minimal, but significant," replied Dr. Blake.
"That's something, right?", asked Larry.
"That is something, but hardly conclusive for the type of activity either of you have described."
"I could just be the beginnings of the REM cycle?", said Dana.
"It could be, but the wave frequencies aren't as profound", said Dr. Blake.
"What should the waves be like?", asked Linda.
"With REM sleep, the activity of the brain should be almost the same as when you are awake. That's one of the possibilities we were going to investigate today. Whether or not Jay is experiencing RBD", said Dr. Blake.
"RBD?", asked Larry.
"Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder. What that means is when you're sleeping your muscles normally become atonic, or flaccid. With RBD, that flaccidity ceases and the person can actually move around, act out violently, even seem awake."
"Like another person?", asked Linda.
"Perhaps, but not typically to the extent you described. I believe that is why they diagnosed Jay with Disassociative Identity Disorder for the changes in persona you and Larry both experienced."
"Yeah, the doctors couldn't explain that party either, so that was their best guess," said Larry.
"And in the face of not knowing, any practitioner goes back to their roots. That's just norm...."
Dr. Blake was suddenly interrupted as the monitors showing an image of Jay's brain and brain waves both when white. The intensity began to grow rapidly, blinding everyone in the room. Larry, Linda, Dana, and Dr. Blake had to hold their arms up to block out the light because of the intense brightness. A low, steady hum was audibly heard from the recording devices as the intensity was sending out waves distorting their signals. Finally, the sound ceased and the light began to diminish. The four of them could not see in the room again, as their eyes began to re-adjust to their darker surroundings.
"What the hell was that?", asked Larry.
Larry was still squinting and rubbing his eyes, as was Linda.
Then, before both could completely get their bearings they heard Dr. Blake utter something they didn't expect.
"Oh my God!"
Both of them looked down at Dr. Blake. He sat there, with Dana, both staring straight ahead into the room Jay occupied. Linda caught a glimpse of the monitors and saw that Jay's brain waves were highly active, as if he were awake. Then she heard Dana speak.
"That's not possible. He should be asleep."
Linda looked over at her, then looked up to Jay. She put her hand over her mouth as she looked on at her husband. Jay was now sitting up on the side of the table, staring back into the room at the four of them. The Versed was still running and by all accounts Jay should be completely under sedation. But he wasn't.
Larry just stood there, staring with his mouth hanging open.
Dr. Blake turned on the intercom to speak to Jay.
Linda looked on in horror at Jay and knew this image all too well. It was the same man she had seen in her bedroom that first night, the man she had seen multiple times since. She could see this man in Jay's eyes and knew, once again, it was not her husband.
Dr. Blake finally spoke.
"Jay, are you all right?"
Jay looked around the room, as the sound of Dr. Blake's voice coming in from the speakers caught his attention. He looked back through the window again, knowing the source of the voice came from one of the people in the next room. Finally, he spoke as well.
"I've told you people before, my name is not Jay."
Dana looked at Dr. Blake, as the doctor continued looking on at Jay.
"Who are you then?", Dr. Blake asked of the man sitting on the slab.
The man, in Jay's body, looked back at all four of them. He fixed his gaze on Linda, which sent chills down her spine. The man's face got more demonstrative and he smiled an evil grin at Linda and the rest in the room.
"Well, you'd love to know that, wouldn't you?", replied the man.
"Please do something!", said Linda.
"Linda, just calm down. This is what we wanted", said Larry.
"Yes, we need to question what he's wanting, speak to this person like they are the real person", said Dr. Blake.
The man inside Jay replied, "I am the real person."
This stunned Dr. Blake because the intercom had not been on while the three of them had been talking. The man inside Jay spoke again.
"And what I want is to never leave here, or ever set foot in Anderson, South Carolina again...for as long as I live."
No comments:
Post a Comment