Organ - Chapter 11

ORGAN

Chapter Eleven

One day left before Oscars surgery, but more importantly his escape. Katie was preparing the disguise for him to sneak away with a building crew that was going to be called to his room to repair a shower head, one that Oscar had been staring up at waiting for the right amount of noise outside to dismantle. Sensing it was not getting noisier outside his room, not enough background ambience to drown out what he was about to do, he sneaked back in, pulled up a chair from beside his bed, had a quick look around to ensure nobody was watching and stood upon it to raise the volume of his TV. 

Necessary since his abrupt launching of the remote which shattered against the wall. 

The volume was now very loud, louder than was comfortable to share a room with, but with minimal foot flow around the corridor it became a safe enough blanket for him to go about his mischief that morning. With the weather channel blasting out and filling the room with ear-piercing rubbish, Oscar grabbed hold of the shower head with one hand and wrench it downwards, the metal creaked and bent ever so slightly, but did not break. Sensing his own frailness from the stay in the hospital, he grabbed on with two hands and put his full body weight into the pull, finally after some breaths, grunts and twists, the head broke off from the wall and began spilling water into the tub below, Oscar narrowly avoided slipping as it came loose but caught himself for the first time in a long while on the shower rail that was in place for elderly patients. 

Water gushed and spluttered into the bathtub below while the wall became soaked with absorbing darkening concrete and plaster, for a moment of he regretted his decision seeing the water spilling into the cavity that the shower head left behind, but then the image of Boothes face seeing this damage came into his mind, and following it hand in hand, a cheeky boyish grin. Oscar dropped the shower head into the tub damaging the porcelain below and pull down the shower curtain for added flair, making his “fall” all the more believable in severity, this came loose significantly easier than the previous victim of bathroom dismemberment but made a pleasing amount of mess across the floor and tub, his job was done, Oscar went back to his room, turned down the TV, waited for Katie to complete her part of the journey and bring him this disguise she was concocting back at home.

Oscar gave it some time, then called in his make-believe slip up in the shower, a nurse came by shortly after his buzz and checked out the room, asked if Oscar had hurt himself to which he said just a bang on the leg and rushed off to report the damage and the leaking mess it brought about. It was not much later that the repair man came strolling in without knocking, unlocking the door without caution for biohazards or immunity concerns and asked where the bathroom was, Oscar pointed it out and watched at the plumber set about switching off the water supply with a spanner that seemed like overkill for the best part. 

“What happened here then?” the janitor asked shouting from the bathroom.

“I fell and caught hold of the shower head, took a bit of a bump” Oscar replied with a rehearsed swiftness, there was silence for a moment before the plumber replied. 

“Must have been some fall, this is a shit load of water damage.”

“Thankfully I wasn’t hurt that badly, just those baths aren’t good for grip” Oscar called back deflecting any blame. 

There was silence again before he re-entered the room, soaked at the knees and wrists.

“I will need to arrange for a maintenance team to come up and get the damage reversed, I can’t fix it myself, but I have turned off the water” he instructed Oscar of the next steps. 

The patient laying on his bed feigned annoyance but smiled and let the repair man leave without any further conversation, happy enough that the wheels where now turning and the plan was unfolding without a hiccup, but the doubt remained if Katie would come through with her end of the bargain, every second she remained a memory the weight on his chest got heavier and as the day faded with each passing second dying off, he knew time was not on their side for much longer.

Katie stuffed some clothes into her backpack, it was her usual backpack so she was sure it would attract zero attention when she arrived at the hospital, the clothes consisted of a pair of blue jeans, a large black sweater, and a black t-shirt, all of which belonged to her ex-boyfriend that was now removed from her life, she was grateful to finally have a reason to get rid of these lingering bad memories from the bottom of her wardrobe. She had thought in quiet moments how her short sting with Oscar had been more exciting than their entire relationship, but it did nothing for her to dwell on the past. When she finally arrived at the hospital, thirty minutes before her shift was intended to start, Katie said her good mornings to the staff at the stations including the inappropriate workmen still plumbing away on the downstairs bathroom and walked cautiously to the coffee machine to scope out the roster of employees who might be waiting. The machine spluttered into life as she held down the button and attempted a casual gaze over her shoulders, it was a glance for signs of life, but no life seemed to be walking her way, or so she thought. As Katie picked up her coffee and made a path towards Oscars room, Boothe appeared before her standing but a foot from her face.

“Good morning, young Katherine” he greeted her, but Katie stood frozen devoid of words. 

She inhaled a few breaths to steady herself and returned the morning greeting, “Good morning Doctor,” Katie pulled her coffee to her mouth to take a boiling hot sip and perhaps seem her usual relaxed self. 

“Early today are we, nice and eager” Boothe said, Katie caught his eyes glancing at her shoulders and wondered for a second if she had left some of the clothes hanging out of her bag, it was a worry that soon dissipated when Boothe gave her a pat on the arm and walked off behind her. 

“Oh, I did want to let you know” he called back as she began pacing away, his voice stopped her in her tracks, “ I have managed to move Oscars surgery forward, this afternoon had a free slot and pulled a favour in from a friend of mine down in surgery, thought you would like to know the good news” he said before spinning around and marching on with his morning.

This was the hiccup, the speed bump in their smooth road to a successful heist that both her and most definitely Oscar expected to hoist their getaway into the air, Boothe was somehow deliberately or coincidentally a step ahead of them. Katie raced through the wards ignoring her colleagues that greeted her along the way, and made it in record time to Oscars room, the door was ajar as the maintenance team had been plodding in and out of his bathroom that morning to repair the damage to the shower wall, Oscar was sat in the bedside chair looking at the door when she entered, he had been there for a few hours nervously waiting her arrival but still had the look of pride on his face from fulfilling his part in the performance. 

“Are we alone?” she asked stepping in, shutting the door behind her as usual. 

“Yeah they went to get something for the shower” Oscar replied, Katie noticed his backpack was sticking out beneath the bed. 

“You ready to go?” Katie asked, Oscar sat forward, his face now shrinking in terror once again,

“What do you mean? We are doing this tomorrow right” he asked in shock. 

Katie shook her head and looked over her shoulder once again. 

“Boothe has moved your surgery, it’s today, this afternoon, you have to leave now” she stated, almost demanding his urgency. 

Oscar stood up sharply and began his typical panicking stride around the room, it was somewhat sweet at first, now it was just annoying her, she needed his conviction to the plan not this terrified child needing his hand held. 

“Oscar!” Katie sternly yelled, he froze in step and met her eyes. 

“If you want to leave, you need to leave now” her message was clear, and it seemed to snap something in him. 

Oscar began quickly nodding and swept up his backup, slamming it onto the bed and checking around for his phone and charger. 

“Here are your clothes” she said pulling them from her bag and chucking them onto the bed. 

“I dirtied them up a bit at home with some flour and mud, kind of looks like rust and plaster, right?” she asked validating her work.

“Get dressed quickly, when they come back, leave with them okay” Katie instructed, 

“What will you do?” Oscar asked throwing off his gown. 

Katie looked away as he stood in just his underwear, normally he would be bashful, but his situation curtailed that trait, for the nurse she was less inclined to stare at his decaying frame that appeared all the more slender every time she saw him topless. 

“I need to go find Boothe, keep him in one place away from the main exit and away from you” she answered. 

Oscar frantically got dressed into clothes one size too big, Katie occasionally caught his reflection in the window she faced to give him some shred of privacy, when he was ready she approached to whisper in his ear, 

“Once you are outside the building, don’t wait at the bus stop in the car park, walk outside the grounds and across the street is the next stop. Here is some change that will get you as far as the terminal. You can find your way home from their okay?” Katie explained, handing over a handful of crumpled paper notes and change.

Oscar stared into her eyes as she stuffed the money into his jean pocket, “I don’t know how to thank you” he mumbled with embarrassment. 

“Just make it home and explain to your Mum everything okay? I can be a witness in your defence when she takes it to the police” she replied. 

Oscar nodded and pulled her in for one last grateful hug before sitting back down and waiting for his chance to blend in with leaving tradesmen. Katie took her exit and found herself in a new nightmarish situation unlike she had faced before, looking for contact and some prolonged distraction time for Oscar with Boothe. 

“Gotta give him time” she whispered to herself in urgency trudging all the way back down to the second floor on the hunt for the monstrous chief of medicine.

Katie rushed through the wards looking for the doctor, his office was empty, this caused an even greater eruption of dread, Oscar would be leaving any moment and without his location known, Boothe was a dangerous element floating in their already unravelling shifting plans. 

“Beverly have you seen Doctor Boothe?” Katie asked anxiously as she slammed into the nurses station and almost climbed over to quicken the answer. 

“Where’s the fire? He was doing some walkaround with one of the higher ups, saw a suit walking into his office earlier” Bev replied teasing her energetic colleague. 

“I would steer clear” she added getting up from her seat and comically shuffling away from the station and Katie. 

This complicated things further, not only was Katie unaware of Boothes location, but now Oscar was running the risk of being caught by a board member who was observing the patients with their Chief of Medicine. Every second that hurled itself past into the void meant another second that Oscar could find himself bumping into them, Katies heart thumped rattling in her chest and the feeling made her nauseous with dread. Then the worst happened, her nightmare scenario, she saw Oscar. He was following closely, but not too closely, behind the maintenance crew that was carrying some materials and a toolbox back to their workstation on the first floor, his footsteps looked unnatural due to his obvious nervousness that followed him like a nauseating smell as he made his way for the exit. Katie knew it was not a wise move to approach him, his eyes seemed fixed on the mission, the front entrance, and it was now imperative that she located and otherwise occupied Doctor Boothe and his unexpected visitor before they saw Oscar or his vacant room, so with a crumbling goal driving her footsteps into added emphasis, Katie took a walking jog through the corridors and various stairwells exhausting herself to find the missing Doctor. Beverly waved in her direction as she hustled past the second-floor station, Katie failed to absorb any of the words she called out as she sped past but heard the carefree voice calling to her, and then Boothe appeared before a looming spectre. Accompanied by the speaker from Katies review, she recognised him immediately, but he seemed unsure of her identity. 

Boothe looked at her in surprise, “Hello Katie, you okay? You are red as a bell pepper in heat,”

Boothe remarked cracking a smile to share with the speaker over his disgusting comment. Katie froze, in all of her efforts to find him, she had failed to formulate something capable of distracting him from his activities. She breathed deeply through red splotchy cheeks and stared in panic at the two leering sets of eyes staring across at her. 

“I was wondering if you had some time to do my review now, I needed to leave early today if that’s okay?” she asked making it up as she went along. 

Boothe looked uncomfortable as if he were put on the spot, not wanting to seem unprofessional in the face of the board member he gathered his muster, 

“Sure, let me just finish showing our guest around and I will meet you in my office, okay, maybe you can grab us both a coffee and we can catch up when we are done” Boothe instructed her with that clinical quick wit that made it so hard to navigate around. 

The situation was now completely unsalvageable, her only realistic attempt to distract him without raising too many alarm bells had failed and Boothe was striding away from her with his board member in toe, Oscar was in the wind somewhere on hospital grounds and Katie was unaware of any of the coming results, it was a recipe that had poisoned them both. So, she did all she could stood by a window and watched for the exit, hoping to catch the moment that Oscar would walk through the main doors and across the street, onto the bus and away from this escalating nightmare they both found themselves in of their own making. She leaned against the glass and silently prayed to whatever god may be listening to show her a glimpse of the boy she was rescuing from harms insidious means, it was a few minutes later, but there he was, Oscar stepped into view below and slowly took a walk towards the edge of the car park. 

“Keep it casual” she muttered to herself watching him lean occasionally to the side holding his stomach.

 Oscar heading towards the street as Katie had instructed, the backpack across his shoulder was recognisable but common enough to not catch any attention. 

“What could get him caught?” she asked herself in a whisper under her breath that fogged up the glass momentarily. 

Minutes passed agonisingly slowly, she watched as Oscar stood at the bus stop opposite the hospital car park across the street, his body shifting from one stance to another in obvious nervous anticipation, his phone occasionally coming out of his pocket and back in with impatience, 

“Where is the bus?” she asked again to herself, comforting the nerves with verbal venting of her worries, suddenly Boothes voice could be heard over her shoulder some distance away. 

She whipped around and saw him approaching with the board member beside him still, sharing a laugh and an indecipherable murmuring end to a conversation, Katie wondering why they were coming this way, but she held her nerve and tucked her shaking hands into her pockets. 

“Katie, perfect, we are going to pop in and see how Oscar Rubens is doing, let him know that we have managed to reschedule his surgery for later this afternoon. Would you be able to follow us in case we need a nurses skillset?” Boothe said, giving a wry smile that told her he was enjoying this pageantry and his illusion of complete control over the staff.

Katie nodded in agreement hoping that, while this would most likely be the unravelling moment for them both, this could give Oscar enough time for the infuriatingly tardy bus to arrive and carry him away from Boothes reach. Katie was trailing behind the two men as they made their way to Oscars room, it was up one floor and at the far end of a corridor, time enough she hoped for Oscar to disappear. The blinds were drawn to his room, Katie thought how clever that was from the patient on the lamb buying himself some more valuable seconds, the door swung open and Boothe wrapped his knuckle on the inside “Oscar, it’s Doctor Boothe” he called out stepping in. 

“Is he in the bathroom maybe?” the speaker asked, as Boothe looked around the room in suspicion scanning every surface and every corner for signs of his presence. 

“Katie could you go check the bathroom please?” Boothe asked sheepishly without looking in her direction, instead moving towards the bed and checking the side tables contents, empty of course besides that unread bible and the spare batteries for the broken TV remote. 

Katie walked in to the bathroom in the least obvious crawl she could, every second counted she thought to herself, despite her shaking limbs she reached for the closed doors handle and pushed it open, scanning the room she saw the repaired shower head and the signs of dust from the repaired plaster, or ceramic, around the tub. 

“Anything?” Boothe called to her,

“It’s empty” she called back, and the game was now on. 

Boothe burst into the room and confirmed her observations. 

“Go to security and tell them we have a patient missing, tell them to keep it quiet but to check the car park and the stairwells first” Boothe ordered through whispers to not alarm the speaker who still stood confused in the main room.

Katie nodded and then ran with an actors conviction to the security room on the first floor, once out of ear shot her run became a stroll. On her exit she could hear Boothe comforting the board member. 

“He must be getting prepped for surgery already, I will check in with the surgical team but just to be say we will get the guards looking for him, he is prone to falling over that one” Boothe said, cracking a fake smile and leading him out of the room and away from the pending shit storm that was about to touch land in ward.

Security had been informed, Katie did her job like a good little nurse for the visibly rattled chief in charge, but it was too late by this point, Oscar must be on the bus and on his way to safety home with Mary by his side to hear the horrors he endured. Katie made her way to Boothes office and knocked on the door, as she did a voice called back immediately for her to enter, 

“Come in!” Boothe shouted loud enough for her to hear him clearly through the wood. 

“Where is he?” Boothe barked before he had even closed the door behind her, pacing behind his desk with his phone in hand, Katie wondering for a moment who he might have been calling before she arrived. 

“I checked with security and the nurses that would have been on shift, nobody has seen him, but they are still looking, I told security about the car park and the last time he tried to leave” this show of allegiance was hopefully convincing enough to keep her involvement buried. 

“Good” he mumbled back still looking down at his phone periodically, somehow to his surprise despite his fixed attention, the phone in his fist began to ring loudly. 

Boothe answered immediately. 

“Hello?” he said to the party at the other end of the call, “Any news? No? Well let me know, I will stay here and keep you informed if he turns up” Boothe replied to whatever was said to him, and with that terminated the call, dropped the phone carelessly to the desk with an excellent bang.

“Who was that?” she asked patiently, hopefully, into the empty spicy air that emanated from the furious Doctor opposite. 

“Police, they seem keen to get hold of our runaway, I called them as soon as I got back. Oscar will need to be held somewhere more secure after this, hopefully permanently. He is a clear danger to himself” he elaborated without much prompt. 

“Surely if they find him they will bring him here first, we need to make sure he is unharmed right?” Katie asked, hesitantly trying to lean in and catch a glimpse of Boothes face that was still in motion from his ranting. 

The sound of his worn-out shoes scraping against an all too old carpet was irritating her ears, adding layers to the anxiety. Boothe rotated to face her with a sharp turn that made her jump inside her skin, the hairs on her arms became prickly, as if her internal alarm was blaring to leave the scene of danger. 

“I have made the call. He will be taken to a holding facility for mental care” his words fell like lead into her minds pond. 

“Oh, well I guess that is best for him” Katie was mincing her words to excuse any suspicion in the moment, Boothe gestured for her to leave as he scooped up his phone from the desk and began thumbing away at the screen,

“We are done here Katherine, please leave” he requested shooing her away and returning to his passive search for the wantaway patient. 

On her stroll back into the mouth of the hospital, Katie played a game of unravelling the information and the events of the last few hours in her head, it was unpleasant timewaster, one that gave her temples license to swell and throb in headache. But it was only going to get worse for Oscars saviour, a voice called over across the floor. 

“Katie, Katie” it echoed out, she tried desperately to ignore it and continue her pace away from the source, but it was insistent on dragging her back by the hair. “Katie, I have Oscar Rubens mother on the line, she is asking for information, and I don’t really know what to tell her” she let out a weighted strangling sigh, dropped her shoulders. 

Somehow this aspect of the getaway had slipped her mind that his mother might call, or place blame at her feet once more. She shuffled slowly, annoyingly slowly for the impatient nurse waiting to remove Mary from her ear with phone in hand, to the station taking the phone from her hand, and exhaling heavily before addressing Mary Rubens at the other end. 

“Hello” she gingerly offered up, 

“Hello, it is Mrs Rubens, Mary, what is going on? I can’t get hold of anyone, and Doctor Boothe left me a message saying that Oscar was missing!” her voice was shrill and traumatised, like she had been in an accident herself. 

Katie held the receiver to her ear and the words just fell from her mouth in a fall of unchecked honesty. 

“Oscar isn’t missing Mrs Rubens, he seems to have run off, his room was empty when we checked and his backpack was gone” this was not what Mary wanted to hear, clearly judging by the volume of her next flurry.

“WHAT! How have you lost him AGAIN?!” she screamed down the phone loud enough for the internal equipment to momentarily cut out, it was a blessed microsecond for the nurse being berated, deep-down Katie felt this was earned. She did after all help him escape, and if she was being truthful with herself, she enjoyed the excitement of the heist now it had been successful. 

After some time past, Mary tired of her screaming and extinguishing herself into a pleading request to speak with Boothe instead of her, Katie, who offered up nothing but apologies and meaningless hollow reassurances that her son would be found safe, none of which Katie believed as she knew Oscar was well on his way home by now and would be there to explain all that had happened with Boothe to her himself, it would be better that way she thought as she agreed to pass on the urgent and very serious request to the doctor to call her back. When the evening began to settle and no phone call had been received to the hospital from either of the surviving Rubens, Katie suspected that Oscar had indeed made it home safely and his mother was now fully on his side of this war of misinformation between the patient and his doctor, it left her with fairly weightless shoulders, a rare occurrence. Boothe laboured in his office for the entire afternoon, not a word to anyone, at least not one that her colleagues cared to share with her as he toiled over plans to recover Oscar, alive or dead, his corpse bearing some value still to the doctor obsessing over the growth that plagued him for Oscars stay.