Switch Child

us.”

  It was encouraged for all employees to talk to the residents, whether one was changing a bed pan or mopping a floor. One never knew just how much functioning a brain might actually be accomplishing despite a lack of scientific evidence. That had been shown in the past with several miraculous awakenings with surprising revelations of what an unconscious and flat-lined mind actually perceived.

  The analysis device registered on the top line a review of the 20 minute scan and, since it was plugged in anyway, a default full hour scan registered its results as well. The digital response on the screen for both was, ‘No significant variance for all parameters. Thnks Sr.’

  Huh? Karl looked at the last two words. Those had never shown up before. That might indicate a warning that a critical element of his Volt Wizard was about to expire. There was an autodiagnostic engaged, which showed nothing abnormal or worrisome after a thirty second self-analysis. Of all his gadgets, this one was pretty important in day-to-day stuff here, and even came in handy outside at his and friends’ homes.

  Pulling his cell, he hit the number for tech support. Three minutes after an autodownload to the support site for further analysis, Karl was forced to put the oddity on the shelf and get back to his other duties.

  “Keep fighting, Champ. I got ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ for this evening. You got a favorite, you gotta wake up and tell me. Deal? Deal. See you later.”

  Karl found Janice and assured her that he had banished the demons from the room, but the light situation was still under advisement, awaiting the word from the gods of technology to get back to him that day. In gratitude, she agreed to relay his results to Groucho, allowing Karl to get away without twenty minutes of lectures on random topics that didn’t have anything to do with his duties. He didn’t find out till lunch time that she had taped a large pink heart to the back of his shirt that read, “I got Ring Dings”. He’d get her back for that one. After lunch, he got his tech call-back report.

  “Mr. Hoffman, it says in your deposition that the Volt Wizard rep’s report was basically negative. I’d like to hear your impressions of what the man said. You know, between the lines?”

  “Detective Roland? The guy thought I was pulling a prank on him, or would have had I not been a loyal and sane customer of theirs for two decades. The tag line at the end of the report didn’t represent any system warnings that the tech knew of, and he said he checked in with the designer just to be sure. As for the weirdness of the life-sign monitors that was ‘location to the kid’ dependent? He said that the only thing he could imagine was that there was a hacker who had graduated from computer lines to power lines. We both agreed that was impossible. Oh, I forgot to mention that I also called the tech rep for the monitor system. He was of no help at all, telling me to do what was already done, but to do it again. I think he just wanted me out of his face.”

  The Detective wrote a few more items in her notebook, then asked the interviewee to please continue.

  “I finished up the day and was pretty woofed. Three floors called in on lights flickering, all on the East wing. Checked out each bulb and socket, and a random sampling of outlets. I might get an occasional flicker on the meter, but it was so slight that I thought I was imagining it. Happened once every six to ten seconds, so it was random on exact timing, but regular on ballpark timing, if you get what I mean.”

  “Hey, Champ! Got the book and a few minutes. Hang on a sec while I plug in.” He took his meter and again plugged into the same socket as the monitor device. Never hurt to retry. Many flukes would self-resolve, given time.

  Karl looked at the boy’s face. That same vacant stare was there, hazel eyes devoid of motion more than the occasional blink. He assumed that was part of some primitive section of the brain to keep the eyes moist. Karl wondered for a moment if the child slept, and if so, did the eyes close then? He’d ask a nurse if one presented before he left.

  Meanwhile it was time for the evening read, complete with putting the pages before the blankly staring eyes when he finished each page’s word content. It helped Karl to do this more than he knew. His children were gone, and grand kids were held hostage by distance and inconvenience of said children. Once a year visits were all he could hope for, it turned out. Like the old song said, ‘If you can’t be with the ones you love...’, etcetera.

  So the story began and progressed pleasantly until Karl got to the line, ‘And Max, the King of All Things, was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all.’ That caused a twinge in his heart, as it had in times past with the young ones. “Is that the way of it with you, Champ? Well, the nurses here are very loving and I’ll throw in my own brand, such as it is. Keep at it, Champ.”

  The story ended and time moved on. Janice had gone home, and so it was Wayzetta who came in to turn the child to the side for pressure sore avoidance, and check for diaper changing needs. There was less of that than normal given the lack of solid foods, but there was often some leakage that required cleansing and changing.

  The Volt Wizard was retrieved, with the new small fluctuation pattern now showing on the record. He’d have the power company run a test on the supply line tomorrow. ‘.01% spike, avg 8/min, random timing. End report. wll try sr.’

  “Not again!”

  Wayzetta asked, “Pardon me? You say something, Karl?”

  “Sorry. My Volt Wizard seems to be possessed today. Um, what are you doing?”

  The evening RN for 2E was watching Colin’s eyes and timing her wrist watch. “Checking to make sure the child’s eyes are getting enough moisture. He should be blinking at least two to three times a minute, minimum. Kid’s doing ok on that. Eight seconds on the average. Weird thing, those indicator lights, though. Only difference is that the pace has picked up a bit. You notice?”

  He hadn’t. Watching, he saw the ‘one light, two light, red light, blue light’ sequence now about twice as fast as it had been that morning. The faster pace...what did that mean? For no reason he could think of, the pace change grabbed his attention. Like a word you couldn’t remember even though you KNEW you knew it, the pattern bugged him. One, two, red, blue. Well, it rhymed, anyway. Maybe he’d read too many children’s books and his brain was wired permanently to their patterns.

  “Hey, Wayzetta, do his eyes close at night? You know, for sleep? Like ours do?”

  “Yes, Karl, they do...but that’s a good question because some brain injury patients don’t. Sleep cycles are maintained in a very primitive section of the brain, and Colin’s scans show that there is activity there. The closing of eyes for sleep is automatic. Blind people do it, you know.”

  It made sense and gave Karl a feeling of relief. “Thanks, dear one. See you tomorrow, Champ. Keep at it.”

  Karl waved goodnight to the evening security guard, and headed out to the parking lot. His mind kept chewing on what he’d experienced today. Disparate parts seemed to ask for connections to each other, for no other reason but that they were starting at about the same time, and were unexplainable.

  The car started no problem, but Karl could not bring himself to start moving.

  ‘White, White, Red, Blue’.

  ‘Thnks Sr’.

  ‘wll try sr’.

  ‘Faster timing on the flashes.’

  ‘Electric spikes every 8 seconds or so.’

  ‘Champ blinks...every...8 seconds or so?’

  ‘One light, two fish, red light...’ Wait a minute.

  “It couldn’t be. No way!” Thanks Sir? will try sir? Dr. Seuss? Blinks same timing as spikes in the current? Every monitor that attaches to him does the same thing?

  “What the bleeding HELL is going on here?!”

  Karl Hoffman turned off the car and headed back into the building. There was nothing waiting for him back home, and something very big may be happening on 2E. Even if he went home, did he really think he would get sleep until he put this craziness to rest?

&
nbsp; The security guard cocked his head at the handyman’s re-entry, but was put at ease with a reassurance that there was something Karl had forgotten to do. Same thing with the evening Charge Nurse, who was pleased that Karl was taking an ‘above and beyond the call’ interest in that funny electrical situation in Colin’s room.

  Karl pulled out the remote power plug from his Volt Wizard and put it into the wall socket. The connecting power cord would afford up to six feet plug-to-device distance. Keeping the main unit in his right hand, he sat on the edge of the bed. He kept his children’s book open and voice low, hopefully avoiding a trip to the shrink-o-matic department.

  “Hey, Champ. Look, this is going to sound strange, but...can you hear me?”

  He looked at his Volt Wizard readout.

  ‘Yes sir’ showed in red digital characters, then faded. He noticed the improved spelling, and hit ‘save screen entries’ in case his sanity was called into question later.

  “Oh, my, good Lord. Champ, you understand me? Can you see me?”

  ‘I can hear you. I cannot see you, yet. Can see shadows and colors, fuzzy. Sir, who are you? Are you an angel?’

  Parts that Karl didn’t know could pucker were puckering. This was impossible! This was Twilight Zone, and that show went off a long time ago. How could it come back, for real?

  Something inside the man, though, forced himself to