Mind Games

Chapter Twelve

  Seeing is Believing

  Sandra stared at Jayne in utter disbelief. She had never dreamed that what Matthew was trying to do would actually work. But now she did believe.

  Her doubts weren’t surprising, really. Nothing ever seemed to happen. Each day since Sandra had started work at MedTec, Matthew would sit typing at his keyboard all day and often into the night without any apparent success, or change, in Jayne’s condition. He would be there first thing in the morning when she arrived, and he would still be there when she left in the evening. Matthew was working very hard, and he was obviously very motivated. But still, nothing seemed to happen.

  True, Sandra had been a little shocked when Matthew had showed her how he could make Jayne’s hand and arm move. But that just seemed to be a trick he did with his computer. Jayne wasn’t awake, or anything like that. Even when Jayne started trembling and losing control of her body, Sandra was still unprepared for what would come.

  It was at 3.25 in the afternoon. Sandra would never forget it.

  “That’s it, Sandra!” Matthew had announced a short time before as Sandra was changing Jayne’s gown for a clean one.

  “That’s what?” Sandra had asked, not too interested. Jayne had had several little accidents that day, and Sandra had been kept busy keeping her and the bed clean.

  “The Crays have finished. No more extra cleaning duties from now on!”

  “Well, I’m glad to hear that! And I bet Julia will be too. And that must be the first and only time I’ll really know what she’s thinking!”

  Matthew had smiled at her. Sandra had finished what she was doing and loaded all the soiled linen into a laundry basket. When she looked up, Matthew was still smiling at her. “Now what?” she had asked him.

  “We switch the life support machines off.”

  Sandra had thought that she hadn’t heard him right. But he had quickly explained.

  According to Matthew, the computers had finished learning which parts of Jayne’s brain controlled her body. This included the nerves that controlled her lungs, and that’s why they no longer needed the life support machines. The implant in Jayne’s head could now stimulate her diaphragm directly through her brain, and so inflate and deflate her lungs normally.

  Sandra hadn’t believed him, and she had argued that they should wait. But Matthew was adamant that it would work, and that Jayne would be alright.

  Sandra had taken away the laundry basket and finished cleaning up in a daze. Her mind had been full of confusion. If Matthew switched off the machines and Jayne died, who would be responsible? But Matthew was so confident, and Sandra wasn’t in any real position to stop him switching the machines off if he really wanted to. The only thing she was sure of was that she wasn’t going to be the one to pull the plug.

  When Sandra had returned to the room and it came to the final moment, she had refused to do it, and in the end Matthew had been the one to switch off the ventilator. Sandra had then removed the tubes from Jayne’s mouth, her hands shaking. And that was when it happened.

  Matthew typed for a few seconds on his keyboard and Jayne breathed. It was exactly 3.25 in the afternoon and Sandra would never forget it.