The Truth Berries

XLVI

        She has found a small wooden stool inside the room to hold the tray filled with the tools they would need in extracting the bullet. There were two bunches of clean cotton balls, several pieces of unopened sterile gauze, two pairs of surgical latex gloves, a brand new stainless scissor, two stainless forceps and a surgical stapler. A new and larger bottle of alcohol now stood in the middle of it all. If Miguel had not known they were in a cheap motel room, he would say he was inside a real operating room in a real hospital.

        “Are you sure you want me to do this?”, she asked him.

        “Of course. I’d rather have you do this to me than Benny.”, he smiled to lessen the pressure she was feeling.

       “You are aware that I don’t have any experience in this kind of thing, right?”

       “Don’t worry, I’ll try not to sleep so I can guide you. If I could only do this myself, I wouldn’t –“

       “I know, I know. Well, if you have so much trust in me and if you are ready, I say we start this thing to get this over with.”

       Helen poured some alcohol into her hands and then she dried them with a towel. Then she tore open one of the pairs of latex gloves and donned them. She adjusted them so the gloves fitted her hands perfectly.

       “First thing’s first, take your penlight. Then take a look inside the wound and see if you can identify where that damn bullet is.”

       Helen obeyed. She took the metal penlight from the tray and turned it on. Then she bowed her head closer to his abs so that she could examine the wound. Helen was about to carefully maneuver the forceps inside his wound when a loud banging on their door sounded. Helen dropped the forceps from her hands due to the untimely intrusion. Luckily, it did not drop on the room’s floor but on the bed itself.

       “Jesus Christ! I thought you said there would be no unwanted interruptions?”, she asked weakly.

       “That would be my fault. I’m sorry. I ordered some medications from Benny. I have a strong feeling that he is the one knocking. But I wouldn’t want him to see me like this. Can you take that from him, please?”

        Helen got up and took off one of the gloves. Then she slightly opened the door to see Benny beaming outside, with a half-filled bottle of brandy and an elegant crystal glass.

       “Sergeant Romero asked for some room service to be delivered by yours truly. Is he still awake?”

       She looked back at him and he shook his head. She instantly understood.

       “Uh . . . yes but he is a little busy at the moment. If you may, I would take that myself.”

       Benny hesitated for a short moment before he reluctantly gave the bottle and the glass to her. She asked him how much was the half-bottle of brandy but Benny just laughed.

       “Don’t worry about that, my lady. It’s a small gift from the management. A simple thank you thing to both of you for gracing our humble place with your presence.”

       Helen thanked him for the compliments but she said there was still an urgent matter she had to attend to.

       “Of course, my lady. Enjoy your stay again.”

       Helen kicked the door closed.

      “What a prick!”, she said once the door was closed.

       She put the bottle of brandy and the glass on a separate tray before bringing it to him.

       “Medication, huh?”, she asked him pointedly.

       “Yeah. You never heard about artificial painkillers? Or poor man’s anesthesia?”

       “You can call this any way you want it but this is freaking liquor. I am not a doctor or a registered nurse but I know that this is a no-go when you are going under a surgical operation.”

      “Well, at the moment, I rather have that than nothing at all. And besides, I am not going to down all that booze. I’m just having a shot or two to partially numb my senses. My body is not new to pain but it still knows it. It still feels pain. So something like that is a lot better than none. Plus, that also loosen the nerves all over the body.”

       Helen said nothing as she listened to him explaining. Then she poured a quarter full of brandy to the glass and she handed it to him. Miguel took it happily. He smelled its aroma while he lightly stirred it on its own, and then with one swift motion, he brought its bottom up and he drank all of its contents in two big gulps. When he handed her the empty glass back, there was not even a single sign of distaste on his face. It was as though he drank a glass of tasteless water. Helen was secretly impressed.

       But he was more impressed when he saw her filled the glass again with the same amount of brandy like before. Yet she made no rituals before taking it in. She just closed her eyes, held her breath and then she took it all straight up. Not a single drop of warm brandy remained in the crystal glass and she finished it with a low burp. When they both had a shot of the warm liquor, she closed the lid of the bottle and took the tray to the table on the far side of the room. Then she donned the gloves again and walked back to him.

       “Now we are both ready.” Helen said.

       She took the penlight and the metal forceps once again and bowed her head closer to the wound. Helen knew at once that getting the bullet out would be a great challenge for both of them. It would be hard for her because she could see that the wound which the bullet made was small, and finding it inside would be very difficult for she has never done it before. But the whole operation was literally a life-and-death thing for Miguel. His body has housed the bullet for several hours now and the risk of internal infection must have skyrocketed with every passing hour. Worse, he had a woman with no idea on it as his doctor now. The fact that he was going under operation with no medical anesthesia did not even help him either. In order to survive this, he should endure an unimaginable amount of pain first. But both of them knew that this must be done.

       “Insert the forceps gently inside the wound. Feel your way around until you hit that bullet. Must feel like something solid inside there.”, Miguel instructed her without looking. He was holding his breath to try to cancel out the incoming pain.

       “Ready? Here it goes.”

       She started inserting the tip of the forceps into his sore wound. Helen stopped once when she heard Miguel suppressed a cry of pain.

       “You okay? You know we could just –“

       “Keep going, don’t mind me. The faster you see the bullet, the quicker my suffering ends. So just go.”

       Helen knew that he was right, of course. So she mentally threw away all the mercy she held for him and started doing her job with a cold heart. She continued inserting the forceps inside the wound, trying to find where the bullet was. She tried rotating the tip of her tool to sweep the inside of the wound in hopes that it might just brush the tail of the damned bullet. But Miguel twisted in pain as she did so and he almost fainted when she suddenly pulled it out of him.

       “What were you doing?” he asked breathlessly.

       “Feeling my way around?”

       “Yeah? It seemed to me you were having a grand tour. Be careful down there, please. There’s a lot more in there than a single lost bullet. Some are called organs.”

       “I’m sorry. It’s just that I just wanted to find it quicker.”

       “Patience, Doctor, is a virtue. You might get it quick, but my guts would all look like they came from a blender. Okay, let’s try this again.”

       Miguel took a lungful of air and then he held it. She, on the other hand, pointed the light to his wound and slowly entered again. Her hands were a lot steadier this time, and she could also feel her breathing normalizing. Suddenly, she was seeing it all like she was a real doctor of surgery. Every nerve, every muscle fiber and every fold of organs, they all unfolded in front of her eyes like she was just watching a TV documentary. And when she set aside a mass of bloody muscle to its right, a metallic object lightly reflected the light.

       “Found it.”

       Helen wanted to ask for the second stainless forceps on the tray, but then she remembered that it was only the two of them inside the room.. She was so absorbed with her work that she thought she really was a surgeon with a handful of assistants nearby. Realizing no one could hand her what she needed, she put the penlight in her mouth and bit it. Then she reached out for the other tool that she needed with her free hand, while her other hand kept its place in his wounds so that she should not lose the bullet’s exact location. When she got what she needed, she returned with two forceps now and a bitten penlight.

       With the right forceps, she clamped the mass of muscles so that it would not obstruct her view of the bullet. Then, with the left one, she slowly edged it to the bullet itself until it was almost touching. Miguel had gone very silent now and Helen thought that he must be enduring all of these painfully. She opened the forceps mouth and then she inched it closer to the bullet. Then, when she was sure that it could now grab it, she pinched its handle and she felt the tool grabbing the foreign object inside. Now, she felt the shakes coming back to her hands. She slowly raised her hand as she pulled the bullet out of his body. When it was almost out of him, Helen felt a drop of her sweat slowly crawl down to her nose. She looked at it as it hung to the tip for a while. Then, like a little piece of devil sent to ruin everything, it suddenly dropped almost directly to the open wound. Helen panicked as it was still free-falling towards it. But she forgot about the bullet she was still holding with her tool. She lost focused on it, causing her hand to quiver and loosen its grip to the handle. Then, the bullet was set loose accidentally and it was falling straight back to the opening of the wound. The bullet, it seemed, wanted to get back to his host body where it could continue to fester it. Helen saw all her efforts going out of the window as the bullet was falling. But she couldn’t do anything than pray.

       And so she did. But she did not expect her prayers to be answered right away. The bullet fell on the wound but it did not go in again. Instead, it rolled back and forth beside its opening until it stopped motionless on his belly. Only when it totally stopped that Helen realized she has done it. She has successfully pulled out the bullet from his body – the same bullet which threatened his life. She was so overjoyed. She could finally tell him that he could breathe easily now for the problem was already solved. But when she looked at him to tell him that, Miguel’s mouth was gaped and his eyes were all closed.

       And then it dawned on her.

       Miguel did not survived the whole operation.