Ordinary People's Miracles

CHAPTER FOUR-1

CHAPTER FOUR

Alex’s appointment with Dr. Koren was on Monday. Dr. Koren was the Assistant of the Department’s Head. She had been educated on the subjects of psycotherapy and psycoanalysis for many years. Today she was in a position who was educating many assistants.

In her office, apart from three armchairs opposing eachother, there was a big sofa. Her office was decorated in a simple style. A big size picture of Freud was placed on the wall opposite the library. The library was full of books written in English and Hebrew and scientific magazines. There was a small table at the corner of the library. Dr. Koren would take his notes about his patients there.

Alex felt very nervous before the appoinment. “How can I tell that I believe a psychotic patient?” he asked himself. In any case, Dr. Koren would demand him to transfer his patient to another doctor. To a certain extend, this would reduce his resposibility. However, Alex would like to learn everything. If the patient was transferred to another psychiatrist, Alex wouldn’t be able to see that man. “No Win Situation” he thought. “In any case, I will lose, either my chance of curing him or my chance of learning the future...”

So, he decided not to talk about the catastrophy to Dr. Koren. He told her that he had wanted to tell the sitation of his psychotic patient and had needed some advice for the rest of his treatment. After giving his routine advice, Dr. Koren gave him another appointment for the next time.

From Monday to Friday, Alex tried to keep Adam’s advice, he tried to return home as early as possible and tried to spend his time fully with his children. On Friday morning, his son kissed him at the school gate and said “I love you so much, daddy.”.

Adam entered Alex’s room at 12.30 on Friday. Today, he looked more tired and sorry than usual...

“Hello Adam... today you look very tired... didn’t you sleep well last night?”

“To tell the truth, I gave up sleeping long time ago. Apart from being a natural need, sleep enables us to use the secret body systems. That’s why people can do many things that gravity prevents them from doing in their dreams.”

“Like what?”

“Like flying... For example many people feel that they fly in their dreams. This feeling is not related to being a Superman. It is related to the departure of the soul from the body.

“Please let me understand well, can everybody seperate his or her soul from the body whenever he wants?”

“Doctor, we, as people, believe many things and our beliefs organise our world. If your question is related to flying physically, my advice to you is to buy a plane ticket. Thus, you can fly physically and you can reach wherever you want in this world. If you are talking about the departure of the soul from the body, that is a different situation.”

“Like what? Are you talking about it as if it was something frightening?”

“Sure, it has a frightening side. Because people believe that other souls can take their bodies when they leave them. Because of this reason people experience such things in their dreams.”

“I couldn’t understand...”

“Please, think about the horror films about devil, genies or spirits. Have you ever watched them?”

“Of course I watched.”

“What can you see in such films? The plot is related to the evil’s trial of exterminating the good and entering inside of him or her. Evil either deceives him or her, like in Faustus he ties him or her up by an agreement or he tries to make himor her his slave by killing him or her. We talked about the beliefs before, here is a kind of fright which stems from the beliefs. People renounce stepping forward because of their fears...”

“Adam, are you aware of this situation... I asked you a question and I found myself listening to a conference again instead of getting an answer! I am wondering if you are afraid of revealing what you have inside? Am I a source of fear as a psychiatrist?”

“I know that our meeting’s aim is to make my psychiatric evaluation, on paper. That’s why we are going to continue our meetings in the framework of hospital's outpatient clinic. I thought that last week you started to believe what I was saying. Do you want to test me again?

“Listen Adam, I didn’t mean to upset you or annoy you. My reason for my presence here is not only for psychiatric evaluation. You have choosen me. I don’t know your reasons yet but you have made a choice... I have to try to help you as much as I can as your doctor. In order to realise this help, you have to take me to your private life more. Now, please try to answer my question again...”

After a short silence Adam answered with a calm voice…

“I did not sleep for the last two years. I did not have time to sleep because I had to complete my training in that time. I do not sleep at the moment. Because I need the whole time of the day to carry out my duties. When it comes to your question about rest, yes, my body needs for a rest among my duties. But as you said in our first meeting, despite thousands of years of my age, physically, my body is near a 20 or 30 –year-old person’s body. That means, I reach the maximum limits of my intellectual talent with maximum power and energy. If you are asking your question from the spritual perspective, achieving my goals brings me enough peace and silence.

“Adam are you a psychotic?”

“Doctor! Was prophet Moses a psychotic? According to your belief, he talked to the Creator and he took his precautions accordingly; he took the Jews out of Egypt brought to the Holy Land. Prophet Jesus Christ defended that he was the Son of The Creator and he kept talking to Him until his last minute. You know that his last words were "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34). Prophet Mohammed also recieved the holy book, Koran, in the same way but did he wrote it on his own? Regarding all the prophets, you should believe that all of them are psychotics. Because all of them achieved incredible things and tried to make the world a better place to live, according to their own belief. In this sense, two things which distinguish them from the fairies are the mass of their believers and their miracles.

“So, are you in psychosis?”

“You have many suspicions about the subject of believers. This indicates that it is not the right moment for you yet and the background is not mature enough!... When it comes to the miracles, there is no need for my presence. If people can learn the way of looking at their environment, they can easily realise the miracles that already exist. The best example for this subject is the relationships of family, nature and social environment. Tell me Doctor, when was the last time you felt fine?”

“It was when my son said ‘I love you daddy.’ at the school gate.”

“Except for this...”

“When I feel that I really help other people... and I want the same thing very much for you, as well...”

“I know that you really want to help me... That’s why I have chosen you... Although the way you have chosen as a way of help is different from mine, we are going to learn to walk together on this way like on the other ways...

“Next week at 12.30 Adam...”

“Next week Doctor...”

After Adam left the room, Alex’s mobile phone rang. It was Rona. “You mother is at the hospital. She is at the emergency service... I have come to the hospital by the ambulance... Please come, be quick!

He was afraid, suspicious and sorry... What could have happened to her, heart attack? Rona would say it if it happened. ‘It is something else. I have to leave for the hospital..’ he said to himself. “Sarah, I have completed my job for today. Could you please lock my room? I have to hurry up, thanks...”

His car entered the crowded streets of Jerusalem. People were shopping for the Sabath. They were carrying the things which they bought from the bazaar and the supermarkets. The cafes in the streets were full of people drinking coffee and chatting. The Jewish religious people region had started to empty. From many houses, the smell of Sabath meals cooked as a preparation was coming. And of course traffic jam... There was a terrible traffic jam. The cars were moving forward little by little and the hospital building was becoming smaller in Alex’s eyes like a digressing target. “I wish I were an ambulance driver” he said to himself. At that moment, his mobile phone rang again. It was Rona.

“Alex, it seems that your mother has been paralysed. She fainted and fell down as she was chatting with her neighbours. They called an ambulance and then me. I have just talked to the doctor at the emergency service. He said her blood pressure and her blood tests are normal. They made electrocardiogram and blood samples to heart attact. According to the doctor there are some neurological signs in your mother’s examination. Although she regained her consciousness, she can’t talk and can’t move her feet as well. Because of this reason, her tomography will be taken. Come to the Radiology Department...

“Paralysis? Cerebral hemorrhage? How? Why? My mother is so young... She doesn’t have a genetic heritage or high blood pressure. She is not diabetics. She was always be careful about what she ate. Oh! I wish this traffic jam was over and I could go the hospital as soon as possible.”

Twenty minutes later than Rona’s call, Alex entered the emergency service of the hospital. After a short period of searching, he made his way to the Radiology Department. He saw his mother lying, from the distance. His mother was looking at the ceiling with senseless eyes. Rona was holding her hand and was saying something to her. Paulina didn’t give any response or make any mimics and she wasn’t fine. This was not a good indicator.

When his mother was taken in to the tomography device, Rona realised that Alex was there. After a light smile and a small kiss on the cheek, she said “Doctor Mateus, the brain surgent on duty today, says that she is fine enough for an operation if there is a hemorrhage and if an urgent operation needed.”

His mother was lying quietly on the other side of the glass. She wasn’t moving in any way but the movement of her chest up and down was the sign of her respiration and her being alive...

“After the tomography, we can examine the blood count and if this is a case of infection we can put her in my section and start an antibiotics treatment.” said Rona in a senseless voice. Alex didn’t hear her. He was thinking about the crazy things he used to do with his mother when he was a child. They used to make a snowman and then they would throw him snowballs and they would throw themselves on the snow to measure their height at the end of the day. ‘How funny it was’ he thought. ‘Playing on the snow with my mother. It is strange! It didn’t snow in Jerusalem for many years except for watery snow. The children haven’t seen the real snow yet!’

His mother was taken out of the tomography device and sent to the emergency service. Alex was holding firmly his mother’s hand through the corridor. His mother’s other hand had fallen on her side like a piece of cloth. The blood tests in the emergency service didn’t show anything. It seemed that the tomgraphy would say something about her health. After a half an hour period which was as long as life for Alex, Doctor Abdullah, the head doctor of the emergency service gave the grief news. “Cerebral hemorrhage” he said “the only thing we can do for now is to wait and to try to prevent the continuation of bleeding. We can try to find out the reason for its bleeding. Most probably anevrism. It is impossible to find out the exact place of it now.”

Rona went to complete the process to put her in hospital. After he sat down on the armchair near the bed, Alex looked at his mother. How old she grew in one day! She had a more childish and sorry face. To tell the truth, it could not be said that she had pain, instead, she had a peaceful expression. Death! It could be the best solution for those who suffer from pain. Alex felt that he wanted to cry but the tear drops didn’t come out. “You don’t have even power to cry!” he said to himself. “You can’t even succeed in doing this. You became, supposedly, a doctor in order to help people but you don’t have enough power to help your mother.”