Altered Level of Consciousness
Chapther Three - Coming Round
By Triggersaurus
triggersaurus@hotmail.com

"You want coffee or something?"

"No, thanks, I’m okay. I’ve been drinking the stuff at Mercy all day."

"How is she?"

"Holding up."

Carol goes to the foot of the staircase and hollers up it.

"Kate, Tess! Are you done?"

"Yeah, I am. But Kate’s got her arm stuck in her shirt…"

"Hang on a moment." She runs up the stairs and returns a moment later, followed by the twins in pyjamas. Tess bounces down and runs around to the front of the sofa.

"Are you our new babysitter?"

"Uh. No. I’m not."

Kate comes over and joins in the guessing game.

"Are you a fireman?"

"No."

"Good. Because we didn’t play with the phone any more."

Carol takes a seat, pulling Tess onto her lap.

"Girls, this is my old friend, Doug."

"Doug? Like the cartoon show?"

"I guess so."

"I like that cartoon. Can we watch TV now?"
"No, it’s too late to watch TV, Tess. How about you go and play a game of chutes and ladders?"

She looks up to tell Kate the same thing, but notices that she has made herself comfortable on the sofa next to Doug, and is colouring in a picture. Doug is watching but looking uncomfortable.

"Kate, why don’t you and Tess go and colour in the kitchen? There’s a better table in there."

"Okay. Come on, Tess."

They left and went into the kitchen. The silence hangs heavy in the small sitting room.

"So."

Doug clears his throat. "They’re great, Carol."

"They are."

"I wish…", he shifts in his seat and clears his throat again, "um, how are you?"

"I’m good. How’s Seattle?"

"Portland? It’s okay. Cold right now, but the summers are great."

"Hmm."

"How’s everyone at County?"

"Yeah, they’re the same mostly. Kerry left. Mark’s ER Chief. Carter’s Chief Resident."

"Carter? The one and the same? Thought I’d never see the day!"

"Yeah."

Screams start in the kitchen.

"Gimme it!

"It’s MINE!"

"I want it! You took my blue!"

"Elephants aren’t blue, they’re gray!"

"I know that! GIMME IT!"

"NO!"

Carol looks at Doug.

"I think you spoke too soon."

She leaps up and hurries into the kitchen.

"Hey! Stop it! Kate, give Tess back the blue, Tess, give Kate the gray."

"But Mommy!"

"I don’t WANT the gray!"

Before she knows it, the twins are bawling their eyes out and throwing crayons around.

"Stop that right now! Kate, go to your room, Tess go to my room! NOW! I don’t want to have to take you up there myself."

Tess runs out of the kitchen wailing and goes up the stairs, shortly followed by Kate, who trips over in her haste and wails even louder. She gets up and goes up anyway, still crying.

"Sorry about that."

"Don’t worry. They’re kids, it happens."

"I guess. I just wish they didn’t have to be kids quite so much!"

A heavy silence falls again, only broken by the occasional muffled sobbing noise from upstairs, and the sound of Kate throwing something against her wall.

"Well, I think I should be going."

"Okay."

"Might see you again, before I go back."

"Hope your mom is okay, for now at least."

"Thanks. I do too."

Doug is standing on the porch and Carol at the doorway by this point.

"Well, see you round."

"Bye."

"Bye."

A voice from above calls out, "Bye bye!"

Carol stretches her head forward and sees Kate at her window.

"Get back in, young lady."

The face disappears.

Doug smiles half-heartedly and heads off down the sidewalk as Carol closes the door behind him.

Carol woke up the next day with relief, knowing that it was Saturday and she didn’t have to rush around. She lay for a while, gazing at the ceiling, and was just about to roll over and go back to sleep when she remembered what had happened yesterday morning when she left the twins alone.

"Kate?! Tess?!"

She got out of bed, groaning and pulled on a robe. She went out into the hallway and then down the stairs, and found the girls watching Saturday morning television in the living room.

"You two okay? You haven’t…"

"I didn’t touch the phone Mommy. I swear!"

"Me either. I just came here and put the TV on straight away."

"Good girls. Now, do you think it would be okay for me to go back to bed for a while?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"Well, thank you! If there are any problems, you just come and wake me up, okay? Oh, and your cereals’ are all laid out for you on the table."

"I know, I ate mine already, but Tess said she wasn’t hungry yet."

"Oh, okay. Tess, eat it soon or it’ll go all soft and horrible."

"Yeah."

She went back up the stairs and got back into bed, but after fifteen minutes of restlessly tossing and turning, she went back downstairs again in the realisation that she was awake now.

"That was quick Mommy."

"It was, wasn’t it." She went through to the kitchen and got a glass of milk, returning to the living room and sitting on the couch.

"What is this rubbish you’re watching?!"

"It’s not rubbish!"

"It’s funny!"

"Oh come on! Look, he’s only…" A stream of giggles interrupts her as the two girls collapse in laughter - at the pie that has just smacked it’s unwilling victim in the face. She sighs, and looks at her watch, which read 8.19 am.

"This hour was not meant for people to be awake in. Not on a Saturday morning. Why are you two awake?!" She grabs Tess from behind, dragging her onto the sofa and tickling her. Kate jumps in and joins the fray until all is left is the two of them sitting on top of a protesting Carol, her arms raised in defeat.

"Alright, alright, I give in!"

"Ha ha, we got you Mommy!"

"We got you!"

"Yeah, you got me. Now let me get up, I surrendered!"

"What’s surrendered?"

"It means to give up, to stop and say, "Okay, you won""

"Oh."

Carol gets up, dropping the twins back on the floor, and slopes off to the kitchen to get some coffee.

They spent the day doing very little, hanging around. They went to the play park for a while, until Tess fell over and grazed her knee, making so much noise that Carol had thought she’d broken something for a while. It turned out, when they got home, that Kate had fallen over and grazed her hands earlier as well, but hadn’t said anything, just brushed the grit off and carried on. Obviously, Carol speculated, if either of them was to follow in their parents’ footsteps and join the medical profession, it would not be Tess.

They were all sitting eating, at the girls’ request grilled chicken and fries, dinner when the telephone rang. Both Kate and Tess leaped up, asking if they could answer it, spraying fries and peas across the kitchen. Carol had sworn to herself when the phone started to ring that she would be the one to answer it, but surveying the newly created mess and the bouncing children, she decided to let Kate answer it, on the basis that she had almost finished. She ran off to the sideboard to answer it, dropping her fork on her way out. Tess looked sullen for a moment, stuffing a piece of chicken into her mouth, but got down on the floor with Carol after a few moments, and helped her to sweep up. From the animated chatter that could be heard from the hallway, Carol presumed it was a friend on the phone and got up to go and rescue whoever it was from Kate’s banter, unfortunately hitting her head on the table edge as she stood up.

"Kate? Kate, I think it’s time I had a go on the phone…"

"And then we had to come home, all because of Tess, and I was on the swing, and now I can go right up, I can almost push myself now"

"Kate! Who is it?!"

Kate turned around, and said quietly, covering the mouthpiece,

"It’s Elizabeth. And we’re TRYING to talk!"

She went back to her conversation, whilst Carol stood there in shock, wondering whether to be amused or angry. In the end, she tapped Kate on the shoulder and whispered into her free ear,

"You just let me know when you’re done so I can talk to her, okay?"

And she crept back out to the kitchen. Some minutes later, Kate returned and sat down in her seat.

"You can talk to Elizabeth now, Mommy."

"Well, thank you Kate. Don’t forget to eat all your peas."

She went out to the phone, and picked up the receiver.

"Elizabeth? I am so sorry."

"Don’t apologise Carol! She’s so sweet; I’ll talk to her anytime! I didn’t know about the supreme technique of using a see-saw before I talked to Kate, and it has changed my outlook on life!"

Carol laughs.

"Thanks for humouring her."

"Like I said, anytime. Anyway, I was wondering if you were free tonight for a girlie night in? I have a video that I have been waiting to see for a year, and Mark’s on the night shift."

"Only if you constitute a girlie night in as involving two girlies who aren’t old enough to watch a PG-13 yet!"

"Well, I don’t mind, I mean, I don’t want to invite myself, but…"

"How about we have a night in after I get the girls to bed? Would that be okay? You can come round here."

"That’d be wonderful, Carol. I haven’t seen the twins in ages, although I hear from Mark that they had a run in with a fireman yesterday?"

"Yeah, there’s an interesting story. Look, I have to get back to them, I left them eating their dinner and they’ll be hollering for the dessert that I don’t have next. Would 8 o’clock be okay?"

"Sure, that would be fine. I’ll see you then."

"Yeah, bye Elizabeth."

She hung the phone up and returned to the kitchen.

Some hours later, Carol sat down on the couch next to Elizabeth, who was reading the back of a Dr. Seuss book.

"Please don’t tell me you’ve got that desperate that you’ve turned to The Cat In The Hat?!"

Elizabeth laughed. "No fear! I was just thinking it’s incredible how these books have stuck around, I mean, I remember reading one of these to my little cousin. The made it too late to Britain to catch my youth though!"

"Ah, well I don’t think you missed much. I question their educational value, but the girls like them, so what can I do?!"

"They’re only young once, Carol, and I dread to think of all the things we used to read an watch that had no educational value whatsoever!"

Carol laughs some more and goes to the kitchen.

"You want coffee, tea, anything?"

"I’ve got a bottle of red here for us to share!"

"Oh you’re great! I daren’t keep much alcohol around the house ever since that phase Kate had of crawling into cupboards and emptying most of their contents into her mouth."

"I remember that - wasn’t it a Monopoly piece that she swallowed that time you brought her in?"

"Yeah, among other things. Thinking about it makes me want a glass of that wine even more, I’ll just go and get some glasses…"

She returns once more with two glasses and they pour out the wine as Carol presses play on the VCR remote.

"So, what’s this movie?"

"Shakespeare In Love"

"Oh, Elizabeth! Do you know how long I’ve wanted to see that?"

"Probably about the same length of time that I have!"

They settled down to watch the film, but inevitably ended up discussing parts and therefore missing the next sections, leading to total confusion and so they gave up and carried on chatting, with the movie playing as a background noise.

"I had an unexpected visitor last night."

"You did? Oh, wait. Was it Doug?"

"Yeah. How did you know?"

"He came in to see his mother yesterday, just flew in after I called him to let him know, and he did say something about paying you a visit."

"He did? Oh. Well, it was a nice gesture. How is his mom?"

"As well as can be expected I think. You can certainly see some of Doug in her, she’s very determined to live as long as she can. Stubborn too."

"Sounds familiar."

"How are you though? I mean, after Doug’s visit? Did the girls…?"

"No. No, I didn’t tell them. And it was strange, because Doug was quite, well, cold, with them, which struck me as odd."

"Really? But he had a great relationship with children he treated…"

"I know. That’s why it was odd.

"Maybe he feels like he missed out on them."

"Yeah…he did miss out."

"Carol, can I ask a question?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"If Doug wanted to come back now and bring up his children, would you let him?"

"Wow."

"That’s okay, if you don’t want to answer…"

"No, no, I was just, I mean, I’ve never thought of that before. I’ve spent so long now convincing myself he wouldn’t come back, and I thought about what if he came back and wanted to pick up where we left off…"

"And?"

"I wouldn’t do it. I thought about it, and I realised it’s just been too long. I couldn’t do that, I don’t know him anymore. Besides, he probably has someone else - more likely someones - out in Portland."

"Really? I think that’s a very brave step."

"Is it? I‘ve spent, what, four years now without him, we had a relationship before that for only two years. I’ve spent twice the time we were together alone."

Elizabeth nods, and pours them both another glass of wine.

"But if he came back and wanted to help with the children, would you agree to that?"

"I don’t really know. It would be fair to say yes, in fact, I think I would, because they are his too. But I’d feel like he was taking something from me, they’re mine, and mine only. He wasn’t here for the first three years. Oh, I don’t know. Pass me that wine!"

Elizabeth laughs, breaking the tension a little and hands Carol the bottle.

"Oh look, the movie ended! So much for that then!"

"Ah, we can see it another time."

"Yes, I look forward to boring Mark to tears with it! I am so sick of watching American football!"

The night passes into day and vice versa, until it is Monday morning once again, all too soon for Carol.

"You know I never meant to see you again

But I only passed by as a friend.

All this time I stayed out of sight

I started wondering why."

I Wish It Would Rain Down On Me - Phil Collins