Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

This is the prologue or whatever to the novel I am currently working on. The series is titled "The mind is a terrible thing to hack" the first novel, "Life is just a fantasy." This is a rough draft, so if you want to critique it please ignore any spelling mistakes, but anything else is fair game as of now. I am posting this to begin a fan base, so i may not post the rest (meaning if i get it published next summer, you'll have to buy it... smile )

ohh, and don't yell at me for not putting dialogue in a seperate paragraph, i don't seperate it for a few more drafts...
-----------------------------------------------
The large white room was filled the thunder of dozens of men and women. Some cradling their children, others holding various parts of their bodies, and others simply sitting, waiting for their turn. It was a typical Friday night scene at the hospital. In the corner a young woman sat quietly. This woman, Jane Squire, had an appearance that betrayed her age. Her long auburn hair, usually kept curly and back, was losing its luster and had decided to fall in every which direction, held out of her face only by two red clips. Her bright blue eyes were circled by black and the lids of her eyes drooped, threatening to fall, but refusing to do so. Her lips had not felt the sweet touch of lipstick or balm in two days, and her cheeks had felt the same punishment, not a trace of blush remained. A short white t-shirt was darkened in multiple locations where the tears had fallen from her small, fragile chin.

She had been summoned here an hour ago, but had seen nothing aside from this waiting room. Her mind was not focused on the present, though, but on the recent past. Three months and two days ago, September 14th, she had delivered her first child, Holden Squire. A healthy baby, weighing seven pounds even and measuring roughly nineteen inches. When taken home, the infant acted like any other that Jane had seen, and the family was overjoyed. After a few weeks, however, the habits of the child changed. At first the actions could be expected. An increased amount of crying, the annoying grabbing of hair, earrings and other dangling objects, the vomiting, all of which Jane thought to be normal. But after a while it increased to the point where the child was not taking in almost any food, and Jane had taken him to this establishment.

Jane knew that Holden was in good hands, but she still worried, it was her maternal instinct. What if they couldn’t fix the problem? What if Holden would have to be force fed for the rest of his life? Similar thoughts haunted her mind and had for the past two days. How would he be able to lead a normal life? “Mrs. Squire”. What if he has to stay in the hospital for the rest of his life? “Mrs. Squire” it took a few moments for Jane to realize that she was being spoken to. “Mrs. Squire, if you would follow me” a voice said, holding dominance for a few moments before being lost in the jumbled mess of voices. Standing, she picked up her small brown purse, slipped on her torn sandals and moved across the room to where the doctor was waiting. He was a young doctor, as far as doctors went, barely in his thirties, with the typical television-show doctor look. Long dark brown hair that had been cut off in the back, leaving the thick hair on top to be parted. Dark brown eyes made him look professional, but a warm smile showed him for what he was. Together they moved down the hall in silence. Around them nurses ran to and fro, and doors left open exposed the unfortunate within. But Jane was too caught up in her own thoughts to notice or care.

After taking a flight of stairs, they entered an empty room “Take a seat” was all the doctor said as he flipped through papers on a clipboard he was carrying. The room was not one where a patient would take residence, but a room where shots were administered and persons would go for their yearly'check-ups'. “How’s Holden? Is he alright?” she asked, nervously tapping the edge of the chair. “He’s. It’s hard to explain. He’s not so much suffering, there is nothing wrong with his body” the doctor said, trying to find the right words to say. It was obvious that this woman had not slept in a while, he did not wish to confuse her. A confused adult was one mess, but a confused mother was an entirely different story and something that he did not wish to deal with.

“Nothing wrong with him? So I can take him home?” she asked, hope rising in her chest. Her fingers stopped tapping and rested now on the arm rests on the sides of the chair, her attention on the doctor. “I never said that. Physically, he is fine. He is of healthy height and weight. He can move, his organs all seem to be working properly, except for his brain” the doctor continued, looking through the papers to make sure he wasn’t forgetting anything. “His brain? What, he can’t think? Is it a disease of some sort? How could this have happened?” Jane asked, partially talking to herself. She had never thought that something like this would happen, and now that it had, she did not know what to think. “All involuntary muscles work fine, a bit slow, but fine. His heart beats, he breathes, all of his skeletal muscles can move. They can move, but they won’t. Your son has forgotten how to walk, how to swallow, his memory is non-existent” the doctor said, placing the clipboard on the counter before leaning on it himself, arms crossed. It was obvioud that he did not like this part of the job.

“So” Jane said, pausing a moment before continuing “So, he doesn’t know who I am?” “I’m afraid not” There was a long silence after these words. The doctor was used to this type of treatment, he had been working here for a few years and dealt especially with young children. He had never dealt with a case such as this, but he had dealt with parents like Jane. They would continue speaking wheh they felt good and ready. Sure enough, after a few minutes, Jane spoke again. “Is there anything that can be done to fix this? Any sort of medication or surgery, anything?” Jane asked. “These is some experimental equipment…” “Has it worked in the past?” Jane interrupted. She did not care if the equipment was not fine tuned yet, if it could save her baby then she would try it.

“We’ve never tried something this advanced, this is a very rare case” “What can you do?” “We have been able to place artificial pacemakers to restart the heart and keep it pumping, and chips in the brain to restore activity to slightly paralyzed limbs, we should be able to insert a chip that stores the images, smells, tastes and sounds that the brain has received. We have tried this on a lower scale before, well, scientists have, but on dogs. We haven’t tried it on humans.” the doctor himself had only recently been informed of such advanced technology, and his guess as to how it worked was as good as Janes. “But it is possible?” she asked. She was never one for technology. She trusted it, but she never understood exactly how most things in the technological world worked.

“Theoretically, yes. We have done surgeries and, using new technology, have given sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf and a voice to a mute. We should be able to do this. There are some risks involved such as…” “I don’t care” “We’ll have to keep Holden until the chip is made and inserted into the brain, that could take a while” This caused Jane to pause again, the first break in a few minutes. These two days without her child had been hard. She wished to cradle the boy in her arms and rock him to sleep every night. But after a few minutes she came to the conclusion that what she wished was not a possibility. “He’d have to stay here whether the chip is inserted or not, won’t he?” “I’m afraid so, tubes are the only thing supplying him with nutrients and oxygen at the moment” The doctor said, picking his clipboard up, knowing that this meeting would end shortly.“Then go through with the procedure”