Week 5 Story: Your Fate Lies with a Dead Man
I consider myself a fairly reasonable and logical person, but there's something about this that really throws me off. "Your fate lies with a dead man," was what she said to me. I never would've gone to see a psychic on my own. My friends basically had to drag me into her shop. I try to shake it off and get on with my night. Our group of friends wanders around the carnival for a little while longer before parting ways in the parking lot and promising to see each other at the hospital tomorrow.
I'm driving home, when I spot two cars on the side of the road. They're grotesquely smashed together. No one else is around and I can't see anyone moving in the cars. I call 911 as I get out of my car and race to my trunk. As a nurse, I feel obligated to help others in situations like these, so I keep a first aid kit with some gloves in my car at all times. I explain the location and situation to the operator. Approaching the cars, I see that there's only one person, and he's in bad shape. The door of the other car is flung open. "Hit and run," I mutter under my breath. I snap on my gloves and get to work. I start checking vitals and doing everything I can to keep him alive until the paramedics arrive.
I hitch a ride with him in the ambulance to the hospital. His heart stops beating for a moment on the way there. It starts back up again, but I still feel like I can't breathe. I have so much sympathy and compassion for this person who was left on the side of the road to die. When we get to the hospital, the surgeons and nurses on call take over.
During the next week or so, I check in on my stranger from the wreck. Sometimes I eat my lunch in his room and talk to him. He still hasn't woken up from surgery, so he probably doesn't know I'm there. I hate for him to be alone after what he's been through. I know it's crazy. I don't even know him, but I start to care for him. One day, I'm so busy with work that I don't get a chance to check in with my stranger until the end of my shift. I find a pediatric doctor in the room giggling with him. I don't want to interrupt, so I leave. He's finally awake and I'm excited to get to meet him, but I'm also jealous. I wanted to be there when he woke up.
Days later, the hospital is filled with the rumors of the pediatric doctor's romantic rescue of my stranger. She told him that she was the one who found him. I don't dare correct her, and very few people actually know it was me. I ask them to keep it to themselves. As disappointed as I am, I don't want to stir the pot. More time goes by, and they grow closer. He's discharged, but they still go out to dinner together. I find out from another nurse that his name is Tanner. I would've liked to have learned that from him.
I'm reading a clipboard while walking, and I almost run into him. He's got a hand clenched on his abdomen with a little blood seeping out. I stammer out an apology. He's asking for the pediatric doctor, but she's busy with a patient. Apparently, he's ripped some stitches. I offer to patch him up and he agrees. As I'm working, I can't stop thinking about how I should say something. Just tell him the truth! He'll think I'm crazy. No way he'd believe me. He deserves to know. You d-
"How long have you worked here?" disrupts my internal argument.
I stop and look at his face. Oh god here we go.
"I'm the one who saved you," I blurt out.
He gives me an odd look. I turn beet red and call another nurse over to finish fixing his wound. I am humiliated. I don't know what I was thinking.
The next day, the pediatric doctor comes charging at me and looks like she's ready to take a swing. "I hope you're happy," she spits in my face. He must have told her what I said. Now Tanner thinks I'm a freak and I have a doctor ready to destroy my life/career. I'm at the help desk, when Tanner comes in later that day. He wants to have coffee sometime to thank me for my actions. I'm shocked, but I accept.
We meet up later that week at my favorite little coffee shop. He apologizes for the way the doctor treated me. He confronted her after my outburst. Her reaction told him that what I'd said was true. After lying about something like that, he couldn't see her anymore. I tell him the real story of what happened. He's very grateful for my saving him and telling him the truth. Then, we talk about life things. I'm laughing and I've got this warm feeling in my stomach (I don't think it's the coffee). I make an effort to show him I'm not as odd as I might've seemed at first. We're meeting up for dinner this weekend. As I head back to my car, it clicks. The psychic said my fate was with a dead man. Tanner died in the ambulance, if only for a moment.
Author's note: In the original story, a girl repeatedly hears this disturbing prophecy that her kismet(fate) is with a dead person. She ends up stuck in this castle with a dead prince. She learns that he will marry whoever fans and prays for the prince for forty days. So, she prays and fans him for thirty-nine days, but lets another girl take over for just a bit so she can clean up herself and the room. He awakens to the other girl and marries her. The first girl is devastated. The prince overhears her retelling the true story to a patience-stone and patience-knife. He immediately kills the lying girl and marries his true rescuer.
I wanted to bring this story to a more relatable time period for readers. I kept the idea of the girl rescuing the prince, but with medicine instead of fanning and prayer. Since I plan on working in the medical field, this fit better for me. I had my protagonist blurt out the truth to her prince because I would honestly have a hard time keeping that kind of information to myself. I did not have my impostor murdered because I feel that that would be a bit harsh in today's times.
Bibliography: "Patience-Stone and Patience-Knife" from Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos, link to the reading online.
I'm driving home, when I spot two cars on the side of the road. They're grotesquely smashed together. No one else is around and I can't see anyone moving in the cars. I call 911 as I get out of my car and race to my trunk. As a nurse, I feel obligated to help others in situations like these, so I keep a first aid kit with some gloves in my car at all times. I explain the location and situation to the operator. Approaching the cars, I see that there's only one person, and he's in bad shape. The door of the other car is flung open. "Hit and run," I mutter under my breath. I snap on my gloves and get to work. I start checking vitals and doing everything I can to keep him alive until the paramedics arrive.
(Image Information: Paramedics
Source: Wikimedia Commons)
During the next week or so, I check in on my stranger from the wreck. Sometimes I eat my lunch in his room and talk to him. He still hasn't woken up from surgery, so he probably doesn't know I'm there. I hate for him to be alone after what he's been through. I know it's crazy. I don't even know him, but I start to care for him. One day, I'm so busy with work that I don't get a chance to check in with my stranger until the end of my shift. I find a pediatric doctor in the room giggling with him. I don't want to interrupt, so I leave. He's finally awake and I'm excited to get to meet him, but I'm also jealous. I wanted to be there when he woke up.
Days later, the hospital is filled with the rumors of the pediatric doctor's romantic rescue of my stranger. She told him that she was the one who found him. I don't dare correct her, and very few people actually know it was me. I ask them to keep it to themselves. As disappointed as I am, I don't want to stir the pot. More time goes by, and they grow closer. He's discharged, but they still go out to dinner together. I find out from another nurse that his name is Tanner. I would've liked to have learned that from him.
I'm reading a clipboard while walking, and I almost run into him. He's got a hand clenched on his abdomen with a little blood seeping out. I stammer out an apology. He's asking for the pediatric doctor, but she's busy with a patient. Apparently, he's ripped some stitches. I offer to patch him up and he agrees. As I'm working, I can't stop thinking about how I should say something. Just tell him the truth! He'll think I'm crazy. No way he'd believe me. He deserves to know. You d-
"How long have you worked here?" disrupts my internal argument.
I stop and look at his face. Oh god here we go.
"I'm the one who saved you," I blurt out.
He gives me an odd look. I turn beet red and call another nurse over to finish fixing his wound. I am humiliated. I don't know what I was thinking.
The next day, the pediatric doctor comes charging at me and looks like she's ready to take a swing. "I hope you're happy," she spits in my face. He must have told her what I said. Now Tanner thinks I'm a freak and I have a doctor ready to destroy my life/career. I'm at the help desk, when Tanner comes in later that day. He wants to have coffee sometime to thank me for my actions. I'm shocked, but I accept.
(Image Information: Coffee Shop
Source: Max Pixel)
We meet up later that week at my favorite little coffee shop. He apologizes for the way the doctor treated me. He confronted her after my outburst. Her reaction told him that what I'd said was true. After lying about something like that, he couldn't see her anymore. I tell him the real story of what happened. He's very grateful for my saving him and telling him the truth. Then, we talk about life things. I'm laughing and I've got this warm feeling in my stomach (I don't think it's the coffee). I make an effort to show him I'm not as odd as I might've seemed at first. We're meeting up for dinner this weekend. As I head back to my car, it clicks. The psychic said my fate was with a dead man. Tanner died in the ambulance, if only for a moment.
Author's note: In the original story, a girl repeatedly hears this disturbing prophecy that her kismet(fate) is with a dead person. She ends up stuck in this castle with a dead prince. She learns that he will marry whoever fans and prays for the prince for forty days. So, she prays and fans him for thirty-nine days, but lets another girl take over for just a bit so she can clean up herself and the room. He awakens to the other girl and marries her. The first girl is devastated. The prince overhears her retelling the true story to a patience-stone and patience-knife. He immediately kills the lying girl and marries his true rescuer.
I wanted to bring this story to a more relatable time period for readers. I kept the idea of the girl rescuing the prince, but with medicine instead of fanning and prayer. Since I plan on working in the medical field, this fit better for me. I had my protagonist blurt out the truth to her prince because I would honestly have a hard time keeping that kind of information to myself. I did not have my impostor murdered because I feel that that would be a bit harsh in today's times.
Bibliography: "Patience-Stone and Patience-Knife" from Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos, link to the reading online.
Hi Casey!
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful story, and I liked how you made it more relatable to yourself. It honestly felt like a story I was reading that manuscript of a TV show. Anyways, I think the fact that you disperse images throughout the story really helps making your story stronger as it allows for more visual details. Your author's note really shows what you did differently, and was easy to follow along. I never read the original story, but this was so so good! Nice job!
Hi again Casey!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful story! I read the original, and it made me feel terrible for the heroine. She does all the work, but someone else gets the credit. At least it worked out in the end! I think that making the story more contemporary, and focusing on medical care instead of praying over a body, was a smart choice. The way it came out, it almost read to me like a romantic comedy, or at least the good basis for one.