22-9-2002

Caught a glimpse of the cardiac monitor in the next cubicle. The strange pattern caught my eye first. Not only was the rate irregularly irregular, the amplitude too was going up and down like a frenzy rope swung by 2 people not looking at each other. The frenzied heart beat gasped for its own breath as if it's using full energy to run for the last train. And as the train fades out in its own pace, the heart finally has to slow down. 25 ... 20... 5... 0...

By then, the people surrounding the bed have dried their tears, but their swollen eyes reminded them that, it was real, it really happened.

The nurses started to pack things away, folding tubes and wirings, pushing away the disconnected cardiac monitor... I wondered if he was still there, since I once learned that, hearing, is one of the last senses to fade.

Right next to the cubicle, in the one where I was, nobody noticed the gloom of next door; the TV drama brought laughter to those watching it, doctors and nurses walking in and out, and I, who was caught at that moment in time, woke up again.

Life goes on...