Crazy Charlie
Crazy Charlie
Charlie Pickett was a desolate man. He was alone and empty but he wasn’t stupid. For he had the skills that caused people’s jaws to touch the floor. Brain surgeries that took most doctors over eight hours would take him five. He had the best mortality rate in the hospital and was on the road to success and big fame. Everyone wanted him or wanted to be him. Offers from the most brilliant and prestigious hospitals in America were at his doorstep and his own staff worshipped the ground he walked on. But there was a secret about him that not many people knew until it was too late.
On the chilly fall morning of September twelfth, Charlie woke up at three in the morning for his shift. He followed through his usual routine of the bathroom, two mugs of coffee, a kiss to his wife’s forehead, and then driving to the local hospital in which he worked at. He had been going through his daily morning rounds on his patients when a nurse walked in to tell him that his boss wanted to see him.
“Now?” he asked, clutching the clipboard full of medical facts on the patient he was standing next to. The elderly lady in her hospital bed continued watching the television.
“Yes, Dr. Pickett,” the red-headed nurse answered.
“Okay,” he answered, placing the clipboard down.
The nurse’s eyebrows pinched together. “You’re not going to finish Anne’s chart first?”
“Anne?” Charlie said, confused.
“Anne,” the nurse repeated. She pointed to the elderly lady. “Her name’s Anne, Dr. Pickett. You’ve been her doctor for over six months now.”
“Oh,” he said. And then he put his pen back into his pocket and walked past the nurse and Anne. “I’ll do it later,” he said as he left. “The boss needs to see me.”
As Charlie walked to Doctor Joe’s—the boss’s—office, he knew what was going to happen. Charlie had been waiting since he transferred to this hospital to get promoted. He was finally going to be Chief of Neurology, the team he worked on. The chief position was the highest of the team and Charlie knew it was meant for him. He wanted it more than anything and a smile crept onto his face as he walked into his boss’s office.
“What do you mean I’m not getting the chief position?” Charlie boomed a couple minutes later after speaking to his boss. He couldn’t believe what he had just heard.
Doctor Joe leaned back into his seat, folding his hands on his desk. “Charlie, you are a very passionate and hardworking doctor but you lack something.”
“What in the world are you talking about?” He banged his fists onto the desk.
“You don’t care about the patients,” answered his boss. He narrowed his eyes at Charlie's outburst. Who was in higher level here? “You do surgery like a robot. You don’t give a damn if the person lives or not. You just like cutting people up and fixing them. Hell, I’m sure you don’t even know who you’re doing surgery on most the time—only whatever condition they have.”
“That’s not true!” Charlie yelled though moments ago that had certainly been the case. “I deserve this position and you know it, Benjamin!”
Doctor Joe rose from his seat. “I am talking to you as your boss, Charlie! Not your friend. Until you get any idea what I’m even talking about, Doctor Parkin is in charge of the team!”
“Who the hell is Doctor Parkin?” Charlie had never heard of him or her.
“He is transferring from a hospital in Arizona—a very good neurological doctor. He’s also been my friend for over ten years and I will be trusting this team in his hands for now,” Dr. Joe answered, sitting back down. He smoothed his wrinkled shirt.
“So, that’s it, huh?” Charlie said. This time, he stood. “I don’t need you, Ben. I don’t need this hospital. You’re wrong. Hospitals need me. You need me. Good luck continuing this hospital’s name without me.” He exited the room angrily.
“You’re only thirty-two, Charlie!” the boss called out after him. “There’s still so many opportunities! I’m trying to help you grow into the best doctor.”
Charlie ignored that as he stalked off down the hallway, walking fast and breathing heavy. That wasn’t good enough for Charlie. He wanted everything now. And if he wasn’t going to get that position, nobody would.
The next day at lunch, the notorious Dr. Parkin showed up. He was a tall man with dark skin and bright hazel eyes. He smiled a lot—too much, Charlie thought. Everything about Dr. Parkin sent Charlie into a dark and angry place. He was just too perfect. Even when Charlie tried sending undertone rude messages, Dr. Parkin would nod and smile and ask Charlie how his day was. It was infuriating.
So Charlie devised a plan and followed through.
And the day after that, Dr. Parkin went missing.
“Due to the absence of Dr. Parkin,” Doctor Joe said the evening after, “you are now the temporary head of the neurology team. Congratulations and thank you for filling in.” He stood and extended a hand towards Charlie.
“No problem,” Charlie had answered, grinning for more reasons than one. And the days rolled on as chief. The power was amazing. The rush in the advanced surgeries was vigorous. He saw, smelt, felt his job to the bone and it was great. At times he did worry about what he had done…to Dr. Parkin…but then he would move on from his thoughts because he felt no remorse and no guilt. It was ironic. His field of work was to save people and yet what had happened to Dr. Parkin was anything but that.
One day, there was a bump in his plan to rule the hospital. Anne, the elderly and fragile lady, had started getting horrible seizures. Charlie had rushed in with his team and pulled out the defibrillators and jolted it to 30, 90, and then to 100. But Anne’s chest neither rose nor fell. She was dead and gone.
“Damn it!” Charlie cursed. “Set it to 120!” He knew what this meant. If Anne died, if any patient died, it wouldn’t look good. Sure, patients died all the time but not when he just had become chief. He had worked too hard. He had too much blood on his hands over this job.
“But, Dr. Pickett—”
“Now!” Charlie barked and the nurse complied, obeying the chief. He pressed down the two pads down to Anne’s chest and the shock shook her but not enough to bring her back. “To 150!” Charlie ordered.
“Dr. Pickett, she’s already gone. You’re only—”
“I said right now!” His normally well kept hair fell to his eyes. Sweat dropped from the sides of his face and down his chin. He pushed his sleeves up. “Now, damn it!”
The nurse nodded and turned the handle. Charlie kept going, kept electrocuting. It was the same result every time. Five, ten, thirty minutes passed. The doctors all stared at each other in wonder where the real Dr. Pickett had gone. Where was the usually composed and intelligent doctor they had known? Charlie’s true self was slipping through the cracks of his mask. It wasn’t until Doctor Joe walked in and placed his hand on Charlie’s shoulder that Charlie stopped.
“She’s gone, Charlie! Let it go!”
Charlie picked up the defibrillator pads and turned to Doctor Joe. “We can save her! I can save her!” he said, shaking the pads up in the air. His eyes were wide and his eyebrows arched.
Doctor Joe backed up, hands up in surrender. “Calm down, Charlie. Put the defibrillator down.” Charlie listened and threw them aside in anguish. The boss looked around and ordered everyone out. The doctors and nurses piled out of the room as Doctor Joe sat down next to Charlie, who had sat on Anne’s hand without even noticing.
“Listen, Charlie,” he said. “It’s okay to lose a patient. I can see that being chief has changed you. I can see you obviously care about the patient but now maybe too much. It’s okay to lose them sometimes. Life happens. But you need to work this out. I don’t know what’s been going on with you lately. You’re falling apart.” And then Doctor Joe pat Charlie’s shoulder once before leaving him alone in a dimly lighted hospital room with the faint noise of machines whirring and a dead body.
The truth was Charlie didn’t even care about the patient. He only wanted to save Anne so he wouldn’t lose his position but seeing now that his boss thought Charlie was some saint now, he didn’t argue. What was bugging him was that he was changing. There was stubble on his chin and his hair was greasy. Did finishing off Dr. Parkin have that much of an effect? It was a matter of time before he broke completely, secrets threatening to spill out of him.
For the next few days, he got it together—shaving his growing beard, taking showers, eating on time. People were in awe at his remarkable comeback and followed him like a lost puppy everywhere he went. Doctor Joe was the only person that seemed to find something a little off but Charlie was too busy basking in his own greatness to notice. It had been a week since Dr. Parkin had been missing and even police had started calling it a cold case, no evidence to lead them anywhere. Charlie was over the moon. Everything was perfect.
One afternoon while leaving his shift, he tightened his jacket around himself as the October winds blew in the night. He drove his car but intentionally missed the right turn that lead home. Instead, he drove farther into the edgy woods that lurked around town and to a place he had gone before. He needed to check on something—rather, someone. Dr. Parkin. He dug up the area where he had thrown the body and a smug expression lit Charlie’s face when he saw that Dr. Parkin was still there. He felt invincible. Nobody would catch him ever.
“I knew there was something weird going on, but Jesus, I didn’t think you were this messed up, Charlie.”
In the blink of an eye, Charlie turned around, the shovel in his hands. It was Doctor Joe. He hobbled over to where Charlie was. His knee was giving out due to old age and even the cold wind seemed to feel too rough to Doctor Joe but he was too busy watching Charlie to notice. Too busy watching Charlie dig up a dead body.
“D-Doctor Joe,” stammered a sweaty Charlie. “What are you doing here?”
“This is messed up, Charlie.” Doctor Joe was frowning but didn't seem surprised. He reached into his pocket for his cell phone. “I didn’t think you of all people would be up to this.” He started dialing buttons.
“What’re you doing?”
“Calling the police,” he answered. His cold fingers punched in 9-1-1.
A sick smile crept up Charlie’s face, his previous fear gone. He was a different person now. “I’m sorry, Benjamin—” Doctor Joe looked up at the change of tone in Charlie’s voice, “—but I can’t let you do that.”
That day was a very chilly day. It almost reached zero degrees that night in the Canadian town they lived in. The ground was hard and leaves flew off of the trees. In a tiny house with the lights on, the front door opened. A man with oncoming wrinkles under his eyes walked in, his shoulder slugging from a hard day of work.
“Charlie, honey, you’re home,” Mrs. Pickett said. She was pulling out some chicken from the oven in red checkered gloves. “Late night?”
Her husband dragged his feet into the kitchen and set down his briefcase. Charlie loosed his tie and ran a hand through his hair before smiling. “You could say that.”
She took off her gloves and walked over to plant a kiss to his cheek. “Jeez, you’re freezing.” She ran her arms up and down his. “Let’s get you some nice, warm dinner and some hot chocolate, alright?” Her husband nodded and she smiled, casting her eyes down. A fleck of red captured her eyes. She ran her finger over the dark stain. “What’s this?” she asked with not much concern over it. She’d just have to wash it out.
Charlie looked down and a flash of evil shadowed his face before his wife noticed. He shrugged and smiled at her. “Who knows?”
you have no idea how hard it is for me in my creative writing class because i'm so used to writing like twenty pages and over four thousand words and then my classmates have half a page done with no correct grammar and punctuation and ugh secret life!!!! x
i feel like baking cookies
so i shall
