Marbles

The doctors at St. Mercy’s were baffled. A lot of hushed whispers flowed around the bed of their newest patient. The nurse had called a doctor, the doctor called another, and the other called a third. Soon, the room was full of a crowd of at least twenty or so of the best specialists and consultants in the hospital, but none was willing to try and take responsibility for the newest ward, nor be brave enough to operate. Their hushed whispers grew louder, it turned into an argument as each department tried to convince the other to claim the glory.

Behind them, two worried parents hovered. They asked questions that no one answered and listened confused to numerous medical terms being flung around until the room came to complete silence. The oldest between the doctors turned to the couple and cleared his throat.

“Is Billy going to be okay? Are you going to take that marble out of his forehead?”

“Well, uh-you see, ma’am,” the man started and glanced behind him at the other doctors who ushered him to keep going. “Billy fell off the monkey bars and into a pit of marbles. One of them went through his forehead and broke through the bone. We aren’t sure how yet, but Billy used that hole to stuff his head full of marbles. We are afraid his brain will implode if we remove the marble that he used to seal the hole in his forehead.”

The doctor fidgeted. He tried to keep a poker face as he spoke. Really, how dumb do you have to be to stick a marble up your brain? He dealt with cases of kids inhaling those nasty buggers, but to shove an entire bag’s worth straight into a brain? That was new-also the kid didn’t die-maybe the kid was too stupid his brain didn’t realize it was supposed to die. The parents pushed past him and went to the bed their son was in. Billy was sucking on a lollipop, a blue marble sticking out of his forehead. It was held in their by some mud, worms, and grass.

“Errrr….” The mother that was ready to fume backed away, and so did her husband. “Listen, doctors, we think the case is way too severe. I bet the poor boy is in too much pain, maybe we can put him down? Mercifully?”

“Ma’am, that’s a human, not an animal. He’s still functioning just fine!” The doctor yelled as he pointed at the bed, but twitched a little when he saw Billy trying to stick the lollipop into the hole in his forehead after pulling out the blue marble. The doctors were utterly quiet as they watched some brain matter leak out.

“On second thought, let’s go talk in my office. We can arrange for euthanasia.”