Eye Exam

by Callan

 

 

It was cold and silent  in the eye exam room. The patient was naked seated in a tall metal chair gazing with wide empty eyes at her  large feet. Her feet were paler than the rest of her body, and, some how more naked, more vulnerable that the trembling totality of her overall nudity.  The nurse  entered the room  and began pulling down ropes and levers in order to administer the eye drops. The  doctor followed close on her heels, he did not look  at the patient, he thumbed through a thick file he held in his hand. He ascended the  sturdy metal  heights of the head examination latter.  The nurse retrieved the second examination latter from the closest.   Once she had positioned it correctly she mounted   the flimsy wooden steps and  secured herself to the lateral pulleys. With a great sigh she  swung into the center of the room, suspended from the ceiling she hung free style in the air. While waiting for the optometrists instructions, she used her hands to cast the shadows of   animals on to the chilly loveless walls of the  examination room. The naked trembling patient smiled through her heavy dehumanizing head gear, tears of gratitude streaking her pale  cheeks. The eye doctor  was slow and self-involved. He took no notice of the consummate professionalism  of the hanging nurse. He was blind to the eager submission of the patient.

Beneath the wide yellow nail of his big   toe was a splinter. This mild and ordinary pain consumed him. He climbed down the old ladder and  removed his shoe and  sock. He began to seek the small bit of wood that pressed painfully into the tender protected flesh. He exhaled loudly as the splinter escaped his thick probing fingers. No one cared for him.

At last, he stood up and nodded at the nurse. Protocol necessitated his presence while the nurse administered the correct amount of head kicks and eye drops. She swung  like a pendulum , two and fro, two and fro. The doctor glanced  at the his watch,   the only sound was the dull thud of the nurses foot against the patient skull.

The patient held as still as she could during her procedure. Eyes fixed on a dark sloppy spot painted on the wall.  Her eyes watered, and blood trickled from the wounds on her palms, but she made no noise.

The steady drip, drip, drip, of blood combined with the swish of air created a soothing, steady rhythm. The Doctor checked his watch and leaned against the cool sterile wall of the eye-exam room, his head sank to his chest and he dozed  lulled into sleep by the rhythm of the procedure.