Head Injured

Later that day the doctor managing his treatment visited. He was a young Indian doctor with a pleasant face and dressed in a long white lab coat. He asked Henry questions which he marked down on a clipboard.
"Where were you before Miami, Henry?" said the doctor.
"In the arms of a beautiful woman."
The doctor smiled. "And how did you hurt yourself?"
"I was in a motor car accident and broke my neck bones and broke them again and again."
"You injured your head too, I see."
"Did I? Shit. Shit." He seemed worried.
"Yes you did, Henry," said the mother. "It was a motorcycle accident. He hit his head on the pavement causing a compressed fracture on the right side. A piece of bone was removed here," pointing to the pink scar-marked depression on the right side of his forehead. "A burr hole was done on the left side to relieve pressure from a small left-side bleed on the brain."
"Good, good," said the doctor, examining the burr hole.
"He also has a broken right humorous that was plated and pinned, broken vertebrae in the neck, broken ribs, and a collapsed lung which has healed. The lung was being drained in ICU but he pulled out the tube and they did not replace it."
"What have you been doing on the third floor before you came to us, Henry?"
"Just talks and thoughts. Talks and thoughts. That’s all."
"You know, you are very lucky?"
"Yeah, the feedback is telling me that."
"You could have been dead, or a vegetable."
"Yeah, it would suck being a vegetable. In the truck like a vegetable, out the truck like a vegetable."
The doctor smiled.
Outside in the hallway a patient began screaming.
"That was like me," Henry said.
"What was?"
"The ahhh, ahhhh, help me, help."
"You weren’t like that," I said.
"Yes, I was. Help me, help me, I was yelling it all the time."
"What did you do before your injury, Henry?"
"Importing. Importing pub stuff. Pubs, clothes and stuff. Importing cocaine."
"What?"
"No," I said, "he’s a clothing importer exporter."
"Okay," the doctor said. "You will import and export again, Henry."
"What sports did you play before this injury?"
"Cricket, golf."
"You know cricket?" The doctor was impressed.
"You didn’t play cricket, Henry," said the mother. "He only played some cricket as a boy."
"I know mom, I know. I’ve got to tell the doctor."
"You like to surf, Henry."
"I like to surf," he said.
"I would like to learn to surf," said the doctor. "If I help you here will you teach me to surf?"
"I’ll teach you to surf, yeah."
"This treatment is expensive," said the doctor. "Can I trade the cost of this treatment for surfing lessons when you are able?"
"I’ll teach you. I don’t want to take your money."
The doctor smiled.
"I don’t want your money," Henry said again.
"He’s getting tired," said the mother.
"Are you tired, Henry?" the doctor asked.
"A little."
"Do you want to sleep, Henry?" the mother asked.
"A little."
"I’ll let him rest and come back later," the doctor said.
As we prepared to leave, the patient in the hallway began screaming again.
"Sounds like my neighbor," said Henry. "The yelling. Ahhh, ahhhh, ahh. I was like, Fucking hell, deal with it you cunt. You’re fucked like me."