The Dehumanization of Ethan Brown

Ethan started walking back in nearly pitch black. Fortunately, many of the houses along the road had lights on which helped him guide home. Ethan here a horn blow and jumps towards the road accidentally. The car stops upon impact. The driver, a man around Ryan’s age, jumped out. Ethan howled in pain his leg was still under one of the tires. “Could you get your car off my leg?” Ethan screamed.

“What were you doing in the street?”

“Get your fucking vehicle off my leg?” Ethan started crying.

The driver returned to the car and moved it back. After stepping out of the car, he used his cell phone to call for help. “An ambulance will be here soon.”

“I don’t need a fucking ambulance.”

“Your leg is crushed.”

“Just pull me to the side of the road,” Ethan stated. “I’ll be fine.”

The man pulled Ethan to the side of the road so other vehicles could pass. “I can’t leave you like this. You could die.”

“I assure you that won’t fucking happen.” Ethan closed his eyes. “You have to leave.” Ethan took off his shirt. “Please.” Ethan’s tears flowed down his cheeks.

The man pulled the car to the side of the road. “Mister, let’st fot for the ambulance.”

“I don’t want a fucking ambulance.” Ethan closed his eyes and waited. He woke at the hospital. “I dropped my food in the street.” Now, he remembered he heard a loud honk and saw bright headlights and jumping toward the car instead of away.

“I don’t think you should eat,” the nurse said.

Ethan looked at his leg that was in traction and hurt like hell, but he needed to be checout.out. “Can I call my wife?”

“The phone is on the table. Dial 9 to get out. So John, do you have a name?”

“Ethan Brown. I have insurance with the city,” he said.

“That name is familiar,” the nurse said.

“I make frequent visits here,” Ethan laughed. “I want to call my wife and I need breakfast.”

“Call,” the nurse said. “I’ll check your chart to see iu’reu’re allowed breakfast.”

Ethan dialed the house as soon as the nurse left the room. “I’m in traction,” he told his wife.

“We have to get you out of the hospital,” Ria said.

“Can I speak to Juan?” Ethan asked. He told Juan which hospital he was at and his room number. “I need to get out of here. My leg can’t heal with all these pins in it.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll cause a diversion and get you out.”

“How can I tell the hospital that I’m leaving against medical advice if you’re sneaking me out?”

“We’ll worry about that later. You must be hungry.”

“Fuck, I’m starving. The fat nurse is looking good.” Ethan licked his lips.

“Emilio and I will be over with food,” Juan said. “You’ll be home by tonight.”

“My captain will hear about this within the hour. Shit, it isn’t like I can hide with a hundred pins in my fucking leg,” Ethan said.

“We’ll get you out even if we have to cut the fucking thing off and let it grow back. Stay cool.”

“Mr. Brown,” the nurse said. “I found your record. No food but can can have water. The doctor fears he might need to do surgery on that leg.”

“No surgery. Just fucking amputate and let me go home,” Ethan insisted.

“I get you the doctor,” the nurse said.

“Help me sit the fuck up,” Ethan said.

The nurse pulled Ethan to a sitting position as she pushed the button on the bed. The nurse put the pitcher and cup in his reach. The nurse pointed to the urinal on the bed rail. “If you need a bed pan, push the button.”

“I want to see my doctor,” Ethan said. The painkillers were putting him to sleep. He must have had morphine in his IV so it would go directly into his blood stream. Ethan was surprisingly free of pain, but his head was very cloudy.

The doctor arrived soon after the nurse left. “Mr. Brown, you were found in shock along the highway without any ID.”

“I walked a friend to work,” Ethan said. “I need something to eat.”

“You’ll need surgery to save that leg,” the doctor said.

“I don’t want to be medicated without my consent. Don’t administrator painkillers without asking me first,” Ethan insisted. “You are?”

“Dr. Anderson.”

“Can you put my fucking leg in a cast and sign me out?”

“Mr. Brown, your leg is broken in several places. You’re lucky that you didn’t lose the leg.”

“Saw it the fuck off and send me home then. I need to eat. You don’t fucking understand.” That fat nurse was looking awful tasty by now. All Brown needed was food to heal, why couldn’t he have it?

“Mr. Brown, I’m fairly confident that your leg can be saved. Sign the forms for the necessary surgery.”

“I’m not.” Ethan turned his head from the doctor.

The doctor talked to Ethan about signing the consent forms for surgery as Ethan pretended to sleep. “I’m leaving the forms. Mr. Brown, if that leg isn’t operated on, there is a good chance that you could lose the use of it.”

Juan and Emilio, both wearing backpacks, entered the room. “Ethan, you were right about the amount of pins in it. We might need another body to cause a distraction.”

“The nurse as long as I get to eat her afterwards,” Ethan said.

“First rule of the pack life is that you don’t eat people; it draws too much attention,” Emilio said.

“I can’t heal it with those fucking pins in it,” Ethan complained softly. “I can smell the food. Hand it over. Now!”

“I brought you mashed potatoes and meatloaf,” Emilio said.

Juan pulled the shade closed. “Those nuts putting a werewolf on food restrictions.” Juan put a serving tray of sliced meat in front of him. “Eat. My wife cut it into bite size pieces for you.”

Ethan ate the slightly cooked flesh with his fingers greedily. Emilio looked at the device on Ethan’s leg. Ethan was too busy eating to notice that the nurse had returned.

“You’re on food restrictions,” the nurse stated.

“Fuck, my man was hungry. You’ll feed him unless you want to be part of the fucking menu.” Juan’s voice sounded clear and strong like he wasn’t joking.

“It’s not visiting hours. You gentlemen will have to leave,” the nurse said undaunted. “Ethan, you can’t eat anymore.”

“I’m eating,” Ethan continued to stuff barely cooked thinly sliced beef in his mouth. It was soaked in lemon juice and cut so thinly that he hardly had to chew it at all. “Juan, tell your wife thank you for the steak. I know she went to a lot of effort.” Ethan cleaned the plate. “Emilio, I would love some mashed potatoes.”

Emilio put the food he brought in front of Ethan. “Eat,” Emilio said. “You need the energy to heal.”

Ethan ate the food ignoring the nurse’s pleads that he was breaking doctor’s orders by eating.

“Can we speak to Ethan a moment privately and we’ll leave?” Juan said.

“Five more minutes,” the nurse said.

Juan whispered into Ethan’s ear. “We’ll return later with a saw. Can you think you can manage not to scream when we saw it off?”

“We can’t. If they see me with a leg later, they’ll be suspicious,” Ethan whispered. “I’m a regular visitor to this fucking hospital.”

“We need to get you out of that device quickly. We can pull out the pins later. We’ll get some help and return. Don’t let them take you to suy,” y,” Emilio said. “I’m sorry that the nurse didn’t let you finish your meal in peace.”

Juan hid some wrapped food under Ethan’s pillow then kissed Ethan’s lips briefly. “We won’t forget about you. We have another one of our members in a car accident banged up worse than this and got her out of the hospital.”

Ethan cried as the painkillers left his body. He sat up as far as he could to feel the leg with his hand.

The doctor returned. “Mr. Brown, I can’t have you eating before surgery.”

“I don’t want the fucking surgery. Give me a day to think about it.”

“The artery in the leg is damaged. If you don’t get further surgery, you’ll lose that leg.”

“Just look at my fucking leg,” Ethan said.

The doctor moved his hand over the leg. He loosened the traction some. “Your leg is healing extremely fast. You won’t need surgery.”

“Can you take the fucking pins out? They hurt.”

“You need the pins; they\'re keg yog your leg straight inside the soft cast. Without those pins, your bones will poke through the skin again and it’ll hurt even more than it does now. I’m amazed how fast your skin healed. You did weeks of healing in hours.”

“Can you let me out of traction and give me a pair of crutches and let me sign out?” Ethan asked. Ethan decided that he better keep his foul language to a minimum. The doctor gave him this evil look each time he said the F-word.

“Mr. Brown.” The doctor reduced the traction more. “Does that feel better?”

“I can’t heal with that fu-foreign matter in my leg,” Ethan said.

The elderly doctor moved his hand down the leg. “Amazing. Aren’t you the boy that survived that shooting?”

“That’s me,” Ethan said sheepishly.

“That Ethan Brown was a nice boy that didn’t curse, threaten to eat the nurses and he was polite to everybody. Her girlfriend was a bit of an asshole,” the doctor said.

“The girlfriend is dyso Iso I’m sorry if I’m the sweet young man that you remember. Sometimes, God shits on you.”

The doctor wrote in the record before leaving the room.

Captain Brooks arrived. “Brown, you can’t stay away from trouble.”

“I stepped in front of a car,” Ethan said. “Please, don’t cancel my class in two weeks. I’ll healed from this by then.”

“Brown, you have multiple fractures to your femur. Your tibia and fibula were both sticking out of your leg.”

“Look at my leg,” Ethan insisted.

Captain Brooks looked at the leg without a cut on the surface. “Ethan, I don’t want to know how you heal it so fast.”

“The nurse must have exaggerated my injures.” Ethan drank some water. He reached under his pillow and started to unwrap the food. Ethan ate the nuts quickly. “Shit, am I starving? Can you get me a bag of peanuts? They should sell them at the gift shop.”

“I remember your appetite. Dinner is being served. You can wait.”

“Hospital food is fucking awful.”

Emilio, Juan and three others from the pack arrived. “Hello, Captain Brooks,” Juan said.

“Juan Lopez,” Captain Brooks stammered.

“I brought you some lasagna. I know it isn’t as good as yours,” Margaret said setting up the rather large tray of heavy lasagna on his lap. “Everyone wants you home. Ria misses fighting with you.”

“I’ll see you at work,” Brown said. “My family is here.” He dug into the cold lasagna.

“Get well soon.” Captain Brooks waved good-bye.

“I will.” Ethan returned to his food. Ethan was too busy eating to see everything that the pack members were doing, but his leg was no longer pulled in traction and he knew there was someone with the door in case the nurse returned.

“Margaret, find him a wheelchair,” Juan whispered.

In a few minutes, he was in a wheelchair and passed the hall nurse. Ryan dressed as an X-ray technician pushed Ethan into the elevator. Ethan’s injured leg was out straight and covered with a blanket. Camilla helped Ethan into the car. Ethan was still unable to bend his leg due to the pins and the soft cast so Camilla allowed him to use most of the back seat while she joined Ria in the front. “Honey, we’ll cut you out of the cast as soon as you’re home.”

“Thanks,” Ethan said. “I need to change and finish healing. When that snotty nurse denied me breakfast, I felt like eating her.”

“You didn’t,” Ria said as they pulled away from the hospital.

“I didn’t want to force the pack to leave the city,” Ethan said. “If I had eaten the fat nurse, our fucking reputations would be ruined. She should be glad I didn’t meet her in a dark alley.”

“You’re a common fixture at Mercy,” Ria said.

“Not anymore,” Ethan said. “I’ll crawl away, anything to prevent going to a fucking hospital. I wished there were more trees or shrubs on the lawn that I crawled onto so I could have changed and ran away.”

Ryan and Ria carried Ethan out of the car and placed him on the living room floor. Ryan pulled oll tll the pins of Ethan’s leg then he cut the cast with a knife. Ryan checked the leg for more metal. “Would you like me to cut open to take out the metal inside it or be you want your body to absorb it?”

“What will happen if I don’t have you cut it out?”

“It could ache for weeks. I could cut it open now and the pain would be far worse but it’ll over fast,” Ryan said. “Why didn’t you crawl away before the ambulance arrived?”

“I lost consciousness,” Ethan moaned. “That man wouldn’t leave me on the side of the road. It was my fucking fault. I walked in front of his car.”

“Do you want me to pull out the metal now?” Ryan asked.

“No, I’m not ready for more agony.” Ethan was still very hungry. “I need some food desperately.”

“I’ll get you more food. Is dog food all right?” Ryan asked.

“Do you want me to change?” Ethan asked too sore and tired to think. “I’ll bring a flashlight with me next time that I walk you. The headlights and horn startled me and I jumped toward the car not away. I didn’t sign out of the hospital. My captain is going to be pissed at me.” Ethan touched Ryan’s hand. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”

“I’m cute,” Ryan said as he walked back to the kitchen. “I have too large freckles, dark-blond curly hair, and although I have been trying to grow a beard for years all I have is peach fuzz.” Ryan’s blood was German as well as Sephardic. He definitely had a characteristic Jewish nose and other Mediterranean features.

Ethan followed Ryan to the kitchen. “What’s wrong with being cute? Werewolves aren’t known for our height.” Ethan was the tallest one in the house; perhaps, Jake was taller but it was a close call.

“I work at a convenience store alone at night. I want to be look intimating, not cute.” Ryan stood up to his 64 inches and tried to make his 120 pounds look more threatening. “I look fourteen.”

“You must look over twenty-one; you’re rarely carded.”

“I act old.”

“True. I forget that you’re eight years younger than I.” Ethan kissed his forehead.

“I keep forgetting that you’re not twenty-one.” Ryan put his hand through Ethan’s soft beard. “I think you’re beautiful, too.”