"ONE MORE MINUTE"
“I think time is a… is a funny thing, don’t you?”
“Well, you know… how they… they say it either goes too slow or too fast? You have too much of it on your hands, or… or you’re runnin’ out of it? It stands still or it passes you by. Time can be fleeting, time can be endless. It can be your friend, or it can be your enemy. Time flies, time marches.... Oh. Well, I… I guess you get the idea.”
“What’s so funny about it… is that it’s really none of those things. It-it’s all in our heads. What I’m tryin’ to say is, time is just… time. That’s all. There’s nothin’ magical about it. There’s sixty seconds in every minute; there’s sixty minutes in every hour. You can’t turn back the hands of time.... Well…, you can turn back the hands of a clock, but that doesn’t count. Not really. You can’t fool Father Time. After all, he’s been around a long time, you know. You can’t… you don’t grow a beard like that overnight.”
“What? Oh. The point? The point. Yeah. Umm. Okay. I have one. I have one. It’s just… I-I’ve kinda forgotten what it is, so just give me a minute. There. You see what I mean? You can’t “give” me a minute, any more than I can… I can “take” one. As much as we’d like to believe we can control everything, time… time isn’t ours to give… or to take for that matter. I bet you’re probably thinkin’ that I’m wastin’ your time. I know that look. But, you know, that’s something I do believe. That time can be wasted. No matter what, we do only have so much time here on earth, an-and every day that goes by, is a… a day none of us’ll ever have again. That’s kinda scary. I mean… if you stop and think about it.”
“You know, I’d kinda like to… to have this day back. I’m not feelin’ so good. Tired. I just wanna close my eyes. But, this voice keeps sayin’ I have to hang on one more minute. I don’t know if I can. If I… if I didn’t know better, I’d say my time is… almost up.”
~ ~ ~ ~
“Roy? Who’s he talkin’ to?”
“I don’t know, Cap. But as long as he keeps talking, we know he’s still with us.”
“Yeah, well, let me know if he starts answering himself. Then, I’ll know it’s really time to worry.”
“Yeah.”
“Roy, I’m sorry. That wasn’t funny. Look, we’re all worried, pal. I’m gonna go back out there and see how things are goin’. You need anything?”
“Yeah, just one thing, Cap.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“More time.”
~ ~ ~ ~
“Man, the… the next time I complain about havin’ a headache, just remind me about this one. It feels like somebody took a swing at the back of m’ head with a two-by-four. I… uh… I don’t suppose either of you has any aspirin? No, huh? Well, that… that’s okay. I don’t think aspirin’s gonna do the trick this time anyway. You know, that reminds me of the last time I went to the store to pick up something for a headache… it took me almost an hour -- an hour -- just to figure out what I needed. And then… and then, I left with a bigger headache than I went in with.”
“Do you know how many brands of aspirin there are? Well, they don’t all come right out and say that’s what they are… you gotta learn to read the fine print, but I mean… aren’t they all the same thing? You’d think so, wouldn’t you? Well, if that’s true, then how come… how come they’re all different prices? And, you know, you can’t just go by the price of the bottle. I mean one bottle has 24 in it, so you think it’s more expensive than the one next to it, but that one’s only got 20. So then, you… you stand there and try’n figure out how much each little pill costs to see which is really the better buy. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the better aspirin. Then, just… just when you think you’ve got it figured out, you see the bottle of Tylenol on the shelf right below it. So you start lookin’ at that. Before you know it, you’re lookin’ at the other brands of acetaminophen and tryin’ to figure out if that’s better than aspirin for what ails you, and then you see all the... all the other stuff. You know, the ones that have more than one ingredient. I… uh… I kinda like the ones with the caffeine in them, myself.”
“So, anyway, you finally make your choice and you’re ready to leave, but, then you turn around and on the shelf behind you is all the stuff for sinus headaches. So you start askin’ yourself. Do I have a sinus headache? So you gotta read those labels to see if your symptoms match those on that box. Speakin’ of labels. Have you ever pulled out those… those little folded-up pieces of paper they put inside the boxes? The ones that show all the side-effects? All you want is something for a headache, but now you gotta worry about nausea and dizziness and fallin’ asleep behind the wheel of your car, not to mention bleeding ulcers and… and chicken pox. I tell you, it’s enough to make a… a crazy person sane.”
“I… uh… I haven’t even taken anything, but I think I have a few of those side effects right now. Whenever I move my head, the room sorta starts spinnin’ and I… I feel like I’m gonna lose m’ lunch. Still think if I just... closed my eyes for a while, everything would be okay. Sure does seem like it’s been more’n a minute though.”
~ ~ ~ ~
“What’s the news, Chet?”
“Not good, Roy. Cap sent me in to tell you there’s been another cave-in where we’ve been tunneling. It seemed we were gettin’ pretty close, but this is going to set us back at least another twenty or thirty minutes. How… uh… how’s Johnny doing?”
“I’m not sure. It sounds like he might have a head injury, but I can’t tell what else. I don’t even know if he can hear me. I keep telling him to hold on, but I don’t know how much longer he’s gonna last. Even though we’re pumping oxygen in, the air down there has to be pretty bad.”
“Cap said John was talking quite a bit. That’s a good sign, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. Yeah, sort of. It’s just that… that what little I can make out, he isn’t making much sense.”
“Well, that must be a good sign, then. Gage not making sense is perfectly normal. I mean… even you say it scares you when you understand him.”
“I guess maybe I do. Still....”
“Come on, Roy. He’ll be okay. You’ll see. You know, if he just hadn’t turned around to get the drug box, he would have made it out before the whole thing came crashing down again. I still haven’t figured out if John’s got the worst luck or the best luck of any guy I’ve ever known. I mean, he coulda been killed. Instead, he’s sittin’ there, talkin’ like there’s no tomorrow.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I know what you mean. Let’s hope he does… have a tomorrow.”
“Just keep thinking positive thoughts. We’ll send some good vibes to keep him company.”
“You know… it… it sounds like he thinks there’s someone else down there with him. Two people, as a matter of fact.”
“Well, whoever he thinks they are, I hope they have more patience than we do. Whatever it is he’s going on about, we’d have probably told him he was nuts, and left the room by now.”
“You know, I… uh… I’m kinda hard on him sometimes. I don’t mean anything by it. He’s just… he’s just....”
“... Crazy. I know. Roy… Roy, we’ll get him out. You gotta tell him to hold on. Just a few more minutes. I’m gonna go back and relieve Marco now. You… uh… you hang in there, too, okay? As soon as we’re close, we’ll come get you. Till then, you just make sure he keeps talking.”
“Thanks, Chet. I’ll do that. Just… just hurry, okay?”
~ ~ ~ ~
“… there’s that voice again. I wish it would just… go away and… and let me get some sleep. You know, you two have been awfully quiet. I mean… it’s not often that people just sit there and let me talk without interruptin’ me fifty times. It’s just that… uh… I-I’m gettin’ tired of holding up the entire conversation all by myself, you know? It’s kinda hard to breathe. I was just tellin’ Roy the other day… Roy, that’s my partner… I was just tellin’ Roy the other day that sometimes I think I talk too much, and people kind of lose track of what it is I’m trying to explain. On the other hand, if people would just pay attention in the first place, I probably wouldn’t have to talk so much. Do you ever have that problem? Where people just don’t listen to you? Everybody’s always in such a hurry, or… or they think they already know it all, or they just plain don’t wanna hear what you have to say?”
“Sometimes I know what I want to say. I just don’t know how. And then, everybody gets all… all riled up and they start rushin’ me and the next thing I know, they’re telling me I’m crazy or that I’m nuts, or that I’m the one who’s confused, when it… it’s really their problem. If they’d just let me say what I have to say in my own time, and my own way, we’d communicate a whole lot better. You know what I mean? That’s the trouble with the world today. People just don’t know how to communicate any more.”
“Speaking of communicating. Neither one of you has said anything this whole time. I get the feelin’ you don’t like each other much. Where’d you get those hats, anyway? You must be from Texas. I don’t think anybody wears cowboy hats like that around here. Not around here they don’t. Doesn’t that white one get kinda dirty? I mean, the black one there seems to make more sense. Do I wanna try one on? Choose one? No, I… I don’t even like to wear my helmet. I… I look funny in hats. My hair kinda… sticks out and looks all… all funny. I think I’ll pass.”
“Man, is it just me, or is it gettin’ cold in here? I don’t mean to be rude, but I think I’m done talking. I'm just gonna lay my head back here and… close my eyes for a while. I… uh… I’m really tired. And, cold. Tell Roy… tell Roy.... I-I waited as long as I could.”
~ ~ ~ ~
“Roy! We’re almost through.”
“All right, Marco. I’m on my way. Johnny! Johnny? If you can hear me, we’re almost there. One more minute. That’s all we need. One more minute.”
* * * * * * * *
“Johnny? Hey, Johnny. Good to see you.”
“Wh-what?”
“You went out on us there for a little while. How you feelin’?”
“Umm.... I… I don’t… what… what hap…hapn’d?”
“Just relax. No, leave the oxygen alone. Let me check your pupils again. Keep your eyes open for a minute.”
“-aahhh.”
“Does that hurt? Sorry. Just take it easy. It looks like you... you got a pretty bad bump on the back of your head there. Okay... Johnny, can you tell me if you’re hurt anywhere else?”
“Y-yeah.”
“Yeah, you can tell me, or yeah, you’re hurt?”
“Yeah.”
“All right, Chet. Tell Rampart his pupils are equal but sluggish, and he’s conscious now, but real groggy. BP is back up a little, 100 over 70.”
“Johnny? Hey, stay with me here, partner. Rampart’s ordered an IV, so why don’t you talk to me for a little bit while I get it going, and then we’ll get you to the hospital. You’re gonna be okay. So… uh… can you tell me who were you talkin’ to down there?”
“I was… I was talkin’? To… to who?”
“That’s what I want to know.”
“Oh.”
“Johnny?”
“Huh?”
“You with me?”
“Um… yeah. What?”
“It’s all right. It’s time to go. We’ll get you in the ambulance here, and we’ll be at Rampart in just a few minutes.”
“R-ram-rampart? I… uh…. Roy? Th-they wanted me to… to choose.”
“Choose what, Johnny?”
“A hat.”
“A hat?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. Did you?”
“Did... did I what?”
“Choose a hat?”
“I.... did I?”
“I guess not. You’re not wearin’ one.”
“Oh. They said… they said I… I had one more minute to decide.”
“And, then what?”
“And then what, what?”
“Johnny, have I ever told you I thought you were crazy?”
“A… a few times.”
“All right. Just checkin’ your memory.”
“Roy? I got a… I got a... a real bad headache. You got any… any aspirin?”
* * * * * * * *
