Ghost Town Page #2

- How old are you?

So are you here on a school field trip?

Not a real people person are you,

Dr. Pincus?

Not really. Given a choice between

a few people and loads of people,

I choose my cat. She hunts dwarves.

She takes them up the tree.

They're still alive.

You can see their little legs going.

Sounds like Norah Jones

when she plays the piano.

Wow, you must be excited

to get home and see your cat.

What cat?

I thought yesterday

you said you had a cat.

I despise cats. What sort of men

waste their affection on a cat? Pathetic.

I had a cat once,

when I was a little girl.

My father, right before he died,

he took me to the shelter and he said,

"Debra, take a look

at all these lonely cats..."

What a wonderful man

he must have been.

Now, listen.

All those people in my room last night,

I thought I was dreaming at first,

but I wasn't.

Who were they?

- I don't know anything about that.

- Right.

- Here you go. Clean bill of health.

- All right, thank you.

Come back soon!

What a terrible thing to say

in a hospital.

Nice.

Fine example for healthcare workers.

Still, I suppose

smoking serves a purpose.

- Thins the herd. Weeds out the stupid.

- Are you speaking to me?

Yeah, but I was having a go at them,

not you.

Oh, good.

I picked one that should be

in a straightjacket. My mistake.

Show it some attention,

it follows you home. Unbelievable.

Sorry!

Did he see you, too?

- He can see us!

- Who?

That guy?

Hey, why don't you open your eyes?

Hey!

Hey, mister!

Please, just hold up!

- Idiot. Get out of the road.

- Wait! Hey!

- Listen, I just need two minutes...

- Look out!

...of your time!

You can see me, huh?

And you're not like us.

I know you're not, because back there,

that cab almost hit you!

And he honked at you,

and he yelled at you!

I don't feel well. Why on earth...

Hey!

Officer, there's loony weirdoes.

I don't know why they're here.

I'm a dentist.

- Hey, man, you can see me.

- Oh, good.

Hey, come back here!

I wanna talk to you!

Hey, don't be scared! I'm a cop!

- He can see us?

- Who? That guy?

...from the moment I left the hospital.

- What kind of side effects?

- Hallucinations.

- Okay, visual or aural?

- Both.

And really vivid, really realistic, weird.

I mean, that's not normal.

Well, you know.

What's normal, you know? Really.

Not having hallucinations,

I'd have thought.

Did anything unusual happen

during my procedure?

- Did any...

- Did any what...

- Sorry, but did anything...

- Where?

- Why do you just keep talking while...

- I didn't hear what...

- Why do you keep interrupting me?

- No, well...

- Did anything unusual happen...

- You kind of interrupted me a little bit.

- Just answer the...

- Just.

- Did anything unusual happen?

- Where?

What do you mean, where?

That's not a proper... Yes or no?

Did anything unusual happen

during my procedure?

- Yeah.

- What?

- No.

- You said "yes" first.

"No" is what I ended with.

"Yes, no" means no.

Did anything unusual happen

during my procedure?

- And if so...

- Can you hold on one...

Can you hold on a second?

Yeah, it's me.

Can you stop what you're doing

and come down here right away?

It's that thing that we talked about.

Yeah, well, you told me to call you

if it came back, and it came back, so...

Okay.

What was that? What's the thing?

You told someone the thing came back.

I have a rash on my back.

It came back, so I had to call my doctor.

You... Miss!

- Yes?

- Me!

- What the... What?

- Can you...

- Can I... Yes.

- Follow you?

- To the...

- To my office.

- And then you'll tell me.

- Yeah.

What?

Did anything unusual... What?

Jesus Christ! Sorry, I wasn't...

We have a meeting in a couple minutes,

so we just have to be quick.

Did anything unusual happen

during my procedure? What's he...

Can you please define "unusual"?

Out of the ordinary,

bizarre, unanticipated.

No, this went well.

- It was good. Okay, normal.

- Right.

Yes, good. Well, the cessation maybe,

- but after that, you responded...

- The cessation of what?

Dr. Pincus, I really...

I don't need to tell you that

every medical procedure

doesn't follow the same path.

- Everyone's different.

- Yeah.

There are subtle variations

in even the simplest surgical...

What would a subtle variation be

in my case, for example?

- Well, one doesn't wish to use jargon.

- No.

- But, you know, technically...

- Yep.

...medically, it's beginning...

Okay. Yeah.

- You died.

- I died?

- Little bit.

- For how long?

- Seven minutes.

- A bit less.

I died for seven minutes.

- A bit less.

- Approximately seven...

That's really the only thing

that I can think of...

How did I die?

For the record, we did not recommend

that you use the general anesthesia.

When you use anesthesia,

there is a chance, although it is small,

of a biochemical anomaly.

Where's the anesthesiologist?

I want to see him now.

He does not work here anymore.

You'll be happy to know

that at Saint Victor's,

we have a very strict

three-strikes policy.

My anesthesiologist had two strikes?

Okay, let's all calm down.

Let's just not overdramatize

the situation.

Why is he calming down?

Everybody dies.

Yeah, but usually at the end of their life,

and just the once and forever.

Everybody's different.

And you weren't even gonna tell me.

- No, we did tell you. We told you...

- No, you didn't.

We told you that night.

We gave you the full report.

- No, I don't remember that.

- Yes. Yeah, we...

It says here that you gurgled to me

before you rolled your eyes back

in your head, a little bit.

Have you any idea

how much I'm gonna sue you for?

- Nothing, I'm afraid.

- He's perked up. Go on.

You signed a general release

and a quitclaim form,

relieving your surgeon,

your anesthesiologist,

Saint Victor's Hospital and Cooperative

Institutional Health Partners

from any liability related

to your anesthetic-induced cessation

of heart function.

I definitely did not.

- Is this your signature at the bottom?

- When did I sign that?

Right after you passed

the post-operative responsiveness test,

legally mandated

by the state of New York.

Obviously I didn't know

what I was doing!

You knew enough to sign your name.

I dotted the "I" with

a little love heart!

You were happy to be alive, right?

Now, about these hallucinations.

What are you seeing?

People.

Hey, got a sec?

Never get used to that.

You're the guy, huh?

No. I'm not the guy.

It's another guy. Go away.

Real quick, got to

hit you up for a favor.

No, no, no, no.

No, he's still there. Unbelievable.

- Thank you!

- Good, excellent. Thank you!

Hey. Wait a minute. Wait, what?

- Drive!

- No, no, no.

- Where to, buddy?

- Don't do that!

You're a busy little guy.

Let me get right to the point.

That woman whose cab

you just snaked, that's my wife.

- That's perfect.

- My widow.

She's got a very serious problem.

I need your help to fix it.

- Where do you want to go, pal?

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