I drove to the location Ramez had sent me on the GPS, which led me to this place. It was a quiet street in the Sheraton area and a villa standing among the towers, untouched by the demolition and construction movement like the rest of its sisters. At the gate, I called Ramez, who opened the gate himself. The villa was almost deserted; the garden was neglected and there were no plants except for a single, lush tree in the middle, as if it had climbed the fence seeking help. On the inner door of the villa at the top of the stairs, there was a large sign with a weak lamp above it that barely allowed you to read the part closest to it : " Dr. Ramez Al-Sawy Clinic, a graduate of Princeton University in Oncology and Surgery and a fellowship from the Canadian University . "
Despite the location and the large area of the villa, its tiles were old, and the walls looked as if they had not been renewed for a long time. As for Ramez, he insisted on receiving me in formal clothes, " in a white coat ", standing at the top of the stairs before pushing the door open and going inside before me, saying:
" As you can see, the clinic is empty now so we can have some privacy while receiving treatment."
Here I stopped him saying:
- "Clinic? Won't I get treatment at the hospital?"
He replied:
" No, here I will focus on the experience and not on distractions."
Inside the villa, the situation was no better; the place was neglected and the decorations were miserable, but it was clean anyway.
There were some empty chairs lined up, hovering around them the spirits of the patients who had filled them earlier, and the smell of medical alcohol was overwhelming. We walked a corridor with wide strides, then climbed a wooden staircase that creaked under our feet every time we stepped on it. All of this made me say:
- "Dr. Ramez, allow me to express my concern about the facilities and equipment that the place is definitely lacking. I think I will be more reassured in the hospital."
Here we reached the top of the stairs to stand in front of the door of a room. He held the handle and said with a smile as if he were in a theatrical performance:
" Please, Dr. Adam, do not underestimate me. I have been around the greats of the profession abroad and have learned from the best. As for the capabilities... "
He said, then turned the handle to open the door, revealing a huge room filled with medical equipment and a bed in the middle . It was clear that he was showing off, and to tell you the truth: he had every right to, because I did not expect all this; the place was filled with complex equipment that looked expensive from its appearance. I could not hide the astonishment that rose to my imagination as I examined the place with my eyes.
Here he preceded me again to stand in front of me and continue enthusiastically:
" This room cost me millions, and I made sure to get the latest equipment."
I said to him in surprise:
- "All this for me?"
Ramiz laughed as he answered:
" Of course not. As soon as I got back from abroad, I set about preparing the clinic. You could say that this is my humble research lab."
I couldn't hide my indignation as I said:
" Research center? And a while ago? Didn't you say I'd be the first to get the drug?"
He quickly replied:
" Yes. But I mean I've already done some incomplete studies, but the new drug will allow me to activate the place one hundred percent.
- "Are you ready?"
I nodded.
- "ready".
The next scene was me sitting on the bed wearing a sterile medical suit and Ramez was playing with the equipment like a magician preparing to perform one of his shows.
His antique Rolex watch peeked out from his sleeve, and this time I couldn't help myself:
- "What is that?"
He looked at her, then replied:
- "It's for my father."
His brief response suggested that he did not want to go into further details. Then he sat in front of me and continued seriously:
- Dr. Adam, the tumor is located in the hypothalamus area. I am sure that you know very well that a cancer cell is a normal cell that has started to grow at a faster rate than necessary. The basic idea of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or even surgery is to get rid of or kill those cells, but ...
Here he bent down to pick up a bottle filled with a clear blue liquid.
"This is not how NSTZ works. It is a gene therapy that targets the cancer cell, stops it from dividing, and intervenes to dismantle the gene responsible for its division. In other words, it does not kill the cell, but it makes it return to its normal state, because brain cells do not divide in the first place, so the result will be that the cells remain as they were created."
I looked at the bottle in his hand and the liquid inside, it was very blue and shiny like a freshly polished gemstone. Then I said:
" Targeting the genes responsible for division is a dream for scientists. I did not know that a drug like this had already been found."
He said, adjusting his glasses:
" So far, let's say it's still a dream, don't forget that we're still in the experimental phase, but if it comes to fruition, imagine how the news of your recovery will be a momentous event that will shake the entire world, and the suffering of humans in the slow wait for death or enduring the pain of radiation and chemotherapy will finally end.
The treatment protocol will be: one dose every two days regularly, and we will follow up on the cells until we are sure of complete recovery, God willing. While receiving treatment, I will be by your side, of course, to follow up on all your vital activities.
I lay on my back and nodded as he stuck the syringe into the IV suspension. I watched as the solution coursed down the tube and into my vein, sending a chill up my arm and into the rest of my body, which began to go limp. Then something strange happened.
At first I felt my nerves loosen, then my joints loosen in turn, I didn't want to fidget like a child, so I tried to stay still until I felt my body suddenly glow like the sun, then everything in the room followed, my temperature became two thousand degrees Celsius.
I wanted to open my mouth to speak, but I vomited silently.
I'm terrified ... Am I dying?
I tried hard to speak, to scream, but the result was a helpless silence.
Is catatonia* a side effect of the drug?
Suddenly I sank into my bed as if I were falling inward, as if all the ropes that connected me to my outer body were being torn, I became like a free marionette falling into nothingness . All means of communication with the outside world were being severed.
I watched from below Ramez examining my eyes on the twentieth floor as I fell and fell and fell... until my body fell violently into that great sea of black water. I tried to cling to something but to no avail; the thick liquid swallowed me, sucked me in, I quickly sank into it towards the dark bottom, and the strange thing was that the speed of my fall did not change, as if there was no resistance to that black water, I kept falling for thousands of meters until I settled at the bottom. The bottom of this strange black ocean was like transparent glass, and I could see that ancient room through it, I extended my hands through the bottom and penetrated it.
*Catatonia: A psychological illness that means rigidity or stiffness, and it makes its sufferer lack will and have no reaction.
I felt the cold and light falling on my hands, as if I were caught in a fisherman's net at the top of a tree. I tried hard to free myself from the bottom. I kept slipping away, penetrating it with my feet, then my body, then my head and arms, until I penetrated it completely, until the bottom became the ocean, the ceiling, and I was hanging from it by my hands like a fly caught in a drop of honey. I clung to it for a little while, then let go, and I fell from above onto the floor of the old room.
I got up to look around.
Am I hallucinating? Is this a side effect of the medication?
I stood up, then turned around and my eyes fell on an antique mirror hanging on the wall. I looked at myself and found myself in formal clothes; a suit and tie ! When did I change my clothes?!
The smell was a mixture of worn fabric and old furniture, and it cut through my nose like a blade.
This house looked familiar to me. . . It's my childhood home.
My God! I have spent the most miserable days of my life here, for many reasons; among them this shabby, frightening place with its dark corners, the creaking sounds of wood that always robbed my eyelids of rest, and its large rooms that never made me feel comfortable.
I felt the old furniture covered with shabby cloth, the place where I fell disappeared and the pale ceiling of the room appeared, but ... !
These huge paintings hanging on the walls were not present in my childhood! They were almost the size of a wall, and they were also incomprehensible, as they were painted with everyone turning their backs to the painter . This is truly the strangest group of paintings I have ever seen in my life. I moved closer to examine them; the first painting is of a person with a huge body, a monster more like a human, wearing tattered clothes, and traces of skin on his back appearing through his torn robe. He is sitting on a rock with his back to a night beach whose sky is black. Another painting is of a muscular dwarf, clearly naked except for a belt around his waist, also standing with his back and holding a shield and a rusty dagger in a dark corner, as if he were preparing for something . Another picture is of a woman standing with her back and holding a child wrapped in a wrap.
I went back to the first painting, and blood was running down the back of the flogged giant. I approached it and extended my hand, and I touched the blood, and my fingers were stained; the blood was real! Then I gasped in horror, as red eyes appeared in the darkness drawn inside the painting. They were alive, they were staring at me, and then I heard the child crying. I turned to find the child in the other painting with red eyes and cracked blue lips, and life had come to him, and he began to cry and cry as if he wanted to wake the others.
And here madness spread everywhere ..
Terrible earthquake, the place is collapsing.
The cry of a thousand mourning women.
I started to step back when I saw something that made me even more terrified; I saw the monsters in the paintings start to move and turn very slowly, turning as if to object to my intrusion into their solitude or my encroachment on the sanctity of the place.
They were still turning slowly and it occurred to me that I should run before I saw their faces. I ran to the doors to look for a way out, and they were all tightly locked.
The screaming grows louder, the monsters turn around.
What is this? Where the hell am I?
I recoiled in horror, my eyes glued to the monsters as I collided with the mirror.
I turned to her, and saw myself and a person standing behind me in the mirror, was he bald? And his right arm was amputated .. That's all I could make out amidst all this horror .
For some reason I wasn't afraid of him. He reached over to put something in my pants pocket, then came close to my ear and said:
" Take the key and go, save them." The voice was clear and unmistakable.
I put my hand in my pocket to find an antique ornate door key, I looked again in the mirror but didn't find the person.
It didn't take me long to think, I rushed towards the big gate, fell on my face, then sprang to my feet, and with all the consciousness I had left I put the key in the door. I screamed and turned to find the huge beast had turned almost completely, and I saw the huge hand sticking out of the frame, I turned the key quickly, there was a terrible creaking sound, and the door shook with a loud noise with dust rising on its edges, then it opened to let in a light like the sun that struck my eyes... and here I woke up.
I got up from the bed screaming, my breathing quickening and my hands shaking.
I took a deep breath until my body calmed down, but when I looked around, the terror returned to me. I was still lying on my bed in Ramez's villa, but without any devices, without any medicine, and without Ramez. And I was still wearing a suit and tie!
*******