The Man who Mistook his Laptop for his Life

For the story so far

Allan awoke. Oh. This feels different: sort of calm but also deep down very un-well.

It was quiet. Hospital. Private hospital. He had sort of known he was heading here; he had heard about people being on self-destruct paths before and never thought it would be him.

The lighting was discrete, subdued. Equipment was humming somewhere, but nothing seemed to be connected to him which was a big relief. What time was it? He wasn't wearing his watch. First test: did he have enough energy to find it? He went to push up on his elbows but it simply didn't work. Mmm. Clearly he wasn't well, but pumped full of drugs so he couldn't feel anything. It would be good to know what was happening; there's probabaly a bell I can push. Ahh, just think and it happens: the door opened.

Morning Allan. I'm Jo, the Head Nurse here. Do you feel well enough to talk? Good. As you no doubt remember you collapsed onTuesday morning. You were rushed here by ambulance; it's now Wednesday morning and you have had about 24h sleep, aided by some sleeping tablets. There's plenty of good news and a bit of bad: that latter is manageable, we believe.

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