A short story by Hans (day 1)

Dear Friends, 

I started to write a short story. I will post here every day (or as close to that as possible) a little piece, a few paragraphs. as the story unfolds, I will keep all parts in one page which will be linked at the bottom of each small part. I hope you enjoy.

Part 1 

21.07 is the time shown on my Samsung phone, when it suddenly starts to ring. No, my friends it is not ringing, ringing has with time become a misnomer for a phone making sounds. My phone starts to make a high tech pseudo-musical sound, which I, at first, had liked when I had bought the telephone. But after hearing it so many times in a day, it sounds more like a parrot trying to mimic the bells of a cathedral than anything else and I do not recall why, at all, I had liked this ringtone. 

I listen to the voice at the other side of the line, even while my connection is completely wireless, and it is my senior medical officer telling me the story of a baby admitted to the ward with severe neonatal jaundice. Besides the very strong yellow discoloration (jaundice) of the skin of the baby, there are no other problems but the jaundice seems so severe that my doc on call wants to treat it in the most vigorous way, an exchange transfusion, a step-wise replacement off the baby’s blood with donor blood. The results of the investigations are indeed a bit worrying but in view the child being otherwise well, I recommend to give a trial of intensive photo-therapy, which is basically shining blue light on the baby’s skin.

I touch the touch screen on the phone where a symbol of a red phone handle is displayed to interrupt the conversation. I wonder whether the youth of ten years down the line will still know why the sign on our phones to stop a conversation has such a shape. Or perhaps soon they may change that shape. I think for a while about the baby…

(to be continued)