Machine Man (serial)

My doctor didn’t want to let me out of the hospital, which was funny, because the nurses couldn’t be rid of me fast enough. They argued outside my room in low, strained voices. “There’s nothing wrong with him,” a nurse said. “We need that bed.”

“I still need a psych evaluation,” said the doctor. “He’s on suicide watch, why don’t I have something from psych?”

“His company won’t consent to a psychological profile. They say his state of mind is commercial-in-confidence.”

“Then who put him on the watch?”

“His company. They specifically requested no visitors. And they want him released into their care right away.”

The doctor sighed, like she spent all day being thwarted by bureaucrats, and here it was again. “He’s clearly unstable.”

I could hear the nurse’s shrug. “He’s physically fine. What do I tell them?”

The doctor sighed again. She was going to go home after this and sip red wine and stare at the wall, I could tell. She would wonder why she was doing this, struggling against commercial interests at a corporate hospital when all she wanted to do was help people, and in the morning, when she walked out of her beautiful home and unlocked her sports car, she would remember.

“Tell them,” she said, “I strongly advise he be kept away from industrial-grade cutting or stamping equipment.”

28.