A Bang On The Head or Was It More
Historical Short Fiction
This is something different for everyone.
Terry Freedman at
has been documenting his unfortunate accident where he ran into the wall at night. He has done several takes on it using different styles.I have been wanting to do a fiction story on it since he talked about it. Finally, I had time to work something up. It was fun to concoct this story.
So I’ve highlighted this as a historical short fiction since some of what I include is true. I think you’ll get a kick out of it.
Terry’s Original Story:
In the middle of the night, I woke up (if you can call being semi-conscious being awake), walked purposefully towards the door to go to the bathroom — and almost knocked myself out.
The reason was that in the twin states of entire darkness and semi-somnambulance I was facing in a different direction from the one I thought I was facing. As a result, instead of walking through the door, I tried to walk through the wall.
The next few days brought nausea and headaches. After much prevarication I went to Accident and Emergency, where I waited petrified among people for whom “social distancing” means not quite touching you, and who wore their masks as a chin-warmer.
An hour and a half later I emerged into the twilight, secure in the knowledge that I had nothing more serious than mild concussion. I failed to do much writing, but I was pleased to have read a further 17% of my book.
And now onto my fiction story about it.
Enjoy!
My Version:
The call came across our radio at 11:07 p.m. A man had come into the hospital claiming that someone had hit him over the head with something. He was mumbling. It seemed suspicious and the hospital called the police.
David and I responded to talk to him. We were having a slow night. Two calls for noisy neighbors and one call for loud music. When we heard this call, we thought we had a great call. Finally some action! As we pulled up to the emergency room of the hospital, David commented, “I hope this isn’t something strange.”
As we entered the hospital, there were people everywhere. How can all these people need emergency care? It must be the full moon. People were sitting in chairs and moaning. Others had blankets around them trying to stay warm. Hospitals are notorious for being cold. It keeps the germs away. There were so many people that it was standing room only. So much for social distancing. Here we were in a pandemic and everyone was breathing on other people with no regard.
We inquired as to where the gentleman was. The nurse at the nurse’s station pointed us to room 10. The room was down the corridor and around the corner. The door was ajar and we entered. There was a man lying on a bed. The man was older and had a shirt and pants on. He was wearing glasses. He had an ice pack on his head.
“Excuse me sir?”
“Yes,” the older gentleman says as he looks up.
“I’m Officer Davis with the police.”
“What are you doing here?”
“The hospital called us. This is my partner Officer Petrol.”
“Why did they call you?”
“What happened to you tonight?”
“I had an accident.”
“Was it really an accident?”
“Of course it was.”
“Who hit you?”
“No one hit me.”
“The hospital told us you were hit over the head by someone.”
“Well, they’re wrong. I think I would know if I got hit by someone or not.”
“So tell us what happened,” opines Officer Petrol.
“I ran into a wall.”
“Sure you did.”
“I’m serious. It was dark.”
“Have you been drinking tonight?”
“No. I just woke up.”
“Sounds like he drank the night away,” Officer Petrol says to Officer Davis.
“No. When this happened, I had just woken up. Except I was in a semi-conscious state.”
“What do you mean?”
“I just told you!”
“So you just woke up when this happened?” Officer Davis asks.
“Yes. I had to go to the bathroom. And it was dark.”
“You didn’t turn on the light?”
“If I had I wouldn’t have run into the wall. I got turned around in the wrong direction.”
“And then the person came out of nowhere and clocked you?”
“There was no other person except for my wife.”
“You been arguing with her?”
“She has nothing to do with this.”
“Are you sure?”
“I have a huge headache right now. And it’s not only from the wall.”
Conclusion
I love taking real-life events and molding them into fiction. The imagination is an amazing tool when you dig deep and think about it. I hope you enjoyed this fiction piece.
Feel free to comment. I’m always looking for feedback.
Until next time, happy reading.
-Matt
I really enjoyed how you’ve explored this, Matt! Nice work! 😊
Haha! Love it! Yeah, that would give anyone a headache. A really cool take. Well done.