[ WP ] Someone has fallen into a coma . The only way to save her involves entering her dream .

The stethoscope clattered to the floor as Jillian brushed the doctor, storming out of the room. 
 
 `` Sorry. I'll just...'' Brian said rushing after her. 
 
 `` It's only to be expected,'' said the bald man that sat in a meditative pose on the hard floor. The doctor had introduced him as a practitioner of an alternative form of healing. He had almost said medicine. The bald man simply said his name, Ahimsa, and bowed. 
 
 Jillian had only to glance at his bare-feet and selfsewn robes before glaring incredulously at the doctor and stomping for the door. She had n't stopped at Brian's calls and pulled away with deliberate steps as he reached for her. Finally, as she went for the door to the stairs, he jumped in front of her grabbing her shoulders. 
 
 `` Hey, what's the problem, kid,'' said a man walking toward them and rolling up his sleeves. `` How'bout you keep your hands on your dick and off her.'' 
 
 `` Dude, who the fuck are you?!'' Brian whipped around looking up and meeting his eyes. 
 
 `` Brian,'' Jillian said now grabbing his shoulder as he pulled away. 
 
 `` Is there something you want?'' Brian asked stepping into the man. 
 
 `` I want,'' he answered trying to stand ground, `` you to keep your hands off your lady.'' 
 
 `` Brian!'' Jillian cried. `` Why right now? Why the fuck right now?'' He could hear the strain in her voice. `` Look,'' she said to the man, `` you're very sweet, but he's my brother.'' She pried them apart at the chest and stood next to Brian. `` See?'' 
 
 Comparing their eyes, brows, and cheekbones, the man's expression lightened and spread into a smile. `` Oh,'' he said cheerily, `` I fight with my sisters, too.'' 
 
 `` It's a fucking small world after all,'' Brian muttered unclenching his fists. 
 
 `` Thank you, though,'' Jillian smiled at the man before dragging Brian into the stairwell. 
 
 `` You should have waited. Told him while his blood was clotting,'' he said as the door closed. 
 
 `` Yes, Brian,'' she sat on the stairs, `` and have a sister in a coma and a brother in jail.'' 
 
 Brian sat down next to her. 
 
 `` I'm sorry,'' he said softly. 
 
 `` Meh,'' leaning against him. `` I think I needed the distraction.'' 
 
 Brian smiled. 
 
 Back in the room, Ahimsa was explaining the mechanics of Karma to the doctor who kept checking his watch and glancing at the doorway. He had pulled up a chair next to the cross-legged adept and pretended to scribble away on a chart. 
 
 `` With this one,'' Ahimsa continued nodding toward the girl on the bed, `` I sense that this sleep has been brought on by unresolved Karma. Her soul wishes to do work in the fourth dimension and can better amass its energy without the distractions of earthly life.'' 
 
 The doctor stole a sideways glance at him before looking at the door, his watch, then back at his paper. 
 
 `` Yes,'' Ahimsa said closing his eyes. `` I can see figures. Next dimensional figures, mind you. They are still dim, but I can see them from all angles.'' 
 
 `` Something's certainly dim,'' the doctor thought. He had misread the twins. 
 As the medical approach to comatose patients ended at keeping them alive, he had found that spiritually inclined relatives drew tenuous peace from the presence of proclaimed spiritual adepts. Jillian's dreadlocks and the persistent smell of weed on Brian made the doctor forgo the usual priests and rabbis in favor of someone more esoteric. Jillian's reaction proved him mistaken. He glanced back toward the empty doorway. 
 
 Jillian used her sleeves to wipe the drying tears. 
 
 `` Brian, the man was n't wearing any shoes,'' she said. 
 
 `` Half of your friends think shoes are optional.'' 
 
 `` I want my weed dealer barefoot,'' she said. `` I want my doctor in Savile Row leathers.'' 
 
 `` I'm pretty sure dude is n't a doctor,'' he laughed. 
 
 Jillian threw up her hands in emphatic agreement. `` Do you see my problem?'' she laughed clapping the last three syllables. 
 
 `` Of course, I do,'' Brian said. `` Let's just go tell the doctor. The one that can tie his shoes.'' 
 
 `` Ah!'' The doctor jumped up as they walked through the door. Brian nodded to him while Jillian's eyes immediately fell on Ahimsa. 
 Eyes closed, he exhaled loudly then began slowly and silently drawing breath again. 
 
 `` I've asked him to leave,'' the doctor said with guilty eyes. `` I'm waiting for security, now.'' 
 
 `` Why'd you ask him here?'' Jillian asked dryly. 
 
 `` I thought...'' the doctor began before trailing off. 
 
 `` Uh,'' Brian said staring at Ahimsa. 
 
 Still deep in meditation, blood had begun to trickle from his nose. The doctor started toward him, but before his first step the girl on the bed let out a scream. All four jumped and her siblings rushed to her bed. They tried to convince her to lie back down as she was sitting up, panting, and frantically surveying the room. Her eyes fell on the bald man. For less than a second, her soul struck a glowering, burning black look at him. 
 The flash was replaced with confusion as the girl's siblings dispelled her disorientation with inviting voices and gentle laughter. 
 
 Ahimsa stood, holding his nose, and smiled at the doctor. `` I guess the light is n't as dim as you thought,'' he said. 
 
 `` I heal,'' the doctor answered trying to remember if he had said that aloud, `` I'm willing to use someone's fantasies to do it.'' 
 
 
 

