After seeing Doctor-Number-Five, I filed a formal complaint with my insurance company about my grievances. Although this “Tripping On [The American Healthcare System]” series has provided some interesting writing content, I still would have preferred everything get resolved the first time, or the second time, or the third time, or the fourth time… If that was tedious, try dealing with these mindbender headaches, or, this insurance company. About one month later, I received this reply:
“Hey Hank, I’ve been trying to reach Tighearnán all day about something. Do you have any advice?”
“T-oh- y’mean Tear? Yeah… ya get one question per day with him. He’s, unfortunately, that busy. Oh, and lemme see the question, too.”
The senior-level computer repair technician, Hank, locked his computer and jumped out of his chair to see the computer screen of Sammohini, a junior-level computer repair technician that had joined his team some months back.
“Thanks for the lesson yesterday afternoon, Hank! I, uhh… have a question for you, if you don’t mind, about…” The recently-hired computer helpdesk technician paused after self-doubt made her realize she’d been rambling. “No worries. Please, feel free to sit down. I’ve got a minute. What’s up?” She looked around, found the guest chair in Hank’s cube, politely sat down, and flipped open her large notepad to a section that had a circle around it.
I’ll casually estimate that I’ve published over 80,500 words related to “The Story” as of yet, even though all content related to it could easily surpass 150,000. Everything is nebulously floating around inside my head, loosely organized, so even writing specific ideas twice each week are just subjective rough drafts. My plan is to write everything in one go after I feel confident that I can. Until then, here’s a 6,000-word vertical slice walking through “The Story.”
Spoilers?: Major (an entire brain-dump)
WANNA READ AS COMPREHENSIVE A LOOK INTO “THE STORY” AS IS POSSIBLE RIGHT NOW? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!
The new widescreen computer monitor arrived the afternoon before Sammohini, the newest member of Eville Medical’s second-level computer repair team, drove to the clinic to install it. She scheduled time in the late afternoon since it was faster to then drive to her parents’s house for the weekend from the clinic and she could drop off the old one next week. As she walked through the clinic doors carrying the monitor box, Sammohini felt nervous.
“IT, this is Sam!”
“Hey, Sam, this is Vincent Preminger in Finance… looks like I’m locked out. Are they trying to tell me I’m fired?”
“Oh, umm… well, let’s take a look at your account!”
Sammohini clicked around on her small computer screen, through a few labyrinthine programs, before finding Vincent’s name. The rookie helpdesk technician contracting at Eville Medical looked at the account details, and with knowledge of corporate policy, proceeded to tell Vincent…
WANNA HEAR THE TWO MOST COMMON QUESTIONS IN ANY HELPDESK? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!
“Thanks for showing me around, Hank! I’ve never been over to the Surgery department before! Well, other than on a tour… I would’ve got lost…!”
Two computer repair technicians walked through a white corridor.
“No worries, Sammohini. Let’s say hello to the charge nurse first, just in case there’s a last-minute booking before we gown up.”
They arrived at a window cut into the wall.
“Gown… up…?”
“Namaste, Sona. We’re doing surgery on OR3’s mouse.”
Deep within the heart of Eville Medical buzzed its technological brain. Under tightly-controlled temperatures, ventilation, and humidity, protected from fire, electromagnetism, and other physical vulnerabilities, the large room housed myriad marvels of technological teamwork. The rookie computer repair technician followed the senior networking administrator’s lead, through a complicated entry procedure, before arriving at their destination.
“OK, so ya needed ROA-3074 patched for Cardiology. One moment.”
“Wow, this is so co-ol…!”
“Oh, you’ve never been here?”
The entry-level helpdesk technician looked at the clock: 4:55 PM. Five minutes until clocking out and getting a ride from her date. She was dressed up a little nicer than normal. Nothing too fancy, since it was a work evening, but it’d also been a while since they’d gone out anywhere. Just as she was starting to daydream about dinner, the Eville Medical helpdesk phone rang: “IT… this is Sammohini!” “Yeah, hello, just a quick question.”
The young computer repair technician crawled back to her workstation after a delicious chicken curry lunch to a fury of important messages:
Email:
“Urgent!
Hi, Sammohini…I cannot get logged in.
Sent from my eScribe ES2001K“
Messe Business message from Nessa Shailaja:
can you go see dr duce ASAP
her computer crashed
she has a meeting in like 10 min.
Voicemail: “Hey, Sammohini, Nessa. Dr. Duce needs her computer fixed ASAP. I’ll try paging you. Okay, bye-e!”
