The Power of Teamwork!

by Katrina Kahler

  Walking into the reception area of the hospital, I was reminded of how big the place was. Mom had signed me up for volunteer work because she thought it would be good for me. I guess she didn’t like my initial summer plan of sitting around all day just chilling and relaxing. I told her I needed my downtime to recharge and fight crime and stuff. She insisted that donating three hours of time each morning to the hospital would allow me plenty of time to recharge. Plus, she said it would make me feel better about myself. It would show me I can contribute to society as Lia. I knew she had a point. That’s why I didn’t put up too much of a fight. Of course, now that Doctor Dangerfield worked here, I figured I could keep an eye on her as well.

  We found Marie and Lori standing in the lobby. They were talking to a short, pale-skinned, red-haired woman in a pink lab coat. Marie and Lori pointed at Jason. The pink lab coat lady nodded and started walking over to us.

  “Who’s the lady in pink?” I asked Mom.

  “She’s Doctor Gem Stone, junior associate to Doctor Dangerfield.”

  Doctor Stone nodded to my mother. “Doctor Strong, nice to see you as always.”

  Doctor Stone looked at Jason. “Jason, I’m here to introduce you to the Dangerfield lab. I’m sure you will find this to be a rewarding experience. Doctor Dangerfield may be fairly new to our town but she is a leader in many fields.”

  “Yes, I’m very excited!” Jason said.

  Doctor Stone pointed to Marie and Lori. “Go join the girls. There is an introductory welcome speech being given by Mr. Thomas in the conference center. Doctor Dangerfield would like her interns, as she calls you, to sit together. Then I will escort you to the lab.”

  “Excellent!” Jason said. I could feel his excitement. I even heard his heart rate speed up.

  Doctor Stone turned her attention to me. “You must be Lia Strong,” she said extending a hand to me.

  I shook her hand. Her grip was surprisingly strong.

  “Nice to meet you, Doctor Stone,” I said.

  “Your mother is part of our hospital family. Call me Doctor Gem…”

  “Nice to meet you, Doctor Gem,” I said.

  Doctor Gem grinned. “We wanted you to be part of our group too, but your mother told us she’d prefer you to have more general duties. Of course, we honored your mother’s wishes. After all, she is one of the finest doctors in the hospital.” Doctor Gem paused. “Well, I’d better get back to my charges. I hope you have a great time here! I look forward to seeing you around!”

  Once Doctor Gem was out of earshot I turned to Mom. “Wait, I could have been in Doctor Dangerfield’s lab? I could have been watching her all the time?”

  Mom sighed. “It’s good you’re not there. I don’t want you obsessing.”

  “I don’t obsess!” I insisted.

  Mom put her hands on her hips. “You’re obsessing now!” she insisted.

  “I’m persistent,” I admitted.

  Mom pointed to a blue hallway. “Follow the blue hallway. You’ll find the conference center.”

  I knew enough not to push my luck any further with Mom. I gave her a hug then started towards the conference center.

  Dear Diary: I know I shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that Doctor Dangerfield is guilty. But my gut says…don’t trust her. I trust my gut.

  The Talk…

  Christa had saved a seat for me next to her in the conference room, which to me was actually more of a small auditorium. There were about 30 of us kids there. My friends and I were certainly the youngest. I recognized some of the older kids, Tanya and Michelle Lee. Tanya gave me a cool nod. Surprisingly, Jess also sat there on the other side of Christa.

  “Jess, nice to see you here,” I told her.

  Jess nodded. “Thanks, it looks good on the resume.”

  “Never thought of you as the type of person who would worry about resumes,” I said.

  She smiled. “Hey, Witch College can be very competitive!”

  On the stage on a podium, stood a big bearded man in a suit that seemed too tight. The man cleared his throat. We all turned our attention to him. “Greetings and salutations to our Lab Learners and Helping Hands, student volunteers,” the man said. “I am Mr. Thomas lead administrator at this hospital. This program was my idea along with Doctor Strong and Doctor Dora. You won’t meet Doctor Dora because she is exploring the Amazon. But our newest doctor, Doctor Donna Dangerfield has agreed to take her place in this program and accept Lab Learners. We are pleased to have you all here. I am sure you will help us as much as we will help you prepare for the future. I now pass you over to Nurse Payne.

  Mr. Thomas sat down. A tall skinny woman in a white nurse’s uniform took the podium. She adjusted her hair and it seemed to make her bun even tighter. “You will all be given uniforms to wear over your regular outfits. The Lab Learners will be given green lab coats. The helping hands will be given light blue smocks. Please note, these are only on loan to you all, we expect you to keep them clean.”

  Nurse Payne took a deep breath then continued on. “The rules for you all are very simple. Lab Learners, you are to watch and learn from your doctors. You may do anything they ask you to do. You may not do anything they don’t ask you to do. It’s very easy. Any questions?”

  By the look that Nurse Payne gave the group of Lab Learners, it was obvious that she didn’t want any questions. “Good.” She turned her attention to us helping hands. “Now for you helping hands, your rules are a little more complicated. Your role here is to aid the patients. You must give them an extra human touch. So here is what you must always do: offer them something to read, talk with them, hold their hands, change the channel on the TV, help them with their computers and phones.”

  She paused to let that sink in, even though it wasn’t that tricky.

  “Now, here are the things you can do IF, and ONLY IF, a nurse or doctor says you may: Give them a snack or water, raise their bed, take them for a walk.” She paused again. “I know these things sound simple and harmless, but for some patients, they could be disastrous. So do not perform any of those tasks without checking with a nurse or doctor.”

  We all nodded.

  “Finally, if a nurse or doctor or technician asks you to do something, you do it. If they want coffee, you get it for them. If they need something taken from floor 1 to floor 10, you do that. Even if it’s pee. If they have a spill that needs to be cleaned, you do that. By making the nurses happy, you also help make the patients happy. Any questions?”

  Christa raised her hand.

  “Yes, young lady?” Nurse Payne said.

  “Will anybody vomit on us?” Christa asked.

  Nurse Payne smiled. “Good question. And most likely, yes. If that happens though, we will issue you with a new gown.”

  Dear Diary: Oh yeah, I am volunteering to get vomited on! Man, being a superhero in real life isn’t nearly as glamorous as in the comics and on TV. I’m not at all happy with my mom for signing me up for this, but at least I can keep an eye on Doctor Dangerfield.

  Anthony…

  First, I read a story to a cute little girl named Tiz. She needed to have her tonsils removed, and my mom was her doctor. I assured Tiz the operation would be over in a snap and she would be fine. Tiz seemed happy knowing that her doctor was a mom.

  Next, I met with a young woman named Tess and her husband, Juan. Juan paced up and down the room nervously, as they were expecting their first child. He showed me his hand. It was red from Tess squeezing it so hard. I let Tess squeeze on my hand for a bit. All the while, I patted her head with a wet towel the nurse had given me. Both the nurse and Juan seemed grateful for my help.

  After that, I checked in on an older man. The man sat up in his bed and smiled when I walked in. He put down the American Science magazine he’d been reading.

  “Well hello there, young lady!” he told me.

  “Hi, my name is Lia and I’m a helpful hands volunteer,” I smiled.

  The man put his hands behind his head. “I’m Ant
hony,” he said with a slight grimace. “Sorry, sometimes my arthritis gets to me a bit.”

  “Anything I can do for you?” I asked.

  “Can you make me 50 years younger?” he asked.

  “Sorry, no,” I said with a little shake of my head.

  He patted a chair next to his bed. “Then come sit, talk for a bit…”

  I did as he asked. After all, I liked talking and sitting.

  “You don’t mind talking to an old man?” he asked.

  “Nah,” I said with a little wave of my hand. “I know that older men know stuff!”

  He laughed. “Only thing I know is, I wish I knew what I know now when I was younger. I could have done something about it then!”

  “What are you in here for, Anthony?”

  He pointed to his hip. “Getting a new hip. Went eighty years with the original. They tell me this one will last just as long.”

  “I hope it doesn’t hurt too much,” I said.

  “Lia, I fought in two wars. This is nothing,” He laughed. “Got shot in the buns in Korea!”

  “Say what?” I said, trying not to snicker.

  “You can laugh, honey, it was pretty dang funny, if you weren’t me! Oh, I wasn’t running away, a sniper hit me from behind in the behind.”

  “Good to know,” I giggled.

  “I got a purple heart for my butt!” he said proudly. “If I can handle being shot in the butt, I can handle a new hip. I was actually hoping for one of those fancy new cybernetic implants.”

  “Really?” I said.

  He bobbed his head. “Yes, ma’am. I’m an engineer by trade so I love all the new technology. Sure, I can’t figure out how to lock my phone and keep it from pocket dialing, but I still love it.”

  “So you met with Doctor Dangerfield?” I asked.

  “Yeah, nice lady. She didn’t think I qualified. She told me and the other guy there she would like to help, but her techniques are still too new to try on older patients.”

  “Oh…” I said. “Do you remember the other guy?”

  “Nice guy, John something. He farted a lot but pretty much everybody does at our age.” He looked at the ceiling then back at me. “Funny thing is, her assistant doctor came to us afterward. She gave us her card and told us she might be able to help us.”

  “But you didn’t take her up on that offer?” I asked.

  “Nah, I’m too old to want to be a lab rat!” Anthony said with a grin.

  An announcement came over the hospital intercom. “Doctor Sparks, please report to the basement level.”

  I knew there was no Doctor Sparks in this hospital. In fact, that happened to be the emergency code for security to show up. Something weird was going on in the basement. I needed to check it out. First of all as Lia, then if needed, as Super Teen.

  I looked Anthony in the eyes and took his hand. “I’ll be back to see you! I promise!”

  He grinned at me. “I’ll be counting on it!”

  Dear Diary: I’ve actually found working in the hospital to be very rewarding. I don’t say this often but maybe Mom was right! Anthony was such a nice old man. Not only that. But I learned something interesting… Doctor Dangerfield discouraged patients from working with her. And more interesting, Doctor Stone didn’t agree with that.

  Lab Rats?...

  I slipped down to the basement at super speed so I wouldn’t be spotted. When I arrived, my mouth dropped open. There, standing in the hallway stood the biggest gray rat I had ever seen. The rat stood so large he took up the entire width of the hall. Two security men stood in front of it, their guns were drawn.

  A man in a lab coat stood between the rat and the security people. “Don’t shoot Algernon!” the man pleaded. “He’s just scared….”

  “Okay now this is different,” I mumbled.

  The big lab rat started forward, pushing the doctor down. The security men opened fire.

  “No!” I shouted.

  Everything froze in place. “Did I do that?” I said out loud.

  “Ah, no!” I heard from behind me. I turned to see Jess and Tanya standing there. “I did,” Tanya said.

  “We thought you might need some help!” Jess told me.

  “Thanks,” I said. “We’re like a teen or almost teen girl justice league!”

  Tanya walked up to me. “You can pick team names and costumes afterward. First things first.” She pointed at the bullets frozen in flight. “You grab the bullets, they’re too hot for me. I’ll disarm the guards.”

  “Nah, I got the guards’ weapons,” Jess said. She waved her hands and the guns vanished from the guard’s hands. “I love vanishing things!” Jess said.

  Meanwhile, I walked forward and grabbed both the bullets out of the air. I crushed them to dust in my fist. I pointed to the cameras. “What about those?”

  Jess grinned. “I’ve been jamming them with magic.”

  I walked forward and picked up the giant rat. Its breath reeked of cheese. “I’ll put it back in its cage,” I carried the rat down the hall. I found a room that was a giant maze. I dropped the rat into the middle of the maze. I worked my way back out. “Now that was weird,” I said. “I wonder why the hospital has a giant rat and maze?”

  “I’ll un-slow time and then Jess can interview the scientist,” Tanya said.

  “Want me to turn the guards into lab rats?” Jess suggested. “I don’t like that they were going to shoot a poor defenseless giant rat!” She pondered what she had said. “I stand by my words.”

  “Just make the guards go away,” I said.

  Jess raised her arms. “You mean make them vanish?”

  “No, just make them forget and go back to work.”

  “Right, I knew that,” Jess said, flicking her red hair behind her shoulder.

  Tanya snapped her fingers and time started moving at regular intervals again.

  The guards and the scientist seemed confused. “What the…” they all said.

  Jess waved her hands in front of the guard’s eyes. “Return to work. Nothing to see here! Nothing happened here,” she ordered.

  “Yes, master,” they said, as they walked away.

  The scientist stood up and straightened out his lab coat. “My gosh, what are you girls?”

  “We’re the cool teen girl league of super people!” I said. I turned to the other two. “Okay, yeah I’ll work on that name.”

  Jess walked up to the scientist. “You won’t remember any of this.”

  The scientist shrugged. “Of course not. I’m a brilliant but absent-minded kind of guy. Now, what do you wish to know?”

  I had to admit that I was a bit envious of Jess’s control of her mind control power. I wished I could control mine as well.

  “Why the giant rat?” Jess asked the doctor.

  “Well funding is always tight, so we’re using the same rat to do a growth study while working on treating memory loss. We made an extra smart giant lab rat. He’s a nice rat. We just accidentally left the door to his maze unlocked and he got out. Rats are curious creatures. He got scared when the guards showed up. He’d never hurt another creature. Except for a cat, he hates cats.”

  “So, you’ll make sure this never happens again?” I told the doctor.

  “I thought you’d erase my memory like the security people?” The doctor answered.

  Jess grinned. “Oh I will, but I’ll let you remember that.”

  “Sure,” the doctor said.

  Jess locked her eyes on the doctor’s eyes. “Look into my eyes, you will do whatever I wish. You will forget about all this, except leaving the door unlocked.”

  “As you wish, master, your wish is my command,” he said with a bow. He turned and walked back into the maze room.

  I looked at Jess. Jess shrugged. “I might have hit him with too much power.”

  I put my arms around Jess and Tanya and walked them back towards the elevator.

  “A girl could get used to this teamwork!” I told them.

  “I’m only av
ailable in emergencies,” Tanya said, “playing with time is not something that should be taken lightly!”

  “I’m only available for things I find fun!” Jess said.

  Dear Diary: Okay, I gotta say it was great having other super kids on my side. Not only does that give me people who are also different, but there are some things, heck, probably most things that are easy to solve with teamwork.

  The talk…

  I waited for Jason outside of Doctor Dangerfield’s office and labs. As I sat there checking out social media on my phone, Doctor Gem Stone walked by. She stopped when she saw me.

  “You’re Lia Strong, correct?” she said.

  I looked her in the eyes. “Yes, Doctor, I am.” I didn’t point out that she had just met me a few hours ago.

  Doctor Stone smiled. “Lia, no need to be so formal. After all your mother is senior staff here. She’s part of the reason Doctor Dangerfield wanted to come here. Please call me Doctor Gem.”

  “Thanks, Doctor Gem,” I said. I paused for a moment, then asked. “How goes your research?”

  Doctor Gem smiled and her face lit up. “You’ve heard of cutting edge? Well, our technology is laser cutting edge! It’s the latest and greatest. We are helping the old and weak feel young and strong, very strong.”

  “Wow, that’s great!” I told her.

  Doctor Gem patted me on the shoulder. “My dear girl, we are helping to make the entire human race better. Soon we could have an entire planet of people who are as strong, if not stronger, than Super Teen!”