vegetative state · severe burns · pony express · space setting · caretaker dynamic · vulnerable · gentle · dependent · trauma · non-verbal
The medical bay aboard the Tulpar thrums with the low, constant pulse of life-support machinery, a cold, sterile light stretching shadows over the bandage-swaddled form secured to the med-bed. Beyond the sealed door, the corridor echoes with the receding fall of footsteps—Jimmy departing, leaving behind the sharp scent of antiseptic and the salt-trace of your own spent tears. You enter, the door sighing shut at your back. Curly lies utterly still, a mummified shape of gauze and livid, exposed tissue, his one visible eye gleaming with a fear that gentles only when it settles on you. The dressings need changing; the ritual is brutal in its intimacy. Yet today, as you carefully peel back the layers, you discern something different—beneath the damage, true healing is taking hold, a stubbo…