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Rosalind Heywood – The Infinite Hive

A few weeks later I was set to watch a man who was gravely ill and delirious after a severe operation. He appeared quite unconscious of my presence, and I felt desperate because there seemed no way to reach and comfort him. This desperation may perhaps have enabled a confident inner Order to emerge to consciousness. The Order was 'Think him quiet.’

I was much surprised, but remembered the sick Sister and tried to obey, and, to my even greater surprise, he at once fell into a quiet sleep. Naturally enough, in view of my raw ignorance, a little later the Staff Nurse moved the screens to see how he was doing, and woke him up. I was able to think him asleep again, but soon afterwards the Ward Sister came rustling in and woke him once more. I tried a third time, but it did not work.

Then, suddenly, the tossing and delirium ceased, he looked at me with quiet, rational eyes - he was obviously an educated man – and said calmly 'It's no use concentrating any longer, Nurse. I shall not be going to sleep again.' Then the rational man vanished and the agonizing delirium began once more.

If this is how death comes, I thought, it is even more terrible than I had imagined. But suddenly his face lit up. 'It's Annie!' he cried, gazing in joyous recognition at someone I could not see,

'And John! ...Oh, the Light! ... The Light! ...'

Soon afterwards he died.