Morphine

Visited a friend just out of hospital following a fairly major organ removal procedure. He confided that during the course of pain killing he had seen a glass of water on its side with the contents intact, a table tilted at 45 degrees with the glass still on it and a nurse walking down the wall towards his bed.
I hadn't the heart to inform him about the introduction to my new novel.
"The doctors surgery consisted of several rows of seats all facing the mantelpiece. To the left was a desk. When the phone rings, the occupant said, you need to book them in. I listened but when I looked, all I could see was a pad with eight pouches bearing names. Looking down I saw old timesheets bearing patients names and appointments from the past 6 days.
Fellow workers who gathered around said not much to help apart from one who said something about the gathering of souls and some distant reference to being available. After a short while I was looking again in the direction of the mantelpiece. There was a clunk and I looked up to see a boy of about six who had thrown a lump of coal onto the fire. He chuckled as younger friends looked on.
One of the patients in the front row obscured my view for a second. When I looked back the boy had fallen head first into the fireplace. As his head and upper body burned I found myself unable to help. Someone shouted to the doctor to help but nothing happened. After a few seconds I could see that the boy was burned beyond help. His upper body on the left side glowed cinder like. Someone dragged him out of the fireplace."