The following morning, he felt almost back to normal, apart from a level of weakness commensurate with five days in a coma. He had no trouble hopping out of bed to use the toilet and was sitting up watching the television after scarfing the meager breakfast when the doctor next visited.

“Well,” The doctor said, walking over to the bed. “You are looking much better.”

He quickly studied the records, did a few tests of Jason’s vital signs, and then nodded at Jason.

“Hmm. Interesting. If I didn’t know better, I would say there is nothing wrong with you.” The Doctor offered at the end of the process.

“I do feel a lot better today,” Jason commented, smiling sweetly at the doctor.

“Yes. All your vitals are normal. It is so abrupt it is almost scary. The last blood test was still odd. It is possible your catheter got contaminated somehow, so I am going to have a new one inserted this morning and do a new blood test.” The doctor didn’t sound so much upset as puzzled.

“So, I’m not getting out of here just yet?” Jason asked.

The doctor frowned and shook his head. “Not yet. You’re still rather debilitated, and I want to keep you under observation for another day, at least anyway. I am probably being overcautious, but if anything, you have recovered too quickly from whatever it was, and I am wary of a relapse. That liquid you drank certainly did not agree with you!”

“You don’t know what it was I drank?”

Jason thought he had said a tea of cannabis leaves the first time he had seen Jason once Jason had woken up.

“Didn’t you do a stomach pump or whatever? I thought you knew?”

The doctor shook his head. “Yes, of course, we did, but there was nothing unusual apart from some odd organic remains commensurate with a hemp plant, the leaves of which you had apparently boiled and then drank. We couldn’t identify anything else that would be the cause of the metabolic shutdown you experienced.” He paused. “Drinking a tea made from the hemp leaves should not have caused the symptoms you exhibited. I doubt it would even get you high. Do you remember what you ate or drank before the episode?”

Jason tried to look like he was struggling to remember. “Nothing substantial. I had some herbal tea I picked up in a shop on Crete, which I brought with me. That is the only thing I remember after I got back from the cruise around the island that I went on during the day. Other than the tea, there was nothing else apart from the hemp leaves. Someone told me that boiling the leaves made a drink that was less harmful than smoking that stuff. I was just trying to relax a bit before I was to meet with a couple of colleagues for lunch, and then I suddenly felt strange and had trouble breathing which was when I managed to call reception before passing out.” He paused and decided to play down the tea bit. “I had been drinking the herbal tea on Crete for a couple of days, so I doubt it was that, and I don’t remember eating anything during the afternoon.”