Chapter 14
Meeting Jason
“How are you feeling this morning?” I was asked as I walked into the kitchen a few minutes later.
“Things could be better. I just don’t understand why he couldn’t tell me he was sick?” I said while starting to sob again.
I was beginning to feel glad that I had asked my parents to enroll me instead of having me tutored at home. I’ve had a few rough times when I felt like I was going to lose it but I managed to hang on. What was even better was the fact that once I had gotten the hang of things I’ve been doing extremely well. Some subjects we still a bit hard for me to get a handle on but I was seeing some improvement in them as time went by. The only subject that I was really having a hard tome with was, ironically, our Computer Science course. I think this was more to the fact that I could have been teaching the course with little problem, so I was bored out of my mind. The only time I showed any real improvement is when Mr. Perez gave us a free period with them.
One thing that was going to be slightly problematic was the fact the David had decided to strike up a friendship with Jason. I feel he was doing this on purpose to try and get Jason and me to meet. I have no idea what’s going to happen when we do finally meet but I guess I’ll just have to take things as they come at me.
“David you go straight to your room once we get home. I’ll be up to talk to you about today a little later.” my mom told him sternly as we buckled ourselves in to our seats.
“But mom..”
“Don’t “but” me young man. I don’t want to hear it.” I could certainly understand why my mom was so mad given the fact that she had been called up to bring David a clean pair of pants after he had his diaper leaked on him. I think the thing that made her the maddest was the fact that the nurse had told her that David had only been in once so far that day to get changed. What was even worse is that the nurse had already sent home a couple of notes concerning this matter a few times since school had started a few weeks before.
Once we got home David was sent up to his room with the instructions that he was not to come out until he was called. Isaac was given the chore of going up and getting David changed into some cloth diapers. After that was taken care of I was led into my own room and changed into a clean diaper myself and switched from my school uniform to some play clothes.
“Isaac, I’ll need you to watch David while I take Ian to his doctor’s appointment. He’s not to come out of his room or have any friends over. You can have a friend over if you’d like but no more than two.” my aunt said as her and I headed back out to the car. I could tell that my brother was less than thrilled with this but since it was Anita’s day off, and both Brad, and Megan had after school activities he was left holding the bag.
“Don’t worry Ian. Dr. Moran just wants to see how your arm and everything is doing.” I was told as I climbed into my car seat and buckled myself in.
“Well Ian, going off of the latest X-ray, I’d say that that cast is ready to come off.” I was told with a smile thirty minutes after I had been shown back to the examination room.
“Cool. But what about everything else?” I asked. The small frown told me all I needed to know on this matter.
“Your weight and height are coming along a bit slower than I would like but from what your mom and dad have told me of their family history this seems to be normal for you.” I just nodded at this since my dad had told me the same thing when I had asked him about it last. He had assured me that once I hit puberty I would have several growth spurts that would put me at what would be considered a normal height for my family.
“And my bladder control?”
“I’m sorry Ian, but as far as the tests show there isn’t any major change in this area. While you can start to feel when you need to go the muscles are still to weak for you to hold it back for more than a minute or two at best before it starts coming out. We still want you to try and hold it back for as long as you can when possible but at this point you’ll still need to wear protection full time.” I was informed as Dr. Moran prepared to remove the cast from my arm. A few minutes later it was pulled away from my arm and I was able to move it fully for the first time in almost three months.
“Now the arm will be weak and a bit sore for a while from not having been used for so long. Here is a list of exercises you’ll want to help Ian with to get his arm back in shape. You can give him Tylenol or Advil to help with any pain he might have and make sure he takes it easy for a while.” My mom was told as I finished getting dressed.
Well, if we hurry, we might be able to get you home in time for your swimming lesson.” I was told as I finished putting my shoes back on.
“OK.” I said as I hopped off the table. It was a good thing my mom was standing in front of me when I did this or I would have ended up flat on my face.
“I’m sorry Ian, I should have warned you that you’ll feel a bit off balance for a little bit while your body readjusts to not having the cast on.” I just shot her a kind of “No Shit” Look as my mom helped me get back to my feet.
As we were walking out of the exam room Jason’s dad was coming down the hall with Dr. Roberts. I was able to see the shocked look on Mr. Murphy’s face when he saw me. This told me how much Jason and I had to look alike even though all I had been able to see of my brother were glances from a distance.
“Ah, Mary good to see you again. And Ian, I see you finally got that chunk of fiberglass off your arm.” We were told with a smile. Though I also go my hair messed up in the process as well. It’s a good thing that I was able to control my temper since I really hated it when adult would do that.
“How’s Brad’s nose doing?” my mom was asked with a slight grin.
“It’s doing better. We took the splint off a couple of days ago.”
“Oh, where are my manners. Mary this is Donn Murphy. He’s our new computer tech rep.”
“We’ve met. It’s good to see you again. Donn this is my son Ian. Whom, I don’t believe you’ve had the pleasure of meeting before.”
“A pleasure sir.” I said while taking off my sunglasses and offering my hand.
“Likewise.” I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the tone used in the greeting but at least the handshake I received was cordial enough.
“I hate to run off like this but I need to get Ian home for a swim lesson. Again, it’s been a pleasure meeting you.”
“Mom, why were you being sarcastic to Mr. Murphy back there?” I asked as we got on the elevator
“Because of how he’s handling the situation with you and Jason.”
“Oh, OK. I just wanted to know.” The rest of the trip back to the house was quiet. I could tell my mom was still kind of mad over how the Murphys were handling things but I felt that it was up to them how to handle things. Besides I was trying to figure out how to get my arm back into shape. We managed to pull up to the house just after Don arrived for our swim lesson.
“Well, I see you got the cast off today. That’s good. Now we’ll be able to kick your lessons into high gear.”
“That’s fine. I need to get my arm back into shape anyway and this should help.” I told Don as I headed up to my room to get changed.
“I’ll send the boys down as soon as they get ready. Just so you know it’ll only be Isaac and Ian today. Brad had an after school event and David is in a bit of trouble right now.”
“OK. I’ll be waiting at the pool for them then.”
With it just being Isaac and myself for our swim lesson today Don was able to give us a little more of a one on one approach to what he was showing us. As I had asked him to Don had me spend most of the time using my left arm. It was more than a little sore by the end of our lesson but I knew this was going to happen. While the swim lesson was going on I found out later that David was getting his butt chewed out.
“What do you think you’re doing, young man?” David was asked when our mom walked into his room and saw him getting dressed for our swim lessons.
“I heard Don was here, so I’m getting ready for my swim lesson.”
“Your lesson has been canceled for the day. You and I need to have a talk.”
“ But..”
“No, buts. Sit.” David was told while our mom pointed to the edge of his bed.
“I want to know why you’ve been waiting till the last possible minute to have your diapers changed at school?”
“I don’t know. I guess I don’t want people to know that I still need to wear diapers.” Came the mumbled reply.
“I don’t believe that for a minute David given how often you tend to go around the house and yard without any pants on. And that includes when you’ve had friends over. Most of who know that you still wear them. Now do you want to try that again?”
“I guess I just can’t tell when they need to be changed. “
“I see. Then you’re telling me that you can’t tell when you’ve messed them then. Is that it?”
“I guess so.”
“OK then, starting right now you’ll have no say so when you get checked and changed. And I’ll arrange for someone to come and escort you to the nurse’s office to be checked and changed on a regular basis.
“But then everyone will find out!”
“After these couple of days, I doubt there are many people left that don’t know about it. And it’s obvious to me that you are either unable or unwilling to take care of this on your own, so I have to make sure that it gets taken care of through other means.”
“I can do it myself though.” David sobbed as he realized that his mom was serious about what she was going to do.
“I’m not so sure. Until you can prove that you can be responsible enough to handle this yourself someone else will do it for you. Now lets get you taken care of.” David was told as he was led over to his changing table and helped up on it. He was more than a little surprised to have his mom put several thick cloth diapers on him.
“Go ahead and get started on your homework. I’ll have someone come get you when it’s time for dinner.” My mom announced as she finished pulling some plastic pant up over her sons’ diapers and left the room.
Once I had gotten done showering and changing after my swim lesson, I got started on my homework. I was a bit amazed at how quickly I was picking things up. While I highly doubted that they would advance me any grades, I knew that I would easily go on to the next one.
“Ian, could I get some help with some of my homework?” David asked after I said he could come in.
“Why didn’t you ask mom for some help?”
“I didn’t want to make her any madder at me than she already is.”
“I doubt she would get mad at you for asking for some help with your homework. But let’s see where you’re having trouble and I’ll see what I can do.”
“OK, Thanks.” I was told as he waddled over to my desk. I moved my books over so he could set his down then had him pull over and extra chair.
“So what are you having trouble with?” I asked once he was situated.
“I’m not really understanding the math we just started.”
“OK. Show me what you aren’t understanding and I’ll see if I can make it clearer for you.” I told him as I pulled my own book over.
“David Jacob Miller what are you doing in here. You’re on restriction.” Megan said when she saw that David was in my room.
“ Calm down Megan. He was just needing some help with his homework and I didn’t know he was on restriction.” I said trying to defuse the situation.
“That doesn’t matter. David get back to your room. I’ll bring something up to you later. And Ian you better do the same till I can have Mom or dad come up and talk to you about this.”
“Megan, I think you’re blowing things way out of line. I think we better talk to mom and dad about this right now.”
“I don’t think so. You’ll do as I say. And Just for backtalk you can do without anything to eat.”
“Megan, I don’t know what’s got your underwear in a knot but the only thing David and I are going to be doing right now is go down and have dinner. If you have a problem with that you can take it up with mom and dad when we get down there.” I said as I started walking out of the room. I did keep an eye on her as I walked by since she was acting rather strange. The next thing I know I was being slammed in to the wall across from my room.
“Jeez Meg what the hell was that for?!” I yelled as I picked my self up off the floor. Before I knew it Meg was coming after me again.
“David Get Dad Quick!” I yelled as I did a couple of moves my grandfather and shown me and pinned Megan to the ground.
“What’s all the yelling up here?” My mom asked coming up to see what all the noise was.
“Megan’s flipped out for some reason.” I answered back trying to keep a hold of Megan.
“Brian Get Up Here And Bring your bag!” my mom yelled as she came over to help me. Within minutes Megan had been sedated and an ambulance had been called.
“You doing OK?” I was asked once Megan was on her way to the hospital.
“I’m fine but you better take a look at David.” I told my mom. David seemed to be in a near catatonic state. Which I could understand after seeing a family member go postal all of a sudden. After a quick call to Nana, my mom took off to join my dad at the hospital. The next couple of hours were rather tense for all of us while we were waiting on news about how Megan was doing.
“Boy’s that was your mom, Megan is doing fine now but they plan on keeping her a couple of days for observation. It seems that she had been given the wrong dosage of medication and it had an adverse effect on her.” That was as big of understatement as I had heard in a long time. I knew heads were going to roll on this one since it had been discovered that the pharmacist had misread the prescription and filled it with almost ten times what it was supposed to be for.
When mom and dad offered to let us stay home the next day, I wasn’t at all surprised to see everyone but myself jump at the chance.
“Are you sure you don’t need to stay home Ian?” My dad asked after my brothers all said they thought it was a good idea.
“I’m sure. You said that Megan is out of any danger and that they were just keeping her in as a precaution right?”
“True.”
“Then I don’t see any reason to stay home. I figure if anything happens someone will let me know and I figure mom’ll probably run us by there tomorrow afternoon anyway.”
“Good point. Well, if you’re sure then we’ll let you go. I will let the school know what’s going on in case you change your mind.” I nodded at this and, after a few more minutes of talking , I headed up to bed.
“Dang Ian, Megan really did a number on your eye.” Brad chuckled when I entered the dinning room the next morning.
“Tell me about it.” as I sat down my mom came into the room, saw my eye and freaked.
“Anita, Grab an ice pack and bring it here will you.” my aunt yelled as she came around the table to get a closer look.
“Why didn’t you tell some one about this last night?” as I was pulled into a fierce hug.
“Mom you’re choking me.” I gasped after a few seconds. This got my mom to loosen her grip on me once I had caught my breath I answered her question.
“I had dad take a look at it last night. He said it looked fine. I just need to keep an ice pack on it for a couple of days.” I couldn’t understand why all the fuss was about a simple black eye. The looks I saw on Brad’s and Isaac’s faces told me that this was normal. I managed to finish eating breakfast one handed since my mom insisted that I keep the icepack on.
People were staring at me during the entire bus ride to school. Which I found a bit annoying after the sixth or seventh time of having to explain what had happened. The only people that didn’t seem overly concerned was the school nurse, the principal, and my teacher.
I felt like I had lucked out a bit that morning at recess when it turned out that I didn’t need to go in for a change before heading out with my classmates.
“What’s going on over there?” I asked one of my friends seeing a group of what looked like sixth graders standing around in a small circle. Before my friend could answer my question, it was answered for me when I heard someone calling for some help.
“Go get Mr. Perez.” I said while I started over to help the person in question.
“What’s going on over here?!” I called when I got close enough to see the older students pushing around someone else.
“Nothing go away.” I was told while getting pushed myself.
“I don’t think so.” I replied while getting up off the ground.
“I said piss off.” the guy that pushed me said while taking a swing at me. I ended up with a bloody nose because the swing came in from the side of my black eye.
“You shouldn’t have done that.” I said while getting back up.
“Yeah? What are you going to do about it?”
“This.” I said while kicking up between the guy’s legs. His yell of pain got the attention of his friends and they decided to come to his aid. Before I knew what was going on I had five other people ganging up on me. This really got the attention of the teachers on duty. After a few minutes, I felt several of the people on me getting roughly pulled off.
“What’s going on over here?” Mr. Perez asked as I was helped to my feet.
“These guys were pushing around this other kid around. I came over to see if I could help him out after sending Ryan to get you.” I said through some twinges from my ribs.
“I see.” my teacher said while looking at the condition of some of the others.
“Ryan, please escort Mr. Miller and Mr. Murphy up to the Nurse’s office and then get a pass from her to get back to class.”
“You gentlemen will join me in Mr. Coleman’s office.” I could tell from the faces of the guys that had ganged up on me that this was the last place they wanted to go.
“Well, get going.” Ryan was told.
Ryan and I ended up having to help the kid up to the nurse’s office.
“What happened to you two?”
“We had a slight disagreement with some sixth graders.” I said with a slight chuckle.
“Right. Well, let’s get him over to the couch and then you take a seat yourself.” Ryan and I were told as the nurse came over to take a closer look at the damage. Twenty minutes later Mr. Coleman came into the office.
“So which of you boys wants to tell me what happened?”
“I will sir. While out on the playground, I noticed a group of older students standing in a circle off to the side off the blacktop. As I got a little closer, I heard someone call for some help so I went up to see if I could, after I sent someone to get one of the teachers. One of the older boys told me that it didn’t concern me and pushed me down to get me to back off. When I didn’t, he hit me. That’s when I got the bloody nose. Well I kind of kicked him in the balls for that. When his friends heard him yell they let the other kid go and ganged up on me. I’m not really sure what happened after that.”
“I see. Well. I still will need to talk this over with Dr. Alison. In the mean time you will stay here while waiting for your parents to arrive.” This caused a groan from the other kid.
“Sorry about getting you in trouble like this. I’m Jason by the way.”
“It’s no trouble. I’m Ian.” I said I guess something in my voice made him look over at me. It was all I could do to keep from laughing when he dropped the ice pack he was holding in shock.
“I know. There’s a lot you need to be told about.” I said. This just caused Jason to groan and slump back onto his couch. Not thirty minutes later my mom came into the room. I couldn’t tell if she was pissed or not but I could tell she wasn’t happy.
“OK you two can get up. We’re heading home. I’ll fill you in on everything when we get there.” We were told.
“I’m talking to you also Jason. Your aunt wasn’t able to take the time off work. So I offered to watch you till your uncle gets home later this afternoon.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Jason said as he slid off the couch. I could tell now that he wasn’t more than an inch or two taller than me. My mom had to help us both stagger out of the building and over to the car.
“You know mom, I think maybe I should have stayed home today after all.” I mumbled through my swollen lip.
“Well, too late now. I want you both to lay down for a nap when we get back to the house.” I mumbled my assent to this but noticed that Jason had stiffened a good deal when he heard this. Of course, at the time I thought it might have been caused by him seeing the car seats when my aunt opened the door to the back seats.
“Well, in you go.” Jason was told as my mom helped him into the car. While he didn’t look at all that happy about getting fastened into David’s car seat, he didn’t complain either. I’m not sure about Jason, but I was asleep before we were even out of the parking lot.