By Danny
When my alarm went off this morning I flew out of bed, my last thoughts before falling asleep last night had been that of the picture Jasper had emailed me of Peter in those wet sweatpants of mine, and it was the first thing in my head when I woke up. After having turned off my alarm clock, I stood there for a while before I realized that although my ankle was still tender, I was able to walk on it. I still had a noticeable limp and every so often, it would send a small, sharp, stabbing pain message to my brain just as a reminder to take it easy. As I went to my closet to get out my school uniform, I noticed that I could partially see out of my bad eye again and I made a remark of just two words that I won’t include here. Although things were still a bit blurry, it was the most and clearest my eye had been since Jamie’s knuckles had collided with it on Saturday. I guess somewhere in the back of my head, I figured that after falling on my face in the race yesterday and having busted myself open again, that I’d not be able to use that eye again for a long time. But here I am, able to see out of it. Of course, as I write this now, it’s been a full day since I crawled out of bed and a lot has happened that not even I believe yet!
While I was pulling my clothes out, and without really thinking about it, I instinctively reached down to check how wet I was and I couldn’t believe it; I was dry again! Unlike in some mornings past, I didn’t go back to bed to wet myself. Instead, I felt overjoyed at the fact that I didn’t have to go take a shower this morning. I just slipped my pants on right over my dry goodnight. I think I may have set a personal record for getting ready for school this morning!
While stuffing my books into my backpack, my eyes fixed on the view outside of my window and I had to squint my bad eye, with some difficulty, to focus on it clearly. I stopped everything I was doing and went to the window. It was like gazing at a photograph of a winter wonderland scene. Everything was covered in a blanket of white and the tree branches all glistened with a layer of ice on them. Apparently it got so cold last night that the rain turned into snow and must have fallen all night long. It was still coming down though only sparingly at best.
I went over, turned on my radio to listen for the school closing announcements, and prayed that our school would be closed. Not so that I wouldn’t have to go to school today, but so that Peter wouldn’t go to school today. When I saw that picture on Jasper’s email last night I had the worst thought ever and it was a single word, “REVENGE”! I knew that Jasper was thinking that this was the ammunition he needed to once-and-for-all-time, destroy Peter Alderman’s reputation as a bully and demote him to the status of lowly toad piss.
While I was sitting and listening to the radio, and being irritated at the guy for talking about everything except the school closings, I looked down and noticed that I’d tied my tie with the skinny end about six inches longer then the wide end. I untied it and tried again with more success this time- though it wasn’t perfect. I was sitting at my desk, staring at my radio, when mom opened my door and came in, “Good morning”. She said.
I didn’t say anything.
“You listening for the school closings?” She asked.
“Mom they just have to close school today!” I tried to use my mind to force my words into the radio hoping the radio guy would hear me and grant my wish.
“Did you already take your shower this morning?” Mom asked while making my bed for me.
“Huh? What? Uh, no; I didn’t need to.” I said absent-mindedly.
Had I not been so focused on the radio I’d have probably been relieved that she didn’t comment further and once my bed was made she said, “Well just in case you have to go, what would you like for breakfast?”
“Um, toast and jam?” I said while finally turning to her and smiling as if it were needed to charm her into agreement.
“Oh your eye looks so much better this morning!” She exclaimed.
“Yeah I can even see a little bit!” I said.
“Maybe I better put some more cream on it before school.” She said taking my chin in her hand and turning my head this way and that to check out my eye at every possible angle.
She was heading for the door when I said, “Ah mom! No! That stuff stinks like yesterdays diapers!” It was out of my mouth before I knew what I’d said and I busted out laughing when she was out of sight.
I didn’t laugh very long as she quickly returned with the cream and fresh bandages. I squirmed and complained the entire time she was applying it. Man that stuff just absolutely is the worst smelling stuff! I’ve got to remember to kick my doctor the next time he’s examining me for giving that vile stuff to my dad!
As she was applying the last bandage, the school announcements started.
“The following schools are on a one-hour delay.” The announcer said, and proceeded to list about a dozen schools all over the valley before going to the schools on a two-hour delay. Several businesses were also listed as delayed as well but no schools or businesses were closed except for St. Catharine’s school for girls but it is always getting closed because it sits on top of a hill and the lane that leads up to the school freezes over the second the temperature drops below 32-degrees. Despite listening very attentively to the announcer on the radio rattle off name after name of schools and businesses, I didn’t hear my school mentioned at all.
I groaned my desperate disappointment and mom mockingly sang, “Looks like you better get out your cold weather gear!”
“Mom!” I whined, but I did just what she suggested and got out my warmest coat along with my hat, gloves and snow boots, which I had to sit in the middle of my floor and attempt to untie the knot that the laces were in. I really hate my snow boots. They have these little, looping hooks on them that are supposed to hold the laces but they don’t do the job very well at all. When I try to untie them to take them off, the laces will slip off the hooks, which causes them to get all tangled. Unfortunately, the last time I wore them, I had not taken the time to untangle the laces, so I had to do it this morning. As mom was leaving my room, while I was still sitting on the floor wrestling with my laces, she asked, “Are you sure toast is going to be enough?”
“Yes-Uh and Milk!” I said sounding impatient, as my laces were not yielding to my will.
After another ten minutes of grumbling and growling at my boots I had the knot taken out of my laces so I took my boots, along with my book and gym bags, to the kitchen and deposited them all by the back door.
As I was setting my gym bag down, mom said, “You might need these today”. I looked over to her and saw that she was handing me my gym shorts and the yellow shirt. I’d not even thought about them since I took them off yesterday. I unfolded them both and checked them out.
“Mom? How’d you get all my blood out?” I asked in amazement.
She wiggling her ten fingers at me is though she were trying to work her motherly enchantments on me, “Mom’s have magic that no one else has!”
I smiled coyly and hugged her neck, “Thanks mom! You’re the best!”
Dad had to add his two cents into our moment, “What about me?”
I released mom and said to dad, “You’re okay, too... I guess!”
Mom went back to making breakfast as dad said, “Did ya hear that, hun? He said I was OK!”
“I also said I guess! That’s kind of like a strong maybe!” I said, sitting down at the table with an evil grin on my face.
Dad looked back over to mom past the rim of his coffee cup, “You know hun, I’ve been thinking. our son’s awfully broken down. I mean, he’s still got that big bump on his forehead, he’s blind in one eye, walks with a limp and lets face it, he’s never been much of a looker. What say we trade him in on one of those newer models? Maybe we can get a little girl this time! You would like that, wouldn’t ya hun?”
“Har, Har, Hardy-Har-Har!” I sarcastically laughed at dad’s bad attempt at humor.
“Na, I think we’ll keep him!” Mom said while applying jam to my toast.
“Ah shucks!” Dad said sticking his finger into his coffee and then flicking a drop at me.
“HEY!” I griped. “MOM? Tell dad to stop!”
As she was handing me my toast, she popped dad on the back of his head and then kissed his cheek. “Keep it up and I’ll send him to work with you!”
“Oh no you don’t!!!” Dad said, half laughing while looking over his cup as he took a sip this time.
“Yeah! You’ve not taken me to work with you in a long time.” I protested.
He wiped a drip of coffee from his chin and asked, “Have you forgotten what you did the last time I took you to my office?”
“What? It was my fault they didn’t have a sign on the copy machine saying I shouldn’t make copies of my face?” I said, still sporting my evil grin.
“That’s not what I was talking about . . . what do you mean you made copies of your face? I didn’t know about that!” He said, trying to look very dad-like, but failing miserably.
“What he do?” Mom asked as she put a pile of scrambled eggs in front of dad.
“When my boss walked past our desks, Big-Mouth here, decides to say loud enough for everyone to hear, Daddy, how come when your boss walks by, everybody acts like they are busy?” Dad actually did a good job of impersonating me.
“Hey! That wasn’t the last time you took me to work, that was when I was seven and a half!” I said in my own defense.
“Well I think I made my point anyway.” He said taking a bite of his eggs.
“Can I go to work with you tomorrow?” I teased.
“Yep hun! A daughter is sounding better and better by the minute!” He said to mom who was wiping off the counter now.
“Speaking of sisters, I’m going over to mine later this morning to have my hair colored again.” Mom said cleverly changing the subject.
“Oh but my love! You don’t have to change! We love you just the way you are!” Dad said which earned him a wet rag upside his head.
“Oh, that’s just disgusting!” Dad laughed.
I laughed at the two of them too and looked out the backdoor at the snow. I knew that I wasn’t going to be riding my bike to school today and that was for sure.
Dad’s cell phone rang and he answered it. “Hello? Oh hi Aphelia! Ahuh-yes-sure-OK, that sounds good. Oh, don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it when I get to the office. Sure, don’t give it a second thought. What’s that? Oh sure I’ll be sure to pass that along. Ok. Yes, you too and thanks for calling. Bye.”
“Who’s Aphelia?” I asked as soon as he was off the phone.
“Just a lady in my office.” Dad said, “You remember her, she was the one that gave you that yo-yo”.
“Oh yeah! She was the one that had the red-hot candies in that little jar on her desk!” I said knowingly.
“That’s the one, but it’s M&M’s now.” Dad said.
“You know, I think she’s probably the one to credit for getting you interested in yo-yos in the first place.” Mom said finally joining us at the table.
I thought for a second and then said, “Yeah, I guess so!”
“Who knows, you may never have discovered that you were a natural born yo-yoer.” Dad said before taking his last bite of eggs.
“Yeah and I probably never would have won the Golden Yo-Yo either!” I added.
“So what did she want?” Mom asked re-steering the conversation back on track.
“Oh, she said that my office is on a two hour delay!” He said, sounding just the way I would have, had my school been delayed or closed.
Mom smiled at him and said “Don’t rub it in dear!” I know she was only saying it to torture me more. “You still get to take your son to school though.” She added now to torture dad.
“Awww, but honey bunch? Do I have toooooo?” Dad did an excellent job of whining.
I gave him a “Dad’s are so lame!” look and he stuck his tongue out at me.
“Alright you two! Behave or I’ll make you both stay home!” Mom said, to which dad and I both started acting up all the more.
I woofed down my last few bites of toast and drank down my milk. Just as I was draining the last drops from my glass, the doorbell rang. “Can’t be the guys?” I thought out loud. Dad answered the door and sure enough, it was Peter and his posse. Dad invited them in out of the snow.
“You boys want a ride to school?” Dad asked.
I got up from the table, went to greet them all and noticed that Steven had a fresh black eye but I didn’t comment or draw attention to it just then.
As we were all filing out the front door to pile in the van, mom gave dad a second cup of coffee in his travel cup with the no-spill lid and kissed him, “The coffee should keep your lips warm until you get back to me”. I heard mom say.
“Oh mom! That’s just wrong!” I complained as I was going out the door.
On the way to school dad let us listen to the radio. It took an extra ten minutes for dad to drive and he was complaining about the roads and why they didn’t close our school today. I kept glancing into the backseat at the four guys and noticed that Steven and Peter were both acting sort of odd but again, I didn’t want to draw attention to either of them and risk embarrassing them in front of dad or the other guys.
Just as we were pulling into the school parking lot, there was another school closings and delays announcement on the radio. This time they listed our school as being on a one-hour delay. Dad laughed and said, “Whelp too bad, you’re already here! Everyone out!” The five of us groaned as one and then reluctantly climbed from the van.
We forged a path to the front door of the school adding to the few footprints that were already in the snow and Mr. Graff greeted us. “Good morning boys! Nice of you to join us so early today!” He said. “You might be happy to know that the cafeteria is open and they are serving hot coco and doughnuts for all that show up on time this morning despite the weather delay.” He added. All five of us tore off for the cafeteria but I didn’t get but maybe five feet into the building when he shouted, “FREEZE!” and every one of us screeched to a halt with Max sliding a bit on the tile floor.
“What happen to you two?” He asked pointing to Steven and myself.
I told him about falling in the race yesterday and he said, “Oh yeah, I’d heard about that. Mr. Shaffer had a lot of good things to say about you in the teachers lounge, but that doesn’t explain you’re black-eye.” He said, now focusing down at Steven who looked like he was about to start crying any second.
“I did it!” I said quickly. Mr. Graff looked at me with a degree of astonishment and maybe a pinch of “I knew it!” in his eyes.
“We were play wrestling . . . uh . . . after school . . . at my house yesterday and I . . . accidentally caught him with my elbow!” I said which was an obvious lie and I might add that it was not one of my better attempts at lying either but Mr. Graff seemed to accept it.
“Hummm, bet that hurt! Well go on before the donuts are all gone!” He said waving us off with a dismissive gesture.
In the cafeteria Peter asked, “Why’d you do that?”
“Do what?” I asked back.
“You know; lie.” He added.
“Because I figure whatever the truth is, it’s none of his business.” I said very matter of fact like and patted Steven on the shoulder. That seemed to satisfy the lot of them and Steven especially looked relieved. He gave me a reassuring smile.
After we all had our coco and doughnuts and were sitting at one of the tables alone (there were approximately fifty or more students in the cafeteria with us), Steven shared that his “Old Man” as he labeled him, had come home drunk again from the dog tacks and was in a foul mood. “He lost his whole paycheck again!” Steven added before turning sideways in his chair and not talking for the rest of the time we sat.
Mary Tucker had come in early too and stopped at our table, “Hi Simon!” She said, smiling so prettily.
I totally forgot about the guys for a few minutes, “Hi Mary!” I said back.
“I heard about your race! Does your eye hurt much?” She asked looking quite concerned.
“Na, I can even see out of it mostly!” I answered.
We made small talk for a few more minutes and then her girlfriends came over and she left with them.
I guess I was smiling stupidly because Max gave me a poke, “Earth to Lover-Boy! Come in Lover-Boy!”
I shook off my dazed expression and returned to talking with the guys. The subject somehow got to what we all would have done today had the school been closed and I think it was Johnny that suggested we all should have skipped school today. The reminded me of something and I turned to Peter and asked, “Hey where did you disappear to Friday after lunch?”
“What?” Peter asked and I wasn’t sure if he was stalling or if he really didn’t know what I was talking about.
“Yeah, you never did tell us where you were!” Max said and Johnny added, “Yeah, where was you?”
I saw my friend BJ crossing the cafeteria but he was on the other side so I didn’t call him over. I just waved at him and he waved back and smiled as he started talking to some other boys.
“None of your business!” Peter said sounding just the way he had in my room yesterday afternoon.
I guess sitting there with the other four looking as curious as I was gave me more bravery than usual and I continued to prod at Peter for an answer. Unfortunately, my efforts were interrupted when the announcement came over the intercom, “This is your Principle Speaking. For those students that have already joined us, I would like to thank you for joining us this morning despite the winter like weather this morning. You may now go to your lockers and report to your homerooms where your teachers will be instructing you on how your classes will be conducted during this abbreviated day. That will be all.”
We got up and deposited our cups and napkins in the trash before heading out of the cafeteria. As we were walking down the hallway, Peter and Max beside me, and the other two following right behind, Johnny kept going on about some show he’d seen on TV last night and was trying to describe it to Steven and Max. Peter and I were back on the conversation about what we would have done today had school been closed.
“I’d have loved to sit around the house watching music videos or something!” Peter said and then added, “Or go down to the Rec-center and play air hockey all . . .”
Peter never finished his sentence. As the five of us turned the corner to go to our lockers, we all came to a sudden halt. Running down on either side of the hallway were picture after picture of Peter. There were actually three pictures of Peter that looked to have been copied about a million times. The first was of Peter from the back wearing my blue sweat pants and it was totally apparent that he’d wet himself. The second picture was a front shot of Peter completely in the nude. The other picture was an obvious fake that someone had pasted a diaper onto Peter’s nude body from the second picture. There were also various close-ups and captions on most of the pictures with the most obvious being Peter’s name in large, bold, black letters.
Now I knew right away that the diaper picture was a fake, not just because I knew that the room he was standing in was my room and that I’d been there and knew he had not had a diaper on at the time (though I would have thoroughly enjoyed it if he had), but because it was painfully obvious that it was the work of someone using Photoshop or some other program. It was a very bad fake because the diaper wasn’t even positioned properly. However, that didn’t matter. The pictures were having the intended effect on all that looked at them.
The hallway was loaded with students all gawking and laughing at the pictures. I turned to Peter who looked like he was about to go nuclear at any second. I was about to open my mouth when I felt the worst pain in my jaw and then in my stomach I’d ever felt. Before I knew what was happening, I was on the floor and Peter was kicking me in my stomach and ribs. I heard a blood-curdling scream and saw a blur fly over my head and Peter was gone from my sight.
I managed to get myself up on one elbow and saw Peter on the floor next to me. My best friend, BJ, was sitting on Peter’s chest and was throwing blow after blow into Peter’s face, neck and shoulders in a blinding flurry of fists. Peter was struggling and trying to get BJ off of him but despite the fact that Peter was much bigger than BJ, he couldn’t stop the rash of blows.
From the corner of my good eye, I saw Johnny in midair flying toward BJ while Steven and Max were both kneeling at my side trying to help me up.
I heard a deep voice yelling and saw a huge hand snatch Johnny right out of the air just before he made contact with BJ who was also being lifted from off Peter by someone else.
I was up on my knees now; I was holding my stomach, coughing, and I could taste blood in my mouth too. I looked and saw that Mr. Freeman had hold of Johnny who was flailing about like a wild beast in Mr. Freeman’s arms and BJ had tears flowing down his face and was being restrained by Mr. Shafer. BJ had stopped fighting and was just standing there crying and looking like he still wanted to kill Peter. I saw BJ’s hands. They were covered in Peter’s blood.
There were countless students crowded around us and I could see teachers trying to make their way through the crowd. I looked back over at Peter who’d managed to get to his feet. Blood was flowing from his nose and mouth. He was looking right at me and screamed, “YOU MOTHER EFFER!” but he actually said the other word as he started for me again. A teacher made a lunge for Peter to stop him but Peter was too fast. I saw something gleam in Peter’s hand and heard someone yell, “NO!”
I turned toward the direction of the yell and saw Jasper jumping in front of me and toward Peter. In an instant, it was over. I looked down at the floor in front of me and saw Jasper was laying there with his eyes open and the pocket knife Peter had intended to use on me was sticking out of Jaspers chest just below his left shoulder. I heard more shouts and screams and then everything died down to a quiet commotion.
Mr. Shaffer kneeled down in front of me and picked Jasper up in his arms. Jasper’s head hung limply backwards. I watched in quiet horror as Mr. Shaffer ran down the hallway toward the nurses’ office.
I turned my head to see that Peter was pinned against the wall by Mr. Graff who had his left arm across Peter’s throat and was holding one of Peter’s wrists with his left hand and had Peters other arm pinned to the wall his right hand. Peter looked horror stricken, like he couldn’t believe what he’d just done.
I think felt someone put his or her hand on my back as I coughed and blood came up. I managed to look over and saw that my Social Studies teacher, Mr. Carver, and Mrs. Miracle, my reading teacher, had both appeared out of nowhere. They were shouting for everyone to go to their homeroom classes immediately. Within seconds, both of the schools crossing guards, who were basically the school security guards, had arrived in the hall and had taken charge of Peter, BJ and Johnny.
I coughed again and felt someone holding my head as I vomited the coco, doughnut and my breakfast toast all over the school floor. I still don’t know who picked me up and carried me to the nurse’s office. The office was a storm of activity. I could hear medics and police although I couldn’t see them. The school nurse kept coming in and out along with several medical persons.
After a few minutes, one of the medical persons, a lady, came in and was caring for me. She kept poking and prodding me. I continued to cough up a little blood every few minutes. When I tried to vomit again, the medic turned me on my side so that I didn’t choke and I saw other medics and police officers wheeling Jasper out on a stretcher really fast.
The next few minutes are still kind of hard for me to remember, which I find very odd. I mean, I can see Jasper laying on that tile floor with that knife sticking out of his chest just as real as if it were happening right now but for the life of me I can’t recall everything that happened after I saw them wheeling Jasper away and right up until they were loading me into my own ambulance. In the ambulance, I looked over and saw that grandpa was sitting right beside me.
“Grandpa?” I asked is disbelief.
“I’m here Simple Simon.” Grandpa said which was the nickname he always used to call me.
“What happened?” I asked.
“You rest now boy. You are going to be all right!” Grandpa said, trying to reassure me.
“Grandpa? Am I going to die?” I asked.
“Oh no! You are going to be just fine!” He said, putting his hand on my forehead.
“You do me a favor?” Grandpa asked.
“Sure” I said.
“Tell your mama I said Hi,” He said.
He reached out and put his hand over my eyes so that I’d close them, “Rest now”. He said quietly.
I managed to take a short breath despite my pain and said, “Okay, Grandpa.” When I opened my eyes again, Grandpa had gone.
I’m still amazed at how quickly mom and dad had got to the hospital all the way through all that snow and ice. They arrived only seconds behind the ambulance I was in. Mom was crying and clinging to dad who looked like he was only just barely holding himself together, too. I told mom that Grandpa said hi and she cried even harder so I didn’t talk about that anymore and just kept it to myself.
In the emergency room, the doctors and nurses stripped me down to my Goodnite, which I was both embarrassed about and relieved for having on. I was relieved they left it on me so that I wasn’t lying there completely nude but I was also embarrassed to have all those doctors and nurses see me in just a Goodnite like I was a little boy. I was mad at myself and couldn’t believe that I hadn’t taken it off this morning before I left for school. “How could I have been so stupid?” I thought.
One of the doctors kept asking me questions. I kept telling him to leave me alone and that I wanted my mom. I didn’t find out until later that they were out in the hallway giving a nurse all the information about my health history and filling out paperwork.
I don’t know how long I was poked and had different medical people wheeling me around taking all sorts of tests and x-rays. I heard this one short, balding, doctor tell my dad and mom that despite a lot of deep bruising and three broken ribs I was doing fine. “Fine?” I said to him, “You call this fine?” I shouted and tried to sit-up in the bed.
Dad was trying to hold me down in the bed; my ribs screamed at me to stop moving. Mom was crying hysterically. “FINE?” I screamed and started to cry. “I’m not FINE! I’m not!” I cried into dad’s arm.
A nurse came in several minutes after my tantrum and taped up my ribs for me. She was a very nice, though not-so-attractive lady. She was able to get me sitting up without causing me any pain at all and even managed to get me to laugh, which hurt like mad. She also gave me a shot in my hip after laying me back down and that shot really helped with all pain.
Actually, it helped with a lot more than the pain. Before too long, I was giggling and cracking up at the stupidest of things. I’d even managed to get mom and dad to giggle. When I saw this one doctor come in that didn’t have a stitch of hair on top of his head but had this humungous black mustache that looked like a black dust broom hanging under his nose I started giggling, then laughing full out.
“What?” the doctor said, shrugging his shoulders and looking to my dad.
“Hey, hey, hey doc! I think the janitor is going to want his broom back!” I said before screaming with laughter. Dad kept trying to put his hand over my mouth to shut me up but I was laughing so hard he was having a very difficult time of it.
Yet another doctor, this one was much younger than any of the others, had come in and was putting stitches into the gash over my eye, which until then I’d not known that it had been busted open again. The mustache doctor had come back in behind the young doctor and asked to talk with mom and dad out in the hallway.
Nicely doped up as I was, I was carrying on a conversation with nobody in particular and had not noticed a nurse that had come in while the young doctor was stitching my eye. I was oblivious to the nurse until the point where she reached for my Goodnite and started to pull it off of me.
“Hey!” I complained, but I was so doped up it sounded was more like the way Austin Powers might say, “Hey baby!”
She just smiled and said, “We can’t have you laying here all wet and soiled, now can we?”
“What?” I said still sounding like Austin Powers to myself.
“It’s ok! I will have you cleaned up in a jiffy.” She said nicely.
“Anyone ever tell you, that you sound just like that one good witch in that one movie?” I said silly-like.
She said, “What movie is that?” as she pulled my Goodnite all the way off of me and started cleaning me up.
“You know, the one with the little people and the scarecrow.” I said.
“Hold your head still for me. Okay, Simon?” the young doctor said.
“Huh? Oh yeah sure; anything for you doc!” I said totally forgetting what I had been talking about.
The nurse surprised me at how strong she was for such a little lady when she grabbed my one leg and lifted it into the air so that she could wipe off my bottom.
“Hey! That tickles!” I said as she washed my backside.
“Oh, sorry about that!” She said almost in a kind of off-handed way.
“You know something?” I said as he lowered my leg and lifted the other.
“What’s that?” She said,
“You are a really pretty lady.” I smooshed, “You know, you would make a really good nurse someday.” I laughed again.
“Hold your head still Simon, okay?” the doctor said again.
“SSSShhhhhhh! Can’t you see I’m talking to this nurse?” I said to him.
She laughed and said, “There we go, all cleaned up”. She turned and I saw her dropping my Goodnite into what looked like a silver trashcan. But then I really couldn’t make it out from across the room. I also couldn’t see her anymore either but in no time she was back within my field of vision.
“Hey, welcome back beautiful! Did you miss me while you were gone?” I said with a snort.
“Oh aren’t you the smooth talker?” She teased, “I bet you have all the girls in your school charmed”.
“Oh yeah, I’m sure he’s got a different one for each day of the week and two for Saturdays!” the young doctor interjected before adding, “Alright! I’m done and I’m getting out of here! It’s getting too deep in here for me!”
“Ok doc, you leave me and beautiful here alone!” I said as the nurse took hold of my right ankle again and lifted it into the air.
“Wwwweeeeeeeeee” I cheered and I also I caught a glimpse of a green diaper being slid under my backside.
“I don’t suppose you have one of those in Panther colors, do ya?” I joked.
“’Fraid not!” She smiled and lowered my leg back to the bed before reaching between my legs and pulling the diaper up over me to cover up my boyhood nudity.
“That’s much better.” I said sort of more to myself than to the nurse as I closing my eyes and enjoying the feeling of the diaper being pulled tight and taped into place.
“You’re really good at this and did I tell you that you’re beautiful?” I said.
“I should be. I change at least a hundred of them a day and yes you did!” She said, touching the tip of my nose.
“You okay?” She asked.
“Me? I’m great when you are here!” I cooed to her.
“I think that’s my cue to leave.” She smiled again.
“I’ll miss you!” I said, holding out an outstretched hand longingly too her.
I lay alone for only a few minutes before my parents returned. “They’re going to keep you overnight for observations.” Mom said making it sound devastatingly horrible.
Dad chimed in, “The doctor said that all of your tests and x-rays looked good but they just want to keep an eye on you overnight”. He pulled the sheet up over me and asked, “You want the blanket on, too?”
I nodded my head and he unfolded it and laid it over my legs before pulling it up to my chest.
“Mom?” I said looking around trying to find her despite the fact that she was right by my bed.
“Yes sweetheart?” She said and I managed to get my eyes fastened on her.
“I’m getting married.” I said.
“Oh you are?” Dad said knowingly.
“Who to?” Mom asked.
“I don’t know her name.” I said.
I was quiet for a while, which I am sure my parents and the hospital staff were grateful for. But eventually my mind drifted back to the reason I was in the hospital and I finally asked, “How’s Jasper?”
“You mean the boy who was stabbed?” Dad asked.
“Yeah, he’s Bull’s brother.” I added.
“We saw his parents out in the hallway. They said he’s doing really good and that the knife missed all his important parts.” Mom offered.
I let out a huge sign of relief and without warning the tears started to flow. Mom and dad each took hold of one of my hands.
“You okay?” Dad asked softly. I could only nod as I cried.
An orderly came into the room and said to me, “We’re getting a room ready for you upstairs. I’ll be back to get you in just a while ok?” I nodded to him.
Dad thanked him and the orderly looked at me and asked, “You need anything right now, champ?”
I shook my head as mom combed my hair off my forehead with her fingers.
It was quite a while before the orderly came back; there had been a couple more visits by nurses checking my temperature. They did it orally and I was very glad of that too. One nurse had come in to check the IV that was stuck in my arm. A couple of other nurses and one doctor just stopped in to check that I was ok.
A few minutes before the orderly came back to take me upstairs the Amazonian officer showed up there in the ER.
“Oh there you are, Simon!” She said with a smile.
“Hello again!” I said to her and was glad I’d stopped crying earlier.
“Hello!” She said to mom and dad.
“I thought the three of you might like to know that Mr. Alderman, uh, Peter and the other boy . . .” She paused as she looked at her little note pad to remember his name. I spoke up, “Jasper?”
“Oh no baby-doll, I was meaning Peter’s friend, uh, John . . . I can’t seem to find his last name at the moment.” She said leafing through the little pages. “Anyway, they’ve both been taken into custody.” She said.
I realized she meant Johnny and I asked, “Why Johnny?”
“According to witnesses, he also had a knife and apparently was stopped before he could use it.” She said.
“Well, before he could use it on a student!” Mr. Freeman said, walking into the room holding up his bandaged arm for all to see. I was pleasantly surprised to see Mr. Freeman show up in the emergency room followed by the orderly that was to take me to my room.
“I-I didn’t see it.” I said looking at Mr. Freeman’s bandaged arm. I’d spoke directly to Mr. Freeman but I said it loud enough that they all heard me.
“How are you Simon?” Mr. Freeman asked trying to sound upbeat but his eyes showed his apparent concern and distress with all that had happened.
“I’m okay, just a bit banged up is all”. I answered him.
“What’s going to happen to them?” I asked the officer.
“Oh baby, they are going away. Far away!” She said with an obvious sort of tone.
“What about Max and Steven?” I asked.
“That’s what I wanted to ask you about sweetie.” She said and Mr. Freeman nodded at me as she continued. “We’ve been getting several different stories. Some say that the boy’s were attempting to help you up, and others say they were holding you down”.
“They . . .” I started to talk but stopped. I looked over to Mr. Freeman and then closed my eyes to try to replay the entire event in my head.
“No, they were helping me!” I said reopening my eyes.
“You sure?” She asked again.
“Positive!” I said.
“Okay,” is all she said in response as she made a couple of notes in her little notebook.
While she was having me recount the entire story to her, the orderly was getting me and my IV ready to move from the emergency room to my room. He eventually interrupted my story; almost as though he hadn’t been listening to me tell it. “You folks don’t mind if I take this guy upstairs to his room, do ya?”
“No, no by all means!” Mr. Freeman said giving a wave and I saw again his bandaged forearm and that the sleeve of his shirt was rolled up on only that arm. I’d also never seen him without a tie on; he looked sort of like someone’s dad and not my principal.
“Mind if we follow you up?” Dad asked.
“That will be fine!” the orderly answered as he started to push the bed away from the wall.
The Amazonian Officer, speaking loud enough for us all to hear but directing her words to Mr. Freeman said, “I’ll be up in a few minutes”. She patted him on the front of his right shoulder as she went past him. “I want to talk with the girl that was hurt before they send her home.”
“What girl?” I asked with alarm. “Who else got hurt?”
Mr. Freeman put his hand up to calm me down. He spoke very authoritatively. “You are to stay calm and not get all excited like you are so prone to doing! OK?”
I tried to relax, “Yes sir!” I said in response but I took some offence to him taking such an authoritative stance outside of the school.
He sighed and then spoke soft-like, “Simon, Mary was attacked after the fight by Max and Steven”.
His use of their first names caught my attention as well as what he’d said about Mary being attacked. I also wondered how he knew that Mary was so important to me.
“What?” I shouted and tried to sit up. For the first time since I’d been given the shot, I felt real pain again. “OWW!” I cried out and fell backwards into the pillow. The orderly put his hand on my shoulder to keep me down but it was not necessary; there was no way I was going to attempt that move again for a while.
“She’s okay, Simon! She’s just got a broken arm!” Mr. Freeman said, trying to dismiss my fears.
“Why? Why’d they attack her?” I cried out as tears filled my eyes again.
Mr. Freeman patted the air with this hand as if to silence me and said, “Just know that she is fine. We’ll talk more upstairs.”
My hospital room was not a private room as I had somehow imagined it might be. I guess I’d seen one too many hospital dramas on TV. I don’t know why I thought I would be in my own room really, but in a way I was glad to have so many others lodging there with me. There were a total of eight beds and all but two were filled. I was given the one next to the one by the window on the left side of the room. This left only the bed next to the window and to my left, empty.
Five of the six boys were sitting up in their beds talking to one another or watching TV as I was wheeled in; however, they stopped all activity and instead watched as I was brought in followed by my parents and Mr. Freeman.
“Andy!!! Hi!” three of the six boys, nearly shouting, said as one. At the time I’d not caught that they’d called him by his first name just as he’d asked me to do.
“Hello boys! You’re all looking much better today!” Mr. Freeman said cheerfully.
“Kyle had his surgery!” one of the boys said, pointing to the one boy that was lying down and looked to be totally out of it.
While the orderly lifted me off the gurney, thankfully with the sheet still covering me and on to what would be my bed for a day Mr. Freeman went over to the boy lying down, “How are you Kyle?” He asked, leaning over the boy.
I didn’t hear the boy answer but I did see Mr. Freeman smile and say, “Good!”
As the orderly was laying me down on the bed and was leaning me against the pillow, I tried to say something but realized that it hurt to take a deep breath just then. “Give me a second to get you settled here, OK?” He said sounding as though he knew I was hurting a bit.
“There, that better?” He asks, adjusting my pillow.
I nodded.
“You okay?” He asked sounding a little concerned.
I nodded again.
“You don’t look okay,” he said.
“Just hurts,” I managed to say.
“Sorry about that. I’ll go get the floor nurse.” He said and swept away, quickly pushing the gurney in front of him as he left.
Mom came over and put her hand on my cheek opposite my bad eye. “You okay, honey?”
I shook my head this time.
The nurse came in without the orderly. Right on cue, five of the six boys said, “Hi, Gabby!” She smiled at them saying, “Hello again, boys!” and then smiled at me, “Hello, uh, it’s Simon, right?” She didn’t wait for my response, “I’m nurse Gabby, as you might have noticed.” She shot the boys a smirk and said over her shoulder to them, “but all these monkeys just call me Gabby”. That started five of the six boys giggling and making chimp sounds.
I tried to laugh but stopped right away, as the pain in my ribs was just too much.
“You hurting?” she asked.
I nodded again.
She looked over my chart that she already had in her hand when she’d come in. “We’ll just turn up this a bit more,” She reached up and adjusted the drip for my IV while she continued to talk, “and you should start feeling better in a couple minutes, okay?” She spoke in such a way that I felt better just hearing her talk.
Mr. Freeman walked over to the side of my bed, wrapped his arms around nurse Gabby from behind and hugged her tightly while kissing the nape of her neck. The sight of this took mom, dad and myself completely off guard and the five boys made sounds of, “Oooo!” or “How gross!”
Gabby smiled at my mom who was looking very putout at the spectacle but it was Mr. Freeman that spoke first. “This is my lovely wife!” He said very matter-of-fact like.
“Oh!” I exclaimed with dawning awareness and both mom and dad looked relieved.
“Andy, did you see what I made?” the one boy furthest from my bed asked of Mr. Freeman.
Mr. Freeman released his hold on his wife Gabby, and then turned to make his way over to see what the boy was holding up.
“He comes up every day to spend a couple hours with all of the children on the floor.” Gabby offered without being asked. She was also adjusting my coverings and tucking me in while she talked on with mom and dad. I just let my eyes close to rest for a few minutes.
When I had my eyes closed, I must have fallen asleep because I had the oddest dream that a dog had a hold of my pants and was tugging and pulling at them. When I opened my eyes again there was a lady, no she looked more like a girl-maybe a high school girl. She had my sheet and blanket pulled off of me and was pulling the tapes of the green diaper loose. I must have made a noise because she looked up at me and then smiled when she realized she’d awakened me.
“Did you have a nice rest?” She asked, as if somehow we’d known each other forever.
“Who are you?” I asked a little horse and a little impolitely. I cleared my throat.
“I’m Bridget, I’m one of the nurses on this floor,” she said, returning her attention to my diaper.
Maybe I was not quite awake enough yet as I’d not started to get embarrassed right away. It wasn’t until she had the last of the four tapes removed that I realized what she was doing. “Hey, what are you doing that for?” I protested.
“You’re very wet, if I don’t change you now, then your bed will get wet. You don’t want to have to lay in a wet bed, do you?” As she talked I realized she was talking to me like I was a small child and this didn’t help matters for me.
As she pulled the front of the diaper down between my legs, I stole a quick glance around the room and saw that everyone of the other boys were all laying down in their beds. I couldn’t tell if they were asleep or not but I was so glad they were not sitting up watching me being changed. It was cold in the room and when she pulled the diaper off the front of me and the air hit my wet skin I shivered and groaned, “Oh!” as I was reminded of my damaged ribs. For half a second I had a pretty horrible thought about what I’d like to do to Peter if I could get my hands on him right now.
When nurse Bridget started to wash my boyhood parts with a very warm cloth my attention was immediately brought back to my current situation. As she washed the urine from my skin, I started to feel a stirring deep in my stomach and much to my horror my penis started to grow stiff. I squeezed my eyes shut and wished with every fiber of my being to go invisible but I knew by the small, “Eep!” sound that she made, that she’d seen what was happening. I kept my eyes closed as tightly as I could possibly squeeze them shut. I didn’t even care about the pain I was causing myself in my bad eye. Actually, the pain helped to take my mind off of her and my now ridged penis. Sure, it wasn’t huge like Tater’s penis but it didn’t seem to care, as it stood there just as proud as it could be. I felt her applying some kind of cream with her latex covered hand to my diaper area, which didn’t help matters at all.
“La da-da, La da-da . . .” She was singing just loud enough for me to hear, “La da-da, La da-da”.
I felt her slip a hand under the small of my back and the other under my right thigh. “I’m going to roll you over on your left side for a second, okay?” She said in such a way as to make it sound like she was asking my permission. I just squinted my eyes tighter and didn’t answer.
She must have taken that as my agreement. With gentle pressure, she rolled me right over onto my left side and with one hand on my right hip, she held me in place. I felt her washing off my backside with the warm cloth and then applying the cream. I dared myself to just enjoy it for half a minute up until she slid a few fingers into the crack of my bottom and moved them up and down to distribute the cream evenly. When a finger made contact with my pooper shooter, I instinctively clamped my butt cheeks tightly together.
Then, with equal gentleness, she rolled me back into place. I felt my face glowing red as my penis still stood at attention. I’d not realized that while she had me on my side, she’d slipped a new diaper under me too. She was good!
“Did I hurt you at all?” She asked.
I barely shook my head no.
“Oh good!” She said, taking my right leg and pulling it toward her so that my feet were apart again. I still had my eyes clamped tightly shut as I felt her reaching between my knees and pulling the front of the diaper up and giving it a tug to make sure it was snug between my legs. My little penis was still standing proud and without a word she took her hand and pressed it down against my abdomen before taping the diaper very tightly in place.
Having only been the third diaper I’d ever worn since I was like two, this was by far the snuggest and most padded one. It was bulky and made it impossible for me to put my legs back together but it fit so tightly that it almost felt like my boyhood parts and my backside were being hugged.
As she was pulling the sheet and blanket back up over me, I finally dared to open my eyes again. It took a second for my eyes to refocus after having been under so much pressure from my eyelids. The pain in my eye dissipated almost immediately.
She was tucking the covers up under my chin and I finally gathered the courage to speak and I asked, “What time is it?”
“Oh, it’s about 1:30 in the afternoon.” She said patting my belly softly before adding, “You okay now?”
I ventured a smile and nodded.
“OK then, if you need anything you just press this … okay?” and she laid a small controller on the pillow next to my head.
“OK.” I said as she turned and walked over to the other side of the room. From my reclined position, it was hard to watch what she was doing but I knew she was doing to the boy directly across from me exactly what she’d just done for me. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was getting as much pleasure from it as I’d got. I closed my eyes again and smiled peacefully as I let my head roll to the side. I reopened my eyes to see that the bed next to me, the one that had been empty earlier, was now occupied. However, the afternoon sun was shining so brightly through the window that I couldn’t see the boy in the bed clearly.
Suddenly the boy in the bed spoke, “You OK?” the voice was very rough and gravely yet also faintly familiar.
“Yeah,” I said back.
I heard him cough softly, clear his throat and speak again, “Funny, us ending up in the same room huh?”
“Jasper?” I said softly and cautiously excited.
“Yeah!” He said like I’d just asked a stupid question.
I felt my eyes water, “Are you okay?” I asked, my voice nearly breaking.
“Yeah” He paused a couple of seconds before continuing, “It just hurts a little.” He said and I knew he was trying to be brave.
“But you are okay?” I asked again.
“Yeah, the doctor said I was lucky.” He paused again, “You know, I don’t feel very lucky”.
That last part almost sounded like a weak attempt at a joke, I giggled more as an acknowledgement, than anything else. “You missed Mr. Freeman and Mr. Graff.” Jasper added.
“Yeah, I saw Mr. Freeman but I didn’t know Mr. Graff was here, too,” I said.
“Yeah! He left about an hour ago I guess.” Jasper said almost as a second thought.
“They said that the knife didn’t hit anything important?” I asked, going back to our other conversation.
“Yeah, well I’d say that any part of me is important.” He offered for an answer. He sounded almost like someone who’s spirit was finally broken, or maybe right on the edge of breaking.
I heard Nurse Bridget on the other side of the room and I managed to lift my head an inch or so to see that she’d moved on to the next boy. I looked at the boy in the bed across from me and he had his head up, too, and was looking right at me. He had the biggest, cheesiest grin on his face I’d ever seen. I smiled back at him and he lowered his head back into his pillow and placed both of his hands behind his head.
“What was that all about?” Jasper asked me. I just giggled to myself because I knew.
I lay my own head back down in my pillow but I was still looking at the glow of Jasper in the sunlight. “You also missed my parents and my brother. Oh, and the police were here too but you were sleeping. Nobody wanted to wake you up.” Jasper finally added after several minutes of silence between us.
“I bet Bull’s plenty mad?” I asked.
“Maybe just a little bit!” He said sarcastically.
“If they didn’t have Peter locked up, I bet Bull would go try to kill him!” Jasper continued.
“Yeah! Good thing they have all four of them locked up!” I added.
“Huh?” Jasper said.
“What?” I said back.
“What do you mean all four?” He asked, sounding annoyed.
“All four! Peter, Max, Steven and Johnny!” I said and nearly added “Duh!” to the end of my statement but chose to not say it.
“What all four?” Jasper asked. “It was just Peter that was kicking you and stabbed me! Right?”
I had to look away from him before I started to cry. The thought of Mary having been attacked was more then I could stand. I knew she’d been targeted because they couldn’t get to me. Instead, they went after someone that I liked. Geeze! Writing about it just now makes it sound like a really bad movie plot!
“After the fight . . .” I paused, “after Mr. Shaffer carried you away, with the knife still in your chest.”
“It was almost my shoulder.” Jasper added just to make sure I had my facts straight.
From across the room came Bridget’s singing still soft and low, “La da-da, La da-da”.
“I guess Steven and Max attacked Mary Tucker and Johnny cut Mr. Freeman’s arm when Mr. Freeman was trying to restrain him.” I said low and looking at the ceiling.
“Wow! I’d not seen all that!” Jasper said.
“Me, either,” I said under my breath.
“Speaking of Mr. Freeman, he left those for you.” Jasper said, pointing to the table that was directly between our two pillows. I craned my neck slightly to see what he was pointing at. There were two books, a pad of yellow paper, two sharpened pencils and a small post-it note stuck to the pad of paper. I tried to stretch my arm so that I could get the pad and read the note but it hurt too much.
“Hang on, I’ll get that for you.” Bridget said and I was startled. I’d not heard her come back over to my bed.
“Would you like to sit up?” She said kindly.
“Yes please.” I answered.
She adjusted my bed so that I was sitting upright before handing me the pad. Without saying anything else, she walked out of the room leaving us boys alone. I read the note Mr. Freeman had left.
Simon,
Don’t think for a minute that this means you get out of your
punishment!
You will find these two books helpful in your
efforts! I expect
you will have plenty of time to
devote to completing the require-
ments!
In addition, it was signed, “Andy Freeman” and he ended it with,
Ps. I’ll
be in to see you tomorrow morning.
“Man that’s just not right!” I said a little too loudly.
“What?” one of the other boys from across the room said. I looked over at Jasper who was trying to hide the fact the he was giggling.
“I suppose you think it’s funny!” I said smartly to him.
“Damned right!” Jasper said and started laughing to the point that he hurt himself. “OUCH!” He laughed some more.
I don’t know why I said what I said next, maybe I just needed to vent some of my emotions but honestly I wish I’d not said it because I know I hurt Jasper.
“You know all this is your fault!” I said half yelling, “You and those pictures!” I paused for two seconds before adding, “I never should have saved you! I should have let them beat the crap out of you! Then none of this would have happened!”
I lay looking at the ceiling for a good while. No one said a single word or made even the slightest noise. The tension in the room was so heavy I could hardly breath.
Finally the boy from across the room repeated his question, “What is not right?”
I looked back over at the boy that’d asked the question and told him what I was expected to do and why. He supported my complaint with, “Man, that sucks!”
He looked to be the oldest of all us boys and also the most energetic as he climbed out of bed with apparently no effort or pain and started making his way over to my bed, all the while keeping one eye on the door to our room. I also marveled at the fact that aside from the hospital gown he was wearing (which covered very little as he was wearing it like a robe with the opening in the front instead of in the back like you’re supposed to), the only other thing he had on was one of those green diapers and it didn’t seem to bother him in the least that his gown was completely open and exposing the diaper for all to see. “So what you in here for?” He asked sitting on the foot of my bed with one leg hanging over and the other on the bed. I had a perfect view of his diaper and could tell that he’d already wet himself in those few minutes since Bridget had changed him.
“I have busted up ribs,” I said.
He looked over to Jasper who was still looking hurt by what I’d said but he spoke up anyway and added without being asked, “Stabbed!” and he pulled down the sheet to reveal the bandage. I also noticed that Jasper wasn’t wearing a gown. The boy made a grimaced expression with his face before turning to look behind him. I looked too, because we’d heard a noise. It was another of the boy’s getting out of bed, but he was not moving near as quickly as the first boy had. He also was not wearing a gown and was only clad in a diaper. However, the entire upper part of his body was wrapped in white bandages, as was his neck and the upper part of his right arm.
“Scotty here got burned last December when their Christmas tree caught fire,” said the boy that was sitting at my feet. Scotty scooted his feet slowly across the floor until he reached my bed were he took hold of the other boys leg with both his hands to hold himself up. I could tell that even his arms and hands were a bit scarred.
“I’m a lot better now though!” Scotty said with a smile revealing that he was missing two of his front teeth.
“And that’s Kyle over there. He just had his right leg cut off.” The boy said pointing over to the boy that had been the only one lying down when I’d been brought in. I’d thought he had still been sleep but he turned his head toward me, lifted his hand into the air and waved the way a little kid does with just their fingers going up and down.
Jasper, sort of half yelling, said, “Hi Kyle!” and all the boys shushed him.
“You can’t make a lot of noise or the nurse Gabby will come in and make us all go back to bed!” the older boy said.
“Sorry!” Jasper whispered back.
“What happened?” I asked directing my words to Kyle. He didn’t answer but just lay there and looked at us.
“He hasn’t talked since he’s been in here.” Scotty said. The other boy added, “Car crash”.
The three boys were now getting out of their beds and making their way over. One of them sat on the other side of my bed by my feet while the other two sat on the side of Jasper’s bed, facing my bed.
The two boys on Jaspers bed looked like they could be brothers. They both had olive skin and both started to talk at the same time but stopped and the one closer to the foot of Jaspers bed smiled before continuing, “I’m Harry!” He pulled up his gown, which he was actually wearing properly, to show a tube that was sticking out of his left side and was clamped shut. “It’s how I eat.” He said.
“Woah!” I exclaimed. I realized I’d not had any lunch and was feeling a bit hungry as well.
“Did I miss lunch?” I asked the oldest boy.
The other olive skinned boy next to Harry answered, “Yeah, but if you are hungry just buzz the nurse and she’ll get you something. Oh, and by the way, I’m Bruce.”
“Are you two brothers?” Jasper asked.
“No” Harry said shaking his head.
“You guys sure look a lot alike!” I added.
“Yeah everybody keeps saying that!” Scotty chimed in with a smile and Bruce added, “I just started chemo again”.
I looked to the boy sitting to the left of my feet and he pointed to himself and proceeded to sing a rap, “Mark’s my name and Cancer’s my thang. Now I’m no copy cat, ‘cause my stomach is where mine is at.”
Then Bruce spoke up again, “That was a good one Mark! Yeah I’ve got it in my head,” he said pointing to his right temple.
The older boy now spoke up, “And I’m Cole”. He reached up and pulled his gown off his right shoulder to reveal a bandage much like Jasper’s only a lot larger. “I tried to jump a bunch of stairs on my bike and crashed. I nearly ripped my arm off.”
I had not noticed until that second that he’d not been moving his right arm at all and that it just was sort of hanging by his side. I wanted to ask him if he could use it at all but I was afraid too. I was both glad and a bit embarrassed when Jasper asked, “Does it work?”
Cole looked over to Jasper and then to his arm. He screwed up his face something awful as he strained to get his arm to bend at the elbow and them come to a rest on his lap. He let out a huge exhale and a couple tears trickled down his face.
“Wow! That looked like it hurt,” I said while Cole panted and wiped at his face. Scotty reached up and helped Cole get his gown back on his shoulder.
“The doctors wanted to cut it off but my dad made them put me back together. They said I’d never be able to use it again but I’m proving them wrong!” he said with glassy eyes and a proud grin. He looked exhausted.
“So you guys all been in here a while?” Jasper asked. Cole answered, “I been here the longest. Next Saturday will be a month.”
“Wow!” I said, “I am only supposed to be in here overnight,” I added.
“Really?” Harry said and Bruce added, “They usually only put patients in here that will be staying for a while”.
I didn’t much like the way that sounded but I didn’t say anything. I did look over at Jasper but he was looking past me and over to Kyle. I turned to look at what he was looking at and Kyle was waving again. Cole took Scotty’s hands, placed them on the bed, and then got up to go see what Kyle wanted.
Just as he reached Kyle’s bed, we all heard the loudest and meanest fart ever come from Kyle! The seven of us busted out laughing and falling over on each other.
“Kyle man! That was sick!” Bruce chuckled.
I looked back over at Kyle who was shaking in his whole bed with his silent laughter. Cole was fanning the air with his one hand, “Oh lord, Kyle! For someone that won’t eat nothing but mashed potatoes and lime Jell-O, you sure do stink!” He said, now holding his nose.
Seconds later in walked nurse Bridget. “Okay, why is everyone out of bed?”
Kyle raised his hand in the air again, “Be quiet Kyle!” She said jokingly and he started to shake even harder with his soundless laughter.
“All right you monsters!” She said putting her hands on her hips. “All of you back to your beds … and what is that smell?”
The boys, laughing and cutting up, waddled back to their beds and crawled under their covers. Cole was holding his hand over his face and said, “Gabby? I think something crawled up inside of Kyle and died!”
I was clutching at my chest and trying my darnedest to not laugh ‘cause it hurt so much to laugh.
“I think you are right, Cole!” nurse Gabby said giving Kyle the evil eye.
Kyle looked to be in a fit of hysterics there in his bed. His bed was squeaking and rocking as his body quaked.
“Ok, enough of the snickering!” She said and let slip a small giggle herself.
Just as I was starting to get control of myself, Kyle let go another one that wasn’t as loud but sure sounded pretty wet to me. This started us all laughing out loud again. I managed to look over at Kyle, and from the blood that was rushing into his face I knew he’d just crapped himself. He had placed both of his hands over his face and his whole bed was still creaking and shaking from his uncontrolled laughter. I’d never in my life seen someone laughing as hard as he was without making a single sound; not even a peep.
I looked over at Jasper who had his knees in the air and was pounding one of his fists on the bed while he laughed. He had his other hand on his shoulder. He looked to be in pain but he couldn’t stop himself. He was laughing quietly to himself and I could see his small body was quaking under the blanket, too.
As Bridget cleaned up Kyle, the seven of us took turns making noises in an effort to make known our feelings for the way the room smelled! Every couple of seconds, one of us would groan, moan, or say something like: “Oh gawd!” I think Cole’s comment was the funnies by far, which he meant one way but to Jasper and myself, it took on a whole new meaning. “Jell-O and Tater farts!”
I was miserable with the pain as I tried to suppress my laughter. Before too long Gabby had to ask nurse Bridget to come in to help restore order. I’d laughed myself to tears and was in a heck of a lot of pain. The more it hurt the more I laughed. She ended up giving me a shot right in my bottom. Within minutes, the pain was gone and I started to feel loopy again. Bridget then went and helped the other boys get re-settled and tucked into their beds. Every so often, we’d hear one of the boys let go another giggle.
Nurse Bridget had taken over for Gabby and had finished cleaning up Kyle who’d finally stopped laughing. He was looking right at me and was smiling. All the boys were smiling and every so often would let out a farting sound with their mouth.
After both nurses had left us again, along with a warning that we’d be tied to our beds if we got out of them again, the eight of us started to whisper back and forth. I was feeling pretty good and kept giggling at the stupidest of things.
Not too long after that, Jasper’s and my parents returned. As it turned out, they’d all gone down to the hospital restaurant to have lunch together. I was pretty spaced out but I was still able to talk with them. I found out from Jasper’s dad that Peter, Max, Steven and Johnny all were being sent away just as Mr. Freeman had threatened would happen. They’d not even been taken out of our school to the police station. Apparently Mr. Freeman had made one phone call, a judge showed up at the school, made a ruling, signed some papers, and all four were marched out in handcuffs to a police van and taken away.
While Jasper’s dad was telling us all of this, I kept thinking that everything had happened because of just one thing: those pictures! And I knew who’d done it; he was lying in the bed next to me! However, I didn’t say anything, not to our parents and not to the two police officers that came later that evening while us boys were eating our dinner. The Amazon lady officer had not come this time. It was two of the other officers I’d met that day in Mr. Freeman’s office. They were nice. They talked with Jasper and me while our parents were there. All except for Jasper’s daddy, who had to go because the Panthers had a game that evening.
Just before the two officers left, a thought crossed my mind and I figured what the heck, I might as well ask what I had been wondering about.
“I been hearing rumors last week and even some over the weekend about how Peter Alderman had been arrested on Friday. Do you know anything about that?” I was still feeling a bit out of it from the shot earlier but at least I was making a bit more sense and wasn’t giggling like a fool about everything.
The one officer with the funny nose said, “Oh yes I know what you are talking about. It was nothing really Simon. He’d just been brought down to the station to answer some questions about some robberies that have been happening in the area.”
The other officer added, “But it was proved that he’d not had anything to do with them and didn’t know anything about them for that matter,” he said directing his words towards Jasper’s mom and my parents.
After the officer and our parents all left for the evening, I sat in my bed looking at the ceiling. I’d not finished my dinner because I lost my appetite when the officers told me about how they’d suspected Peter in the robberies. I realized that I know who they are really after and thanks to Tater, one of them was me!
Around the time the sun was going down outside Jasper’s bedside window, the boys all got up except for Kyle and myself and collected on Kyle’s bed to watch TV together. Even Jasper joined in with them but I opted out. I told them I wasn’t feeling too good after having eaten, which was the truth. Not cause of the food but because I was rattled with guilt and fear.
I don’t know what time it was when I started to feel sleepy again. The boys were still sitting on Kyle’s bed talking quietly, laughing and watching The Simpson’s when I fell sleep.
Sometime in the night, I woke up; startled for a moment until I realized that it was only the night nurse changing my diaper. Apparently without my knowledge of it, I’d not only wet myself while I’d been asleep, but I’d soiled myself, too. Considering the time it took her to get me cleaned up, I must have really made a mess in that diaper.
It was pretty well dark in the room, I glanced around and everyone was in their own beds, tucked in and laying flat on their backs. It reminded me of a movie I’d seen where this guy got locked in the basement of a hospital where they kept all the comatose people. I guess I was groggy from having just woken up, or maybe it was the medication but I really didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to the nurse as she cleaned and changed me. I hadn’t even really been smelling too much. Maybe after the horrid way Kyle’s diaper had smelled, anything less just didn’t register in my nose.
When she was finished, she looked at me, patted the front of the diaper right on top of my boyhood parts, and said, “You’re all set”. She left, carrying off my soiled diaper.
I somehow managed to get myself maneuvered around, despite my sore ribs and got the pad of paper and one of the pencils, then started to journal about my day. My hand flew across the paper as everything just sort of flowed right out of the tip of that pencil. I’m guessing that within an hour or so, I’d written about everything that had happened today although my handwriting was not my best work.
There was one thing I left out though; something that I’d not wanted to include for fear that someone might read this, maybe one of the other boys, maybe a nurse or maybe even my parents when I was asleep. It was about Mary and dream I’d had about her right before the nurse that was changing my wet and poopy diaper had awakened me. However, that’s all I’m going to say about that.
After I’d finished writing about the day, I oddly wasn’t sleepy and I wasn’t too uncomfortable, although it would have been nice to be able to sit up in the bed. I didn’t want to risk waking any of my fellow roomies, so I decided to turn the page over in the pad of paper and start working on my punishment. I lifted my head slowly and repositioned my pillow so that it would hold my head up higher. I worked through the night on the assignments. Actually, once I got started, I really got going and was banging out the reports with incredible speed. About the time the sun was just starting to peek through the window beside Jasper, I’d written nine one-page reports on nine different curse words that I could remember saying. The two books Mr. Freeman had left me were surprisingly helpful. I am sure he’d not got those books out of our school library!
When I decided to stop writing after the ninth report, I set the two books down on the bed beside me and I slipped the pad of paper under my pillow for safekeeping. I repositioned my pillow again so that I was lying flat and drifted off to sleep.
I’d like to say that I slept for a while but I didn’t. I’d probably only been out of it maybe ten or fifteen minutes when I woke up suddenly after having had a dream about my brother Jamie. For some reason in my dream I’d been re-living my visit to his apartment that night I’d gone there to apologize to him. What had woken me up so suddenly was a revelation, or more accurately, my dream helped me to see that I’d missed something when I was in Jamie’s room. Something had seemed odd when I was there and I’d thought it was the childish drawings hanging on his wall but that wasn’t it at all! What I’d missed was not something to be seen but something I had heard and had not registered it at the time. When I’d sat on Jamie’s bed I had defiantly heard the crinkle of a plastic sheet under that big comforter he’d been covered with.
“How could I have missed that?” I said out loud.
“What?” I heard Jasper say. I turned my head to see that he was awake … well sort of. I’d woken him by talking out loud.
“Nothing. Sorry, I was having a dream. Go back to sleep.” I said.
Jasper licked his lips, gave a small snort and went back to sleep. I somehow managed to close my own eyes again but I kept going over those few minutes in Jamie’s room. I couldn’t help but imagine why he, of all people, would have a plastic sheet on his bed. I mean given the amount of abuse he has given me about my Goodnites and wetting my bed, just to think that he might also be a bed wetter, is just too much. I kept processing all this over in my mind until I finally fell back to sleep again.