| |
Catch opened his eyes and heard nothing. Not the crumpling of the stiff sheet as he shifted to his side. He didn’t feel the puddle of his drool against his own cheek. While most of his senses were numb, his vision was heightened. Everything with a clear separateness, like how a 3D image comes to life when viewed through the special glasses.
The railing in the ceiling held his attention with a certain amazement. He explored the mechanism and the pear-shaped metal rings hanging from it. They were attached to copper eyelets pressed into the plasticized fabric that fell to the floor. At the far end, near his feet, the curtain was pulled taut, flat, but as his gaze explored the surface up to his side, the fabric undulated, like motionless waves on the ocean, the amplitude increasing to new heights and lows until...the curtain’s straight edge that formed a horizon—for Catch lying down, the vertical edge was horizontal. On the other side was another world where he met two shining orbs, like radiating suns. Eyes embracing him in their steady warmth. He didn’t want to leave these eyes, but one can only look at the sun for so long. He followed the satin skin down to her lips, delicate like the Zen master’s brush stroke—strokes of a pink ink.
Her lips moved, forming circular shapes that expanded and retracted. Catch watched the movement, entranced. They stopped, suddenly. He hoped their graceful movement would soon start again. They did, but differently, forming a stretched out arc this time—a smile. Her cheeks swelled.
The girl on the other side of the curtain spoke again. This time he heard a murmur. As he struggled to understand what she’d said, he was drawn out of his poetic hallucination. Objects merged to form a scene. The synthetic and aseptic odors itched the back of his throat. He examined her lying on her side, one hand holding the top metal bar of the railing that was meant to stop her from falling off the hospital bed. She wore a blue gown, like him.
“They really knocked you out,” she said. “Everyone reacts differently. Guess you aren’t used to them, yeah.”
He remained enchanted by her voice, not realizing he should answer her.
“The nurse,” the girl continued, “she didn’t want to open the curtain for me. I insisted but she said it was against the rules. ‘Privacy,’ she said. Yeah right, privacy here. When she was gone, I got up and opened it myself. Just enough to watch you. Hope you don’t mind...”
She watched him in his dumb stupor.
“Gets lonely in this place. Lots of younger kids... They cry for their moms. The adults are down the hall.”
Catch smiled.
“I liked watching you. You’re pretty when you sleep.” She laughed. “Guys don’t like that, yeah. Being called pretty. Sexy, if you prefer.”
He smiled.
“I’m Summer. Broken ribs and pierced lung from being hit by the tramway. Lucky, they say. Not sure I agree with them. But if it was going faster, then I would have turned into a splatter of bug juice.”
With her hand on the railing, she pulled herself to sit upright.
“What about you?” She waited. “Is it the drugs, or you just don’t feel like talking with me?”
“I’m Catch,” he said, his mouth pasty.
“Catch, that’s a cool name.” She smiled.
“Thanks.”
“They’re gonna want to talk to you. The feds, FBI, or something like that. Two agents. They came in earlier. Nurse told them you were knocked out on meds. They didn’t like that, being told to wait by a nurse. They told the nurse to wake you up. They’re arrogant like that. They argued for a bit, until the doc came in to settle the matter. Told them to get out and wait.”
“Really?” he asked.
“Yeah, you in trouble?”
“No.” Catch considered the situation. “I don’t think so.”
“It’s none of my business. I wanted to warn you, that’s all.”
“Thanks.”
“What happened?”
“Got shot in the leg by my mom,” he said.
“Shit, she seems nice.”
“She has her moments.” He laughed. “She’s nice normally. It was an accident. I tried stopping her from shooting someone else. She shot me instead. Wasn’t her fault.”
“So that makes you a hero. Better than my story,” she said. “That’s for sure. I ran away from my dad’s place ’cause he didn’t like the guy I was dating. Wanted me to stop seeing him...the same guy who pushed me in front of the tramway.”
“Sorry,” Catch said, then added, “sucks so bad when the parents are right.”
“Yeah, it does.”
They remained silent for a moment, examining each other's faces. Smiling.
“What will you tell the FBI?”
“I have nothing to tell them.”
“They won’t take that for an answer.”
“I’ll tell them I don’t know what happened. That’s the truth.”
“They're going to pester you until you say something they want to hear. They don’t care if it’s the truth or not. That’s how they work.”
“Are you trying to scare me?”
“No, trying to help,” she said. “We’re in here together. Room buddies, yeah. Adults don’t have mixed rooms, you know? They separate men and women. I’m glad to have a guy like you to be room buddies with.”
“I’m lucky to be with someone as pretty as you.”
“I’m at my best here.” She chuckled, then leaned over, moaning in pain. She reached over to her table and grabbed something. “You ready.” She lifted her arm, ready to throw the thing she’d grabbed. She threw it over to him.
He examined the plastic container. “Floss?”
“There’s no more floss in it. It’s just an empty container with a pill hidden inside. If the FBI annoys you for too long, take that little pill and you’ll be out before you can count down to ten.”
He shook the container and heard the pill rattling within it.
“Is it safe?”
“Will it kill you? I doubt it. Safe... Probably not.”
“Where’d you get it?”
“That’s my little secret.”
––––––––
The nurse arrived to check Catch’s vital signs and asked him how he was doing. The numbness in his legs was wearing off, but he still couldn’t feel anything in his toes.
“It’s starting to burn in my groin.”
“I will give you something for the pain, but first some people need to speak with you.”
Before giving Catch a chance to protest, the nurse was already on the other side of the curtain—shut tight—checking up on Summer.
“You’ll have to wait in the hallway.” Catch could hear the nurse explain to Summer.
“I’ll be quiet, promise. I won’t even listen.”
“Yeah, right,” said the nurse, “Are you good to switch to the chair by yourself?”
“Yeah, I got this,” she said. Summer moaned in pain as he heard her shift out of bed.
Catch listened to the squealing wheelchair being pushed out of the room.
Two agents entered moments later. They stood in matching suits at the foot of Catch’s bed. A tall lanky man, his head balding and his nose dominating his creased face. A nonchalant drowsiness in his regard. The woman was younger, square shoulders, more alert and severe.
“We don’t have time for bullshit, young man,” said the woman, her voice sharp as a scalpel. “What were you doing at Morgan’s house?”
“I don’t know,” Catch said, “I don’t know who he is.”
“You were in the house of someone you don’t know?” said the woman. “We found your things. It appears you were planning to spend the night.”
“My mother wanted me to meet him. He was an old friend, she said.”
“According to the police officer, you said that you had accidently shot yourself,” said the man.
Catch didn’t recall talking to any police officer. Was this one of their tactics? He didn’t remember much since pushing his mother’s arms down and hearing the gunshot, then sitting on the ground watching the man leave with his unconscious mother over his shoulder.
“Can you explain why we found blood belonging to Morgan on the sheets of the bed where his mother was sleeping? You accidentally shot him first?”
He wouldn’t tell them what happened. That his mother was going crazy in the last few days. That his mother had shot at Morgan and missed. He had already told too much to Summer. But he wasn’t worried about her. She wouldn’t tell them anything. He trusted her.
He held the box of floss against his side, concealed under the blanket. The woman continued leading the interrogation.
“Why did you buy a gun? Were you planning on shooting Morgan?”
“The gun was to protect myself, in my neighborhood.”
“Why was a young teen in a good neighborhood in danger?”
“It’s none of your business.”
“That answer won’t work with us,” said the tall, lanky man who leaned over, grabbing Catch’s shin of the leg that had been shot. The man pulled on it gently. Catch gulped in unbearable pain. It felt as if his limb was being pulled off his body.
“I don’t know,” Catch struggled to say. “My mom wanted to see him. I told you already.”
“Morgan is a very dangerous man,” said the male agent. “He escaped a federal detention center and returned home where you were waiting for him with a gun you recently purchased. A gun you and your mother had conveniently practiced using at a shooting range the previous day. Suspicious, isn’t it.”
“The gun had nothing to do with this. I had it to protect myself from the husband of a woman I fucked. My mom developed an obsession for the gun. That’s all!”
“Your story makes no sense,” said the woman, clearly irritated that this was going nowhere.
“Where did they go? Your mother and Morgan...they leave together?” asked the man, tugging again on the injured leg, then letting it go. Catch shifted onto his side, moaning in pain. While he squirmed, he slid his thumbnail into the floss container’s crack in the edge to open it. He let the pill drop into his hand.
“Was your mother a member of any suspicious groups? Religious? Or political? Is that why you needed the gun?”
No, she was a typical mother who harassed me to do my homework, Catch wanted to say, but that wasn’t what they wanted to hear.
“Go fuck yourself,” Catch said. This had the expected outcome. The lanky man reached down and pulled on his leg without restraint. Catch screamed in pain while raising the hand with the pill to his mouth. He swallowed.
“Enough,” said the woman. The man removed his hand and paced the room nervously. The woman leaned up against the bed near Catch. “Listen, lives are in danger. Whatever you know can help us prevent more suffering. Morgan is dangerous and must be stopped—”
“You’re wrong. He isn’t dangerous. I’m glad my mother brought me to meet him.” He recalled what Morgan had said to his unconscious sick mother; Strange things are happening. Catch couldn’t agree more. Strange things happened to his mother, and he wanted to understand why they were happening. He wanted to know who this Morgan was and why his mother was suddenly obsessed with finding him.
The woman continued questioning him, but Catch didn’t listen. He was busy counting down from ten, when he reached five, the numbers vanished into an abyss of infinity.
