Larry was back as if he never left.
He's holding a smoking bowl of Congee and my stomach growled even louder at the smell of ginger, rice, and chicken. He closed the curtain separating the bed from the rest of the room where I was reclined.
"It's raining cats and dogs outside..." He said while fixing his man bun and wiping his arms with the white towel he got from Ms. Sanchez' cupboard. His hair was slightly wet and I was amazed at its ability to shine with or without the sunlight. His hair was teeming with so much life that it looked like an entirely separate living entity from his head.
He disrobed his white lab gown leaving him with only a white tank-top t-shirt. His ivory skin complexion was perfectly illuminated by the white fluorescent light in the room. Not a single baby hair on sight. In my eyes, Larry looked like an elf from the Lord of the Rings.
'You need to sit on the bed so I can feed you..." He commanded.
I never argued. I knew I cannot win an argument with Larry Davis.
He climbed on the bed and sat cross-legged in front of me. I leaned my back against the wall.
He was mixing the bowl of Congee using a wooden spoon and scooped a spoonful of the porridge, which he cooled down by blowing on it softly with his mouth.
I ate ravenously.
"You're really hungry aren't you?" He studied my face like it was some kind of a lab rat he was dissecting in their lab.
"Uhmmmm," I murmured while munching on chicken meat and bits of hard-boiled egg. I looked at his hand anticipating the next spoonful.
"Patience Florante, this porridge is hot enough to scald your tongue..."
He retorted. I looked at him sitting in front of me and thought of the ghosts in my head. How I've always tried to run away from them and failed miserably.
Will I be able to run away from Larry?
"Is it really that good?" He grinned and stole one spoonful from me.
I narrowed my eyes at him.
He trolled me again with one spoonful when I gaped at it expectantly. He shoved it on his mouth instead and laughed.
'Larry?!' I complained.
"I was just fooling around...god you look like a fledgling on a nest..." he ruffled my hair and smiled the Larry signature smile, the no-holds-barred smile, the toothpaste commercial smile, the smile that could make my heart beat like a bass drum on a parade.
"You won't make a good doctor!" I scowled while munching on Congee.
"And you won't make a good friend!"
I almost choked with Congee and guilt. I looked at the sheet barely opening my mouth to chew. Guilt felt like a gum that did not dissolve quite well on my mouth no matter how hard I chewed.
"Hey, I was just kidding..." he lifted my chin and wiped the Congee smudge with his thumb and ate it. He fucking ate it! The smudge from my chin and licked his thumb while he was staring at me like I was a kind of food or something.
I died. Please tell Nana to pray for the eternal repose of my soul and to rest my bones in peace on the hills beside my father's and my uncles' grave.
"You're a sloppy-eater Florante...and you're such a baby when you're sick..."
Larry's presence made me feel strong and vulnerable at the same time.