Chapter 13
At Deaths Door
How many times can a person die? Or how many times does it feel like you're dying? How many times can you stand at death's door and never cross the threshold? I had slept the entire day away when I woke up after Jeff put me to sleep, finding Jared next to me still sleeping soundly. In some ways, Jeff did me a favor, knowing Jared and I hate and fear needles. Finding mine and his arm attached to my old friend Mr. I.V. and some other drug that I never heard of.
My mother and my Grandmother were chatting away sitting at the foot of my bed with Sparky at my feet. Arguing over me and apparently, what they had just learned about what happened that put me here in the first place. I startled them when I coughed and groaned. "Jeff, I don't feel anything like a million bucks." Seeing him in the corner of the room watching me and then arguing as if it was the best show on earth.
My mother and Grandma quickly rushed to my side. Begging for my attention like a couple of cats fighting over a mouse. If it wasn't for Dotty and the new nurse ordering them back to their corners, they would have torn each other into two pieces. Dotty gave a nod to Jeff, and he did likewise. The nurse placed a thermometer in my mouth and listened to my heart and stomach. Smiling and smelling like rose petals and mint. She asked how I was feeling. I said lousy as if that was a dumb question.
She nodded, pulling the thermometer out of my mouth, and said. "My name is Sara. I am going to be your nurse for a few days. Your friend over there told me everything. So, I am not surprised that you feel lousy, and most likely will for a couple of days.
You're lucky He called me when you did, or you and your brother would be joining him. Your fever has come down, but it is still a little high. Higher than I like."
I nodded and coughed a few times and she gave me a sip of something that tasted a lot like orange juice and pineapple and a hint of blackboard chalk and something else I couldn't place. Jared groaned as he woke to see me, and the I.V. attached to him as well. Jared said. "Please tell me we're not dead again because your friend is here."
I coughed and said. "Does it feel like we're dead?"
Jared groaned. "How would I know what being dead feels like? I have only died once in my life. But my stomach hurts and my head hurts, so maybe being dead would be the better option."
Nurse Sara was one of those nurses that you prayed you wouldn't get being of the older generation like my grandmother. Silver white hair and blue eyes that said yes, I am old, but I can still kick your little cute butt into next week. She was kind but stubborn and could even put my Aunty M in her place or teach her a few lessons.
She wasn't tall or short, but average. And she still had the face of a beauty queen, just older and much wiser. Jeff said he was just the right person for the job of two very stubborn boys who think they can do whatever they like even if they were told no and push the boundaries.
She didn't work as a hospital nurse anymore. She was more of a private practice for the rich and famous, which meant she didn't come cheap. The fact that we were nudists didn't bother her we noticed. Like most nurses in a hospital, she preferred we were naked. Which I never really could understand that. Grandma said it was because blood and vomiting and body waste were easier to clean up than always washing your clothes.
When she said that, I had to agree. But questioning why they keep putting us in those stupid flowery polka-dotted gowns is beyond me. That they only covered the front of you, so your backside was always exposed. Again, I was told for convenience, because peeing is easy it's the other end that is more difficult.
Nurse Sara made her way over to Jared and placed the thermometer in his mouth and introduced herself. Then he listened to his heart and stomach as she did with me. She pushed his stomach in several spots and hit the magic button when he farted, stinking up the whole room. Sara laughed, which brought a smile to our faces, and said. "Just gas, which is expected from the stuff I had given you both to help push your digestive system along."
Jared did it again, and I croaked. "Bro, I am going to need a gas mask, if you keep doing that. Or at least open a window."
Jared did it again and said. "Sorry, better out than in."
Sara didn't say anything, nor did she act like it bothered her, just giggled when my mother left the room and said. "Just going to tell your Mom you're awake," and Dotty went with her.
Grandma sighed and said. "May I?" Asking the nurse if she could sit on the bed near me, she nodded and took one of the two seats in the room and Nurse Sara started to do some needlepoints.
Grandma said, picking up my hand. "So, it seems you've had a nice, lovely weekend my very, very bad grandson, who doesn't think to call his Grandma and say guess what Grandma, a woman just tried to kill me. By the way, she raped me and forced me and my brother to have sex with her and wanted me to violate my brother Jared or kill me."
She slapped my face and said. "How dare you not call me or your mother to let us know that until we find out almost three days later that you and Jared have been dying slowly, and had nearly died twice before your Dad told me about it?"
She slapped me again, then leaned down and kissed me on the forehead and both my cheeks. I could feel her wet warm tears as they splashed on my cheeks. I tried to apologize, and she shushed me, telling me. "Sorry doesn't cut the mustard with me and you know it. But you should have called me; I would have been here in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
"I know I can't place all the blame on you, but I have already given your adoptive parents a tongue-lashing they won't forget anytime soon. By the way, your mother has been crying for hours seeing that video. We are all going to have nightmares for a very long time.
"Your mother is beside herself because of what that woman did to you. Your Dad said that the other one was worse than the one we were watching. I asked him how it could be any worse. He said you really don't want to see it. I insisted, and I was shocked and sickened by it.
"The things you did to her were something I thought my sweet little grandson would never do, to such a monster such as her. Until he turned up the volume and replayed it, hearing that you had no choice, or she would have killed you if you didn't do it.
"Reading about it didn't even come close and now this mess you boys are in because of that man Crawford. Neither your mother, nor you told me anything about it. Nor what he has been doing to your family and your friends to the point you are a prisoner here, that not even a hospital is safe, or your own home here or your home in Santaquin. I thought your father was a horrible monster, but Crawford makes him look like a saint. Not only are you a prisoner here, but you are also at death's door.
"I am not going anywhere, so you might as well know that until I know you will be alright. I'll have one of your aunts stop by the house and bring me some clothes. Don and I are not seeing eye to eye right now. Now I'll leave you alone, but know that I am just across the hall if you need me. Someone will always be in here just in case. Or nearby making sure you boys are ok." Grandma kissed me several times and did the same to Jared. Reminding him to call her grandma when after the hundredth time when she first introduced herself to the Rothwells and not my nurse.
He nodded and said. "Then don't call me little squirt every time you see me." Grandma shook hands, stating it was a deal. Then I left the room, letting my other in and my adoptive Mom brought us our dinner.
Jeff said. "Well, I guess I'll be seeing you boys later considering I do have other things that I need to be doing, like torturing Gloria, now that she has awakened, and seems bored without me." He gave us a quick salute and vanished.
Jared said. "Your friend creeps me out big time."
I nodded and said. "One of his best qualities," in another round of coughing, as my teeth started to chatter a little bit, which only meant one thing: my fever was climbing again.
Sara noticed it and was there in two shakes of a lamb's tail. Placing the thermometer back in my mouth, she frowned." Son, you are going to be the death of me. If we can't get that fever to break, we're in for a long night." I said sorry as she told me to close my mouth, or we would be doing it the hard way. Jared and I cringed, knowing what the hard way was.
My mother asked. "How bad is it?"
My adoptive Mom says. "Linda, don't you know anything about your son?"
Sara says. "One hundred and two and climbing. I am going to run him and Jared a bath. Before it gets any higher, then afterward I let you put that remedy we discussed on them." She smiled sweetly and left us, letting our Mothers feed us.
My adoptive Mom fed Jared as my mother fed me telling her. "I know my son better than you think I do. I just asked how bad it was Mrs. Rothwell."
My adoptive Mom apologizes and gives a heavy sigh and tells her. "I have learned over the years that he runs a little colder than most boys. Ninety-five point five or ninety-six point six is his normal temperature. When it goes above that he is sick and has a fever, when it goes past one hundred or one hundred and one his teeth start to chatter, and he becomes nauseated and dizzy.
"Or by the time it reaches hundred and two and three, we're in for some trouble. Yet if gets to four, four means we are in deep, deep trouble. To be prepared for him to pass out and be rushing him to a cold tub or shower, but it does happen when it is hundred or hundred and one, not often. It just means he is worse off than we thought. So that's why Sara is running him a bath, because we don't want it to go any higher. If you haven't noticed, he's not a small boy anymore. Only my husband and men built like him can carry him. So we better hurry because none of the menfolk are here at the moment."
My mother says. "Well, then I guess I didn't know that. I thought Aaron was the one with that problem or my thermometer was broken. All that time I had thought he didn't have a fever and was trying to get out of going to school."
Sara came back wearing a robe and a one-piece bathing suit says. "It's now or never. I am not going to let them freeze to death, just giving a sponge bath because we can't move him. The men won't be back for at least another hour or more. So, it's up to us women to hold down the fort."
She set the tray to the side and moved the wheelchairs so Jared and I could just sit up to move and be wheeled into the tub. Getting up and walking wasn't an option as she prepared our I.V. friends to follow us.
My mother said once we were on our way. "The bathroom is this way."
Sara says. "Not going to happen. When all I have to do is climb in and bathe them both at the same time."
My mother paled and said. "I didn't bring a swimsuit."
My adoptive mom says. "Linda, dear, I don't care if you did or didn't. They are going in that tub with or without you, so make up your mind. This is no time to worry about modesty. When we all have seen you naked more times than I wish to count."
My mother says. "Yes, but that was different. We're not skinny dipping and we are not exactly alone in this house with all those cameras watching us."
I watched my adoptive Mom shrug her shoulders and Sara and she helped me and Jared into the tub and we watched her strip right there in front of us, then climb in with us. My mother frowned and paced, but she didn't climb in. Instead, she said. "No, I am not willing to do it with all those cameras watching me and those guards watching me or with his grandmother in the house with this door open." She kicked off her shoes and socks and climbed into clothes and all.
Sara said. "You do realize that those cameras are here to keep your boy safe?"
My adoptive Mom says. "They don't give a rat's turd what you do as long as you're not hurting your son. Then trust me, Linda, when that happens, they will be noticing you and that's when you better pray that we don't kill you.
"Besides you just going to end up naked on camera anyway because every room has them. Plus, if you have noticed, there isn't a single changing screen or changing curtain in this entire house. And why would there be when everyone here except me and his grandmother are not nudist or live the lifestyle? So, either grow up or go home because I do not have time for this modesty crap when these boys are at death's door."