I spent another night without food in that place. Roger and I tried to play cards after he was chased out of Sherri’s room by the nurses. That didn’t last long cause he got tired of flipping the cards over for me since I was real slow doing it myself. Late at night I woke to find my stomach was chewing on my liver. It was that or it was a nurse coming around to see if we were asleep. I still hadn’t worked out how that was supposed to help since opening the door to see if we were asleep always woke me. I got up quietly and looked out the window again. There were very few cars out there and no sign of anyone bringing food up to my floor. I remembered the Jello dish on the shelf and determined to eat it, I was at the end of my endurance and 8 more hours from now wouldn’t make that much difference. I slid back the curtain to get the dish and pulled it out triumphantly only to find it was empty. There wasn’t even any dried coolwhip on the dish, it had been licked clean. I glared at Roger in the dark and went back to bed, if he hadn’t eaten it his brother had. I began to think all this bad luck was because I’d lied about Kelly pushing me down the stairs and determined to come clean once my arm had healed, even if it meant getting it broke again when my Dad found out. No amount of deal making or promissory oaths to the higher powers made food magically appear before me, so I fell back to sleep wondering if you could eat your shoes like I’d read about, and whether they actually had to be made from leather?

A doctor did see me the next day, and said the backlog from the power outage should be caught up by 3pm, and I could eat anything I wanted then. After the operation. Roger’s family didn’t visit him that day, which was all well and good cause they would have found him across the hall in Sherri’s room. I admit I was in there too, though I felt a bit predatory about it. Roger however, was in his element.

A man came in to take a blood sample from Sherri and she turned to Roger and said “Distract me from the pain please.” He leaned in like he was gonna kiss her and just hovered above her face, whispering “Should I do it? Should I not? Do you want me to kiss you?” Damn that boy was smooth beyond his age, and it did have the desired effect of distracting her, it was distracting me too. Part of me wished I’d thought of that, but the best I could do was keep watch at the door in case this was when her husband came back.

I cannot tell you whether Roger kissed his so-called cousin or not, though he would want me to say he did. The intern finished taking his sample and looked at us both a bit sternly saying “You boys should behave yourselves.” Then he left. I heard the food lady coming down the hall and decided I’d go stand at the opposite end of the hall till she left. I couldn’t even look at food at that point it hurt too much to know I couldn’t have it. When she got to the end of the hall, she told me she’d sneaked an extra tray out of the kitchen just for me. I told her I knew for sure I was due in surgery in a few hours and dared not eat it. I asked her to leave it by my bed and told Roger to leave it the hell alone. He knew what I was on about cause he said “Hell son, it was just Jello.” I started to say “It wasn’t just the Jello…” when we were both distracted by loud voices and something being thrown in Sherri’s room. We stuck our heads out and nurses were dashing in to see what had happened. The head nurse pushed us back in our room and closed our door. “Stay in here till we see what’s what.”

I thought gossip about Roger’s escapades across the hall had gotten back to her husband and I said so to Roger. He looked scared and uncertain for the first time since I’d met him and he slipped his jeans and shoes on under his gown and got ready to make a run for it. I couldn’t think of anything to say that would be helpful so I shared one of my dad’s ol’ say-ins: “Don’t coon-dog what’s already been tree’d Roger, don’t coon-dog what’s already been tree’d.”

I was prepped for surgery shortly after that and wheeled down to a part of the hospital I hadn’t seen before. A nurse injected something into my IV and someone else coached me to count backwards when the mask was put on my face. I was worried that there would be another power outage and said so, and the doc said “Don’t worry about that, the surgery and the gallery above are on separate power.” I was trying to sort out how this jivved with my earlier info and my 3 day stay at the hospital when they came with the mask.

I remember my friend Hatfield telling me once about being put under and how he’d seen a white rotating light passing before his eyes. He said that before it made 3 revolutions it was suddenly hours later and he was in Recovery. I started counting backwards, closed my eyes and waited for the white lights to come. I counted back to the lower 90’s and I still had no light. I gave up on that and thought it might be a good time to test Astral Projection. I determined to try and contact my friend Tripplett using just the power of my mind. Of all my friends he was the most into such things and would be the most likely to receive a visit from my astral form without too much shock. And I could count on him to swear it had happened…once it actually had that is. I pictured his house across the river from mine and tried to will myself free of my earthly bonds. Someone out there asked “Are you still counting?” I said “Yes, 89…80….” and then I was out.

I woke with no white lights, no successful separation of body and soul, and no clear idea where I was. Someone was calling my name and rubbing my good arm. I tried to focus and found a beautiful blonde candy striper leaning over me and smiling a big smile with her perfect white teeth. I was half convinced this was an angel come to take me away, but it was Roger’s favorite volunteer, Helen. I grinned like a fool and said “It must be Thursday, can I have a sponge bath before I die?”

Unfortunately I never got the sponge bath, or the chance to lord it over Roger that I had spent quality time with his dream girl while he was hiding from an angry husband. As soon as I recovered they put me in a room identical to the first exam room I’d been in days before, and my stepmother was there. She told me to get dressed soon as I could and stepped outside to grab a smoke. She added thru the door: “Ray is outside waiting in the car.”

I managed to get dressed quickly despite a fresh cast on my left arm, and Jean finished her cigarette and led me out out of the hospital and into the car. I got into the back seat and my Dad immediately drove off in his usual breakneck fashion. He didn’t say a word and I couldn’t tell right away if he was mad with me or not. Jean turned around and asked how was it? I said everything was fine except for the fact that I hadn’t eaten anything since I was sent upstairs. My dad thought I was lying to try and get more Burger King food from my Stepmother, so I just shut up. The comment about Burger King started up another argument so I sat back and leaned to the side so I couldn’t be seen in the rear view mirror. My dad’s steel blue eyes were just as hard to meet in reflection as they were straight on. Eventually I was asked for details and why exactly it took 3 days? I worked in the bit about not getting to eat with the fact that I was low priority due to the power outage. My stepmother said “Well I won’t be bringing anyone Burger King anyway soon that’s for damned sure!” My Dad just said it looked like it hadn’t hurt me none, I was fat enough as it was. I was starting to have a real dislike for TV endings, they were so far from any reality I knew. My reality was waiting for me back on Airport road and I hoped someone had remembered to get in some groceries.