Note from the author
This is a rather weird one... I wrote most of it while I was
half-asleep. (Literally. I kept nodding off over the keyboard.)
I'm not even sure that it is an actual JQ story; it started out
as one, and then it started to get strange, but I left Jonny and
Jessie in because they just seemed to fit the situation.
Obviously, it would make a very boring episode -- as do all my JQ
fanfics, come to think of it. It came about as a kind of
reaction to some rather flippant attitudes towards death in some
stuff I've read lately, and was partly a catharsis for working
through some of my own junk.
"Encounter"
by Winnie Lim
Jonny Quest was bored out of his mind.
The cast on his leg was beginning to itch. Jonny drummed
on the thick white plaster, wishing that he could scratch through
it.
A complicated fracture of both tibia and fibula of his
right leg had landed him in traction, immobilizing him in the
hospital. The enforced non-activity was threatening to turn him
into a raving basket case after four days. He'd already finished
the armload of books and magazines his family and friends had
brought him the day before; and he couldn't use his laptop in the
hospital to surf the Internet for fear that its emissions would
interfere with the rest of the hospital equipment.
He turned his head to look out the window.
The scene outside matched his mood. It was a gray, rainy
day, which meant that he hadn't been allowed to take his daily
whirl around the courtyard that afternoon. Oh, he'd tried to
convince the nurse that a quick spin in the rain wouldn't hurt,
but the response had been a firm negative.
He sighed as he remembered how he'd sustained the injury.
The gully had been wider -- and deeper -- than he'd thought.
According to the doctor, he had been lucky to come out of it with
just a broken leg.
Jonny glanced at his watch. It was almost time for
"visiting hours." Visitors were allowed at any hour in this
hospital, but his father, Race and Hadji were attending a
conference in New Mexico and Jessie only got out of school at 3.
He smiled wryly to himself at the thought that the main highlight
of his days had been doing homework; Jessie would bring over his
class assignments, and they'd spend the afternoons doing their
homework together.
As if on cue, there was a knock at the door. "Come on
in," Jonny called.
Jessie's cheerful face peeked around the door. "Hi!" she
said, entering the room. Jonny groaned at the armload of books
she carried.
"Mrs McGill went nuts today, I see," he said as she
dropped the books on the bed.
"No more than usual. She sends her regards," Jessie
replied, handing him a typewritten sheet, "and instructions to
read chapters 9 to 15, summarize them, and then refute them in
not less than 800 words. Due Monday." She picked up the chart
hanging on the end of Jonny's bed. Flipping through it, she
nodded approvingly.
"If you keep this up you can hand it in yourself," she
said, replacing the chart.
"Now that's something to look forward to," Jonny said.
"How's your leg?" Jessie asked, hanging her rain-specked
slicker on a hook on the door.
"Itchy," Jonny answered instantly. "Could you do me a
favor and get me a coathanger from the closet?"
Jessie opened the closet and frowned. "You're out of
luck," she told him, showing him one of the hotel-style
coathangers that hung inside.
Jonny collapsed back on the bed. "I'll smuggle one in
tomorrow," Jessie assured him cheerfully.
"That's a whole 24 hours away," Jonny moaned. "I'll
never make it."
He brightened when he saw her backpack. "Anything in
there that might work?"
Jessie clutched her backpack tightly. "No way. You are
NOT using my slide rule."
"What about..."
"Not my science project, either. Take it like a man,"
Jessie told him heartlessly.
Jonny made a face and lay back. "Anything interesting
going on at home?"
"Bandit's still moping around," Jessie said. "He won't
even look at his favorite squeaky bone." She sighed. "The house
is awfully empty with just Mrs Evans around. She tried to teach
me how to be a lady yesterday."
Jonny grinned at that. "Any luck?"
"She gave up after I started arguing how stupid The Rules
are," Jessie grinned back. She dug in her backpack. "Almost
forgot. She made you some brownies."
Jonny's face lit up as Jessie handed him a Rubbermaid
container. "I'll have to be careful to hide these from the floor
matron. She's a real dragon."
"I know. I ran into her today," Jessie said. "She
looked at me like I was pond scum."
Jonny had taken a bite out of a brownie, and a look of
pure rapture spread over his face. "This almost makes up for the
last 4 days," he said, chewing happily.
"The joys of hospital cuisine, huh?" Jessie spread the
books across the bed. "Let's get started."
They were working out a knotty calculus problem when the
door opened. A flurry of people entered, in the midst of which
was someone in a wheelchair. The group moved rapidly to the
other bed in the room. A nurse in the group drew the curtain
that partitioned the room, cutting off the two teenagers' view of
the newcomers.
Jonny and Jessie exchanged looks.
"Looks like you have a new roommate," Jessie said.
"It'll be nice to have someone to talk to in the mornings
besides Chuck the plant," Jonny said, patting the potted
hydrangea on the bedside table.
"So does this mean you won't be needing me to come around
anymore?" Jessie teased.
"And miss all this homework?" Jonny retorted with a
grin, waving his hand over the books. He tried to peer around
the curtain, but it effectively blocked all view of the other
side of the room. "I wonder who he is."
"Well, you'll have to fill me in tomorrow," Jessie said,
starting to gather her books. "I've got a cello lesson in half
an hour."
"Don't forget the -" Jonny remembered that there were
nurses on the other side of the room, and mimicked the shape of a
coathanger with his hands.
Jessie grinned. "No problem," she said. "Hang in
there."
A few hours had passed since the newcomer's entourage had
departed, but the curtain was still drawn. Jonny could hear the
muted beep-beep-beep of a heart monitor.
Hailing frequencies open, Jonny thought with a grin.
"Hi there!" he called, and waited.
"Hi yourself," came a gruff reply. The voice sounded
young, but roughened.
"I'm Jonny," Jonny said. There was a long silence.
"Tom," the voice said at last.
"Pleased to meet you, Tom," Jonny called. "How's it
going?"
"I'm in the hospital, how do you think it's going?" came
a snappy retort.
"Sorry," Jonny called back.
"Nah, it's okay. I just really hate hospitals." The
voice sounded resigned. "I can't wait to get out of here."
"I don't like them much either," Jonny agreed.
"What's your story?" Tom asked.
"Traction. Broken leg," Jonny replied. "What's yours?"
Tom was silent for a while. Then, "Blood clot," he said.
Jonny quickly reviewed his limited medical knowledge. A
blood clot, he knew, could cause all sorts of circulation
trouble. As if to confirm it, Tom spoke again.
"I've got a blood clot in my head. I can't move in case
it moves."
"Oh," Jonny said. The head was one of the worst
locations for a blood clot, he knew.
"It was stupid," Tom explained. "I hit my head."
"Ow," Jonny replied sympathetically. "Been there, done
that, got the T-shirt. How're you feeling?"
"Okay. I don't feel sick or anything. They're giving me
stuff to break it up. I'll be outta here in no time. Was that
your girlfriend?"
"Huh?" Jonny was caught off guard by the abrupt change
of subject. "Who?"
"That girl who was in here earlier."
"No way!" Jonny said immediately. "She's my best
friend."
"UH-huh. Riiiiight." Laughter danced at the edge of
Tom's voice. "She's cute."
"I guess," Jonny conceded. "I never really thought about
that."
They were interrupted by the arrival of a nurse pushing
his cart. "Time for your pills, kids," he announced, pushing the
cart to Jonny's side.
Jonny obediently swallowed his calcium supplements.
"Anything in there to stop itching?" he asked hopefully.
The nurse smiled and shook his head. "Sorry, Jonny.
Take it like a man."
"Sounds familiar," Jonny groused as the nurse pushed the
cart to the other side of the room.
Silence fell in the room after the nurse's departure.
Jonny wanted to talk some more, but he wondered if Tom was up to
it.
He had just opened his physics textbook to study when he
heard Tom say "Hey. Jonny."
"Yeah?"
"What's her name?"
Jonny smiled to himself. Tom was persistent. "Jessie.
She's pretty cool."
"My girlfriend's name is Heather," Tom said. The beeps
of the heart monitor quickened for a moment. "She's in Boston."
"Does she know you're in the hospital?" Jonny asked.
"No," Tom said. "I didn't want her to worry. She's got
a college interview in the morning. It's the same college I'm
going to when we graduate next summer." He paused, and added,
"I'll be out of here before she comes home, anyway."
"How long have you been dating?" Jonny asked.
"Nine months. We met in eighth grade," Tom said. There
was a note of wistfulness in his voice as he continued, "I had
the biggest crush on her for two years before I finally scraped
up the courage to ask her to the spring dance. Then I found out
that all that time, she had a crush on me, too."
"Cool," Jonny said, just to say something.
"Two whole years, down the tubes. Crazy, huh?" Tom
laughed.
"Yeah," Jonny replied.
He heard Tom yawn. "Man, I'm wiped. I'm gonna crash,
okay?"
"Okay, Tom. Good night."
"See ya in the morning."
A loud beeping awoke Jonny. He sat up with a start.
Tom's heart monitor was going crazy. "Tom?!" Jonny
called, worried. There was no answer. Jonny leaned over and
jabbed the call button frantically.
The next moment, a phalanx of people in white coats and
uniforms burst in through the door. They must've been already on
their way, Jonny thought as the group rushed to the other side of
the room and disappeared behind the curtain.
Jonny heard a muted bustle, interrupted only by crisp,
terse orders barked out at intervals. Jonny couldn't understand
all of it, but he knew that something was happening. It went on
for a long time.
And then there was silence.
But not quite. Jonny realized that the heart monitor had
stopped beeping frantically. Instead, it was an unending tone.
He heard a tired female voice speak. It was low and
quiet, but the words were distinct.
"Time: 2.46am."
"Jonny?"
Jessie was standing in the doorway, her arms full of
books. She was looking at him with concern. He hadn't even
heard the door open.
"Oh. Hi, Jess," he said.
She came in, still looking worried. "Are you okay? You
seemed to be staring off into space..."
He nodded listlessly.
Jessie looked across the room at the empty bed. "Did
your roommate go home?"
"No." Jonny's voice was so angry that she looked at him
in surprise. "He died, okay? He died at 2.46 this morning."
Jessie was shocked, and it showed in her face. Jonny
immediately felt like a rat. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to
snap," he said. "It's just..." He couldn't go on.
"I know." Jessie sat down beside him and took his hand.
"Did you know him well?"
"Yes." Then he shook his head. "No." Jessie waited for
him to go on. "His name is - was Tom. He had a girlfriend,
Heather. She was going to go to college in Boston. They met in
eighth grade. He had a crush on her for two years. Their first
date was the spring dance. "And that's all I know about him."
Jonny shook his head again. "We were going to talk some more in
the morning..."
Jessie gripped his hand. "I'm so sorry," she said.
Jonny looked down at their linked hands. "He said you
were cute," he said quietly.
Jessie smiled, a small one. "And what did you say?"
"I said I guessed you were." The corners of his mouth
turned up slightly.
"You did, did you?" she said.
"Yeah." He looked at her, and suddenly, he couldn't
speak.
"Jonny?" he heard her say, and he blinked.
"Are you gonna be okay?" she asked.
He nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I think so." He took a deep
breath. "I just -- it's like I just met the guy, you know? And
he was so alive and happy and he had family and friends and so
much to look forward to -- he could have been me, or you, or
Hadji. And suddenly he's gone. Just like that." His voice
trembled. "It's not fair."
He was silent for a minute. Then he burst out, "I
didn't even know him all that well. But now it feels like --
like something's missing from the world because he's gone."
"'The loss of one diminishes us all,'" Jessie murmured.
"Yeah, well." Jonny looked over at the empty bed.
"That doesn't make it any easier to understand."
"It's not supposed to," Jessie said.
Jonny looked at her. She looked back.
They didn't get much homework done that day.
END
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© 1997 Winnie Lim