CHAPTER FOURTEEN - WAITING
Brian watched B grimace as he swallowed the repulsive cough medicine. He’d had no choice after last night when the violent tickles had permanently assaulted his sore throat. His eyes were now ringed with dark, sleepy circles and he was constantly yawning from his lack of rest.
“Maybe you should go back to bed,” Brian suggested as he piled the breakfast plates into the sink. B still didn’t look too good, but Brian was relieved that the fever had not broken out again.
“I might do that,” B murmured as he sat with his elbows on the table and his head cradled in his hands. “I don’t feel well. I’m sorry for keeping you up last night. I should have took the medicine before.”
“Don’t worry,” Brian said as he tried to hide his own yawns with his hand. He had been up with B most of the night fetching him water and looking after him.
B slowly sipped the remainder of his orange juice and sighed as he placed the beaker down. “This is so typical. This is the only chance I get to see you and I’m too ill to enjoy it. I wanted to make the most of this. I missed you.”
“You’ll get better. You’re already improving from before.”
“Yeah, but I can’t sleep can I? I think I’ll stay down here tonight.”
“Don’t be silly. You need a warm bed.” The last thing he needed was a cold lounge to sleep in on a couch.
“No, I really don’t think it’s fair on you to have to put up with me coughing all night.”
Brian stared at him and then thought of the third, empty bedroom upstairs. “All right, how about if I fix the spare room up for you? You’re much better than before so you don’t need me to keep an eye on you all night. It won’t take me long to clear the room and put some covers on the bed.”
B nodded. “Yeah, okay.” He yawned again and sniffled into a tissue. “I wish I could go out.”
Brian carefully finished cleaning the last soapy plate. B had been cooped up ever since he arrived and most of the time he had been too ill to do much except sleep or sit curled up on the couch. There was so much B had never done in his life because it had always been too dangerous for him to even step outside of his ‘home’ but now he was in a time where he didn’t need to fear being shot every time he walked outside. For once he could be free and he had Brian here to protect him from the Gerai… if there even was a Gerai after him. How did he know that stranger hadn’t been lying?
“How about if we do go somewhere tomorrow?” Brian said. “As long as you’re feeling up to it, that is.”
B’s eyes lit up with a sparkle as he turned to face Brian. “Really?” he asked hopefully.
“Sure, like you say, we need to make the most of the time. It’s no good you just moping about here so we should go somewhere.”
“Where?” He was like a child, so eager and excited.
“Well where do you want to go?” Brian said. “You’re the guest!”
“I don’t know anywhere to go!” B pointed out.
“All right then.” Brian paused and then he smiled as an idea came to him came to him. It was something he had wanted to do in 2023, but he had never had the time. “I know exactly where to take you.”
“Oh, where?”
“It’s gonna be a surprise now!” Brian teased. “You’ll see! But you have to be feeling better and you’ll have to wrap up warm, okay?” He gently brushed B’s fringe away from his damp forehead… Hmmm… he was still not well. “I don’t want you getting sick again.”
“I’ll be better. I got a reason to get better now!”
Brian smiled down at him but he was distracted when he heard the unmistakable ringing of the phone. For a brief moment, he just stared at it not wanting to even touch it.
“Are you gonna get that?” B asked.
Brian stared back at B and then nodded. If it was that hideous stranger then he could just hang up…
Slowly he picked it up and held it to his ear, turning his back on B so that he couldn’t see his expression or his trembling hand. “Hello?” he asked.
“Hi Brian,” a calm voice greeted.
“Hi Julie,” Brian said recognising the voice of Jacob’s mother, the boy Sammy was on holiday with. He closed his eyes briefly. This was far from an unwanted phone call. B was safe from that man… for now. “How are you all?”
“We’re all fine and the weather’s lovely. Sammy wants a word with you,” she said and Brian smiled as he heard the muffled voice of his little boy in the background. “Here you go.”
“Hey daddy!” Sammy cried in excitement.
“Sammy, how are you baby?” Brian asked smiling at the joy in his son’s voice. He really did miss him…
“It’s good! We’ve been playing on the beach!” he gabbled happily.
“Different to the park, huh?”
“Yeah, and Jacob went out in a little boat on the sea.”
“Didn’t you want to go with him?”
“No, I don’t like the sea.”
Of course he didn’t. He didn’t even like seeing the sea on television after he had almost drowned when they crashed off the top of the cliffs once. Once when they had been staying at a hotel for a concert Brian had took him to the beach, but the little boy had been terrified of venturing out into those fearsome waves again.
“I made sandcastle instead!” Sammy cried, completely not bothered at missing out on a boat trip.
Brian smiled as he listened to Sammy’s eager chatter about their holiday. For the first time he was glad that Jacob’s parents had taken him instead of Brian. He’d been so close to going with them but had decided that five was a big crowd and he wanted Sammy to have fun with his friend. Every time he went to a tourist spot somewhere with Brian they were always found and followed by fans. He didn’t need a week of that… Besides, if Brian had have gone with them then B would have had no one to come to. What if Brian had not been around to hear Nick’s story and rescue him from the cold weather? He could only shudder and feel his soul chill at those thoughts.
“Hey Sammy, when you get back we’ll have to organise a little trip for me and you won’t we? There’s a beach near us, we can go there.” Even though he now didn’t regret letting Sammy go, it still didn’t mean that he didn’t want to take Sammy places himself.
“Yes please!” Sammy said.
“No probs!” Brian replied happily. He would make up for forgetting all about Sammy, but for the moment he wanted to spend time with B. Sammy’s treats would begin again once B was safely home in his own time. “Sammy, can you put Julie on the phone? I need to know what time you’ll be coming back.”
“Saturday, silly!” Sammy scolded. “Did you forget?”
Brian laughed. “No, but I need the time!”
“Okay. Julie!”
For a moment there was silence and then he heard Julie’s soft voice. “Hello?”
“Hey Julie, what time are you back on Saturday?”
“The train gets in at around five, but it might be a bit later. You know what trains are like. It’s platform three, but don’t worry, we’ll drop Sammy off home for you.”
“No, I’ll pick him up,” Brian replied. It was going to be hard enough to keep Sammy away from B and it would make it worse if Jacob and his parents arrived as well because it would be impolite not to invite them in for a coffee and a chat about the holiday. Besides, he wanted to hear it all from his little Sammy.
“All right. Money’s going Brian, so we better go. We’ll call you tomorrow. Say bye Sammy.”
“Bye!” Sammy screamed making sure his voice was more than loud enough to reach Brian’s ears.
“Bye, see you Saturday!” Brian called back.
He waited until the click signalled the termination of the call and then replaced the handset. He looked over at B and grinned. “That was your older, six year old brother!”
“Uh, I have a headache enough as it is! Don’t make it worse!” B complained. “I’m not used to thinking of my brother as a cute little squirt!”
“And that’s no excuse to beat him up when he gets here!” Brian chided playfully, thinking that when he was younger he would have given anything to be bigger than his big brother so that he could get one over on him.
B frowned suddenly and his smile faded. “If he’s coming back on Saturday, then I guess that means I’ll have to go before then.”
Brian shook his head. “No you won’t. You’re not going anywhere on your own and you know I would never let you wander off alone. You’re staying here until your brother comes to pick you up. I can look after you both. I’ll tell little Sammy that we have a guest staying but that he’s not to go in your room because you’re sick. He won’t even see you.”
“What if he comes in my room or something? We’ll be in trouble if he sees me…”
“He won’t. He’s a good boy and he’ll do as he’s told.”
“I never did when I was a kid,” B said proudly.
Brian rolled his eyes. “I bet you didn’t.” He’d already been given the impression from Kevin and the others that B had been no angel child but Brian still would give almost anything to have been there to see him for himself. It still tore his heart up whenever he tried to imagine B as a child…
B smiled but then he glanced down at the table and, the amusement gone from his face. “I wonder if Sammy will come. I’m getting worried… I just want us three to spend some time together but he’s taking so long. I would have thought he would be here by now.”
“He’ll come,” Brian said defensively.
B still looked a little miserable and Brian could only imagine the emotions tearing him up inside. His very soul seemed to be being eaten away by the intense guilt inside. He had abandoned his brother and left only a note behind and now Sammy would be so worried…
Brian himself was becoming slightly worried by now. Sammy would have been the first to leap up to the rescue for his baby brother. He would be skipping through time the very second he realised B was here so why hadn’t he arrived yet?
‘Maybe he’s worried about little Sammy,’ he thought inwardly as he remembered what AJ had said. Two identical people could not co exist in the same time for long without suffering from a serious illness called temporal remembrance. Brian himself had found himself plagued with the agonising symptoms even though he was dead in the time he had visited. There was so much ambiguity surrounding time travel and one could never be sure of anything… maybe Sammy had just gone to the wrong time.
But there was still something wrong with the entire situation and Brian still had no clue as to who the stranger was. Was he a friend or was he a Gerai? Why was nothing clear?
B yawned slightly and rubbed his eyes. “I think I might go lie down for a while,” he said. “I wanna be better for tomorrow.”
“All right. I’ll wake you in a while for lunch, okay?”
B nodded as he leant down to give Tyke a goodbye cuddle and then yawned again as he began to make his way to the stairs.
Brian stayed where he was for a moment as he thought about that stranger. He listened until he heard the creaks on the stairs subside and then he made his way to the lounge and retrieved the phone form the drawer.
He bit his lip as he flicked through the messages and then he prepared to send another to the one he disliked so much. Brian didn’t know who he was, but if he was a friend like he claimed he was then he might know where Sammy was.
WHERE IS SAMMY? B IS WORRIED.
He sat the phone on the table and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
There was no reply.