CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE - HURRY
And so it began…
When Brian wasn’t playing with Sammy, or talking to Sammy or generally doing something for Sammy, he was rushing upstairs to check on B. No sooner had he started to talk to the teenager that Sammy would be calling him again, wondering where he had disappeared to. It seemed unnatural to keep a family apart in such a way, but Brian had no choice. Sammy and B were not meant to be together in this time and Sammy was too young to understand.
The first day is always the most exhausting and Brian found his time hard to split between his two sons. He desperately wanted to press B further about his ‘friend’ but at the same time it was Sammy’s first day at home and all the boy wanted to do was to make up for the week he had been away.
After Sammy had finally yawned and exhausted himself by dashing around the room after Tyke while Brian chased both of them, he finally allowed Brian to tuck him into bed and read him a story before he fell asleep. For a brief moment, Brian had just watched him and listened to him breathing, pleased to have him back at home in his own room. It was nice to have both of his boys at home.
After seeing to Sammy, B was allowed out of his room and the two of them sat on the couch with a bag of chocolates while watching a film which both of them laughed at and made fun of. The dispute earlier seemed to have been forgotten about by B as he smiled at Brian and talked with him. Brian did not want to spoil everything by bringing up the subject of B’s friend and instead he just enjoyed spending time with his son. B had brought the teddy Brian had won at the seafront and Brian laughed as B jumped about with Tyke, sending the dog into a frenzy of yapping as he tried to savage the teddy. It was almost like a proper family…
Eventually B scooped Tyke up into his arms and cuddled him close and Brian carefully pulled the camera from a desk and snapped up a picture while B was preoccupied.
“I told you to stop doing that!” B said, but he smiled as he stroked Tyke.
Brian grinned and pulled a face to make B laugh, but it was cut off as he sneezed into Tyke’s fur making the dog leap from his arms to the safety of his basket.
“That always happens,” B complained.
“Don’t worry about it!” Brian laughed. “It could be worse, he tries to eat Nick!”
“I’m sure that would give him food poisoning!”
Brian laughed again and then proceeded to tidy the lounge up with B’s help. He glanced at the time and saw that it was getting late and that B’s face had turned paler. He should not be staying up if he was ill, but the kid insisted on helping Brian to wash up.
Brian allowed him to do so, knowing that B knew that his time to go home was creeping every closer with each passing moment and that he wanted to spend time with him. For Brian, he tried not to think about B returning home, remembering all too well the pain that had almost torn him apart before.
B yawned as he helped Brian to dry up and sniffled slightly as he coughed again.
“All right?” Brian asked.
He nodded. “I’m fine.” He paused for a moment as he dried a plate with the towel and placed it away. “I’m just tired.”
“It’s late, I’m not surprised,” Brian replied.
“Uh…” B’s eyes closed suddenly and his whole body swayed as if he was becoming disorientated. “Where am I?” B asked suddenly as he stared down at the plate in his hands as if he had never seen it before. He glanced about the kitchen, his eyes slowly taking in the blue walls.
At first Brian thought he was kidding, but then something pulled inside of Brian’s stomach as he saw the glazed light in the green eyes and the vacant expression that had suddenly glided over B’s face. There was something in the voice that struck him deep in his chest – the confusion and the innocence, almost like a child was speaking. “B?” he asked.
B’s eyes narrowed in puzzlement and he took a few uncertain steps forward towards Brian, nothing but blankness on his face. “What?”
“B,” Brian said nervously. “B, you’re scaring me.”
B stared behind him as if looking for the person that Brian was talking to and not realising that it was him.
“Who’s B?” he asked.
Brian tried to take him by the shoulders, but he flinched and jumped away from the touch, as if Brian had tried to claw him with cruel talons. B’s green eyes stared about him in fear and he cringed away from Brian as he pressed himself against the far wall.
“B! Snap out of it!” Brian snapped, fear pushing desperation into his voice.
B stared at him and then his face turned white as his eyes rolled back in his head. Brian leapt forward and only just caught him in his arms before he slumped to the hard floor below. Gently he pulled b into his arms and stroked the fringe away from his forehead, wiping away the sweat that had gathered there.
“B?” he whispered fearfully. “B, wake up.”
B’s eyes slowly fluttered about him dazedly and then they flickered towards Brian’s face. “Dad?” he croaked.
Brian closed his eyes in relief at the recognition, having dreading to hear that strange, innocent voice of a stranger again. “It’s okay,” Brian soothed.
“What happened?” B whispered. “I feel sick.”
“You passed out. Do you remember what happened before then?”
“I – I was helping you with the dishes and then…” he trailed off as his memory failed him.
“You kind of blanked out. You didn’t know who or where you where and then you fainted,” Brian said softly, his lips trembling as he spoke. For a moment B had no recognised him… and that had frightened him more than anything. How could B not know who he was?
“I don’t remember,” B said as his eyes closed. He shivered slightly in Brian’s arms and pressed closer to him for warmth. “I’m cold.”
Brian pressed a hand to B’s face and then pulled it away again as he felt B’s icy skin against his fingers. It was like touching ice.
“B, I think you better go to bed. Come on.”
Brian helped B to stumble to his feet and then he half carried and half led him up the stairs to his won room where he wrapped him a thick blanket. B crawled beneath the covers of his bed and sighed as the heat seemed to return to him.
Brian gently lie down beside him for a moment. “How do you feel now?”
“Just dizzy,” B murmured. “It’s late. Maybe I’m just sleepy.” He scratched at his arms for a moment and then wrapped them about a pillow, before scratching them again.
Brian carefully took B’s wrist and pulled up the sleeve, frowning as he noticed a red rash beginning to form. That had not been there this morning, although B had been scratching…
“Where did that come from?” he asked.
“Dunno,” B replied helpfully, completely uninterested in anything but rest.
“B,” Brian said uneasily. “You’re sick. You need medicine or a doctor.”
“I’m fine. Just tired… I’m fine.” He kept repeating those every time Brian said anything about his illness as if he was afraid to admit that there was something seriously wrong with him.
“B, we need to talk to your friend. Maybe he can help you…”
“NO!” B sat up abruptly and pulled his arms away from Brian, clutching them protectively to his chest. “No, I told you earlier no! We are not bringing him into this until I say so!”
“You’re ill!”
“No I’m not!” He turned away from Brian and lie back down. “Please, just let me sleep.”
“All right. Night,” Brian said softly. He sadly kissed B on the head, wishing that there was something he could to help him. He wasn’t well, anybody could see that.
If he became worse, then Brian might have no choice but to pull his friend into this. He was still watching the house, Brian could sense him out there on the bench as he entered his own room. He glanced out of the window and it only took a few moments for his eyes to focus on the hooded head in the dark street lit only by faint street lights. What was he hiding? And what was B hiding?
It was tempting to go out there and ask him. He wanted this person to be able to help B, but he had an awful suspicion that this would lead to B being taken away from him.
He closed the thin curtains to shut out the view of the streets, knowing that if he did contact this man again that it would only upset B further. He sighed as he leaned his head against the wall. B had made his feelings about this man clear, but Brian knew that he cared about him.
“If you’re not better tomorrow B,” he whispered. “I’m going to have to pull him in on this one. Even if you do hate me for it.”
* * * * * * * * * *
“Daddy, what’s his name?” Sammy asked as he crunched on his cornflakes.
“Who?” Brian asked.
“The boy who staying with us. What his name?”
Brian paused for a moment. “Brendan,” he said eventually. He hated to lie to Sammy, but the name ‘Brian’ would have him in giggles as he compared it to his own and B might be a give away. He wanted the older Sammy to be completely oblivious to this incident.
“Can I see him?”
“He’s not well Sammy. I don’t think he’s up to visitors.”
Brian had been awakened that morning by hurried footsteps on the landing before he heard the sickening sounding of B vomiting violently. This time he had not made a mess on the floor, but when Brian had gone to see if he was okay, B had confessed that there was more blood. After the boy had been too weak to walk back to his room and Brian had been forced to carry him.
He had shuddered as he had helped B back into bed, tucking him in safely in the vain hope that somehow he could make it all better.
“Can I make him a card then?” Sammy asked hopefully.
“I think he might like that.”
After he had cleared up Sammy’s breakfast bowl and found him some paper and crayons to make B a card with, he took a tray up to B’s room with some cereals, hoping that the boy would be feeling better. After being sick again he had crawled back into bed miserably, too dizzy to do much else.
He gently tapped on the door and quietly slipped inside, not wanting to disturb him if he was still sleeping. As it turned out though, B weakly raised his head as he entered and smiled at him. “Hey.”
“Hey, you feeling better after this morning?”
“A little,” B murmured.
He was so pale and there was no sparkle in his green eyes, almost as if he were nothing more than a shade of his former self. The appearance stung him inside as he watched B cough slightly and moan weakly in pain. Why couldn’t Brian be the one suffering and B the one who was well? Brian would gladly put up with even more sever headaches then what he was experiencing in return for B’s precious health back. “I’ve got your breakfast,” he said.
“I’m not hungry.”
“You sure?”
“Certain.” He did not even try to sit up and only closed his eyes, determined to sleep.
“All right, but you’re gonna have something at lunch time.”
“Okay.”
B did eat at lunchtime, but only a sandwich. He said he felt too sick to manage anything else and after he ended up sleeping for the rest of the day, with Brian occasionally checking up on him and silently sitting by his side and whispering a prayer. He could see that B was getting worse and he prayed to God to give his little boy the strength to fight this terrible illness. What was wrong with him? Why was he coughing up blood? Why wouldn’t he get better?
B was asleep when Brian took Sammy’s home made card to him. It was nothing much more than a child’s splodge of a thousand colours all mingled together in some delightful way but Brian always loved each of Sammy’s drawings and he hoped b would too. Quietly he placed it on the bedside table beside B’s sleeping form and then silently left.
At tea, B was awake again and smiling over the picture his ‘older’ brother had made for him. “He’s so cute!” he said. “I can’t believe how small he is! He’s a six foot monster in my time!”
He had laughed and compared the two Sammies he knew, but at the same time he was deeply upset and Brian knew what was going through his mind. Where was his brother in his own time? Sadly he watched as B trailed a hand across the drawing and the thoughts of Sammy showed in his eyes. His brother was everything to him and Brian only wished he could help relieve his pain somehow.
B fell back to sleep with the picture clutched in his hand and Brian gently kissed him on the head as he tucked the blanket in about him lovingly. Then it was back to his beautiful little Sammy downstairs. Always was he zipping between the two, but never could he spend time with the two of them together like a real family.
Brian sighed in annoyance when it came to making Sammy’s dinner as he realised how much food was missing from the cupboards and fridge. He had hardly been shopping since B arrived and it was showing now as there was no bread, milk or any of the basic necessities. He glanced out of the window but there was no sign of B’s friend on the bench like there usually was. Maybe he had crept away at last and would leave Brian and B alone. Maybe he finally saw that he was not wanted.
He glanced towards B’s room and then towards the lounge where Sammy was watching a Disney film. There was a store only five minutes away and it wouldn’t take him long to get what he needed.
“Sammy, I’m just going out for all of ten minutes. You’ll be okay?” Brian asked.
Sammy nodded, barely even lifting his eyes from the television as he watched the final five minutes of Lilo & Stitch. “Uh huh.”
“I’m locking the door so you’ll be locked in but I’ll back in a few minutes.”
“Okay.”
“And remember what I said to you before - ”
“Don’t open door for strangers!” Sammy said immediately.
Brian smiled. “Good boy.”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
He sat down on the bench, watching the house like he always did in case the Gerai came. He had been here earlier, he had saw him as he wondered up and down the streets with a sheet of paper in hand. He would peer down at the sheet and then scrutinise the house numbers carefully before him. He had paused in front of Brian’s home and a smirk had filled the face before he turned away down the street.
He had followed, intending to attack but the Gerai had clambered into a green car and driven away before he could reach him.
He would be back and B would not be safe when he did.
His eyes still stung from the tears he had cried after his conversation with B. He had hardly slept last night in the cold, lonely bed sit as the words rolled about his head.
‘I hate you!’
What had he done wrong? How had things changed so much?
He raised his head as he caught movement from the corner of his eye at Brian’s house. “B?” he whispered hopefully, praying that the boy had come to him at last. He stood up from the tree he had been sitting beneath and anxiously stared towards the house, but his heart hit the stone chamber of a dungeon as he saw that it was only Brian. He wondered if he would ever know…
Where was he going anywhere? Why the hell had he left B alone in the house with Sammy?
His fists tightened in tension as he watched Brian jog away up the road, heading towards the store nearby. Damn him! Didn’t he realise that this was what the Gerai had been waiting for?
He composed himself and pushed his flaming anger back down in his chest. Brian wouldn’t be gone long and the chances of the Gerai arriving within that time were slim… unless he was watching from somewhere. There were a thousand places to hide on the huge, expensive gardens.
Suddenly something hard and painful smacked into his back and he cried out in pain and shock as the powerful stun beam paralysed his limbs. He couldn’t move as he hit the floor…
“Did you really think I hadn’t noticed you here watching out for me?” a cruel voice whispered. “You stick out like a turd in a sand pit.”
The tears trickled down his cheeks as he realised what was going to happen. The Gerai had been watching him all this time and the bastard had set his stun gun to the highest setting to temporarily paralyse him. He could do nothing…
“How does it feel to be powerless?” the Gerai snickered. “Your little boy is going to belong to the Gerai.”
“Uh… No… B…” He moaned faintly and the Gerai laughed against as he raised a gun. He felt a heavy pain smack his head and then everything went black, releasing him into a world of torturing nightmares where he could only pray that Brian would be back in time… otherwise B would be lost forever.