Tales of Akron

[In Chapter 24, Mike wanted to celebrate that he had placed Dan's photograph in the bookcase in his office. When he arrived home after work, he and Dan had a bottle of champagne and left for Pazzzo's on West Market. Mike was driving. The accident happened so quickly neither man knew what happened. The medics arrived and placed both men in an ambulance and sent them to the hospital.]

          The emergency room staff worked quickly and efficiently. Mike and Dan were scratched and bleeding, but not seriously hurt.

          "We're going to keep you for the night and keep an eye on you," said Doctor Jim. "I want to check in on you about breakfast time and see how you're doing. I've asked the nurse to give you something to help you sleep. You'll be so sore in the morning you won't want to get out of bed. You are two lucky guys."

          "What about the folks in the other car?" Mike asked.

          "Don't know about them. Another doc is taking care of them. Now, sleep."

          Mike and Dan shared a room in the hospital. But, they had separate beds.

          As the sleeping pill began to work, Mike called out, "Dan, I'm sorry. I had too much to drink. I shouldn't have been driving. I could have hurt you and I love you."

          "It's ok. We're not seriously hurt. We'll go home tomorrow."

          "But, I need to talk to you. I've got a problem. I love alcohol."

          "A lot of gay people like alcohol too much. It deadens the pain of being queer," Dan said.

          "I could have killed you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Forgive me," Mike sobbed.

          "I forgive ..." muttered Dan and he let the pill do its healing work.

          Mike sobbed as the tears covered his cheek and suddenly everything was dark.

          The sounds of the hospital dropped away and the silence grew as thick as the blackness around him. Some bit of his awareness saw rays of light, somewhere in the back of the darkness. In that light he saw two figures walking toward him. Two children. Three years old. The other six years. The younger, a boy child, cried.

          "You hurt my brother," said the girl child, the older of the two. "You hurt my brother."

          "I want Mommy," the boy child cried. "Mommy, Mommy, Daddy, Daddy. Where are you?"

          "Where are my parents? Did you take them away?" asked the girl.

          Mike felt himself struggle to speak. No words came from his lips.

          "You're Mike," the girl child said. "That's what they told me. They said Mike did something to my my parents. Where did you put them? I can't find them. I'm cold. I don't know where I am. Mike, help me."

          Within Mike some power erupted and overcame the sleeping pill. He found himself standing in the middle of the hospital room, screaming, "Oh, no, please help me. I don't want to hurt you. Oh, God, help me. Help them."

          Mike's screams echoed through the halls of the hospital. Nurses ran to his room and found him on his knees, praying at the side of his bed the way he had prayed when he was a child. Except these prayers, "Oh, God, help me. Help them," were so loud that they surely reached heaven.

          They did reach the chapel three floors below.

          "You're ok, Mike. You've just had a bad dream. Those pills do that to some people," said the nurse. She pulled him to his feet. "Get in bed. Let me help you."

          Mike gained some control of his mind. He remembered the accident and that explained his sore body. He looked at Dan who was still sleeping. "I'm ok. Just a-a dream," he said giving himself back to sleep.

          "I'll sit with him for a while," said a young nurse, as she pulled a chair near the bed and sat with one hand on Mike's.

          Mike could feel the darkness and the silence close in about him. From behind a particularly dark place in his mind, the children stepped.

          "Mike, we can't find our parents," the girl said. "But, those people -- the people who tell you where you should go when you're new here -- those people told us to stay with you. "

          Mike shifted under the sheet. The nurse patted his hand and whispered, "Sleep. You're not alone."