"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."
[Who are these children who disturb Mike's sleep? Will Mike and
Dan be able to leave the hospital tomorrow? For the answer to
these and other exciting questions read the next exciting
chapter of Tales of Akron, available in two weeks.]
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