One Fall

CHAPTER 25

  Joey woke up in a fog of sickness. He vaguely remembered a dream about discovering a parasite in his intestines. The plot and visuals of the dream had dimmed, but the feeling of nausea deep in his gut sharpened as he rejoined the waking world. A churning somewhere in his bowels provoked a pathetic moan that came out of his mouth in a weak voice that didn’t seem his own.

  There was a clear tube hanging across his torso. His eyes followed it to its source, a blue box on a metal stand next to his bed. He decided he was in a hospital room. Instantly, memories of yesterday started piecing together, and through a haze of medication, Joey came to fathom what had happened.

  He had fought with Jumbo. He had wretched on the concrete. He had ridden in an ambulance. There was a hospital bed, doctors, an IV, shots, a CT scan, he remembered all of this, but not as he might normally remember something. The memories were faded, like they had been stored in his brain twenty years ago and were only now coming forth. And they didn’t fit with the current reality. The hospital room, with the rolling and dripping sounds of the IV, the ticking of the clock, the humming of some generic machine, the light through the blinds on the window, seemed unrelated to the haste and fury of the montage he recalled.

  “Good morning,” said a voice. Joey knew the voice. It was Jade. He tried to roll his head toward it, but it didn’t quite work right. Had he forgotten how to turn his head?

  “Good morning,” he said. His tongue was thick and slow. He needed some water.

  “Do you know where you are?” the voice said. He had to turn to it. He had to see her. He had a vision of using his hands to turn his head; that would work. But where were his hands?

  “Easy there,” said the voice. Then she appeared. His line of sight unchanged, she appeared in it, and the static became a clear picture. She was so beautiful. Was he drunk?

  Now she was holding his hand, no, his wrist. She was laying it at his side.

  “Best not to move much, I think,” she said. “How do you feel?”

  “I feel funny,” Joey said. And he sounded funny too.

  “How so?” she said. And then she was gone from sight again. This time he would turn his head and look at her, dammit. It was like moving a brick with his chin, but he did it. He turned his head, and the room spun with the movement, but he could see her. How did he ever get so lucky to have someone so beautiful in his room?

  She smiled at him. Was he smiling at her?

  “Are you okay?” she said. Her voice was cutesy, like they were being mischievous. Maybe he was drunk.

  “Yes, I...just feel funny.”

  She laughed, nervously. “How so?” she said.

  And then he realized the joke. They had been over this already. He says he feels funny, she asks how so. He laughed. It was a breathy laugh, the best he had. He wanted her to know he understood what was funny. But apparently she didn’t. She looked at him like he was speaking Chinese.

  “I’ll be right back Sweetie,” she said.

  No, wait, don’t go. But she was already gone. She could move so quickly. Ah well. No big deal. He’d just go back to sleep.