Elpida

by C. Kennedy

  Since his freedom, Christy had been astounded to learn such horrors were visited on children around the world. More particularly, on male children. But they were. Oh, but they were. It infuriated him that people only served their own needs, protected only themselves, and claimed not to know. He twitched at the memories, pushed them away again by sheer force of will, and fought to steady his hand.

  He studied Thimi closely. Thimi was clammy and pale, and he knew Thimi had a fever. He turned to where Rob, Dr. Jordanou, and General Sotíras sat in the living room area chatting in soft tones.

  “Dr. Jordanou?”

  “Yes, Christophoros?”

  Christy switched from English to Greek. “I am sorry to interrupt. I believe he has a fever. Will you check him?”

  “Of course.” Dr. Jordanou rose from the couch and came to check on Thimi. “I believe you are correct. Perhaps we should remove the sweats?”

  Christy nodded. “Let me find clothes for him.”

  Christy passed through the large bathroom to the walk-in closet and looked around, not remembering where he’d stored the clothes he’d brought with him when he’d left Greece. Then he saw the box sitting high on a shelf. He looked around again, wondering if he could climb something to reach it, to no avail. He passed back through the bathroom and leaned out the door. “Rob? Please help me with the box?”

  Rob looked at the box Christy pointed out to him, reached for it, and set it on the center island in the closet. “These are the clothes you brought with you from Greece.”

  Christy nodded. “It is the Aegean cotton. It protects from touching because it has the long sleeve but it is cool for the skin.”

  “Smart of you to remember this.”

  “He will vomit when I change the clothes. We need the towel.”

  The creases around Rob’s eyes deepened in empathy and understanding. “You’ve done very well since you arrived here, Christy. You should be proud of yourself.”

  He smiled briefly. If only Rob knew how much he masked, never to be seen by the outside world. “Thank you.” He dug through the box and pulled white cotton pants and a shirt from it. “Is the counselor Gwen here?”

  “She is.”

  “I believe it would help if Thimi wakes and sees the girl in the nurse clothes.”

  “I’ll call her.”

  “Thank you. Please leave the box here.”

  Rob only nodded and left the walk-in closet.

  Christy returned to the bedside, set the clothing on the end of the bed, and considered how to change Thimi’s clothes.

  “Gwen will be here in a minute,” Rob said as he joined Christy at the bedside.

  “Thank you.”

  Dr. Jordanou looked at Christy, a question in his eyes.

  “Thimi will wake in the strange place, and it will be good if he sees the nurse. He will be afraid if it is only men with Rob and General Sotíras here,” Christy explained quietly.

  “Very smart,” Dr. Jordanou agreed.

  Gwen entered the cabin and strode quickly to the bedside. “Hi, Christy. How’s he doing?”

  “Thank you for the help. He sleeps.”

  “Sure thing. How do you want to do this?”

  “I do not know. I must see how he wakes. He can have the big panic. It is important to remember not to touch him.”

  “Okay.”

  Christy climbed onto the bed and pulled the duvet back slowly. Thimi didn’t stir. He carefully took Thimi’s face in his hands and gently pinched his cheek. Thimi still didn’t stir. He kept one hand gently cupping the side of Thimi’s face, reached for his hand with the other, and squeezed tightly. They’d slept holding hands for as long as they’d known each other, and the sensation would be familiar to him. Thimi stirred. He squeezed again. Thimi stirred a bit more. He squeezed Thimi’s hand very tightly, and Thimi’s eyes fluttered open, and Christy smiled down at him.

  “Adelfáki mou,” he said softly.

  Thimi’s intake of breath was massive as he shot up and reached for Christy, arms holding tight around his waist, and Christy bit back the pain in his ribs. Thimi quivered in his arms, a mere wisp of a human being. “You are here now, with me. You are safe.”

  Thimi held Christy even tighter, and the pain in Christy’s healing ribs began to scream at him. He gently moved Thimi’s arms down, hoping to lessen the pain. “How are you?”

  Thimi looked at the people around them and buried his face against Christy’s chest.

  “Don’t be afraid. Dr. Jordanou is here. This is Gwen. This is Rob. They will not hurt you.”

  Thimi peered at them and turned away.

  “Are you hungry?” Christy asked softly in Greek.

  “Thélo neró.”

  “He wishes the water to drink.”

  “One sec.” Rob quickly went to the kitchen, retrieved two bottles of water from the refrigerator, and returned to the bedside. He unscrewed the cap to one of them and held it out to Christy.

  “Here.” Christy gestured to Rob. “Take this from him. He will not hurt you.” Thimi turned his face back against Christy’s chest. Christy took the bottle from Rob and held the cool of it against Thimi’s cheek. “Drink.”

  Thimi suddenly grasped the bottle and drank thirstily.

  “Drink slowly,” Dr. Jordanou encouraged. “You’ll upset your stomach.”

  Thimi suddenly vomited. Rob reached for the towel, and Christy held him at bay.

  “It is okay.” He wiped Thimi’s mouth with the corner of his T-shirt, and Thimi’s eyes filled with tears. “Drink slowly this time.”

  “Sorry,” Thimi whispered in Greek.

  “It is okay. I have new clothes for you.” He gestured to the white cotton at the end of the bed.

  “Who gives the clothes?”

  “They are my clothes. You do not work for them any longer.”

  Thimi looked up at him from his safe place against Christy’s chest, disbelieving.

  Christy smiled down at him. “We own our clothes now. Would you like to wear mine?”

  Thimi nodded.

  “We go to the private bath to clean and change, okay?”

  “Private?”

  Christy smiled again and nodded. “We have the private bath. No one is allowed there without permission.”

  Thimi’s eyes went wide.

  “It is true. It is private for you.”

  “I believe he may be too weak to walk, Christophoros,” Dr. Jordanou said.

  “Do you wish Dr. Jordanou to carry you to the bath?”

  Thimi looked uncertain.

  Christy spoke rapidly in Greek, and Dr. Jordanou turned to Rob. “He says you have a wheelchair here?”

  “Be right back.”

  “Rob?” Christy called after him. “Will you make the warm water in the sink?”

  Rob nodded and continued to the bathroom.

  “He will get the wheelchair so Dr. Jordanou does not carry you,” Christy explained in Greek.

  “You have this?”

  Christy smiled and nodded. “I have it whenever I wish to use it, and now it will be yours to use as well.”

  Thimi looked even more disbelieving.

  “Rob will make the fresh water for us, I will clean you, and you will wear my clothes,” Christy reassured.

  Rob returned with the wheelchair and parked it next to the bed.

  “Let us move you to the chair,” Christy said softly in Greek then switched to English as he addressed everyone at the bedside. “Please move away.”

  Everyone stepped back a few paces.

  “They do as you command?” Thimi asked, incredulous.

  Christy smiled down at him again. “They will not if you command. If you ask, they will do almost anything.”

  “What do they not do?”

  “I give you examples so you do not worry. You cannot refuse food. They will want you to eat three times in a day, and you must try even if you feel you cannot. You cannot refuse sleep. They will want you to sleep eight hours in one night. You ca
nnot refuse medicine.”

  Thimi looked at Christy still disbelieving.

  “These are the rules?”

  “These are some of the rules. I will help with them. You will like them.”

  Thimi gave him an even more dubious look.

  “It is true. Come. Let us clean ourselves. We will talk about rules tomorrow.” Christy withdrew from Thimi’s arms slowly and gestured to him to wait a moment. He slid off the bed, put a hand to his ribs, and silently cursed Yosef.

  “You are hurt?” Thimi asked.

  “I am good now.”

  “It is from the people?”

  Christy shook his head. “The people will not hurt you. We will talk tomorrow. Now, we clean and get food. Come.”

  Thimi leaned into Christy, and he half lifted, half helped him into the chair. Thimi looked up at everyone still standing at the ready but a safe distance away.

  Christy gestured. “You know Dr. Jordanou. This is Dr. Rob. This is Gwen. She is the counselor. There are many counselors here. They are nurse people. Do not be afraid. They help you. Just there is General Sotíras.”

  Thimi peered around Dr. Jordanou.

  “Hello, Thimi. Welcome to your new home,” General Sotíras greeted.

  Thimi quickly lowered his eyes and turned away.

  Christy draped the light cotton clothing over a wheelchair grip. “Rob, I wish the soup in the cup for Thimi. I will have the pasta and the Caprese salad.”

  Rob nodded and turned to Dr. Jordanou. “Do you have medication for him?”

  “It’s better if he takes it with food.”

  He turned to Gwen. “Please order food, extra bottles of water, and juice.”

  “Sure.” She headed for the phone on the kitchen counter.

  Rob turned back to Christy. “Done. Anything else?”

  Happiness tried to worm its way into Christy’s heart as he remembered how attentive everyone had been when he’d first arrived at Wellington Ranch; and now he had a chance to see it from another point of view. It was odd how much he didn’t remember from back then. But then it wasn’t. He had been terrified when he’d first arrived, and his mind didn’t work right at all. Not that it did all the time now, but it was far better than it had been. Compared to then, he was almost normal at times. Better. Normal. The words struck him like lightning bolts. He was better. He could be normal at times. His nervous system struggled with the revelations, and he hoped no one noticed the surprise on his face. He quickly busied himself by making sure everything was okay with Thimi in the wheelchair. “Is it possible for the Jell-O and marshmallow?”

  Rob smiled. “Cherry?”

  “Thank you, Rob.” He bent over Thimi’s shoulder and whispered, “You are good in the chair?”

  Thimi nodded.

  “Okay. We go to the private bath now. Do not be afraid.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  MICHAEL LAY back on Jake’s bed and hung his legs over the end of it, idly swinging his feet. “Where’s Sophia?”

  “Went to bed. With everything that’s going on, she’s wiped out.”

  “I can identify.” He idly kicked his feet out again. “These bikers are bad for business.”

  “No shit.” Jake put the latest stopwatch in the drawer with the others. Jake kept the stopwatches showing each of Michael’s best running times as mementos. When Michael found out about it, it had touched him deeply.

  Michael looked in the drawer again. “Jake, I don’t know what to say.”

  Jake chuckled as he reached into the drawer and retrieved white athletic tape and a Sharpie pen. Tearing a small piece of tape from the roll, he wrote the date of the state championship meet. He reached for the stopwatch on the shelf, carefully placed the dated piece of tape on the back of it, and set it in an empty box in the drawer. “There. Your best time yet in the one-ten.”

  “You timed me at the meet?”

  “Always do.” Jake pushed the drawer closed.

  “What do you do, like, keep a supply of stopwatches in your car?”

  “Yeah.”

  Michael started to laugh. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No.”

  Michael couldn’t believe it. “Great balls of fire, Jacob Santini! If I didn’t know how much you loved Sophia, I’d say you had a crush on me!” He imitated Scarlett O’Hara.

  “Shut up.” Jake pushed him, and he fell backward onto the bed, cracking up. When Jake didn’t laugh with him, he turned serious. “I don’t know what to say, man.”

  “Say that’s incredibly cool and shut up about it.”

  “That’s incredibly cool.”

  “For the record, I love that you do that, bro.”

  Jake glanced at him briefly and closed the drawer. “We can be gone in the blink of an eye. Every memory counts.”

  They knew that to be only too true. Jake had barely survived a baseball bat to the head thanks to Yosef’s goons. The thought of losing Jake so pained Michael, it made his chest hurt. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you, Jake.”

  “Don’t get all maudlin on me. You know I hate that.”

  Jake plopped down on the bed next to Michael, and Michael hugged his head. “You love it, bro!”

  “Get off me, gay boy!”

  They burst into laughter. Michael released Jake and turned serious. “Why would they run Tony off the road?”

  “No idea. All I know is we need to be careful.”

  Michael looked at his phone. It was after 10:00 p.m. and too late to call Lisa, so he texted her.

  “Lisa?”

  “Yeah. I asked her to call when she could.”

  Within moments Michael’s phone rang and he answered it. “Sorry for texting late.”

  “No worries, Mike. I take it Detective Davis paid a visit.”

  Her voice lacked its usual exuberance, a bad sign, to be sure. “You have the 411?”

  “It’s ugly. I haven’t seen Smitty this mad since I was a kid.”

  “Does he have any ideas?”

  “He’s trying to follow the traffic cam footage back in time. They followed Tony up from the city and then just ran him off the road. Smitty’s trying to find out what happened in the city. He remembers the jackets. Anyone talk to Rich?”

  “Davis says his parents don’t know where he is.”

  She let the f-bomb fly. “Since when?”

  “No idea. We don’t remember seeing Rich or Tony at graduation. Do you?”

  “Come to think of it, no. I’m not liking these revelations, Mike. Do you have a number for Rich?”

  “Maybe. Hang on.” Michael put her on hold. As captain of the track team, he had most of the guys’ telephone numbers, and he scrolled through the phone. He found Jason’s and Tony’s but couldn’t find Rich’s number. “Do you have Rich’s number?”

  Jake dug his phone from his pocket, scrolled through it, and held it up so Michael could read it.

  Michael rattled it off to Lisa.

  “Did you call it?” she asked.

  Michael turned to Jake. “Call it?”

  Jake hit Send, listened, and terminated the call. “It goes to voice mail.”

  “Did you hear that?”

  “Yeah. If it’s not disconnected, I’m sure the police checked it out, but hang on again.” She returned to the phone a minute later. “Smitty’s checking it out. He’s going to spontaneously combust if he can’t find out what Tony was up to in the city.”

  “Mom is losing it. After the Jason thing, she can’t handle this. I asked Detective Davis not to talk to her about it.”

  “Oh my God, Mike, I know it. The Jason thing was harsh for everybody, but seriously brutal for her. Subject change. Did Thimi get to Wellington all right?”

  “Yeah, it was emotional. Christy cried.”

  “Ah, man, that’s got to be epic for him. Can’t wait to meet Thimi.”

  “Me too.”

  “You didn’t yet?”

  “No. The trip wasn’t easy for him, and the doc had to knock him
out.”

  “I still can’t imagine what it’s like to survive that life. No words, Mike. Just no words.”

  “Makes me hate the human race.”

  “Seriously. Listen, I’ll call if Smitty finds out anything.”

  “Tell him thank you.”

  “No need, Mike. He’s doing it for all of us. Laters.”

  Michael terminated the call and looked at Jake. “Smitty said they followed Tony up from the city, and he’s trying to find out what Tony was doing down there.”

  “Maybe Rich was down there and Tony went to talk to him.”

  “No way to know, bro.”

  Jake shook his head and hopped off the bed. “Let’s hit it. We need to get to practice early tomorrow. Coach will be there.”

  Michael texted Christy a quick I ❤ you and hit the sack.

  CHRISTY HELPED Thimi move from the wheelchair to the lid of the commode, and Thimi looked around the enormous bathroom, his eyes fixing on the glass-encased shower.

  “Do not look at it. You do not use it,” Christy said softly as he turned the Bose on and lowered the music volume to background noise.

  “It is a big room.”

  Christy smiled. “The bath is very nice. Do you wish help to remove the clothes?”

  Thimi attempted to withdraw an arm from the sleeve of his sweatshirt. Too weak, he fought with it and couldn’t get it over the cast on his wrist.

  Christy stayed him with a gentle hand. “Hold the marble. I will remove the shirt.”

  Thimi looked up at him, his eyes filling with apprehension as he complied.

  Christy said nothing. Thimi had every reason to be afraid. Fear was a powerful emotion, and he had no idea where he was and didn’t trust the new environment yet.

  “You will want to have friends sign the cast.” Christy smiled at the bewilderment on Thimi’s face as he removed the shirt. “It is a custom when you have a cast. Everyone signs it or draws a small picture on it. It will make it special for you. I will be the first to sign.”

  Thimi still looked lost as Christy helped with the sweatpants and then washed him with a washcloth, soap, and warm water.

  “How is the wrist?” Christy asked as he dried him.

  Thimi lowered his eyes. “I am sorry.”