The One Way (Changes Book 1)

by Ted Persinger

  He replied, “Hey man. Yeah, it’s me.” In the light of day, he could see Lee was average height, a bit round in the middle, and needed a shave.

  “You okay, Danny? You look a bit pale.” Lee seemed genuinely concerned.

  “Yeah, I’m okay. Just a hangover. I feel better after some breakfast, but I’m still a bit wrung out.”

  “I was worried about you. I saw through the glass how you took off…you looked very upset. I thought you got a sudden case of Montezuma’s!” He laughed aloud as he said it.

  Danny smiled in reply, genuinely feeling a little better talking to someone. “No, man, no shits for me. I just suddenly realized we were in a tranny bar, and I got the Hell out of there.” As soon as he said it, he regretted it.

  Lee’s brows furrowed for a second. “Well, yeah, it’s a ladyboy bar. Is that a problem?” There was sting in his eyes.

  He started to say something, and then fell mute. Then he felt like an absolute asshole. Who was he to judge what anybody else liked?

  “No, man, sorry…it’s just…I didn’t realize it. My wife, you see…”

  “Well shit, man, I wasn’t going to tell your wife on you or anything…”

  “No, it’s not that, Lee. My wife. She…she died just a month ago. I came here kinda…I don’t know.” He knew she was cover, and he felt shame for using her like that.

  “Oh fuck, man, sorry. You were just looking for a drink, and you weren’t looking for any action. I must’ve seemed like an awful asshole talking to you about getting laid and stuff.”

  “No, not at all, man. It was good to meet someone I could talk to. I’m just not over it.”

  “Of course not…of course not.”

  “I came here to sort of, you know…reset myself.”

  “Yeah, I would say you’re entitled, man. I’m really sorry.”

  “But yet I do want to get out a bit. It’s just it was hot and I was tired from the long drive and all.”

  “Danny, you don’t need to explain. You have every right to need some time alone.”

  “Just didn’t want you to think I was blowing you off or anything.” He meant it.

  “Do you have a cellphone?”

  Short pause. “Yeah, back in the room.”

  “Dude, don’t leave stuff like cellphones around…easy to disappear here in Meh-hee-co,” his voice was low.

  “Right…just a bit wiped out. I’m making some mistakes here, I guess.” Like getting my wallet stolen on my first night.

  “Listen, let me give you my number.” He pulled out a slip of paper from his pants pocket. Then he found a pen. Danny thought that this man must be very focused on work, because he never kept paper or a pen around. He saw Lee write out his number, then he handed Danny the slip. “If you feel like drinking or partying or whatever, give me a call. We can go to any club you want. I like other bars too. And if you don’t want anything, you don’t have to call and I’ll think nothing of it, okay?”

  “My cellphone, will it work here?” Danny genuinely didn’t know.

  “It should, as we’re right on the border…but go farther than TJ and it probably won’t, or it’ll cost you an arm and a tit if it does work. Go get some rest, and call me if you want to get out and party a bit. Good luck, man.”

  “Thanks for understanding,” he was genuinely glad for it, “and I’ll call you later,” he wasn’t sure he would. They shook hands, and Lee pointed finger pistols at him in a friendly gesture. Danny smiled back at him. He was glad he met up with him, and it felt good to know somebody in TJ.

  He went back to the hotel room, tired but feeling a bit better. He lay down to take a nap, but first pulled out his cellphone and turned it on. After starting up, messages and missed calls began to register. He had twenty-three missed calls and seven voice messages. He knew the messages would be Jim. He ignored them for now. He put the phone on his nightstand. He slid Lee’s phone number underneath it. He rolled over on to his side and was instantly asleep.

  X

  He felt soft golden sunshine on him. Warming him. He opened his eyes. Standing next to his bed was Melissa. Soft, curly blonde hair. Freckles. She smiled softly down at him. He smiled back. She wore her mischievous smile and flirty eyes. Danny was in love with her. He could see her life inside her, glowing outwardly. The energy. The fun. The silliness. He wanted to touch her. He wanted to love her. He couldn’t wait to hold her next to him and make love to her. She looked right back at him, then looked away, flirting with his eyes.

  He reached out his hand to touch her hand, but she pulled back. She had jerked so suddenly that it startled him. He looked for her eyes again, but they were changing. Her eyes lost their flirtation. They took on a sharply worried look. They began to dart. He could see a rising fear in her eyes. Quickly, it built inside her. She was stiff. She took on a frightened countenance. She was focused on something in the distance, on the other side of Danny. Danny turned to see what it was, but saw nothing but gray emptiness, like a rain cloud. He looked back to her. Terror in her eyes. She raised her tiny hands to her mouth and then silently shrieked. A full-body shriek of horror. Eyes trying to look away from the terror only she could see. Hands trying to block what was moving towards her. But not a sound.

  As she shrieked, her mouth opened wider. Wider. It began to distend. There was no tongue or palate or teeth now…just a gaping black hole. Her jaw unhinged, like a small snake eating a large mouse. Her jaw stretched down to her breasts, and then lower. The black hole in her face grew larger. All inside her was black void. Emptiness…but threatening.

  Her body then began to shrink around the hole, until the hole was larger than she was. Her body crinkled, like wadded tissue, and the black hole continued to grow. And then she disappeared and all there was left was the hole itself. The hole sent out heat and inaudible sound waves. Pulsing. Like a stereo speaker, he could feel air pushing from it. A heavy bass feeling of pulsed air. It pressed on him and made his body reverberate. Soon, he was vibrating in time with the hole. The hole then moved to encompass him. He held out his hands to it. Welcoming it. It threatened to swallow him, and he embraced it.

  Danny didn’t realize how long he had slept. He woke bathed in sweat. He felt an intense cramping in his stomach. He crawled out of bed, hunched over, and went to the bathroom. He felt like his guts sprayed out of him. Back to the bed, he fell asleep on wet sheets, only to wake up with more stomach cramping. He grabbed his watch on the way to the toilet. It was 1:30 am. This time, his entire body was cramping and shaking as he sprayed the contents of his bowels into the toilet. He looked in the toilet and saw blood mixed with his filth. Everything that was inside of him had rushed out. He was shaking, and felt frail.

  He went back to his bed. He felt like his insides were twisting. He would nod off for a minute, then his stomach would cramp and his eyes would jerk open. His exhaustion made his frequent trips to the bathroom immensely difficult. It was getting more and more challenging to make it to the bathroom. He knew he was dehydrating with the vast amount of fluids he was losing, but he had no water to drink. He began to see more blood and less fluids. He didn’t need to be told that this was a bad spiral he was in. His thoughts were unfocused now, and he felt confused. Moments began to feel scattered. Out of order.

  He now had difficulty finding the toilet. He could not see clearly. His vision was gray, and he saw sparkles and blurs. He could feel his teeth clicking together, and then grinding. His movements were jerky and uncontrolled. He bed was soaked and so cold. He knew he wasn’t sleeping, but drifting in and out of consciousness.

  He reached for the hotel phone. It felt so heavy. He pushed zero. No answer. He fell back asleep. It was light again and he was awake…more intense cramping, more diarrhea, more shaking, more sweating. He dry-heaved, but only a teaspoonful of bile dribbled out on his chin. He again picked up the phone, now feeling like a fifty-pound dumbbell. Hand violently shaking, and he could barely get the phone to his ear. He pushed zero. This time an answer.

&n
bsp; “Si?”

  “Help…I am sick…I have a fever…I need medicine or a doctor…” his mouth was so dry he could hardly form words. His teeth chattered as he spoke.

  “No habla, señor.” He could tell she seemed disinterested.

  “Help me…help me, por favor…I need a doctor…doctor…” he tried to yell but only rasps came out. He heard her hang up.

  A minute later, there was a knock on the door. He couldn’t get up, and tried to call out as loud as he could, but no words left his mouth. Only a groan. He heard keys. They rattled. He heard the lock turn and the door opened. The woman looked down at him with fright in her eyes. She seemed terrified. He tried to reach out to her, but she was too far.

  “Moment, por favor,” she said, and she turned quickly. She left the door open. He heard her moving down the stairs. He could feel his head spinning. He lost consciousness.

  He woke later to find a man and the front-desk woman in his room. The man was in a chair next to the bed. He was shaking Danny’s arm.

  “Señor? Señor?” Danny tried to focus on him. “Hola, señor,” the man said, “Habla Español?”

  “Are you a doctor?” Danny croaked.

  “Okay, mi Inglis not good, señor, okay?” the man said. “Soy medico…doctor” he said slowly. “Usted está muy enfermo y deshidratado. Es necesario llegar a un hospital. Puedo llevarte allí?”

  Danny just looked at him. He didn’t understand anything. He didn’t know what to do. He felt panic.

  “Doctor, do you speak English?” he croaked out of a dry throat. He felt the soft tissues in his mouth slamming together, as dry as tree branches.

  “Mi English…eh…es minisculo” he said, holding his finger and thumb together. Danny got the hint.

  Danny was too weak to move. He pointed at his cellphone. The doctor handed it to him, along with the paper underneath it. He could barely focus on the numbers, but he managed to put them in.

  “Hello?”

  “Lee, it’s Danny,” his voice just above a whisper.

  “Hey Danny…it’s too early for a drink, man. It’s like 7:00 am!”

  “Lee, I’m…I’m sick, and I have a doctor here who doesn’t speak English.” Sibilant sounds were nearly impossible with his mouth so dry. His lips dragged across his teeth.

  “Where are you?”

  “Lyon Hotel.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  Danny faded to black for a few moments, but Lee arrived in minutes. Danny knew he ran the whole way, because he was panting when he came bolting up the steps. The doctor and front-desk lady met him outside the room. Lee talked to them both. Though his Spanish was obviously poor, he seemed to get the idea quickly. As Lee entered the room, Danny saw him crinkle his nose. When he got close to Danny, he said “fuck!” under his breath. Danny knew he must smell and look horrible.

  “Danny, you’re in bad shape, man. The doctor wants to get you to the hospital. He wants to know if you can afford it. Do you have medical insurance and all that?”

  “I don’t have insurance but I can pay…I have enough in the bank…I have money… I can write a check…” His tongue felt much too large for his mouth, and his words were mush. He didn’t know if Lee understood him.

  Lee went back into the hallway. They spoke more. The doctor and lady walked down the stairs. Lee came back into the room, but stayed near the door. He said loudly to Danny, “Don’t worry, man…the doctor is going to get someone here. They’re going to take care of you.” He then turned and went down the stairs after them. Danny was still shaking and cramping painfully, but he felt better knowing help was coming. He faded in and out of consciousness several times. His bed felt like ice.

  Twenty minutes later three men arrived with a stretcher, picked up Danny, and put him on it. They had to carry the large stretcher down the cramped stairs. Out into the morning air, then into a waiting ambulance. Lee climbed into the back with him. He grabbed his hand, and said, “Don’t worry, Danny. These guys are gonna fix you up straightaway.” Danny gave him a wan smile. Lights on. Siren on. Racing down the avenue, hitting every pothole. The siren was deafening. The bumps were enough to toss him and separate him from the gurney, despite the straps. Morning traffic was tight, but most cars moved for them.

  Danny was in and out during the ambulance ride, but he remembered feeling Lee’s hand on his arm, and feeling immensely comforted by his presence. Even as Lee was tossed around the back of the ambulance, cursing, left hand over his head to keep from braining himself on the ceiling, Danny felt Lee’s right hand on his bicep and felt unafraid.

  XI

  When he awoke in the Angeles Tijuana Hospital, his mouth and throat felt like a desert, but he otherwise felt stronger. He saw the IV bottle nearly empty, and the catheter in his hand under a mound of tape. His mouth and throat were so painfully dry that he wanted to drink something immediately. He began to move his mouth to call for a nurse, but nothing. He hadn’t noticed Lee sitting in a chair next to him.

  “Danny…are you okay?”

  He turned to look at him. “Water” was all he could croak out…just a whisper.

  Lee got up quickly, and from a small pitcher poured him a glass of water, put a straw in it, and held the glass for him to drink. Danny drank a few sips, and he would always remember that it tasted like the sweetest water he had ever had, soothing his parched mouth and throat. It felt like the coolest, freshest spring water, fresh from a mountain stream, not hospital water from a plastic pitcher.

  “Thanks, man, I needed that,” and he meant it. His voice was very husky, but audible now.

  “Alright, Danny. You look a Hell of a lot better, my friend,” and Lee seemed genuinely relieved. “When I came into your room, you looked and smelled like death. Thought we were too late. I’ve never seen anybody like that. Your lips were white, man.”

  “I thought it was just a case of the shits,” and he felt confused. “What happened?”

  “Apparently you were delirious. The doctor said you were babbling incoherently one minute, and then unconscious the next. He said at one point you were groaning about a hole in a woman’s face, or something like that. The bathroom was filled with shit. Shit on the floor, shit on the walls. You must’ve had quite a time of it.”

  Danny flushed and felt horrified. “Oh God, how embarrassing.” He paused, then said, “I’m a young guy. Thought I would just sleep it off. Thought it was the hangover at first, then when the fever started I thought it was just diarrhea or a mild flu or something…”

  “Yeah, you had the smell of death on you. I’ve smelled that before. Maybe you were already weakened by your hangover, and then Montezuma’s pushed you to the edge? Dunno. In any case, I’m glad you’re doing better.”

  “Lee, thanks so much for being there for me. You’re a good friend to stay by me.”

  “No need for thanks, man. Just get better.” There was an uncomfortable silence, then he continued, “I’m gonna scram and get some breakfast…the food here sucks…then I’ll be back in the afternoon to check on you.”

  “Breakfast? Is it morning already?”

  “Yeah, you slept through. It’s Thursday morning. You were pretty wasted. You look like you’ve lost a lot of weight, but you’re putting some back on with the IV.”

  “And you spent the night here?”

  “No. Ha ha! I slept at my place last night, but I checked in a few times yesterday, and then came early this morning because I knew you’d be up today.”

  “Well, thanks, man. Nice to see a friendly face. I felt close to the edge there for a while.”

  “I’ll bet you did! Okay, man, I’m outta here. Will check back later.” He gave a finger pistol and a wink on his way out.

  “Thanks, man,” but he was already gone.

  He saw Lee walk up to the nurse’s station. He stopped and talked with the nurses. Instantly they were smiling and giggling. This guy’s a natural, he thought. Then he was gone.

  About an hour later, a man in a white coat
came into his room.

  “Well, Mister Shields. How are you feeling today?”

  Danny was happy to hear clear English. “I’m much better, thanks.”

  “Good to hear! I’m Doctor Jimenez. We were really worried about you yesterday. You lost an immense amount of fluids. You were so dehydrated we thought we might lose you. You were close to organ failure. We pumped in three IV bags and you were still dry. It’s rare that someone loses that much and pulls through.”

  “Yeah? I got lucky, I guess. Had some help from a friend.”

  “Another hour or so and I don’t think we’d have been able to do anything. So let me check you, just to make sure you’re doing okay.”

  He shined a light in his eyes. Felt the glands in his neck. Listened to his heart and lungs. Made notes in Danny’s bedside chart.

  “Well, I’d say you’re recovering very well. You seem to still have a light fever, and your heart is working a bit harder than I’d like. No doubt your body is trying to rebuild damaged tissues. Let’s see how you do today, but I think we should keep you one more night. We’re pushing antibiotics through your IV, and I’d like to give those a chance to work a bit longer.”

  “Yeah, okay. I feel pretty tired anyway.”

  “Okay. I’ll check back this afternoon. Keep resting this morning, and then we’ll get you up and walk you around.”

  “Sounds good, Doc.”

  Danny took another long drink, and then drifted off to sleep.

  XII

  Lee checked on him one more time that day. Danny was up and around in the afternoon, though still wobbly. He could feel his strength returning, but his knees trembled when he walked. He felt drained even going to the bathroom. He continued fluids through the evening and overnight.

  Another night’s sleep left Danny feeling great, if still a bit drained. Lee helped him check out in the early afternoon of Friday, and called him a taxi back to the Lyon. His car was still there, parked on the side of the hotel.