The man was drained. Every bit of his mind and body had been used up to get him and boy this far. Now telling the story had left him nothing else to give. He stared back at Thompson, no words left in him at all.
Clearly he was too weak to continue so Thompson tried to answer those questions he thought were important to the man. “Joshua will be back in a few minutes. From what you’ve told me and from the boy’s own answers I know that you’re innocent of what I thought. There will be no more questions about it.”
The man was thankful and while he couldn’t find the strength to speak Thompson could still see the gratitude in him.
Thompson answered more of the man’s unasked questions. “We’re done for the night. I’m already satisfied about the most important question and everything else can wait until tomorrow, or the next day. Why don’t you both have your dinner and then you can spend what’s left of the day resting.”
Thompson stood up from the chair and his body quickly stiffened, he was so riveted by the man’s story he long forgot about his own comfort. He stretched his back as he spoke, “I have a doctor coming to see you. She should be here sometime late tomorrow. We have more to talk about and we will … later, after your medical needs are taken care of.”
It was over for the night. Thompson smartly turned and left, taking the chair with him.
The man didn’t have the strength to even wait for Joshua or his meal and he covered himself with the blanket. Within seconds he fell fast asleep. The next morning he woke with the boy at his side, there sleeping like an angel, and he felt whole again. By their morning meal, he correctly guessed he had slept over fourteen hours. For the first time in longer than he cared to remember he truly felt rested.
He spent most of that next day eating and napping. The guards had brought them some extra portions and man finally had his fill. As he slept most of the day away the boy played there on the bed next to him. His frequently dozing body an imaginary mountain fortress that Joshua’s tiny space soldiers had to conquer.
Late afternoon, Thompson and Amy Helton came again and this time they brought a new visitor along. Thompson introduced the woman as Doctor Susan Abbett-Hill.
“Doc Susie” as everyone called her wasn’t a “real” doctor but a nurse practitioner and had been one long before the end. She wore a white doctor’s coat and was small and thin and the man thought her to be around sixty or so. Her hair was cut short and boyish, and it was a dense almost black brown with tinges of gray taking hold around the temples. She carried with her a small leather bag and wore thick plastic framed glasses holding heavy lenses, and the man would have been surprised if she could even see without them.
Thompson proudly informed him that the doctor was joining their group and moving here from Greeley and hers would be the only practice within fifty miles or more. By the sound of his voice it was a major coup for him, Thompson resembled a proud new father the more he spoke. He explained this was the first of the several trips it would take to move Doc Susie and her equipment into her new home and medical office, which apparently the man was laying on the floor of.
After Thompson had finished his bragging Doc Susie modestly said hello again, pulled a clipboard out and quickly got down to work. Even with her mask on “Doc” was jovial and friendly and her temperament came to her quite naturally. She also seemed to know her business and gave the man a thorough examination once Amy Helton and Joshua had gone for a walk. She probed and prodded, and questioned and re-questioned and finally administered a skin test for TB. Then Doc Susie and Thompson went out in the hall and with a few minutes of muted conversation between them came back into the doorway again.
Doc Susie took off her mask and then so did Thompson and the man could see it was time for her official diagnosis. “I’m not seeing that much wrong with you, mostly what you need is rest and good nutrition. From the bottom to the top, let’s see …” Doc glanced down and studied her clipboard again. “First you’ve got a mild sprained ankle there. I’m going to bind it up and I recommend that you stay off of it at least a few days. You’ve also got inflammation in your lungs that could be the early signs of community-acquired pneumonia, what we call ‘CAP’ pneumonia.”
The man interrupted, “Walking pneumonia?”
With his question, Doc Susie, momentarily, appeared impressed, “Yes, possibly … probably, I wish we still access to an X-ray machine then I could tell for sure. You understand without the proper diagnostic tools I’m guessing here … well, at least a little.” She said it with the familiar laugh of an old friend.
Then Thompson barged in, “I’d rather have your guesses than others’ facts Doc.”
The doctor seemed impervious to Thompson’s flattery and with no more interruption resumed with her findings. “I’m going to give you some antibiotics, they’re old but they should still work.” Doc Susie reached in her bag bringing out a large prescription bottle that she gently threw to the man. “Ignore the printed label. They’re older so you’ll have to take more. I’ve wrote on there how many to take and how often. I want you to start taking them now and finish the whole bottle. What’s left is pretty basic, plenty of sleep, plenty of bed rest and plenty of fluids. As for tuberculosis, I don’t think you have it. I’ve given you the Mantoux test and we should know for sure in a few days. I’ll check the results in seventy-two hours. I’ll be back by then, and again in a week. Then we’ll know for certain. But as I said, I don’t think you have it. With your permission I would also like to take a look at Joshua while I’m here.”
The man gave his permission and at first the doctor tried to examine Joshua in another room. Even with Amy there the boy wouldn’t allow it. He wouldn’t let anyone near him unless the man was there by his side. So they brought the boy back and she examined him right there on the bed next to the man.
At first he was sullen and silent, the child had never seen a doctor before, none he could remember, and it was obvious to everyone watching the boy was quite frightened. But without much effort Doc Susie had him laughing and before long brought back that lively little boy the man had grown to love. After a few more laughs the examination was over and Doc had her verdict. “Joshua is perfectly fine. He’s more healthy than he has a right to be. You’ve done a good job raising him.”
The man just lay there unable to find his voice but silently thankful. With her words the man was relieved and also proud.
The doctor and Thompson agreed they would continue the quarantine until she returned. Then the doctor went into her bag once again and dug out two more bottles. One was a multi-vitamin and the other a calcium supplement. She gave instructions he should take a vitamin every day and the boy one of each. She finished by binding his ankle and promising to be back to see them in three days time.
Three days later Doc Susie was back just as she promised and it was quite apparent by the boy’s energetic greeting that his fear of doctors was completely cured. She gave Joshua another brief examination and a few more giggles then gladly declared him “fit as a fiddle.” Then she moved on to the man.
Once again she checked all of his vitals and asked everyone to be completely quiet. For an anxious minute she listened to the man’s breathing. “Your lungs are clearing up already. I’m sure you don’t have TB either. You’ll be back on your feet before you know it.”
Thompson stood there in the doorway silently watching, Amy behind him in the hallway there. With the doctor’s pronouncement Thompson made one of his own, “Now that’s settled you and the boy can get out of this stuffy room … when you’re completely better that is. Doc, how much longer do you think that will be?”
“Oh, he’ll tell us, soon as he’s got the strength to walk again, probably three days, no more than a week.”
Amy had her own surprise for the boy. “Since Joshua has been given a clean bill of health, would you mind if I give him a tour of the rest of the place?”
The man gave his permission and with that she and the boy made a hasty exit, only moments l
ater the doctor and Thompson left too. Thompson told him to “get some rest, you deserve it.” The doctor said she was leaving again but would be back in a few days, and that she expected him to be on his feet when she returned.
He spent most of that day napping and finally at dinner time Amy brought Joshua back from his thorough tour. The boy was excited and quite talkative too. He spent supper and the two hours after telling the man about all his escapades.
Over the next several days Amy would come for Joshua shortly after breakfast, another thrilling adventure each and every day. Then with dinner the boy would return telling the man every little detail of what he did and saw.
With all the food and rest, the man couldn’t help but feel better and it wasn’t too long before he was on his feet, shaky, but standing again.
On the fifth day Amy came for the boy once more and Thompson came with her. As the two of them were leaving Thompson came in and brought his own chair. “I know that you’re not completely better yet but I thought we could talk about some things.”
“Fine.”
Thompson put his chair in a corner and took a seat. “First, I wanted to tell you that after our conversation the other day I took it upon myself to try to find your brother. We have a ham radio and have ongoing communications with citizens around the country.”
“Were you able to reach him?” The man now set up in his bed.
“No, but I was able to find a person that lives about seventy miles from where you said your brother was.”
“And?”
“This woman said she never heard of him, but would ask around. If someone can locate your brother we might be able to relay a message for you.”
“Thank you. I would be grateful if you could.”
“You understand there are no guarantees. I’m not going to make promises I can’t keep. If we should locate him, what do you want us to tell him?”
“Just that I am alive and fine, and coming his way … someday.”
“Okay, we’ll do that if we can, but again no promises.”
“I understand, and again thank you for trying.”
“You’re welcome. I also wanted to discuss something else with you. If you would consider staying here with us.”
The man hadn’t even considered it. “I don’t think so, I’ve gotten this far and I need to keep going.”
“All right, I can understand that. I just couldn’t let you leave without the offer. We’ve got a nice place here. You haven’t seen much of it, but we do. I think you could fit in well here. We’ve got thirty-nine people and we’re growing. I know we could use someone with your training. Doc Susie said she would be happy to teach you everything she knows.”
“I appreciate the offer, but I don’t think so.” The man was trying his best to be diplomatic.
“Okay, I don’t want to pressure you, it’s your choice. As I said, I couldn’t let you leave without at least offering. Will you at least think about it?”
“All right, I’ll think about it.” The both of them knew the answer would still be no.
“I can’t ask for more than that.” Thompson got up and turned towards the door. “I’ll just leave the chair, so you’ve got something other than the bed. You know, when you’re feeling better.”
The man had some questions of his own since the two first talked. “Can you stay a while longer? I’ve got some things I’ve wanted to ask you.”
Thompson took his seat again and looked the man in the eyes, “Okay, ask away.”
“You said before that you thought I was innocent, how? Under these circumstances, you knew I was lying, or at least hiding something, how could you possibly think I was innocent?”
Thompson didn’t need to consider the question before he spoke. “There were a couple of reasons that made me think that. I was there when you and the boy arrived. I was watching it all a short distance away. When you took the boy’s blindfold off there was just something in the way he looked at you, something that made me think you were all right. Then the guards told me that afterwards, when the two of you were first alone here in this room, the two of you knelt down and said a prayer together. I know that neither are hardly evidence of your innocence, but somehow it just made me feel you could be.”
“But you didn’t know for sure and there was no way you could. How could you leave Joshua and me here alone in this room, together?
“First of all we didn’t have much choice. These are the only rooms we could use to quarantine you. We could have put you in separate rooms, I guess, but what if I was wrong? I might be doing more harm to the boy keeping you two apart. Like I said, I thought you were probably innocent. So I decided to take the chance on you.”
Thompson leaned forward and looked the man directly in the eyes. “Besides, do you think I would leave you here this whole time with that boy unguarded? Do you really think we would take any chance with his safety? Even though I suspected you were okay that wasn’t going to happen. You have been watched the entire time you’ve been here, every second. You haven’t done a thing that we haven’t seen.” Thompson looked up to the open ceiling and then back to the man.
The man looked up himself and wondered what might be up there among the shadowy beams.
Thompson then got up and walked to the center of the far wall directly across from the man. With his index finger he silently pointed out what appeared to be a small hole in one of the studs on the wall. The man had never noticed it before and it looked like any number of holes in the wall’s unfinished construction. “I can assure you, if we had seen anything inappropriate between you and that boy it would have been dealt with.”
“Dealt with? What’s that mean? That first time … you implied that you would torture me to death. Is that what you mean?”
“No, I must admit that was a bit of hyperbole on my part. Just to shake you up some, see if you kept to your story.”
“Then what did you mean? Are you saying you would have executed me?”
“A hanging, and a public one to.” Thompson’s demeanor told the man that he wasn’t exaggerating or boasting.
“You would have executed me without a trial?”
“There would have been a trial, a fair trial, and then a public hanging. We would have hung you on a tree close to a road that a lot of people travel. We would have left you there a few days with a big sign over your head, ‘Child Molester,’ so that everyone that saw you might learn a lesson. That’s what your grave would have said too. So you would continue to be a lesson for anyone that might see it. The world is different now, our country is different. Before we could keep people like that in prison, and if we kept them there, children like Joshua would be safe. But now there are no jails for them. All you can do is either let them go or make sure that they don’t hurt anyone else again … and there’s only one way to be completely certain of that.”
“Do you believe in God?”
Thompson was quick with his answer, “Yes I do, and don’t try to tell me how God doesn’t want capital punishment, I know better. But let’s drop the religious theology. I’m not going to change your mind or you change mine. Let’s forget that and just be practical about it. You have some better way of dealing with people like that?”
The man felt trapped by his own words. “I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you. I know that there’s no jails for them now, but …”
“But?”
“But I just have to think that there is some other way, better than that.”
“I disagree, it’s the best way to handle people like that, pedophiles, murderers, cannibals, the only good they can do for society is to die with everyone else knowing just what they were executed for. So maybe sometime in the future when another one considers doing something maybe they’ll think twice before acting on their urges. If nothing else you ensure that they won’t ever do it again.” Thompson stared right into his eyes. “You think we’re monsters? You think I’m a monster?”
“I didn’t say that.”
; “No, but that’s what you’re thinking, right?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Let me tell you something, this is just what has to be done if our society is going to go forward. I don’t take any pleasure in what I have to do and neither do the people in this camp. They’re not monsters either.” Agitation could now be heard in Thompson’s voice. “Let me tell you about another monster you met, his name is Bob Tatum.”
“Who?”
“He was commanding the squad here at the compound, he made you strip down, made you scrub off all that filth on you.”
“Yeah, I remember him … nice guy.” The man made no effort to hide his contempt.
“He came to my room later that night, crying, he was all tore up over what he had to do to you and that boy. I gave him orders to kill you if you resisted. He would have done it too, if he had to. But I know him real well. I know if he had killed you it would have haunted him the rest of his life.”
“Nice to know someone would be bothered. You gave him orders to kill me?” The man’s scorn continued to grow.
“That’s right. We needed to be in complete control of the situation. We had an intruder on our property with not a clue to who he was or what he was doing. At the time all we did know was that you were sick, maybe with something serious, or contagious. I couldn’t have my men wrestling on the ground with some plague carrier and I couldn’t have you or your filthy clothes contaminating the building either. Like I said, he would have followed my orders to the letter. He would have killed you if he had to, but it probably would have destroyed him inside. Got any clever remarks for that?”
The man couldn’t find a single word in him.
“Since we’re asking questions, I’ve got one for you. You said when your brother asked you to come to Wyoming you said no, you couldn’t leave Kentucky ever. But then you ended up in Tennessee for some reason, you never did say why. I was just wondering how that happened.”
“I had to quit my paramedic job in Lexington, I had to move on, that’s all.” The man studied Thompson’s face and thought of the half-truths that he had intentionally told him before and knew he owed this man the whole truth from now on. “I saved a cop killer once. Well, he didn’t kill the officer but he tried real hard. The officer lived but it took him over a year to recover.”
Joshua (Book 1) Page 23