Chapter 3

“Why don’t you want the doctors from that university helping you?” Kevin asked softly.

Howie set his stubborn eyes on the floor. He shook his head.

The rest of the Boys had since come to Howie’s room and circled around their band mate’s bed. A.J. still sat next to Howie, an arm around his neck. The other three were positioned around them. Kevin had decided to bring up the doctor’s question.

Brian’s eyes lit up. He shot a grin at Kevin and ran from the room. The remainder of the group exchanged curious glances. Howie let his head hang. A.J. squeezed his arm around his neck. When Brian returned, he carried a pen and a notepad. Kevin sent him a praising smile to which Brian grinned proudly.

Brian nudged Howie’s arm. When Howie looked up and saw the notepad, a flicker of a smile crossed his face. He directed a grateful gaze at his younger friend. A.J. leaned over Howie’s shoulder, reading what he wrote. Howie turned his head slightly, glaring at him. A.J. rolled his eyes and backed off. Kevin, Nick, and Brian laughed.

Howie handed the notepad to Kevin. I don’t want a bunch of teenagers poking my intestines around, it read. Kevin almost laughed at Howie’s pout.

“D, they aren’t teenagers,” he said with a chuckle. “They’re doctors. They’re old.”

“Kev, you might not want to say that so loud in a hospital,” A.J. said, smirking.

Kevin ignored him, waiting for Howie’s reply. The Latino had no answer. He simply cast a pleading look at A.J., praying he would help him, praying he would understand by the look in his eyes.

A.J. turned his eyes on Kevin’s. “He’s scared,” he said.

Howie elbowed A.J. and gave his friend an agitated glare for putting it so bluntly. A.J. offered a sheepish expression as his apology. Kevin’s sigh brought both their gazes to the elder man.

“Howie, look,” Kevin began in a tone of voice that made the younger man flinch involuntarily. Kevin softened the sharp edges of his voice. “We just want to help you. We’re just as scared as you are, if not more. The doctors want to help. Right now they can only keep the infection from spreading, and who knows how long that will last?” His emerald eyes shone with the awkwardness of being thrown into such a difficult situation as the one he was trapped in right then. “Will you let them…let us help you?”

Nick and Brian watched Howie’s cold expression melt before their eyes. The determination in his eyes slipped away, leaving the frightened core of everything he felt. Once again, he lowered his head. But this time, he nodded.

<~*~>

Once again the four singers were thrust from their friend’s side. After telling the doctor Howie had decided to allow the university doctors to take their tests, Howie’s doctor told the rest of the group they could stay with their friend. During that time, Brian and Nick tried their best to make Howie laugh or at least smile. They couldn’t even make him look up.

Howie had officially gone berserk when his doctor came back and told his friends to leave. Although he couldn’t speak, his objection was seared into his saucer-wide brown eyes. He had grabbed A.J.’s wrist and given him the most heartbreaking look A.J. had ever seen anyone give. He looked so helpless. Terrified.

In the end, they had had to sedate him. A.J. felt Howie’s grip around his wrist loosen and lapse. He cringed, looking at Howie’s peaceful face. It was such an artificial look. Had Howie been awake he would never have looked so calm. He had lost his passion for life, and no one knew why. He would never sleep so serenely without the use of medication again.

A.J. was reluctant to leave, but Howie’s doctor assured him he would be doing his friend no good by staying. Howie would be unconscious for the rest of the night. The tests would take place around midnight, three hours from the current time.

“I think two of us should stay here,” Kevin said once they were resituated in the waiting room.

Nick and Brian nodded in agreement. A.J. snapped himself from his daze and nodded briefly. “Yeah,” he said hoarsely.

“I will,” Nick volunteered, watching the floor carefully.

“Me too,” Brian chirped almost immediately afterward.

A.J.’s eyes grew hard. “No way.”                        

Kevin’s expression was calm. “You’re going to want to be here at midnight, aren’t you?” he asked rationally.

A.J. grudgingly nodded. He would have gladly stayed the night, but he kept his opinion to himself.

Kevin nodded. “We’ll be back at midnight so you two can go back to the hotel and rest.”

As soon as A.J. and Kevin had gone, Nick grinned at Brian. “I saw a really cute girl in the cafeteria.”

Brian slapped him upside the head. “Dork.”

<~*~>

I didn’t sleep. I couldn’t. I lay on top of the sheets completely dressed, staring at the clock. I wondered if I willed myself enough, could I make time move the way I wanted it to? I wondered…if I could, would I turn time back or forward?

If I moved time backward, what good would it do? We would know no more about how to stop it than we already did. Nothing. But if I fast-forwarded time what would that accomplish?

The doctor told us at midnight they would be doing a routine surgery to make sure the infection hadn’t grown or moved. If it were in check, they would proceed with the testing. A few doctors from the University would be arriving around 12:45am. They had had to push back their original midnight arrangement because of an unexpected and sudden seminar that night at the University.

If the infection had moved, however, they would have to take Howie into the ER to further the degree of surgical precision.

I prayed over and over that wouldn’t be the case.

11:29pm.

Could time move any slower?

11:33pm.

I rubbed my eyes, feeling the hot sting of keeping my eyes open to the air conditioning for so long. Tears of dryness collected in my eyes, blurring the red numbers on the clock radio.

11:38pm.

I sighed. I examined the door and read the Emergency Fire Exit plan a few times.

11:41pm.

The sink was dripping.

11:45pm.

Good enough.

By the time I reached Kevin’s room two floors above me and on the other side of the hotel completely, it was midnight. I knocked on Kevin’s door impatiently, waiting for him to answer. When he did, it was to my great dismay to find out that Kevin wasn’t ready.

At 12:08am we reached the garage of the hotel underneath the street. The fans that had camped outside the hotel wouldn’t expect the garage exit. We hailed a cab at the corner and got away from the hotel as quickly as possible before the fans realized they had had a close encounter and decided to push their luck.

Around 12:36am we reached the hospital. Kevin paid the driver and we found ourselves on the curb of the hospital entrance. A giant red cross stared down at us. Mercy Hospital.

I hope to God it is, I thought to myself.

We relieved Brian and Nick of their duties of watchmen. Brian had been caught red-handed teaching Nick how to cheat at blackjack. They were practicing on a younger boy that had no idea he was being tricked by two mischief-makers not unlike himself. Luckily, they weren’t using money, and his parents found the distraction amusing. Brian was peering at Nick’s hand over his taller friend’s shoulders, whispering tips in his ear. Nick occasionally snapped back and glowered at him, saying things like, “the queen of hearts isn’t worth ten, you idiot” or “that’s a joker you moron, it doesn’t count for anything.”

When caught swindling an eight-year-old, Frick and Frack both turned scarlet and high tailed their snickering rears out the doors. Kevin and I exchanged “what the…” looks, but all in all, decided that it was wise not to ask.

I had never been a nail-biter. I mostly chewed the skin off the edges of my nails. Now, however, my teeth seemed attached to my nails. For once I had gone against wearing black nail polish, and I was thankful. Nail polish tastes disgusting, especially dried. I stared at the clock, wondering again if I stared at it hard and long enough, it would move faster. Alas, it only seemed to move slower.

At 12:46am exactly, the doctors from the University arrived through the main doors. We knew it was them because Howie’s doctor came out and welcomed them by the names of “Dr. Connell”, “Dr. Louis”, “Dr. Garcia”, and “Dr. Shea”. I stood almost instantly, but none of the four men knew whom I was. They brushed by the waiting room and were gone from sight. Howie’s doctor, too, disappeared without explanation.

I reluctantly sat down. Why hadn’t he said anything, told us anything? Out of nowhere, I realized we didn’t even know Howie’s doctor by name. What if he didn’t come back for hours?

~From the journal of A.J. McLean

In fact, the doctor didn’t come back until 12:50am. It was the longest four minutes of A.J.’s life. When the doctor did appear at the doorway, both Kevin and A.J. were at the door in moments. A.J. found himself tearing the skin from his fingernails in quick succession, eyes wide.

As if reading A.J.’s earlier thought, Kevin said, “Well, doctor, we don’t really know what to call you…”

The doctor smiled. “Yes, I’m sorry. I’m Doctor Raymond.” He waited for both Kevin and A.J. to nod before continuing. “The university’s doctors are examining your friend now. They should have some answers in about an hour. Unfortunately the test results won’t be in until the morning. Maybe you should go back to your hotel until around…” He checked his watch. “Ten or ten thirty.”

A.J.’s jaw was set. “I’m not leaving,” he said stubbornly.

Kevin nodded. “We’re taking shifts,” he explained to Dr. Raymond.

A.J. turned his gaze on Kevin. He scowled. “No. I’m not leaving,” he repeated, more forcefully.

Kevin turned to the doctor. “We’ll be here.”

Dr. Raymond nodded and left the two alone.

Kevin sighed. “You can’t do anything here, Aje,” he reasoned.

A.J.’s eyes were determined. “Maybe not, but what if something happens to him?”

Kevin frowned. “Like what?”

“What if the infection spreads?” A.J. demanded. He didn’t wait for an answer. “I’m staying.”

Kevin examined his younger band mate. He saw the resolve in A.J.’s eyes and knew it would be no use to try and sway him. A.J. was extremely mulish when the time called for it. In A.J.’s eyes, time was screaming for it.

“I’ll stay with you,” Kevin said with a tiny smile.

<~*~>

The colors on the screen were inverted. Major organs and intestines were tinted with various primary colors. The infection was a bright green. At the moment, the majority of the screen was flooded with green. The four university doctors and Dr. Raymond stood around the monitor, inspecting it closely.

“What do you think?” Dr. Garcia questioned, scrutinizing the picture closely.

“It looks cancerous,” observed Dr. Connell.

Dr. Louis nodded. “But it can’t be. It’s not a tumor. It’s a liquid of some sort.”

Dr. Shea watched the monitor, scratching her neck thoughtfully. “What sort of damage has it done?” she asked Dr. Raymond.

Dr. Raymond pointed to the larynx and throat where the green was brightest. “So far it’s only affected his voice. For some reason the substance isn’t burning through his skin. It seems to stay in the throat mostly, but I’ve seen it move to the chest area once or twice. It’s almost like it’s…” He paused, considering the right words. “Almost like it’s avoiding his heart… Like it’s…trying to keep from killing him while destroying certain parts of him.”

The four university doctors stared at him. Dr. Garcia and Dr. Shea exchanged raised eyebrows.

“You realize that theory is completely impossible, Doctor, correct?” Dr. Louis said logically, smirking assuredly. “That would mean the substance would have a sense of intelligence. It would have to be…an organism.” He chortled. “And this isn’t some science fiction movie, Doctor.”

Dr. Raymond glared at the university doctor with a vicious stare. Before he could retort, he was interrupted by Dr. Shea’s cry.

“My God, it’s expanding!”