Chapter 8
“So, I will be released,” said Lorenzo.
“Yes, you are going to be released tomorrow because your seventy-two hours here are not done yet.” He opened the door and walked out of the room. “I will come back to see you tomorrow, Lorenzo. In the meantime, we’re going to change your medication to Aquaria 150 milligram.” He closed the door behind him and left.
Good, thought Lorenzo, at least I will no longer be under the horrible B. U., which is still making me feel sleepy. That’s over.
Michaela went to get Lorenzo. It was seven o’clock in the morning of Lorenzo’s second day at the hospital. She knew that yesterday was a horrible day for Lorenzo, and she wanted to make him feel great today. Smiling she said, “Are you ready for your shower, Lorenzo?” as she walked toward him.
“We take showers in the morning?” He said as he got up off the bed.
“Yes, you take showers first thing in the morning.”
“Now is when I know.”
“I think Justine gave you the packet with the rules and regulations of this place, the schedule, and the sheet to choose what your breakfast, lunch and dinner are going to be today. Didn’t she?”
“I don’t know. It might be somewhere in the room.”
“Oh, that’s right; I was told you never decided on what your meals are going to be today, that you never submitted the sheet.”
“I didn’t know. I was lost,” said Lorenzo, sadly.
“It’s ok. Yesterday, when your parents came and couldn’t see you, I asked them what your favorite foods and dishes were, and they told me. I wrote it down in the notepad I have in my pocket right now and I chose your meals for you based on that. Is that ok?”
“That’s awesome,” said Lorenzo as he walked out of the room with Michaela.
Michaela closed the door behind her and let Chester, Lorenzo’s male nurse, who was in charge of helping him shower and get dressed, take charge. “Have a great shower, Lorenzo,” she said and left.
He smiled at her and waved goodbye.
Each patient had his or her own nurse. If the patient was male, he’d get a male nurse, and if the patient was female, she would get a female nurse. The reason why Lorenzo had Michaela as his nurse during the first day was because, as weird as it was, all the male nurses were afraid of him after they heard about the incident at the other hospital. Hector was supposed to be Lorenzo’s nurse originally, but when they told him that he’d been assigned to Lorenzo, he declined to care for Lorenzo and despite being female, Michaela was the only one who was willing to care for him, and they let her do it because they knew that the contact between Lorenzo and Michaela would be extremely limited, as Michaela would never even touch her patients, even if they were female. They knew that Lorenzo and Michaela would only talk to one another. Today, during the second day, when the hospital personnel asked who would care for Lorenzo Liebermann, Chester raised his hand, and he was chosen to do it. He was completely willing, too.
“I know that the soap and the shampoo here don’t smell as good as the soap and the shampoo at home,” said Chester as they walked into the men’s showers together, “but that’s all we’ve got, that’s all we can afford for so many patients. Besides, it takes us time to know what each individual patient likes. Your parents said they would bring you clothes today, your favorite soap, shampoo and toothpaste today. Is that ok?”
“That’s fine, Chess,” said Lorenzo as he took all his clothes off as quickly as he could so that other patients could have their showers, too. He took the shampoo in his hand, opened the lid, smelled it and said, “Actually, this smells ok. I usually wash my hair first.”
“If you need any help,” said Chester and closed the curtain to give Lorenzo some privacy, “just tell me.”
“I will,” said Lorenzo and started lathering his hair with the shampoo.
“I will be here with you. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Thank you,” said Lorenzo as he finished lathering his hair and then rinsed it very quickly and started to lather the rest of his body.
Ten minutes later, Lorenzo and Chester walked out of the shower, Lorenzo already wearing his purple uniform. Chester needed to be sure that Lorenzo was as sane as Dr. Kress said he now was and that he wouldn’t lose his reason once again and hurt him or other patients. Lorenzo dried his hair in his room and then combed it. Even with the uniform and even if his hair wasn’t done the way he would always style it, Lorenzo looked absolutely gorgeous and handsome. With the body of a bodybuilder and the smile of a male supermodel, Lorenzo captivated all the women in this place, even though none of them even dared to express to him how they felt because if they did, they would get in so much trouble that they would be locked in the empty room for hours and if one of those women touched him, it didn’t matter where, they would be taken to their rooms and be tied down for the rest of the time that they would be here.
As Lorenzo walked to the playroom, which was also the room in which the patients would take their meals, he smiled at everyone and as soon as he sat down, Chester brought his breakfast to him: scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, buttered toast, orange juice, milk, and a little container of corn-flakes cereal. “How is everybody doing?” he asked, smiling.
Everyone waved hi to him and started eating.
Some of the patients would converse quietly, not too loudly, and others would just eat.
Suddenly, the woman that Lorenzo and Julia were talking to the day before, she blurted out, “Hey, you know if your cousin still plans to visit us today?”
“If something had come up to impede her to do so, she would’ve called me already.”
Suddenly, the phone rang.
“Uh, oh, that might be she to tell me that she can’t come over.”
“It’s ok if she can’t visit us,” said another patient. “We just wanted to chat with her for a while and know a little more about her family. We won’t be disappointed. We know crap happens.”
Everyone laughed and then said, “Shhh!” in unison. Chester just smiled and pointed his index finger at him and waved his finger up and down, reminding him not to talk about bodily discharge and bodily functions in this place.
“I’m glad I didn’t get in trouble,” said the man.
They laughed again.
One of the female nurses at the station called Chester over. Chester went to the nurses’ desk and he was told that this phone call was for Lorenzo. Then, Chester went and got Lorenzo and took him to the phone.
Lorenzo answered the phone call right by Chester’s side. “This is Lorenzo Liebermann,” he said.
“Hey, cousin!” said Julia. “How are you doing?”
“I’m doing fine, Julia. What’s up?”
“I am at a department store, shopping for gifts for everyone at the unit you’re staying. I will come by in a few hours. I’m just buying a little bit of everything, you know, buying things that I know that everybody likes, like clothing, electronics, music, etc.”
“That is very nice, Julia.”
“Don’t tell them, though. I want it to be a surprise.”
“My lips are sealed.”
“Good. Tell them to expect me, and that the plans haven’t changed.”
“I will.”
“Do you need anything?”
“Yes. Since I am going to stay here for one more day, I need my own shampoo, liquid soap, pouf, toothbrush, and toothpaste. We’re not allowed to wear perfume or body spray for obvious reasons, you know…”
“Yes, I know. What are your favorite soap, shampoo, toothbrush, and toothpaste?”
“Liquid soap: Old Spice, shampoo: Head and Shoulders, toothbrush: any Colgate-brand toothbrush, manual, and toothpaste: Colgate Total Max Fresh, spearmint flavor. Oh, and also Scope mouthwash, the green one.”
She had written everything in her handy notepad. “I got everything. Ok, I will see you in the afternoon.”
“Thank you for everything, Jules. I will see you later.” He hung up.
Chester took him back to the table for him to finish his breakfast.
Malaga, Spain
Jose was at the hotel, eating breakfast so he could start looking for a job. He didn’t think he had the guts to go to college and start a career all over. He didn’t know what to do. He was making too big of a sacrifice for Shirley, but he knew he loved her. He had to do this for her and for him, to save both of their lives.
Suddenly, a Spaniard angel came to visit him. The angel knew that he was there because Edward had communicated telepathically with him and only Edward knew where Jose and Shirley were. He had sent that angel to help Jose and Shirley find their way through this new life. Even if he were tortured for years, non-stop, Edward would never reveal Jose and Shirley’s whereabouts because angels knew how to keep secrets among them. They would take their secrets to their graves at the end of their 200 years of lifespan they had here on Earth and 1,000 years of lifespan that they had on the moon. The angel knocked on Jose’s door.
Jose walked from his bed to the door and opened the door for the angel. “How may I help you?”
“Jose Sandoval?”
Surprised, Jose said, “Yes, it is I,” the whole time they were talking in Spanish.
“Someone who knows you but whom you don’t know, he sent me here.”
“Who is that someone?”
The angel went in. “I can’t reveal his name.”
“Very well,” said Jose.
“You urgently need a job, right?”
“Yes. How do you know that?”
“The person who sent me here told me everything about you. He told me about all your needs.”
“So it’s a man.”
“Yes, but like I said, I can’t tell you his name.”
“It’s ok.”
Suddenly, the angel showed Jose the suitcase he was carrying. He put it on Jose’s bed and opened it. It contained two million American dollars. It was enough for Jose to start his own enterprise in the field he loved the most: music. Jose had always wanted to start his own record label, but he never had enough money to do it, so he studied communications, to become a reporter for the local news. Jose smiled.
“You like that, don’t you?” asked the angel.
“What do I have to do to get that?” asked Jose with his arms crossed across his chest.
“You have to do absolutely nothing,” said the angel. “The money’s all yours. Matt Manning sent it.”
“Matt Manning…? But I don’t know Matt Manning in person. Why would he do something like this for me?”
“Because the Manning family, they help all of us. That’s what they’re dedicated to besides their food enterprise. It’s what they do in the little free time that Mark and Matt have, help aliens in need. They want the alien race to thrive.”
“But I’m not an alien.”
“You’re not, but the Manning family is linked with your friend, Shirley. Shirley’s older brother, Lyle, he knows them very well. They don’t know where you are, but they told me to find you and give you the money.”
“How did you find out where I am?”
The angel just smiled.
“That’s right, a third person told you.”
“Yes.”
“And this person didn’t tell the Manning twins…”
“No.”
“That’s good. I’m going to start a record label with this money, you know that? That is so even though I don’t know where to start.”
“You can start by calling an attorney to help you,” the angel said and gave him a card with the name, address, phone number, and email address of a Spaniard attorney that could help him.
“Thank you,” said Jose. Thank you so much,” and shook the angel’s hand.
The angel turned around to leave and walked to the door.
“Wait!” said Jose.
The angel turned around.
“What’s your name?”
“My name is Miguel Gutierrez,” said the angel.
“I’ll see you later, Miguel, I hope.”
“You will,” said Miguel and walked out of the room.
Jose called Shirley at her cell phone. Shirley was picking up applications for different jobs, secretary, grocery-store cashier, department-store cashier… among other jobs. She had a total of twelve applications from twelve different places in her hand. Just as she was exiting that department store, she took the call. “Hello.”
“Shirley, this is Jose.”
“Hi, Jose, how are you doing?”
“I’m doing great. I just got enough money to start my very own record label.”
Shirley almost fainted. “What?”
“The Manning twins sent me two million dollars to start my record label, Shirley,” said Jose, excited.
“If the Manning twins know we’re here, we’re screwed,” said Shirley. “I mean it’s not like they’re going to give us to Alice on a gold platter or anything but…”
“Listen. The Manning twins have no clue, no minimal notion of where we are. It turns out that they gave this money to some alien and they told the alien to find me and give me the money. You know, it’s like finding someone on a people-search website. You put in the name of the person and the date of birth and you instantly know where they live, what their phone number is, everything. It’s like… it’s like putting someone’s social-security or driver’s-license number on a computer. As soon as they put your license number on there, they can pull up your record and know if you have been charged with any crime, what crimes you’ve committed, etc. You understand me? These dudes gave this third dude my name and I don’t know how, but this dude found me and gave me the money. I know it’s a laughable story, but it’s true. I swear.”
Shirley laughed. “I love the way you talk, dude,” she said and laughed again. “Listen, to a human being that story is laughable, but to me it isn’t. I know that with people of the species I belong to, anything is possible. There is nothing we can’t do, and I say ‘we’ because I have alien blood in me. I’m only physically human.”
“I’m glad you believe me because I was breaking my skull open just now trying to explain to you…”
“I understand, Jose, you don’t have to explain anymore. Just be happy because we’re going to start a record label together, we’ve got it made…”
“You know what that means, right?” he said.
“Yes, it means we’re going to work together,” she said, smiling as she walked with the applications in her hand and then tossed them in the nearest trashcan.
“It means more than that. It means we’re going to get married.”
“We are?” she asked, smiling.
“Sure we are. In order for us to work together and enjoy all the money we’re going to make, we have to tie the knot, you know?”
“This was your plan all along, right?”
“Hey, you know it. I promised myself that I would help you get over that stupid Lorenzo dude and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I know you’re not attracted to me or anything… or at least you haven’t shown me in any way that you are, and I know that you’re in love with Liebermann or whatever his name is, but I know that you’ll learn to love me.”
“I love you, Jose.”
“I know, I know, you’re grateful to me, but being grateful is not the same thing as being in love.”
“People criticize me for falling in love so easily….”
“You mean…”
“We’re going to be husband and wife, we’re going to start a record label, we’re going to start a family, and we’re going to leave our past behind. I sincerely hope with all my heart that Lorenzo can do the same.”
Gasping, Jose started shedding tears of joy.
San Francisco, CA
Lorenzo no longer had Shirley on his mind. He no longer saw her the same way. He wasn’t in love with her anymore. Now, he’s in love with Julia, and now he knew exactly what Julia had done to him. She had cured him using an angel’s blood. Nevertheless, he felt as if she had done much more than that. He felt as if she’d cast a spell on him, when in reality, Julia knew absolutely nothing about witchcraft, and she would never do that to anyone. Lorenzo adored the way Julia talked, the way she walked, he loved her face, her body… he loved everything about her. He loved her as much as he loved Shirley only a few days before. Only Julia and Shirley had made him feel this way. The reason why Lorenzo didn’t believe in casual sex or friendship with benefits was that his first relationship was like that. It was a casual thing. Then, suddenly, the girl he was with got pregnant with his baby and since she didn’t feel connected to him in any way, she had an abortion because she wanted to have nothing that would remind her of him. That relationship ended, and his heart was broken when he found out what she had done. It wasn’t his fault that his condom broke and that his sperm fertilized her egg. It wasn’t the unborn baby’s fault either. Why did she have to take it out on him? After that two-year relationship Lorenzo didn’t have another girlfriend until he and Shirley fell in love. He and Shirley never had sex. Their relationship was based on how they felt for each other.
Since this was only Lorenzo’s second relationship and Shirley’s first real relationship after her heartbreak with Jake, Lorenzo didn’t mind waiting for him and Shirley to get married. When Shirley got kidnapped and ran away with another man because of Alice’s evil, they were only days from getting married. During that time that the relationship lasted, it was extremely difficult for Lorenzo to wait, to abstain. He couldn’t even abstain when he was alone. It was extremely painful for him and he always preferred to put up with the pain rather than having another casual relationship with a woman that would take him nowhere. He would always put up with it and cry, as he knew that this pain was only temporary and that someday, he would find a good woman to marry and start a family with. It was in Shirley that Lorenzo almost found that, and then he lost it. His heart was broken until he met Julia. Now, the very thought of Julia would make him smile from ear to ear. He was writing love poems for Julia and drawing her with her wedding dress on and writing, MRS. JULIA LIEBERMANN under the drawing. Then, he would give away sighs of love, like a twelve-year-old thinking of his first crush. He was a very romantic and traditional guy.
Julia showed up in the playroom after leaving all her presents for all these patients in the nurses’ station. She just sat down in the table beside Lorenzo like she’d done nothing special and said, smiling, “Hi, everybody, how do you do? I told you I would come back!”
Happy, everyone gathered around the table. Cecile asked her, “Did you bring us pictures of your parents?”
Julia laughed. “Yes, I did,” she said and pulled out her wallet with pictures of her parents and her sisters in it, small pictures. Showing them a picture of her parents together, Julia said, “These are my parents, Joy and Haggai Shane.”
“Are you sure that man and that woman are seventy-something years old?” asked Amber. “They look forty-five or fifty.”
Julia laughed again. “Well, we’re rich. I think that simple statement explains everything, and no, they’ve never been under the knife. They just know how to look young for the rest of their lives, and no, don’t ask me to tell you their secret because I won’t. Pretty soon everyone’s going to want to do the same thing and then the plastic surgeons will be on the streets and have no homes, family or jobs.” She couldn’t contain her joy.
The nurses surrounded the patients and they started placing Julia’s gifts on the table. They were wrapped, just so that the receivers of the gifts would be totally surprised. Julia just smiled, looking at everyone with love.
“What’s this?” said Tad. “It’s not Christmas yet.”
“No, but it’s close,” said Julia, “and none of you are going to be here by Christmas, so Santa Claus came a little early this year.” She laughed.
“You mean these gifts are from you?” asked Elizabeth.
“Yes, they are, and they each have the name of the person that it’s intended for, so your nurses are giving each one of you what’s yours.”
Everyone opened up their gifts.
“You can only discover the gifts,” warned Rocco. "You can't use them."“You can’t open them and use them till you get home.”
“Got it,” said Ira.
They were astonished. The gifts ranged from groups of t-shirts, pants and socks and skirts to MP3 players, music CD’s, and some of the patients even got laptops and blank CD’s to back up their files on! They also got DVD movies, digital cameras, digital camcorders, and cell phones.
“And how much money did you spend on this spree?” asked Fran.
“I prefer to withhold that from you. When I give something to someone I always withhold the price of that item,” said Julia. “Otherwise, disclosing the price would be like asking you to give me the money I paid for the item.”
“That sounds incredibly reasonable,” said Gaia.
Most of these patients weren’t here because of a mental illness. Only three of them were, out of the whole group. Most of them were here because of incidents of uncontrollable anger and violence and receiving bad news that they couldn’t bare. They would be released and referred to a psychologist who could treat them and give them advice so that these incidents would not happen again. All of these people were adults with spouses and young children, and some of the twenty-something-year-olds were engaged, but they had no children yet, as they felt that the twenties were not a good time for someone to have children due to the immaturity that they considered that people had at that age. A few of them still lived with their parents, the ones that hadn’t gotten married yet.
Suddenly, Lorenzo realized that he was the only one who hadn’t gotten a gift today. “Where’s my gift?”
“You’ll get it when you go home,” she whispered.
“You mean…?” he asked.
She nodded, smiling, and then looked at everybody else and asked, “How do you like your presents?”
As the nurses took the gifts away just until their time for discharged, Cecile said “They’re fantastic. I mean we were only expecting your mere presence. Thank you for being so good to us even when we’ve done nothing for you.”
“Cecile…”
“I mean that with every fiber of my being.”
“Kindness and love means nothing to you? I’ve got everything. I don’t need anything from anyone, any living thing on earth I mean. God is the only one I need everything from. You opened your arms to me just because you became interested in what I was talking to you about, and just for being the daughter of a couple of seventy-something-year-olds, and that means a lot to me.” She started shedding tears of joy. “When someone shows me love, it truly means everything to me. It’s the only gift I expect from people, those there’s nothing that any living thing, human or superhuman could ever give me on this earth that I don’t already have.”
Everyone applauded Julia.
“Thank you so much for all your love and support,” she said, crying. “I just wanted to make you happy for a few minutes.”
“Thank you,” said Ulysses, just for bringing us a moment of joy. Ulysses was in a wheelchair, and he went to the nurses’ station just to get a piece of blank printer paper and a pencil for everyone to write their names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses on it. Minutes later, he went back to the table everyone was gathered around to place the piece of paper in the center of the table. “All right everyone, I want you to write your names, phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses in the sheet of paper I am presenting to you, please.”
Everyone did as told. Then, the sheet of paper with that priceless information was given to Julia.
“Thank you so much,” said Julia. “This way I can keep in touch with all of you.”
They smiled.
Julia spent a little more time with her new friends, telling them about her family, and just when she was about to leave, all of a sudden she noticed something that grabbed her attention: the picture of her wearing a wedding dress with the words, MRS. JULIA LIEBERMANN on it. “That’s sweet.”
“What is?” asked Lorenzo, smiling, and not knowing what she was talking about.
She placed her hand on his drawing, and he looked down at it. “This is,” she said.
“Oh…” he said, blushing. “I don’t know what I was thinking when I did that, I promise you. Guess I was in La-La Land.”
She just whispered in his ear, “I love you. Remember what I told you, when you get out…” placed her family photos back in the compartment of her pocketbook, placed her pocketbook in her purse, picked up her purse, and left. She