Chapter 16
“Oh, you were? You’re not happy about it anymore.”
“You know what, Tasha? I distrust those monsters that came to earth and started doing good things for us just to get us on their side and stay here on earth for the life of the planet!”
“They genuinely care about us, James. They’re even cleaning up our planet to reverse the effects of global warming. Pretty soon we’ll have all our ice back and temperatures will be back to normal worldwide, just like they were on year one.”
Diana came in, closed the door behind her, and stood behind James with her arms crossed across her chest.
“And I’m supposed to be grateful to them for that.”
“Actually, you should be. I would be grateful to any living thing that would do this for mankind no matter what it’s like on the inside.”
“I agree,” replied Diana all of a sudden, and walked up to Tasha and stood beside her.
“You shut up, monster!” James was pointing the finger at his sister.
“Did you just call me a monster again?” she said walking closer to him.
“That’s what you are!” he screamed at the top of his lungs.
Diana slapped James so hard that her fingers were marked on the right side of his face, and he almost fell on the floor. James’ face was burning badly, like it was on fire. She stood there, completely silent with her hands on her hips.
“Oh, my God…” he said, openmouthed and completely awestruck as he got back on his feet.
“Got any more names to call me, brother?”
James started crying silently.
“I didn’t just come back to life because of this Daniel Sherman guy,” she said walking around him and looking directly in his eyes. “I got a second chance. As soon as I hit my head at the moment of the accident, I thought that was it for me. I thought I’d never see the sun again, the world, the stars… I thought I’d be in the dark indefinitely and then leave this world never to come back. When I opened my eyes in Daniel Sherman’s lab, I felt that the entire world was mine.”
“Diana…”
Diana interrupted James. “Do you have the slightest clue of how much that meant to me?”
“Diana, I’m sorry…”
Just when he opened his mouth to say something else, Diana said, “You’re sorry. Ok, I accept your apology, but you have to apologize to Daniel, too. Did you know it’s been less than twenty-four hours since your baby entered his lab and he already revived him?” Diana dialed Daniel’s number on her cell phone, pressed the button to make the call, and handed the phone to James.
James hesitated to take the phone in his hand. He just stretched his arm slowly, thinking twice, three times, four times about it.
“Hello… Hello…” Daniel said on the line, and although the phone wasn’t on speaker, James heard him. “Hello, Diana? Hello…!”
James took the phone in his hand after Daniel had been on the line for almost three minutes. “Daniel Sherman?”
“Yes, James. How can I help you?”
Crying, James asked, “Is it true that you revived my son in less than twenty-four hours?”
“Yes, it is, James.” Daniel was annoyed and a little angry because he now knew all the horrible things that James said about him and his own sister, Diana. “I just fed him, and when the phone rang, I was giving him a bath in my bathroom sink. I will bring him home to you in a few hours, when I take him to the doctor, and that doctor performs all the pertinent tests to make sure that he’s in perfect health.”
“Why don’t you run those tests yourself?”
“Because I know you won’t trust any test results that came from me.”
“Look, Daniel, I am so sorry…”
Daniel knew that James was sincerely repentant, but for him, one apology wouldn’t cut it. He would never let people get away with offending him just by apologizing. Once that someone offended him in any way, it wouldn’t be easy for Daniel to trust that person again. Daniel could’ve just used his sixth sense to see who James really was and what he was capable of, but he chose to befriend him, trust him, and have good faith in him. James had just undone all of this. “Look, James, just don’t bother saying you’re sorry. That doesn’t spark anything in me, seriously. You could apologize a million times and it wouldn’t have any effect on me.”
“Daniel…”
“Don’t waste your breath or your strength anymore, or strain your brain trying to find the words to say, not to me. I don’t want anything to do with you. Don’t call me, email me, write me… don’t try to communicate with me in any means. I am going to take your baby home and then that’ll be it. Your sister and your girlfriend can keep in touch with me if they want to, but you can’t. Understand?”
“It will be as you wish, Daniel."
“Good. Oh, and I’m sorry for being a monster. I didn’t choose to be one, but I have an identical human look-alike, and he was meant to be human and I wasn’t. I would’ve traded places months before we were even conceived, but I can’t. It’s not my fault that I’m who I am.”
“Yes, Daniel.”
“Since you won’t accept I the way I am and you don’t want my friendship just because of who I am, and then it’s over, understand? Am I making myself clear? These are my last words to you. I won’t talk to you ever again. I just want to make sure you understand that.”
“Yes, Daniel, I understand.”
“This is it. Goodbye, James.” Daniel hung up.
James started crying all over again. Diana and Tasha surrounded him and hugged him.
“What’s the matter, James? What did Daniel say to you?” asked Tasha.
“I’ve just lost a great friend!” said James, crying bitterly like a little boy, and the girls hugged him again.
That night, Daniel arrived with the baby. The baby was in the backseat, comfortable, in his own baby seat, sleeping peacefully. He had undergone all kinds of tests imaginable, in record time. He was perfectly healthy, and if he were well treated, like every child deserves to be treated, he would have a wonderful life. Daniel got out of the car, opened the back door on the driver’s side, unbuckled the baby’s seatbelts, and carefully got him out of the car seat, so carefully that the baby didn’t wake up. Then, he held him correctly and closed the door with his foot. Daniel walked to the entrance of James and Tasha’s house and rang the bell.
Tasha answered the door and saw Daniel with her baby in his arms. She started crying like she never had before. “Oh, my God, Jordan, you’re here, with me!”
Daniel turned around and went back to his car. He opened the back door on the passenger side and retrieved the folder with copies of the results of Jordan’s tests. Then, he closed the door and went back to the entrance of James and Tasha’s house. He handed Tasha the file folder. “Here are the test results. Your baby’s perfectly healthy and happy to see his mother. Bye.” Daniel turned around and started walking back to his car.
Just when he was walking to his car, Tasha said, “Wait, Daniel…”
James had been waiting for Daniel in the living room all this time. He’d even eaten dinner and dessert in the living room, on the coffee table, worked on his manuscript in his computer and surf the internet, and watched TV, so he could be there when Daniel arrived. James came out as Daniel walked back to the entrance door. “Daniel, I have to talk to you.”
Daniel was about to say something, but James didn’t let him. He interrupted him just when he opened his mouth to reply to him.
“Hear me out, please.”
Daniel had his arms crossed across his chest. “Ok.”
“Come in, please.”
“Ok,” said Daniel and walked in.
James closed the door behind him. “Sit down. Let’s talk.”
Daniel walked a few steps to the sofa and then sat down. James turned off the TV and put his laptop on sleep mode. Tasha had her baby in her arms, and she was standing close to them.
“Take Jordan to his crib, please, sweetie.”
Tasha walked out of the living room and into the hallway. James sat on the loveseat close to Daniel.
“Let it out, James.”
“Daniel,” said James and sighed, “You have no idea how much I’ve cried since that last phone call.”
Daniel scoffed. “Now I know why I’ve been depressed and crying silently for several hours when it seemed there was no reason for me to cry.”
“Forgive me, please. I know we’ve known one another for less than two days, but almost two hours ago, I discovered what a fantastic and fabulous friend I was about to lose forever, the best friend I could ever have. Many of my friends have broken my heart and gotten unattached to me forever. I just don’t want to lose you as a friend, not you. Don’t turn your back on me, too.” James started crying again. This time, he did it silently.
Daniel got up, walked closer to James, sat beside him, and wrapped his arms around him. “Geese,” he said, “I had no idea about that. I’m sorry that you’ve been through this so many times.”
James cried on Daniel’s shoulder.
Just then, Tasha went to the living room and witnessed this incredible event that she thought would never happen.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you suffer. I don’t forgive easily, that’s all. That’s the only thing I hate about me.”
James let go. “Aliens tend to be like that. You’re not related to or connected to us in any way, but you are very similar to us. You get the same feelings, sadness, anger, rancor… everything. That’s because God created you, too, and you have to go through everything we go through.”
“You really think that God created us?” said Daniel, surprised.
“He must’ve, because you feel different emotions as intensely, maybe even more intensely than we do.”
“I don’t know about that,” said Daniel, “but if you say so, ok.”
Tasha and James laughed in unison and then looked at one another. Then, Daniel laughed.
“Do you want something to drink, Dan?” said James.
As Daniel got up, he said, “No,” and sighed. “That’s ok. I really have to go.”
“That sucks,” said James as he and Daniel hugged one more time and then shook hands. “Maybe you can come over sometime on the weekend.”
“I only work as a psychiatrist from Monday through Friday. I have all the time during the weekend to do anything and everything I want to.” Daniel had his left hand on the left pocket of his pants.
“I don’t want to ask what you do on the weekends, if you know what I mean.”
Daniel laughed hysterically. “You know, James?” He patted James on the back. “You’re something else. It would’ve been horrible to lose a friend like you.” Then, Daniel walked out the door and closed the door behind him.
A few minutes later, Daniel was gone. James asked, “He’s great, isn’t he?”
“I knew that you and Daniel would work things out. You always get what you want.”
“That has to be true if I got you and Jordan,” said James, smiling and holding Tasha’s hand.
“Speaking of Jordan, let’s go spend some time with him. Come on.” Hand in hand, James and Tasha walked out of the living room and walked the hallway to Jordan’s room. They had bought him everything he needed little by little since the day they discovered that Tasha was pregnant. They were so sad about the loss of their baby when he was stillborn that they locked up the room, and they wouldn’t let anyone occupy it or even enter it. Tasha turned the light back on in the room as she and James came into the room. “Hi, Jordan,” Tasha said as she picked her baby up from the crib. The baby was big and healthy. Today was his first day of life, and he weighed a full nine pounds and seven ounces. He had bright-green eyes like his mother, but he looked just like his father. Tasha gave him a kiss and a little hug. James caressed the baby’s head, smiling at him. James and Tasha shared this moment with their son, talking to him and James even sang to him. Although James had a decent singing voice, he didn’t want to become a singer. James was an author and a songwriter, and he made great money with his novels and his songs. He and Tasha had a one-story mansion with six bedrooms, four bathrooms, two large living rooms and a family room, a gigantic kitchen and two dining rooms. They would always watch TV in the first living room of the house, though. The other living rooms were for them to have private conversations with their guests. James and Tasha were a little strange, but they adored one another.
That night, while Tasha slept peacefully, the baby woke up crying three times, and those three times, James got up to feed him and to change him. The morning after, James got up, went to the bathroom inside his bedroom, brushed his teeth, and washed his face. Then, he walked out of the bathroom and walked out of the bathroom and back into his bedroom. Then, still in his pajamas, he grabbed his laptop beside his bed, on his nightstand, opened it up, turned it on, and then the computer booted. He put in the password to his user account and the computer started up in less than two minutes. The computer was great. It was black, and it had the latest operating system on it, a 320-gigabyte hard drive, a DVD burner, and a seventeen-inch screen. When the computer was finished starting up, he went to his ‘start’ menu and clicked on ‘Recent Documents’. He opened his newest manuscript and started chapter forty-eight on it. James’ manuscripts were large. In 8.5x11 page format, they would usually contain a minimum of 480 pages, and when formatted to 6x9, the final book would be almost 900 pages. Still, his fans loved his novels and they usually couldn’t wait for the next novel to come out. James specialized in the horror and science-fiction genres. He was one of the top-ten bestselling authors in the nation. Six of the fifteen novels that he’d written in his lifetime had become bestselling movies, too. In less than five minutes, he was done with the first page of chapter forty-eight, because he usually typed very quickly, and his ideas would never stop flowing. Every time that an idea for a new scene came along, James would write it down on a yellow notepad. He had more brainstorms than finished novels. He would use these brainstorms to write his novels from start to finish. In the end, all that he had to do to finish his book was type it and copyedit it. Just at the end of the first page of the forty-eighth chapter, James’ home phone rang. He answered it almost immediately. Tasha got up earlier than James because she wanted to spend quality time with Jordan. James answered the phone. “Hello, this is James Dawson.”
“How are you doing, James?”
“I’m great, Dan,” said James, happy to hear his voice. “How are you?”
“It is seven thirty-five and I’m on my way to work. I just want to know how Jordan is doing.”
“Jordan is doing very well, one-thousand times much better than we expected, considering that he was brought back to life.”
“So, he doesn’t need any medication.”
“No, Dan.”
“I just wanted to make sure of that because although test results were great last night, sometimes sudden complications arise, and I want to make sure everything is ok.”
“I know, Dan. I want to ask you a question, though.”
“What’s that?”
“Will you and Madison become my baby’s godparents?”
Daniel smiled and shed tears of joy. “I’d be delighted to become your baby’s godfather, and I’m sure Madison would feel the same way.”
“I’m asking you because I know that you guys will get married soon,” said James, smiling.
“Oh, we will?” said Daniel, smiling.
“Yes, you will.”
“Will I really?"
“Yes.”
Daniel laughed. “Ok.”
“I know you aliens. You chose a man or a woman and once you’re sure that he or she’s the one you want, you marry him or her.”
“Yep, that’s we aliens for you, right?”
“That's right."
“Ok, James. Remember, if Jordan ever needs a certain medication or form of treatment, or if anything happens to him, you call me, and my doctors and I will make sure he’s perfectly-ok in a flash.”
James gasped. “You have a team of doctors?”
“Yes, I do,” said Daniel, laughing once again. “You don’t expect me to do everything by myself, do you? I mean I can, but I’m a psychologist, too, you know?”
“Yes, I understand. I understand that you are amazing.”
Still smiling brightly, Daniel said, “Thank you so much. You just made my day.”
“It’s the truth. All, right, Daniel, you have to go to work and I have to finish my current chapter, so I’ll talk to you later, ok?”
“I’ll talk to you later, buddy. Have a great day, and give Jordan a hug for me.” Daniel ended the call.
James hung up the phone and continued working on his manuscript. Unbelievably, Tasha was still sleeping, and James’ keyboard keys didn’t make any noise despite how quickly he typed.
One of the doctors on Daniel Sherman’s team of doctors was Monti Bernaola. Sometimes, he would work with Daniel on Daniel’s lab, and sometimes he would work in a Beautiful Horizons clinic. All of the doctors in Daniel’s team were aliens. They were supernaturally talented and very loyal to one another. Together, they’d done things that only God could do. The only thing they couldn’t do was to be everywhere at the same time or disappear in one place and reappear in another, and there were many other things God could do that they couldn’t do, but the aliens were pretty amazing. It was too bad that some humans didn’t appreciate this.
Thirty minutes after arriving at his office, it was time for Daniel’s first appointment of the day. The patient was Elwood, Monti’s human double. Weeks after Monti altered his genes in order to cure the condition, Elwood lost his job and his girlfriend and had a nervous breakdown that caused Emerson to come back, and now Emerson was more evil than ever. Emerson wouldn’t let Elwood come back. Emerson was here because he wanted to be integrated so that Elwood would never resurge again. What Emerson didn’t know was that he couldn’t fool Dr. Sherman. Dr. Sherman knew that the one that deserved to be out in the open and living his life was Elwood, not Emerson. Emerson hadn’t committed any crimes ever since the rape and murder of that young girl whose brother beat Elwood to a pulp, but he was making everyone around him suffer. He’d stolen his brother’s girlfriend and caused his grandfather to have a heart attack by telling him all of the atrocities that he’d committed all his life.
“Hi, Emerson, how are you doing?” Daniel looked Emerson in the eyes.
“Hello, Dr. Sherman.”
“What can I do for you today?”
“I want to be integrated. I’m sick and tired of sharing my life with Elwood.”
“Is that right?”
Emerson finally sat down. “I want you to help me.”
Suddenly, Daniel caused Elwood to come out using the power of his mind. Elwood looked down at his clothes. He took off his glasses. The look in this human’s eyes changed. Daniel noticed that sweet Elwood was back, and started talking to him. “Hi, Elwood, how are you?”
“Who are you?” said Elwood, frightened. He’d never seen Daniel in person before and he knew that Daniel was a psychiatrist. He distrusted Daniel. Elwood looked at Daniel with terror as Daniel sat there smiling at him.
“I am Daniel Sherman, your psychiatrist. This is your first appointment with me. It’s very nice to meet you, Elwood.”
“You mean you’re Emerson’s psychiatrist.”
“Yes, but I want to help you.”
“How are you going to help me? That son of a bitch has destroyed my life. I have no job, no wife, nothing.”
“I think that’s the root of all your problems. You’re torn apart inside and Emerson takes advantage of that.”
“I think Monti Bernaola altered my genes, but it didn’t work because I am in this situation again.”
“I’m sure we can…”
Elwood interrupted Daniel. “I am not allowing anyone to alter my genes again because it won’t work. I’m going to have another trauma, and…” Suddenly, Daniel caused Elwood to go into a very deep sleep. Elwood was unconscious and unable to control anything that could happen from this point on.
Daniel picked up the phone and dialed Monti’s number.
Monti was in his office revising the latest reports of the earnings of Beautiful Horizon clinics. They were astonishing. This company made billions and billions of dollars since it started. Monti was on top of the world, like the Manning twins were. The phone started ringing and Monti answered it almost immediately. “Hello, this is Monti Bernaola, President of Beautiful Horizon Clinics. How may I help you?”
“Bernaola, we have a problem.”
“Dan? What happened?”