Chapter 17
Diana turned the volume down on the music using her remote control for her stereo and asked, “Alexander, do you have a girlfriend?”
“I’ve been single and commitment-free for several months.”
“Why did you break up?”
“She broke up with me because she was in love with someone else.”
“She’s stupid. How could she fall in love with someone else while being with you? I mean look at you! You’re gorgeous!”
Alexander laughed.
“Have you ever had a commitment free relationship?”
“No, Diana, I don’t believe in that.”
“I don’t either, you know? I’ve had three boyfriends in my life, and…”
Alexander interrupted her. “You’ve had three boyfriends in your entire life?”
Diana laughed. “Yes! Why is that so hard to believe?”
“Forgive me, but I’d rather not answer that because I don’t want to get my ass kicked!”
Diana laughed hysterically. “Come on, tell me. Why is it so hard to believe that a twenty-five-year-old-woman has only had three boyfriends in her whole life?”
“That’s hard for me to believe because today, most men and women are extremely promiscuous, and they’ve had several relationships, formal and casual, by age twenty-five.”
She smiled sweetly. “Well, I’m one of the few people who are not promiscuous.”
“I’m twenty-seven, and I haven’t had many girlfriends, either.”
“That doesn’t surprise me because believe it or not, there are many men like you out there.”
“You’re amazing, you know that?”
Diana just smiled.
“I’ve also had three girlfriends, and those three relationships were formal. I don’t practice casual sex, and I’ve never had a one-night stand. I broke up with my first girlfriend with whom I’d been for four years, because she was very abusive, physically and verbally.”
“Oh…” Diana was suddenly saddened.
“My second girlfriend cheated on me with another guy, and I didn’t give her another chance because I’d never cheated on her or on anybody and I believed I deserved fidelity from a woman.”
“I agree. People that don’t cheat don’t deserve to be cheated on.”
“My last girlfriend, well, she told me that she had to leave because she was in love with another guy, and she didn’t want to cheat on me because she knew that I’d been through that before.”
“At least she didn’t cheat on you with him and then leave you. That was good on her part.”
“I stopped looking for mates. I don’t go to bars I don’t search for women on the Internet… I’ve been alone all this time because I decided that the next and last woman in my life had to appear out of nowhere, meaning that I wouldn’t have to look for her, I’d just meet her by chance.”
“That’s what happened when you met me, isn’t it? I mean you just saw me at an unexpected place, a friend’s house, we met, and… well, I fell in love with you. I don’t know if you feel the same way about me. I know you like me, but I don’t know if you love me. You know what I mean?”
“I am in love with you, Diana. I’ve fallen in love with you just now.”
“Are you serious, Alex?”
“Yes, I am serious. There are many similarities between us. Maybe we can start going out, and, you know?”
“Do you really want to?” said Diana, smiling.
“Yes, I do,” said Alexander.
“Do you want me to make something to eat for us?”
“Yes,” said Alex, smiling.
She got up off the bed, and they both walked to the door and got out of the room simultaneously. “What would you like to eat?” asked Diana as they walked the hallway to the living room.
“Something that’s easy to make, like macaroni and cheese, or something like that.”
Diana laughed. “Are you serious?” They were walking out of the living room and then they separated and Alexander went to the dining room and Diana went to the kitchen.
Alexander sat down in the dining room. “Yes, I mean why not? I love macaroni and cheese!”
“Ok,” said Diana, “if macaroni and cheese is what you want… I love macaroni and cheese, too!” She laughed again. She got one box of macaroni and cheese out of the pantry and closed the pantry. Then, she got the pot ready and followed the directions to cook the macaroni. Fifteen minutes later, when the macaroni was fully cooked, she went back to the stove and drained the macaroni. Then, she took the cheese sauce out of the box, tore it open, and poured the cheese sauce over the macaroni. Alexander surprised her by adding milk to the macaroni. She didn’t know he would do this because they hadn’t said a word to each other during these fifteen minutes. Diana mixed the macaroni and a few minutes later, she was done. Laughing together for no reason, they got two forks out of the drawer of Diana’s kitchen cabinet, served their portions of macaroni onto plates simultaneously and then walked back to the dining room and sat down to eat. Just when they were about to start eating, Diana’s cell phone rang. She saw her younger sister’s phone number on the display screen and took the call. Diana’s sister’s name was Desiree, and she was fifteen years old. “Hello, Desiree. How are you doing, sweetie?” Diana had told Alexander everything about her family the day that she met him. Alexander smiled when he heard Desiree’s name.
Desiree was crying bitterly. “Mom and Dad are outside, crying. Dad just placed my clothes on bags in the back of our car. Donald kicked us out.” Jayden and Carey had been living with Don ever since Diana came back to life and moved back into her house. They moved out of Diana’s house because they thought that there was not enough space for them, Desiree, and Diana in the house. They needed the master bedroom, and Desiree needed another room, and they thought that Diana wouldn’t be happy with them there. Desiree’s older siblings were all adults and they all had their own homes. Colleen was twenty-three and Casey was twenty-one. Carey and Jayden hadn’t ever even considered living with Colleen or Casey because Colleen was married and had two children, and Casey lived in a two-bedroom apartment with his wife and high-school sweetheart. Luckily for them, Casey and Kristen didn’t have children yet. Jayden’s best friend, Donald had kicked him and Carey out of the house because he and Carey had had a heated argument just a few hours before. Don was now locked up in his bedroom, and he wouldn’t come out until Jayden and Carey were gone. Don was divorced, he lived alone, and he had an attitude problem sometimes. A misunderstanding had caused Jayden and Don to have a big argument and insult each other like they never had before in the twenty years that they’d been friends. Don was crying in his bedroom, sitting at the edge of his bed. He realized that, even if he apologized to Jayden, Jayden and Carey couldn’t live with him one more day after what had happened.
“Don kicked you out?” said a now angry Diana. Alexander’s smile quickly disappeared. “Why?”
“They argued and called each other terrible names,” said Desiree, sobbing. “I don’t know why they were fighting because I was listening to music in my former room, and all of a sudden I heard cursing and yelling and Mom came into this room and told me to pack up my stuff because we were kicked out. Mom told me to call you and ask you if you could help them find a house to rent!”
“Help them find a house to rent? They don’t have to rent a house. You can just move back into this house and live with me!”
“Mom says that you won’t be happy with us there because you won’t have enough space anymore.”
“Desiree, sweetie, this house has three bedrooms. Mom and Dad can have the master bedroom, and you and I can have the other two rooms. It’ll be perfect. I don’t need all this space. I live alone. I’ll be thrilled to have you living here with me. My parents and my siblings mean the world to me! There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you guys. I am the oldest child, and I have to look out for my family.”
“That’s so sweet of you, Diana,” said Desiree, wiping her tears away with her hands and placing her laptop in the box it came in when her parents bought it for her. Finally, Desiree placed her forty CD’s one by one in another box and wrote on permanent marker the words, FRAGILE, HANDLE WITH CARE, “but what about your boyfriend, Alexander? What will happen when you decide to live together?”
“Alexander and I just became boyfriend and girlfriend today. I think we’re not going to start living together until we get married…”
“That’s right, not until we get married,” said Alex.
“…So you don’t have to worry about that. Our relationship just started today.”
“Congratulations,” said Desiree, smiling, holding her cell phone on her ear with her shoulder and placing the boxes one by one on the floor. “Alex is the perfect guy for you.” Desiree walked out of the room. Don went into her room, still crying, now silently, put one box on top of the other and carried both boxes out of the room. Then, he walked the hallway and the living room until both him and Desiree walked out of the house. Don placed the boxes inside the moving truck and walked back into the house without saying a word to anyone.
Twenty minutes later, Jayden, Carey, and Desiree arrived at Diana’s house in Jayden’s car, and the moving truck was following them. It was a small truck, thus the Dawson family didn’t have any furniture. Alexander helped Jayden, Carey and Desiree move their things into Diana’s house, and less than four hours later, Diana’s parents and sister were perfectly settled in Diana’s house. All of their clothes were in their closets, and their underwear was in Diana’s dressers. Fortunately, each one of the formerly-unoccupied bedrooms had a dresser, a bed, and a TV. Jayden and Carey’s computer, Desiree’s computer, and Diana’s computer were connected to a network, through a wireless router that Diana had. That night, around eleven, Alexander left Diana’s house, after spending some time with Diana’s parents and sister. He was happy. Since he met Diana, he dreamed about their wedding and even about their children. He loved this woman, and she loved him, too. Things couldn’t be better for Alexander.
Meanwhile, it was late, and Daniel and Madison were still together at Madison’s house. They were eating ice cream together in the dining room. Suddenly, the phone rang. Madison’s ex-boyfriend, Byron, was calling. Madison got up, walked and walked until she got to the living room, and answered the phone. Daniel continued to eat ice cream. “Hello.”
“Madison it’s Byron.”
“Why are you calling me after what you did to me?”
“Hear me out, please.”
Madison sat down on the sofa.
“I need your help. I was diagnosed with AIDS.”
Madison gasped. “You were diagnosed with what?”
“Madison…”
“You mean I’ve got AIDS?”
Daniel stopped eating and ran to the living room.
“Madison, I’m just telling you so you can get tested.”
“You’re calling all the women that you slept with, aren’t you, Byron? You son of a bitch! If you’ve got AIDS now then you’ve had the HIV virus for quite some time, and you gave it to me! I never used protection because I trusted you! How could you do this to me? How can you just go around, spread this deadly disease, and then calling your former sexual partners when it’s too late for them? What kind of man are you?”
“Madison, I didn’t know I had it!”
Crying bitterly, Madison screamed, “You’re lying! You…”
Before Madison could finish her thought, Daniel took the phone away from her gently, and said to Byron, “I don’t know you, but you’re a class act, you know that?”
“Who the hell are you?” screamed Byron.
“I am Dr. Daniel Sherman, Madison’s boyfriend.”
Byron laughed. “You’re screwed, man. You had a bowl of that cereal, too, and now you’ve got the virus, too.”
“What we’ve done or haven’t done does not concern you! You’re going to get what’s coming to you, pal. You are very evil, heartless, and spiteful. You go around hurting people for no reason, and that’s not fair. Madison gave you all her love. She was there for you unconditionally. Is this how you repay her?”
“My relationship with Madison is none of your business, Dr. Sherman!”
“You wake up one morning and you walk out on her, you break her heart, and now you destroy her life?”
“I told her that I didn’t know I had the disease! I found out today!”
“I know you’re lying, but don’t worry. You’re going to pay for everything you’ve done.” Daniel hung up.
Madison cried bitterly in Daniel’s arms.
“Don’t worry, Madison. Your life is going to be back to normal very soon.” Incredibly, Daniel carried a small syringe in his pocket tonight. He knew that someone would need it tonight, but he never imagined that it would be the love of his life. While he was still holding Madison, he pulled the syringe out of the pocket of his pants, put it in his mouth, popped the lid off, and injected the specimen into her. Daniel let go of Madison and Madison fell into a deep sleep. Daniel picked her up from the sofa, got up, and walked out of the living room and into the hallway. He then opened the door to her bedroom and without turning on the light, but still able to see what he was doing, he carefully placed Madison on her bed. Daniel decided to stay the night tonight, sleeping in the spare bedroom however, just to make sure that Madison would be ok. He didn’t have any pajamas because he wasn’t planning on spending the night here, so he just went to one of the spare bedrooms, opened the door, closed the door behind him with the light off, and a few minutes later, he went to sleep. He knew that even with the medicine cocktail, if it weren’t for what he did to her, Madison would’ve only lived for two more years. He knew that Madison had the virus since the moment he met her, but he didn’t tell her because he was afraid that she wouldn’t believe him and that he was using this as an excuse not to be with her. Daniel knew that it was wrong not to tell Madison that she had AIDS and not to do what he did tonight before she would find out that she had the virus. Because of all this, he was deeply remorseful, and from this point on, he would literally dedicate his life to making his future wife happy and give her everything she would want and need. The mistake that he now realized that he’d made motivated him to do more for mankind and continue to help us that suffered from terminal illnesses and had no hope. Angels, as aliens were called by billions of humans, they didn’t know that they were rebuilding this world, and punishing evil people unknowingly, but they were helping good people. Now, in this world, thanks to them, good people would only die of old age, and bad people would die horrible deaths depending on the things that they’d done. Byron, for example, would die in a horrible way, and he would die alone. No one would want to help him. When his family found out that he was spreading the AIDS virus around on purpose, they would turn their back on him, and that was only a matter of time. From this moment on, everyone would get what was coming to him or her.
The morning after, Madison got up. She noticed that she was feeling much better. She was feeling great. She no longer had diarrhea. Madison felt just like she did before meeting Byron. Unbeknown to her, she no longer had AIDS. She was so excited that she gave a big sigh of relief. Madison noticed that she was wearing the same clothes of the day before. She hadn’t taken her daily shower or put on pajamas. Something had happened. Then, she remembered talking to Byron and him telling her that he had AIDS. Madison also remembered crying in Daniel’s arms. Madison didn’t remember what happened after that. Daniel came out of the spare bedroom, yawning, and knocked on Madison’s bedroom door. “Someone’s here?” Madison walked out of the bathroom inside her bedroom and walked to her bedroom door. She opened it. She gasped when she saw Daniel. “Daniel, you spent the night here?”
“I just wanted to make sure you were ok.”
“But now you’ll be late for work! You still have to take a shower, and you don’t have any clothes to wear!”
“I have to go.” Daniel gave Madison a kiss on the cheek. “Don’t worry about me. I know I’ll be one or two hours late for work, but that’s ok, as long as I don’t take the whole day off because my patients need me. Thank goodness today is Friday.” Daniel walked the hallway to the living room and then walked to the front door. Madison quickly ran and followed him, and just when he was about to walk out the door, she gave him a big hug. He gave her another kiss on the cheek, walked out the door, and closed the door behind him. A few minutes later, he took the road.
That morning, on his way back home, Daniel called his assistant, Reina, to see if he had any appointments at this time or anytime this morning. He knew he would be at least ninety minutes late for work today.
Reina answered the phone at Daniel’s office. “Yes, Dr. Sherman. How may I help you?”
“I just want to see if I have any appointments this morning because I’m going to be late.”
“You have an appointment about thirty minutes from now. The first appointment already had to be rescheduled.”
“Darn,” said Daniel. “All right, I will see you later, Reina.”
“Don’t worry, Dr. Sherman. Everything is going to be ok.”
Daniel hung up.
One hour later, Daniel arrived at his office and he was sad and frustrated. His first three appointments had to be rescheduled. Every patient that he talked to that day noticed that he was sad. Despite being down, Daniel outperformed himself like he did every single day. Still, his patients were worried about him. Daniel was a little sad because he loved to be there for every one of his patients, and this was the first time since he’d started this profession that appointments had to be rescheduled because he was late. It was three o’clock in the afternoon, and Daniel had only seen two patients. He was checking the file of his next patient. A few minutes later, his patient came in. Daniel gasped when he saw this patient. It seemed to be Mark Manning, but in reality, it was Scott Harrison, Mark and Matt Manning’s look-alike. He’d been having severe mood swings for a month, and he was wondering if it was a mood disorder, or something more serious, bipolar disorder. He was ecstatic, going through the roof and even hyperactive, and hours later, he was so sad that he couldn’t stop crying. He and Lily were married for three months, and despite her husband’s situation, Lily didn’t regret marrying him. Scott was the love of Lily’s life, and although she had a few relationships in the past, Scott was the first man that she’d love with all her heart and that she’d do anything in the world for. Lily followed Scott and they both sat down. Daniel was relieved that this wasn’t either one of the Manning twins because any disease in an alien, mental or physical, couldn’t be cured. Lily and Scott smiled, but at home, their life was a living hell, and Daniel could see this in their eyes. “How are you doing, Mr. and Mrs. Harrison?”
“We can’t lie to you,” said Scott. “We got married three months ago, and it was great, until I started having these severe mood swings. I am the happiest I can be one minute and insupportable the next. I don’t know why Lily hasn’t separated from me or divorced me, how she’s put up with me all this time. It doesn’t seem like a very long time, but thirty days in this situation, even two days in this situation, would be too much for anyone to put up with.”
“Scott, Lily hasn’t separated from you or divorced you because she really loves you. Any other woman would’ve worked out on you, and there are very few women in the world who would ‘put up with you,’ but Lily’s by your side because she loves you, she’s loyal to you, and there’s nothing in this world she wouldn’t do for you,” Daniel explained.
“Dr. Sherman, I make my wife cry every day,” said Scott, crying, “and it hurts me when I realize the things that I say and do to her. I get extremely irate with her for the most banal things, I call her horrible names, and I tell her that she’s trash, that this world would be much better without her…” Scott broke down and cried even more intensely.
Lily held him tightly. She couldn’t stand to see him cry, so she started to cry, too. Every time that Lily saw someone crying, even if it was a total stranger, she would cry, so it broke her heart into a million pieces to see her husband crying. “Help us, doctor. Help us save our marriage. I’d never divorce him, but I’m afraid that he’ll become uncontrollably infuriated one day and one of us will end up dead.”
“Don’t worry,” said Daniel, writing up a prescription for Scott for a medication that he’d invented long before becoming a psychiatrist, when he was a tender child. He’d invented all his anti-psychotic medicines when he was just a child at the Tears of the Sun facility. He always wanted to become a psychiatrist and what some people called a mad scientist for doing things for mankind that no human being could ever do. Dr. Daniel Sherman’s career had just begun, and he didn’t even know it. “I’m not going to let that happen.” Daniel had heard enough. He didn’t need to ask any more questions. He knew just how serious their situation was, but this medicine would change Scott and Lily’s lives forever. Daniel handed Scott the prescription for the medication.
“We could’ve gone to any other psychiatrist,” said Lily, “but we came to you because we’ve heard wonderful things about you.”
“I, and other psychiatrists like me, we never intended to take the patients of our human colleagues.” Suddenly, the phone rang. Daniel just turned off the ringer for a few minutes. He’d call this person later. This person emailed him, trying to get his message across. He didn’t give up. Daniel received a notification of a new email message on his computer. The message was from Matt. The message said that Daniel was not taking any doctor’s patients that only new patients would come to him for help. The only patients that went to him after going to other psychiatrists were those that no other psychiatrist could do anything to help them. Other patients remained loyal to their doctors.
“I’m sure you’re not taking anybody’s patients, Dr. Sherman,” said Lily in an effort to make Daniel feel better.
Daniel read the message in less than one second and then replied to Matt, thanking him for letting him know that. Daniel didn’t know this and it made him feel a lot better. “Thank you, Lily. Well, I’ll see you next month, exactly thirty days from today, to see how you’re doing.”
“Thank you for everything, Dr. Sherman.”
“If anything happens,” said Daniel as Scott and Lily walked out the door, “if Scott has to go to the hospital, let me know, ok?”
“Ok, doctor,” said Lily and closed the door behind her. A few minutes later, Scott and Lily’s car pulled out of the parking lot.
Scott and Lily went to the nearest pharmacy to get their prescriptions. Lily parked their car in the parking lot right in front of the pharmacy, and she and Scott unbuckled their seatbelts and got out of the car simultaneously. They locked their doors and went into the pharmacy. Scott gave his prescription to the pharmacist and there, they waited forty-five minutes for Scott’s medicine to be filled. Then, Scott and Lily walked out of the pharmacy. Scott had his medicine in his hand. They unlocked the door, got into the car, closed the doors, and buckled their seatbelts simultaneously. Then, Lily started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. Minutes later, they took the road, and after almost one hour of total silence, Lily said; “Only a real man has the guts to admit that he’s mistreated his wife.”
“I’m sorry for everything I’ve done to you, Lily,” said Scott, deeply saddened.
“I love you, Scott.”
“I know. This medicine will help me, sweetie. I don’t know, I’m just so…” He gave a deep sigh.
“I know that the medicine will help you. I have to tell you something, Scott. I haven’t told you because lately, I don’t know how you’ll react. You always say and do things that I didn’t expect…”
“Tell me, Lily.”
“I am three months pregnant.”
“That’s the best news I’ve been given in a long time. This is our first baby in the four years that we’ve been together.”
“I was waiting for us to get married to have a baby. I stopped my contraceptive treatment three weeks before our wedding date.”
“That’s fantastic. I remember begging you to have my baby, and you would always say ‘Not until we get married’.”
“My mother always told me to wait to get married to have a baby. She always told me that it’s always good for a child to be born within a legitimate marriage.”
“I never cared as long as you were the mother of my baby.”
“Well, now you know, so you have to take it easy with me and try to control your outbursts.”
“There will be no more outbursts, baby. I promise.”
Scott and Lily arrived home shortly after. The first thing that Scott did was to go into the kitchen with his medication in his hand, serve himself a cold drink, pull his medicine bottle out of the bag, open the bottle, get one pill, and take it with his cold orange juice. Then, Scott went right to bed to relax, watch a little TV and then take a little nap. Because of his appointment with Dr. Sherman, Scott had the day off today. Scott was fired from his job at the office-supply store twenty-five days before because he was being downright rude to his customers, and his boss refused to put up with it.
Fifteen minutes before receiving his last patient of the day, Daniel called the office-supply store that Scott worked at to persuade his boss to give Scott his job back. Daniel was even willing to fax him a document certifying that Scott suffered from a very-serious mood disorder.
Scott’s boss, Mr. Martin, answered the phone in his office at the third ring. “Hello, this is Philip Martin.”
“Mr. Martin, this is Dr. Daniel Sherman, Scott Harrison’s psychiatrist. How are you doing?”
Mr. Martin couldn’t believe that Scott’s psychiatrist was calling him, but he knew what Dr. Sherman wanted. “I’m doing well, Dr. Sherman, thank you. How are you doing?”
“I’m not doing so well because one of my patients is unhappy and I d