Chapter 32
An eagle’s talons held me together. Hundreds of hairy rat bodies sat on my chest and crawled down my throat gagging me with the taste of naked tails.
It hurt. Tears trickled out of my eyes and pooled around the taste of plastic and rubber. A faint hiss and dry puffs of air. Oh God. My chest hurt so badly. My hands wouldn’t move and I couldn’t feel anything below my knees. Couldn’t feel my thighs or having to go pee. I always had to pee when I woke up.
I tried to open my eyes and saw only a sliver through them. They burned. My face felt huge, my cheeks puffed up into the bottom of my eyelids. I ran my tongue over my teeth, and felt all of them still in there. I ran it around the outside of my mouth and touched the rim of something stuck to the sides of my face. It tasted like plastic.
A lady in a face mask leaned over and looked at me. “Danny?” She turned to speak over her shoulder to someone. “His eyes are flickering. He’s trying to come back. It’s okay, Danny. You’re safe. At Walter Reed hospital. You’re recovering from surgery, Danny. Some people want to see you.”
Dad. Felice. Her dad. I mumbled something. Felice kissed me on the cheek and my face felt hot. She looked years older, dressed in a sober suit of navy blue, her hair cut short and styled. She had a huge basket of chocolates which she set down on the bed tray. The whole room was crammed full of goodies and flowers and people.
Dad kissed me next and tried to find a spot he could hug. I blinked before President Rickover could do the same. He picked up my hand and held it instead. “Danny. How do you feel?”
“Like a Republican won the Presidential election,” I whispered. Somehow, they heard me.
Tremulous smiles appeared on their faces. I was suddenly tired and closed my eyes. I heard Dad jump on the doctor.
“It’s okay, Senator. His vitals are stable. I think he’s just exhausted. He’s probably hurting, too. He’ll wake up later for longer periods. You can stay if you wish, but don’t tire him.”
Dad, I thought. Never too old for hugs, Dad. So he carefully squeezed me around the shoulders and I fell back into the darkness with a ray of light holding my way.
*****
I woke up groggy, crying as the pain moved through me like pins and needles, only they were a hundred times worse. Throbbing, sharp stabs that took my breath away. My toes burned. I cried out, I was on fire.
Dad came to my side. “Danny? Are you in pain? Shall I call the doctor?”
“Dad,” I wailed and he flew out the door yelling for help and scores of people came in the room. All jockeying for position around me like I was the main course at a buffet line.
“His pulse, respiration, and pressure are all up,” the nurse reported. “Are you hurting, honey?” I nodded in millimeters, my neck brace prevented me from more than that. “How about some morphine, Danny?”
Efficiently, she popped a syringe into my IV and the pain receded. It made everything fuzzy and gave me that ‘I don’t care’ attitude. Hey, I thought sleepily. That thing’s off my face. A jolt hit my stomach and I recognized it not as hunger, but as fear. “Parker,” I moaned. “Parker will get me!”
Mitchell was waiting with them this time, and he found my hand. “Danny, Parker’s dead. Agent James, ‘Matt Dillon’, shot him.” He smiled.
I looked over at Felice and her dad. “You’ve been here all this time?”
She nodded. “Yes, Danny. Did you forget, you saved my dad’s life?”
“I did?” I tried to open my eyes but they were still swollen nearly shut. I could at least talk, even if it was through fat lips.
“Yes, you did, Dantan,” President Rickover smiled. “I’m going to award you with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Dantan. Not just for saving my life, but for putting yours in danger to protect the morals and laws of this country.”
“Wasn’t me, sir. It was Daniel.” My eyes kept straying to Felice. “You’re all grown up, Lisi,” I mumbled, and saw my Dad motion to everyone in the room.
President Rickover said, “Felice–.”
“I know, Dad. Senator D. I won’t tire him out.”
They rose and left her alone with me in an awkward silence which I broke first nervously. “Felice, how old are you now?”
“Nineteen, Danny. You?”
“Fourteen, Felice. In my head I’m still fourteen even if my body says otherwise. Do you have a boyfriend, Felice?”
“No, Danny. You have a girlfriend?”
I waved my hand at the bed and the plastic shell around my belly, waist and hips that kept me from moving. “Who would want me, Felice,” I said in disgust. “I can’t go to the bathroom or even wipe my own butt. I might as well be dead.”
“Don’t you say that, Dantan,” she snapped. “You deserve to live.”
“I didn’t deserve this, Felice,” I said, and stared off into the distance. I felt someone take my hand, and nudge me, we were standing in a room lit by brilliant sunshine and she was gloriously naked so that she looked like she was bathed in fire.
Felice, I breathed and she heard me. In my head. She was there.
Danny, she took my hands and placed them on her amazing breasts and kissed me, open mouth, and she tasted like strawberries and orange dreamsicles and cherry Kool-Aid. Then, her hands moved down my face to my hands and placed them lower, let me explore all those crevices and hollows I’d only dreamed about, but would never admit to. Let me come up for air and I whispered into her neck, can I do this, Felice?
And she smiled. You are doing this, Danny in our minds. I lost you once, and I don’t care how old you think you are in your mind now. And yes, that’s how you do that Ahh God that feels good Danny, I love you I love your eyes. I’ve waited for this since I was ten years old –.
I blinked and she was standing there in my hospital room, her hand at her waist, her eyes heavy lidded and breathing fast. She smiled at me, a deliciously sated smile, leaned over me and kissed me in the flesh, it was every bit as good as being in her head. I groaned and she smothered it with her mouth, pulled down my sheets and regarded the plastic carapace that held my shattered spine and pelvis together.
Washed me off with warm wash cloths and scented lotion and I felt nothing, and yet everything. Felt my eyes closing slowly in a gentle sleep with a smile on my face.