TONDER Chapter 9

Dr. Borlan entered the hospital room to find my wife and son clinging to my unrestrained body as we embraced, wept, and desperately tried to push away lost time from our family. I noticed him from the corner of my eye standing as a monument and blocking the light that escaped around the frame of his six foot five inch physique illuminating from the hallway beyond the door. I knew that he was a man like any other, but he was marked with this grotesqueness that made it difficult to look at him directly. Perhaps he would be a force to reckon with in the final battle. Maybe he would be a leader of the damned; tall and imposing on the battlefield; an intimidating Goliath. He forced a smile and appeared impatient as he maneuvered towards us and interrupting our family reunion with a lowered voice.

“I see that you are feeling better, Mr. Abel.”

“I feel fine. This is my wife Lynn and my son Doyle.”

“Yes, we’ve met and have talked several times in the past few days.  

Dr. Borlan’s blackened eyelets peered pointed toward my wife and son as his smile grew increasingly large. He concealed a clipboard of papers under his right arm which he shifted under the opposite arm as he extended his hand to Lynn. As she grasped his hand to greet him, the blackness protruded from his eye sockets in a dust of smoke encircling my wife’s head as an evil halo; dancing and searching for an entrance. Lynn continued to shake the doctor’s hand as he expressed his gratitude in her cooperation during my trial of trauma as the halo grew larger and eventually surrounded her shoulders, still searching. Lynn stood smiling as if mesmerized by Dr. Borlan. I reached forward and broke the clasp between the two and the evil retreated back to the stagnant sockets, leaving my wife’s aura again clean and undisturbed. Both Lynn and the doctor gazed at me surprisingly in response to my presumed rudeness. Dr. Borlan spoke as Lynn lowered her head while clearing her throat as if she were seventeen and just asked to prom. Dr. Borlan turned his attention to my son. 

“Hello Doyle. Have you been good while your daddy’s been sleeping?” 

Dr. Borlan extended his hand to Doyle’s shoulder as he rested, cradled on my lap with his head against my chest. As the doctor reached I re-coiled Doyle closer into my arms, stopping the beasts approach to him. Again the doctor peered at me confused and disappointed while Lynn folded her arms and widened her eyes toward me in surprise. Dr. Borlan continued speaking as he removed his metallic clipboard from under his arm, opened it, and began rearranging the documents, disappointed and bothered. 

“Mr. Abel, you were brought to my hospital on Monday with severe head trauma resulting from a seizure suffered in your driveway. You have been comatose for seventy-eight hours while under my care. We have monitored your vitals and found your heart rate excessive from the moment that you entered our care until just this morning at 9:37 a.m. We are not sure what has brought on this seizure as everything appears normal. Has anything happened like this before?” 

“Nothing, I’ve been healthy as a horse all of my life.” 

“What is the last thing that you can remember before the incident?” 

I searched in my mind for something normal, but there had not been many normal thoughts in the last few weeks. I dared not tell him of the visions, the pain, nor the gift for fear that I would be held longer in their hospital, maybe even certified as a Grade A woack-o. I searched for a lie that would appease his questions so that we could move forward and continue me on my way to leaving the building. I fabricated a partial truth. 

“The last thing that I remember was kissing my wife goodbye before leaving for work. After that everything turned black.” 

“Mr. Abel we are going to run some more tests on you and keep you for a few more days until we are sure that you are alright. In the meantime I recommend that you rest and try not to get out of bed until you get some solid food and your strength returns. I will be checking in on you often and I ask for your cooperation while we check you out.” 

I accepted the doctor’s terms as we spoke for a few minutes more about my condition. The rest of the conversation laid upon deaf ears as I could not focus due to the distraction of his rotted eyes within their decomposing sockets as they peered at me during our casual conversation. I seated my son in the wooden chair beside my bed, well out of reach from Dr. Borlan. Occasionally he would stand and direct his attention to questions posed by my wife who had taken a position beside him while the clouds of blackness would emerge from his sockets when their arms would brush. I wanted to turn the restraints to the doctor.

“…and if that turns out o.k. you should be out of here and back to work in no time. For now I am asking that you not return to work for at least a few weeks, Mr. Abel.  

Dr Borlan turned quickly and made his way out of the open door of the hospital room while returning the clipboard of papers to rest under the arm of his white coat. As I watched him leave, I felt a pouring of relief through my veins and the air seemed lighter as if an infection had subsided from our company. Lynn and Doyle, oblivious to the atrocity, began filling me in on the details of the lost days. I listened intently with only a portion of my attention as I would become distracted by the creatures silently passing by my door, wandering terribly in their sickened states. If they knew of the evil that had maked them they might return to their homes to die of their humanly afflictions instead of facing the hell awaiting them. If they knew how their actions on this earth made them vulnerable to reactions of evil, perhaps they would have chosen a different life. My mind was brought back by Doyle’s small voice.  

“Daddy? Did you hear what I said?” 

“I’m sorry, Doyle, Daddy was a little distracted for a minute.” 

“I said if you get back home by Friday night we could catch lightning bugs in the backyard like we did the other night. Remember? We put em in a jar and then turned em free all at once!” 

“I remember, Son, and yes will definitely do that on Friday night. I wouldn’t miss it for anything!” 

“Maybe Mommy can play too?” 

Lynn’s reaction seemed stoic and hindered. 

“I would like that Doyle, but for now why don’t you wait outside of Daddy’s room while I talk to him for a minute, o.k.? 

I panicked and lunged forward. 

“No! Lynn don’t you let him leave your side! Not even for a second! You keep him next to you at all times! Do you hear me?” 

Lynn withdrew back upon her heels as the words exploded from my mouth. A look of anger and confusion replaced the concern and apathy that she held for me a moment earlier. She placed her hands upon Doyle’s shoulders as she guided him toward the hallway reassuring him that it was fine to wait in the chairs beyond the door. Lynn escorted him to the waiting chairs and re-entered the room with a determined look and sternness in her walk. She positioned herself on the side of my bed and looked deeply into my eyes as though searching for a truth. Her frosted lipstick covered the pinkness of her lips and presented a smoothness of ice as her top lip pursed indicating her anger with me. 

“I know that you are recovering from a terrible trauma, but please; if something does not feel right, let’s talk about it.” 

“I feel fine, Lynn. I’m just a different person now. I’ve seen some things while I was out and I am just …different. I can’t completely explain, but things are different.” 

Lynn hesitated and relaxed her shoulders slightly as if succumbing to my explanation. Perhaps she was appeasing me. Maybe she felt different too. 

“I suppose I can accept that, but please; if something is bothering you, don’t hide it from the doctor and most of all don’t hide it from me. Remember we are in this life together and I can help you.” 

“Lynn, this life is a lie. If you only knew….” 

Her eyes closed and her eyebrows raised; her voice slightly louder than before. 

“I won’t know anything unless you tell me Sutter. Please just do us a favor and rest. Don’t think too hard about anything; just…rest. I’m taking Doyle over to my sister’s house so he can play for a while…” 

“You can’t let him go over there, Lynn; you don’t know what they are like! They could be mar…” 

“Melissa is my sister and your sister in law, Sutter, you’ve known her and her family for years now! Doyle is going over there to play with Tyler just like he has always done. Please calm down. He will be just fine.” 

“But Lynn, there is evil all around us! I saw it in the doctor’s eyes! He has been marked and he was trying to mark you too! Please don’t let them around Doyle! At least until I am with you to protect you! Please, Lynn!” 

Lynn bowed her head as if she had been defeated as a tear streamed a line down the bridge of her nose. She spoke not a word but instead gently place her open palm onto the back of my hand as it gripped tightly to the hospital bed. Her touch seemed to have lost the familiar warmth that I had always grown accustomed to and found comfort with throughout the years. We called it the electricity between us and it seemed to be a reassurance to two people fearful of losing each other but too afraid to admit that they were clandestine as soul mates. The tear gripped the end of her nose before plummeting to her delicate hand that rested atop mine. 

“I’m going to go now, Sutter. I love you. Please rest…for me and Doyle.” 

“I love you too, Lynn. Please just stay in the house until I am home. Don’t touch anyone! Please Lynn!”

She turned her body away from me and rose to exit the room. The fabric of her skirt made a familiar rustling sound as it slid against her nylon hose beneath giving me a longing to go home even more. As I watched her leave I tried to understand what I had just done. I wished that I could unsay the words that I had spoken to her and again put on the mask of a happy man. I felt that I could at least make us a family by catering to their happiness and just be a father instead of this Chaser that I have assumed. I rolled over in my bed and felt a surprise in the realization that I had not laid anywhere but on my back for quit sometime. Sleep approached me and escorted me to a place of peace and solitude; devoid of demons, evil and good and for the first time in days, I relaxed and rested. Dreams did not find me; only darkened rest. Perhaps Tonder had rewarded me with rest, but at what expense? I wondered if I was being prepared for another step in my journey as my eyes twittered back and forth in deep sleep. I wanted this sleep and embraced it lovingly as a dog would nuzzle her pup. I slept soundly and serenely in anticipation of what may await me.