Chapter 10: Coming Clean

Normally, Dr. Koch would have left the hospital by 4:30 in the afternoon but there was just something about Robert's rapid and complete recovery from his coma that tickled the back of the doctor's brain. He couldn't put it to rest and so he decided to spend a day in the hospital's medical library to see if there was a precedent. By the time he left at 6:00 that night, he was no closer to satisfying his curiosity than he was when he arrived. If anything, he was even more intrigued. He wasn't sure how he knew it but, somehow, he felt certain that Robert, himself, was aware of the cause. It was certain, from Robert's guarded responses when questioned, that the boy was circumspect in that regard but that just made the mystery all the more intriguing.

Dr. Koch drove home and was almost to his front door when he saw a police car pull into his driveway. The doctor walked back to the cruiser and the Officer Fuentes rolled down his window and stuck his head out,

"May I be of assistance?" asked Dr. Koch,

"Is this the Koch residence?"

"That's correct. I am Dr. Koch. What may I do for you Officer?"

"Do you know a Robert Teal?"

Dr Koch's face remained calm although his stomach twisted into a knot ... what had happened?

"Robert is staying with us pending court approval of my wife and I as his foster parents"

"Yeah, I heard about that. Tough break for the kid. First that and now this."

Dr. Koch had to struggle even more to appear calm even though his concern amped up a couple of notches.

"Officer, perhaps you could enlighten me. To what, exactly, are you referring?"

"The fight down at the T-Head"

Dr. Koch dropped all pretense of being calm. "Robert has been in a fight?"

"Yeah, he's okay though. A little bruised up is all. Some older kids jumped him and beat up on him pretty good. There was a cut on the back of his head. It would have been much worse if that big black fellow hadn't stopped it."

"A large black man, you say?"

"Yeah ... huge guy." Officer Fuentes checked his notes. "Owns a shrimp boat. Fellow by the name of James Wilson."

'Mae's husband.', Dr Koch noted to himself. "You say he intervened?"

"I'll say." chuckled the policeman. "Knocked one kid out as he was just getting out of his car and broke another kids wrist as he was sitting on the kid and hitting him"

"Is Big Jim in any trouble?"

"Oh, you know him?"

"He is a friend of the family"

"No, he's not in any trouble. We have enough witnesses that say he was stopping the assault"

"And the two boys that attacked Robert?"

"They're in jail on charges of assault. I'm trying to build the case for the district attorney so I have to take some pictures of the injuries."

"Don't allow him into your house!" said a voice in the back of Dr Koch's mind.

In his lifetime, Dr. Koch had often gotten impressions or inklings in the back of his mind. But he'd only ever once before heard an actual voice inside his head. And it just so happened that this was the exact same voice ... the voice that told him he should take Robert into his care.

Dr. Koch smiled apologetically to the officer. "Unfortunately, Robert isn't at home. He called just before I left the hospital and asked to be allowed to go to the movies with some friends. He'll be out quite late, I'm afraid."

"To the movies, you say?"

"Yes, but had I known he was engaged in fisticuffs this afternoon, I would have never allowed it, I assure you"

"It wasn't his fault, Doc. He was attacked"

"In any event, I'm afraid he won't be available until tomorrow morning. You're welcome to come by then."

"I don't come on shift until 1:00. Can we make it after then?"

"I will make certain that Robert is at your disposal all afternoon"

The conversation at dinner that evening was a bit less stilted than the previous night. Katherine related the events of her day starting with getting Robert started at learning golf, then luncheon at the club where Mrs. Hutcheons had spied Robert from afar and insisted that Katherine make him participate at the upcoming Junior Debutante Ball held at the club every Labor Day weekend.

Roberts eyes registered the concern he felt in being corralled into something he was certain had disaster written all over it. His fifty-seven year old mentality knew only too well how handsome this new face was. If his experience with his body this day was any indication, by Labor Day, he'd not only have a handsome face but a physique that would be extremely attractive to the opposite sex as well ... couple that with the issue of his pheromones ... he'd still not worked out if they just attracted any female within striking distance or if they were specific to females that were sexually exciting to him ... Robert had no wish to be the cause of a full scale war between a bunch of young women whose bodies had only recently crossed the threshold of sexual maturity but whose minds still had a lot of catching up to do.

To top it all off, in his mind, he was still an old man. He recalled an incident in his former life when he'd gone to the movies with his youngest daughter in celebration of her fifteenth birthday. He'd assumed that every man his age was like him and had no sexual longings for females that, though they have fully matured bodies, had yet to mature emotionally. But the looks of lust he'd seen in a lot of the men directed at his daughter made him realize that, while he might not be alone in his opinion, there were a lot of men his age that were like his friend, Tom and were attracted to the youth and vitality of a female decades younger.

"I ... I'm not so sure I want to be..." Robert started to protest but was cut short by Katherine's reassuring pat on his forearm. "Nonsense, Sweetie. There's no better way for you to meet and get to know young ladies from proper families."

Robert started to protest again but caught sight of Dr' Koch shaking his head as if to warn him that some battles just aren't worth fighting. Sitting back in his chair, Robert surrendered.

"Okay ... I guess."

"Wonderful, Sweetie." gushed Katherine. "Vivian will be so delighted. They never can get enough boys to attend. You will also learn proper manners and..." A thought crossed Katherine's mind and she squealed with delight. "Ohh! We must take you down to the tailor on Monday and get you measured for your tuxedo!" Again, Robert's eyes rolled back far enough to get a glimpse of his frontal lobes. He heard Dr. Koch chuckle. Katherine took note of the eye roll but decided to ignore it.

All through dinner, Robert noticed that the doctor spoke very little but seemed to be scrutinizing him very closely. Once the dessert dishes had been cleared, Mae went back into the kitchen to clean up, Katherine went to her room claiming to be exhausted from the day and Robert started to retire to his room when he was intercepted by Dr. Koch.

"I wonder if you'd accompany me to my study, Robert. I have some things I wish to discuss with you"

"Sure".

Robert followed the doctor into his study where the doctor closed the door and invited Robert to have a seat. Robert took a seat across from the desk and the doctor, instead of sitting at his desk, chose a seat next to him. For a few seconds, the doctor said nothing but just looked closely at Robert's face, hands and arms. Robert began to feel uneasy.

"Robert", said the doctor, "I'm told you came by for your tests this afternoon"

"That's right"

"And they x-rayed your head?""

"Uh huh"

"And drew some blood?"

"Yes"

"Perhaps you'll be so kind as to show me the puncture wound from the needle."

All the color drained from Robert's face and he looked for all the world like a deer in headlights.

"I ... um ... I meant to say that they wanted to draw some blood but..."

"Robert, I got the results from your blood test shortly before I left the hospital."

"I don't know what to say"

Dr. Koch nodded. "I should say not. Robert, just as I arrived home, there was an Officer Fuentes at our door. He related to me that you had been the victim of an attack down at the T-Head this afternoon"

Robert started to look around for an opportunity to escape.

"The officer told me that your face was quite bruised and that he needed to take some pictures of those bruises to present as evidence against the young men who attacked you. You can imagine my concern but that was more than multiplied at dinner when I saw that your face has not a mark upon it."

Dr. Koch waited for an explanation but seeing none was forthcoming, he continued. "You were in my care for two weeks Robert. I first became ... I don't want to use the word 'suspicious' so let's just say that I became aware that something may be different about you when, the first day you came into my care, I noted on your chart that you had a rather nasty bump in the back of your head but I couldn't see any evidence of it. I'm afraid I abused the emergency room doctor most abominably for making an inaccurate notation on your chart. He swore the entire time I was berating him that you had a bump the size of a goose egg at the back of your head. I saw the evidence of it when I pulled your x-rays from that evening. Upon examining your body for any further injuries, I noticed that it was perfect. Very few people live very long without getting a hairline scar or two to show where they fell down while learning to walk or ride a bike. On your body, I only noticed two scars. Do you know what they were?"