Chapter 20

It’s less than an hour before all my girlfriends show up, each carrying an armload of supplies to keep me entertained. The girls barely get their greetings over with, and Moira is almost in tears, asking, “How is your leg? I screwed up. I’m sorry. I don’t know where I went wrong. Please forgive me.”

“Come here. You did nothing wrong. We got everything we needed. I have had many wounds worse than this. In a few weeks, I will be as good as new.”

As I am talking, Moira comes in for a hug, and I pull her onto the bed to cuddle. It is what she needs. Looking at Kim, Jen’s ex closest friend, I say, “You need to visit Jen and find out what she told them. She was tortured pretty severely and likely said something. I can’t see any of her oppressors visiting her in the hospital, so you should be fine talking to her openly as long as nobody else is around.”

“Do you know what room she is in,” asks Kim.

“No. I would like to know how Jen is doing. If I weren’t cuffed to the bed, I would talk to her myself.”

“I’ll be back in a bit,” Kim says as she leaves to find Jen.

It turns out that Jen did better than I thought. She kept to her story, telling the jocks that she only left me a note saying that she was sorry we couldn’t be friends anymore. She was sick of her life, and with all the pain of her assault, she thought she was going to die, so she gave up and was waiting for the end. Personally, I doubt they would have killed her. Couture wouldn’t want to give up such a young sex slave.

The girls spent the day with me, and I got the occasional other visitor, but for the most part, people stayed away, so my girls could have me to themselves. Only three of my girls are in the room at a time because they want to be sure Jen has a friend by her side. Thankfully, her parents are good people, and when they found out that their daughter was in the hospital, they came right away. They only kicked her out because, in their mind, she forced them. They still have no clue about the things she has gone through.

It is just after lunch when my family doctor, Dr. Nowak, comes in, asking for the girls to clear the room. Once they are gone, he takes a seat beside my bed and says, “What is with the gag order?”

“What do you mean?”

“Look, I know that you are doing medical experiments. Did you try something on yourself?”

I scoff, saying, “You got to be kidding. I am not about to use myself as a human guinea pig. We are careful to keep to the rules and make sure we are safe. Besides, I don’t participate directly. All I do is review reports and give the occasional bit of advice.”

“Then, why the gag order? Why the secrecy?”

“Let’s just say I was exposed to something, and it can’t get out because of the military applications.”

“Do you want me to butt out and forget I ever saw anything? I won’t do that. There is something wrong with you, and we need to figure it out.”

“I have been infected for over a year. One thing you should do is test my girlfriends. We need to know if it is communicable.”

“I would like to take blood samples from each of them today.”

“I would prefer it if you didn’t tell their parents unless they come back positive.”

“I think that would be for the best anyway. How would I explain why I am testing their daughters without breaking the gag order? Now, what about you? Is there somebody watching your condition?”

“Until you told me about the blood, I didn’t know I was infected. It’s probably best if you give me a regular checkup and monitor the situation. In truth, I feel better and better all the time. I just thought it was because of the reduction of stress.”

“I doubt your stress levels have gone down any. You are a workaholic, and twice in the last year, there were serious attempts on your life where you were injured.”

“Trust me. Compared to the things I lived through in Fort Grand, my stress level is non-existent. You have seen my medical file.”

He usually isn’t in the hospital this time of day, so he needs to get back to his clinic. Our conversation winds down, and he invites the girls back in. They notice he doesn’t leave, and the curiosity is evident. I try to answer it for them, saying, “As I told Dahlia earlier, they found something in my blood. We don’t know if it can be passed on to others. There is no need for you to worry. We are just being cautious. You girls have more contact with me than anybody else. The doctor only wants a quick blood sample to be on the safe side. They can’t release me if I am contagious, so we need a check in the box.”

Of course, they are a bunch of teenage girls, so the irrational fears and nonstop talking begins. Doc leaves me to deal with them as he finds a nurse to get the supplies he needs. When he returns, he has a nurse in tow, and they take the samples before leaving me to the onslaught that comes from the angst of teenage girls. Unfortunately, they have all come to know me well enough to know that I am not telling them the full story.

In truth, I have no clue what is happening, and I am a bit worried. I just focus on the fact that it has been a year with no ill side-effects, and I feel better and better every day.

Before Sam and Gramps come by for a visit, I need to talk with my girls.

I begin, “It appears to be time for me to let Sam and Gramps in on my secret.”

“Why now, asks Dahlia, “Isn’t it a bit risky? Remember what happened with Rachel.”

“Oh, shit. I forgot. Rachel is in the other hospital. I wasn’t going to visit her because she is still mad at me or something. Carol, you should go see her tomorrow. I’m sure she could use the company. I doubt that any of her current friends visit her.”

Moira is still feeling guilty that Jen and I got hurt. Switching the topic back, she asks, “Why now? I don’t like you telling them unless you have to.”

“That is just it. I have no choice. If Gramps notices I used the lawyers for a gag order, he will come to me with questions. I can’t tell him and not Sam. They talk about everything, and Sam will know something is up. It is either now or let things blow up.”

Ever since the first attempt on my life, Carol has been a bit overprotective. She isn’t overbearing about it, but it is no surprise when she objects, “I don’t think it is a good idea. Your Grandad isn’t likely to find out.”

“No, he isn’t, but it is a risk I am not willing to take. Besides, this summer, I intend to head back to Fort Grand and try to find Grace. Do you think those two would let me if they thought I was a 16-year-old boy?”

Grace is the first real girlfriend I had in either life. When we exposed a lot of the corruption in Fort Grand, she went missing. Given Canadian law, private investigators are handicapped in what they can do. If I hired one, whoever has her would see him coming a mile away, and I would never see her again. This summer will be the first chance I will have to find her.

Dahlia, ever the ringleader among my girls, asks, “When are we telling them, and what do you want from us?”

“I don’t want you blurting it out like last time. We will do it when they come to visit before supper.”

“Do you want us to leave so you can do it,” asks Kim.

“No, I think it best if others that know are here. They may need your support.”

I don’t want to talk about it anymore, and the girls can see that, but they are 15-year-old girls. Of course, they want to talk it to death. I endure it without complaint. I know our maturity levels are different, and it is a small price to pay to know that people love you. Heck, if they didn’t love me, they wouldn’t care enough to torment me by talking it to death.

Sam and Gramps show up together with Zlata. I neglected to make plans to keep Zlata busy. It is the first time since I was brought to the hospital that any of them have seen me, so there are the usual niceties of everybody wanting to know the specifics of how I am doing. It isn’t until after supper that Dahlia gets her Mom out of there by asking her to go shopping.

As soon as they leave, Carol closes the door for privacy. This clues Gramps and Sam in that something is up. They both look at me, and I admit, “We need to talk.”

“What is this about,” Gramps asks.

“Dr. Nowak came to see me today. He said he found something in my blood that he had never seen before.”

Sam asks, “What is it?”

“You aren’t going to believe me. How about I let Carol tell you the story of how I told her?”

Everybody looks at Carol, and she blushes but composes herself and begins, “I was probably more apprehensive and curious than you are now. All I knew was that Trent had a big secret and was going to share it with Rachel, Dahlia and me. Earlier in the year, he had a letter mailed to Dahlia.

“On the day he told us, Rachel was supposed to take us to Mount Tolmie, but curiosity got the better of us, and we had him tell us before we got there. He made Rachel pull over. Then he handed us a bunch of newspapers from after he mailed the letter.

“Dahlia opened the letter, and it was a bunch of sports predictions. He had us read through the papers, and every prediction he made was right.”

I cut in, “That is good, but I didn’t mail the letter. I wrote it in front of Dahlia, then sealed it in an envelope and had her mail it ... Moira, how did you learn about it?”

“We were pressuring you into dating all four of us, and you said you refused to date anybody until we knew who you were. You then told us an extraordinary tale about an accident in a hockey game, and it happened when you predicted it would, two days later.”

I butt in, saying, “Now I am going to tell you something you won’t believe and then give you proof. I only ask you not to judge until Sunday. We can talk about it again while the girls are at church. Fact is, I am a time traveller, and that is why my blood is a little messed up. To prove it, I will tell you that the winning numbers to the 6/49 lotto this week are 3 6 7 19 27 32. The bonus number is 20, and the extras are 30 63 70 94. How I know this is in an alternate timeline Mom and Dad are not in jail. Dad played the lotto regularly, but he missed this week when his numbers came up. Don’t ask me for any more lotto numbers because I don’t know them.”

I hand Gramps a ticket with the winning numbers. I had Carol pick it up earlier in the day.

“The pot is only 1.2 mil, and there will be three other winners. Don’t anybody else go out and buy a ticket. If you want me to tell you about the NASCAR wins, I can do that too. You know how much dad loves racing.”

Gramps asks, “If you are a time traveller, why not show us and take us to another time?”

“It doesn’t work that way. I left the time travelling device in the future.”

Sam is understandably skeptical. He argues, “If that were true, you would be a lot older than 15. you sure don’t look any older than 15.”

“In a way, I am older than 15, but this body is 15. Somehow, I ended up in my younger body ... Listen, I said you wouldn’t believe me. We all know it is impossible for me to know the lotto numbers, so let’s just forget about it until Sunday morning.”

“Why are you telling us this now,” asks Gramps.

“I can’t let Doc tell everybody about my strange blood-work. We don’t need people sticking their noses in our business. Think of all the stock advice I hand out or knowledge about companies that they haven’t made public yet. The wrong person sees too much of that, and I would be in jail, along with anybody who follows my advice. We would be accused of insider trading. In truth, we technically are. My only option was to have Doc served with a gag order...”