Chapter 4

Monday Sep 11, 1978

Two days later, Doortje sat across from Liesbeth in the hospital waiting room scheming with her sister. If only they had known that their two older sisters had done the same thing, and for the same person!

“Janneke still isn’t here and it’s been too long. We need to check up on Billy and make sure he’ll be alright” Doortje said, “I don’t know what else to do!”

“Well, he’s still alive so we have that working in our favor” replied Liesbeth, “I’ve made a few trips past his door and take quick peeks when I can.”

Doortje shook her head. “This isn’t funny. I haven’t been able to get in there because he’s had too many visitors and the nurses won’t tell me anything.

“Just tell them you’re family, they’ll tell you.”

“That’s lying and I refuse to do it. You should know better than suggesting that!”

Liesbeth laughed and began to stand up. “Yeah, sometimes I forget you’re Miss Goody Two Shoes. Fine, I’ll do it myself.”

Doortje grabbed her arm and yanked her back into the chair. “I will not allow it and mother would be disappointed if she found out. We do this the right way. I’ll go in now and you keep an eye out. Alert me if you see anyone.”

“Will do, sis. Will do.”

Doortje nervously walked down the hallway towards Billy’s room. She kept telling herself over and over to act like she belonged but it was easier said than done. She turned the corner and looked into his room causing her heart to sink, his head and arm were hooked up to bunch of equipment. Was he crying? She thought? Silently she moved towards him approaching at an angle that would make it difficult for him to see her. Her eyes gazed upon him and love filled her heart only to be replaced with jealousy of her sister Janneke who hadn’t arrived yet. From a physical standpoint, the body before her was cute enough, nothing special but it was the soul that lied within it she was in love with. In some metaphysical dimension, his soul was calling out for her and she would have to sacrifice it all to watch her sister take him for herself to fulfill what needed to be done.

Her shyness now gone, she gently laid her hand on his good shoulder causing him to twitch in surprise. His eyes turned towards her while his left hand moved to touch her arm. Her touch was soothing and the tension immediately left his body. She walked around behind his head and put both her hands on his skull and whispered.

“My name is Doortje but you won’t remember any of this. I need to do some fact finding and it won’t take long.”

She began quietly chanting in a strange language that was surprisingly familiar to Billy. Where had he heard it before? Soon Billy was in a trance as Doortje probed and explored into his body taking inventory of his injuries. The list of ailments were safely stored away in her head but it was the unexpected memories that surprised and shocked her just before bringing Billy out of the trance. It would take him a few minutes to fully regain his wits which would give her time to slip out of the room undetected. Tempted as she was to leave an easter egg in his mind, she rejected the notion and disengaged to hear Liesbeth’s warning sound.

Liesbeth was actively engaging Cindy in conversation as a delay tactic while they made their way down the hall. Cindy couldn’t take it any more and pushed past only to turn the corner to see Doortje moving away from Billy. A reaction of confusion first crossed her but then fire began to burn in her eyes as she looked back and forth at the two sisters.

“YOU! Aren’t you one of the new girls in school from some foreign country?” Without giving them a chance to respond she continued “This is MY boyfriend and I do not appreciate your presence in this room! We don’t operate that way in THIS country! Maybe you should just go back to your dumpy third world country and steal someone there!”

Doortje was still trying to recover from the verbal lashing and slowly edged towards the door to get away from what she was afraid would build up into physical violence. She’d seen the way Cindy acted at school and knew full well what the girl was capable of. Cindy was no match for her physical strength, but that would out her as being even more different than she already appeared to the other kids at school.

“I was just walking by and he sounded upset so I thought I’d check up on him to make sure he was okay.”

Cindy looked to Billy and saw his puffy eyes and her head shot back to Doortje. “What did you say to upset him? You’d better tell me the truth or I’ll make you regret it!”

Liesbeth approached Cindy and started to put a hand on her should in hopes to deescalate the situation but Cindy whipped her arm around to deflect the attempt. “Don’t you lay a finger on me or you’ll be hearing from my lawyer. You will stay away from Billy both here and at school and if I see you as close as five feet from him, you’ll rue the day you crossed me! Now GET OUT! And don’t think I don’t know you were working together against me! I’ll have my eye on you!”

Doortje and Liesbeth beat a hasty retreat so as to prevent the hospital staff from taking notice. “Well” Doortje said. “We accomplished our mission and yet failed it at the same time.”

Liesbeth chuckled. “I’d say that pretty much describes most everything we’ve done lately, don’t you think?”

Nodding to agree with her sister, Doortje said “I’d say you were correct because we haven’t been doing much thinking.”

“Oh, by the way, nice little fib you had there Miss I Won’t Lie” Liesbeth said in a teasing manner while nudging Doortje’s ribs.

Doortje just hung her head even lower as they exited the hospital confused by the memories she encountered swirling around in Billy’s head.

Cindy spun on Billy after the girls left the room. “Are those the hussies you’ve been hanging out with when I’m not around?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, I’ve never met them before in my life although one of them does look a little familiar. Do you know who they are?”

“Exchange students from some European country and pretty weird ones if you ask me. Nobody wants to hang out with them because they talk and dress funny and mostly keep to themselves. I suspect they probably moved in over the summer, but like I said; nobody knows.”

“Why did you call them hussies if you don’t know them?”

Cindy became agitated from the line of questioning she was receiving and lack of support so she made an attempt to retake control of the discussion with her reply: “Because they are, now; can we just get past all this? I came here to see you and all you do is hassle me with needless questions.”

“I see, have a seat and lets talk. I’m up for some company since it’s boring around here and I’d like to get to know you better. Why don’t you start by telling me a little about yourself and your family?”

Cindy pulled up a seat and started talking about herself for well over an hour when Tiffany showed up holding a big bag of food.

“Oh, I’m sorry Cindy, I wasn’t expecting company so I didn’t get you anything, please forgive me” she said while spreading the food out onto the tray that had been tucked away in the corner.

“That’s fine Mrs. R” Cindy replied, “I was just headed out anyways. Good night, everyone” and then she was gone. No hug or kiss for Billy, just gone.

Before Billy was able to start a conversation with his mom, a nurse came in and tilted the bed so he was in a better position to eat. Since the entire bed had to tilt, he didn’t get much angle but it was enough to chew and swallow.

“It’s against hospital policy to bring food in, but I didn’t see anything” she said smiling to Tiffany.

Tiffany rolled the tray over to the left side and made sure he could reach everything. She had been told earlier it was important for him to do as much for himself as possible so why not start with eating?

“Billy, I brought you some Kentucky Fried Chicken since I know that was your favorite. I hope you still like it.” The nurse did an “oooooo” sound and then said “This is gonna get messy, I’ll bring some damp washcloths to clean up with.”

“Did you know that twenty years from now they will renamed it to KFC to get Fried out of the name? The country will go through a health fad where brand names that might be construed as being unhealthy get renamed in an attempt to disassociate from anything that might be deemed as being unhealthy. Fried foods were a major focus for the health Nazi’s.”

After finishing her bite of chicken his mom asked “Health Nazi’s? Where did you get that? It all sounds promising, I’m sure lots people need to eat healthier, did they make it healthier?”

“No, they just figured if the word wasn’t there, people wouldn’t pay attention but they did eventually start to offer a few healthier choices as did most of all the other food chains. Take gluten for example...”

“Glue-What? Never heard of it.”

“It’s a key ingredient in bread products but many people are allergic to it, many not even knowing it. The newer genetically modified grains didn’t help any, but that’s neither here or there. You’d have many products claiming to be 100% Gluten free when in fact they never had it to begin with. Makes it sound healthier, though. Imagine a big 100% Gluten free sign on Coke products? The stuff is unhealthy, yet that claim somehow attempts to make it sound better for you.”

“That’s too bad” Tiffany said as she was shoveling some mashed potatoes in her mouth.

“In the 90’s, they required nutrition information on all labels so people could make informed choices. For the most part, it was a good idea but almost immediately they started to manipulate the portion size so the numbers looked better than it really was. For example, the number of calories listed would be 190 and you think it’s for the whole thing, but it’s not. If you read the fine print, the serving size was only half so in reality you would consume 380 calories. Most people would just skim the numbers not knowing they were comparing apples to oranges.” It took him some time, but Billy finally figured out how to eat the fried chicken with one hand and an immobilized head. “Mmmm, this tastes heavenly, much better than I remember. You did good, mom but I may get a little messy!”

They made small talk in between bites until all the food was gone. Tiffany did have to help him drink since it was a bit too complicated for Billy to manage on his own.

“Mom, tell me about Cindy. She told me some stuff but I’d like to hear things from your view point.”

“What would you like to know?”

Billy knew avoidance when he saw it and remembered what she told him before about not wanting to say too much. It was almost as if there were things she wouldn’t disclose unless the right question was asked which meant learning anything really useful was an iffy proposition.

“I don’t know, stuff like how long we’ve been dating, what kind of person she is and maybe a little about her family?”

“Well, you’ve pretty much already figured out what of girl she’s and you’ve been dating since the ninth grade.”

“What grade am I in now?”

“You are a junior, at least you will be when you start back to school. She seems like a nice girl on the outside but it’s hard to tell since you guys didn’t spend much time around us. I get the sense she is a little preoccupied with her vanity and popularity but that probably has something to do with her father being political in nature. He’s a very influential man and his status in the community is everything to him. If those are the family values she’s been exposed to then that is probably what she values, too. The apple rarely falls far from the tree.”

“You mean she’s spoiled and he’s powerful, which increases her self-worth in her own eyes” he interrupted. “The carefully chosen words and body language in which you delivered the message suggests people are afraid or wary of him which means he probably isn’t a very nice person; at least to those who don’t suck up to him.”

Tiffany quickly fell backwards into her seat with a surprised look on her face. She wiggled in her chair in order to sit up a little straighter and replied: “I can see beating around the bush with you doesn’t work but I should’ve known that by now. It will take awhile to get used to the new you. Since you can apparently see through me, I think she is a spoiled little child who uses her daddy’s position to improve herself at the costs of others. I suspect she dates you for our money and your fathers’ position being CEO of a major corporation in hopes that one day you guys will get married and she’ll have access to it all. It also wouldn’t surprise me to discover her father put her up to it, either. You probably already know or suspect this, but I think she does not love you and is treating this as an arranged marriage so there is a good chance there is another guy somewhere whom she really likes but sees in private.”

Now it was Billy’s turn for the unexpected pause as those words reverberated through his head.

“Wow mom, that was pretty heavy but I appreciate the honesty. I have to think you’re pretty close to being correct. Now, to switch the subject a little bit, just how much money do we have? What’s our life like? What was I like and what other friends do I have outside of Cindy? I’d like to know more about you, too.”

Tiffany relaxed into her chair and took a deep breath. “It pains me to say this, but you were probably just as bad as Cindy. The two of you ascended to the top of the social food chain in your school from what I can tell. She was a cheerleader and you were the starting quarterback for the football team which was unusual for Freshman. Over the summer, you two got it into your heads that you wanted to start a band and you both quit since those activities did not leave you with much free time. Your father has been pressuring you to go to the University of Florida since that is his alma mater, but you’re partial to the University of Miami. That loud rock-n-roll you guys play is just horrible, especially those guys who wear all the makeup.”