Chapter 43

Sam's Story

The ride home was interesting. Mom was asking all the right questions but it was as if she was doing it just to do it, not to really get the answers. I'd be telling her something about the surgery or Dr Jeff and she would ask another question as if I was done speaking.

We pulled up in the driveway and there was Joey playing catch with Jaz. God. I totally forgot about Jaz. He ran up to me and said "Hi, Sam. Have you seen my Mom?"

So innocent. I looked at my mother in question and she kind of shook her head.

I got down on my knee and hugged him to me. "Yeah, Jaz. I just got back from being with your Mom, and Wes and Les."

"Wow. They've been gone a long time. Are they coming home soon?"

I took him by the hand and led him to our front stoop. I sat on the top step and had him sit in my lap.

"Jaz? Do you know where everybody's been the last couple of days?"

"Uh, Uh."

"Your father has been away on business." (Yeah, monkey business.) "And Wes was taken to the hospital. Do you know what the hospital is?"

"Yeah. It's where they take you when you're going to die." He was starting to cry. I hugged him close.

"Shh. That's true. Some people get real sick and they go to the hospital and they die there. Did you know you went to the hospital once?"

"No. Did I?"

"Yep. When you were born. Your Mom was real fat cuz you were inside her belly. And she went to the hospital and then you came out. We were all there and your mom was so proud of you, lying in her bed in the hospital, resting and holding you. And we all thought you were a beautiful baby and a few days later both you and your Mom came home. Have you ever seen anyone with a broken arm?"

"Yeah, they put this hard white thing on it and everybody writes on it."

"That's right. It's called a cast. And most of the time, they do that in the hospital."

"So is Wes going to have a baby?"

"No, Honey. He did a very bad thing yesterday. You know how we always tell you to look both ways and not run into the street?"

"Yeah. I always look both ways, then look once more."

"Well, that's what you should do. Wes was talking to Les yesterday and he forgot. He just walked right into the street. And he got hit by a car."

"Wow. Does he have a cast?"

"He has three of them. He has one on each leg and another that goes all the way from right below his chin down to just below his stomach and comes all the way around the back except for a hole right here." I showed where his kidneys were.

"Boy. He must really be fucked up."

"Where did you get language like that?"

"From Wes. And Joey."

"Well, I guess it's about as accurate as you can be. Yeah, Wes is really fucked up. But you can't keep calling it that or you're going to get in trouble. Just say he's really sick, OK?"

"OK."

"Remember when you had the measles??

"Yeah. I had to stay home from school and everything."

"Remember how all you wanted to do was sleep?"

"Yeah. I spent all day in bed. And Mom would bring me juice and rub my head and stuff."

Right. Well, when we get sick or hurt, our bodies need to rest so they can heal themselves. Just like you wanted to sleep all the time, Wes has been sleeping since he got hit by the car. His body hurts a lot more than yours when you had the measles. So he's in what they call a coma. He's in a real deep sleep where you can't wake him up and he can't hear anything and he's busy fixing up his body. And when it's fixed enough he'll wake up."

"Wow. So I could tickle him and stuff and he wouldn't do anything?"

"Maybe. But if I know Wes, he'd wake up just to tickle you back. And then he wouldn't get well. We don't want that, do we?"

"No."

"OK. Do you understand everything so far?"

"Yep."

"Good. So, Wes has one other thing wrong. When he got hit by the car, he got hit right in the back where I showed you the hole in the cast. Remember?"

"Uh Huh."

"OK. There are two parts inside your body called kidneys."

"What do you mean, parts?"

"Did you ever see all the little red pieces when your Mom opens up a chicken for dinner?"

"Yeah. Sometimes she cooks some of them."

"Well, those pieces are called body parts or organs. Each one does something special. Here."

I took his hand and put in on my heart.

"Feel that?"

"Yeah."

"What's it doing?"

"Going thump, thump, thump."

"Good. Do you know what that is?"

"Uh, Uh."

"It's my heart. It's an organ or a body part. It beats like that to push blood all through my body. And the blood has stuff in it from this."

I tickled his stomach and he giggled.

"When you eat, all the food goes down into your tummy. It's another organ. It wasn't a total waste. takes all the food and makes it really small, so small you can't even see it. And that food goes in your blood and gets sent all over the body by your heart. And different parts of the body look at the blood and this part may say 'Wow, I like Cheerios' and take some. And another part might like steak and another might like broccoli."

"Yucch."

"That's why you have to eat everything your Mom gives you. You never know what your body might like. Anyway, there's always stuff that nobody likes. And if it stayed in the blood, it would keep adding up and adding up until there wouldn't be room in the blood for anything else. Kind of like a trash can. I needs to be emptied. You see?"

"Yeah. Maybe the broccoli's trash."

"I don't think, so. Anyway, your body has a couple of garbage men called the kidneys. And they're right back here, one on each side. You can get by with one kidney, but they have two, just in case one gets lazy or wants to take the day off or something. So, the blood goes through the kidneys, and they pick up all the garbage and they store it. So you end up with nice clean blood with only good stuff in it. And the kidneys throw out the trash every time you pee or poop. Most of that stuff is trash. Understand?"

"Wow. I guess that's why I'm sposed to wash my hands after I go."

"Right. So Wes got hit by the car. And it broke both his kidneys."

"So does he get casts on them, too?"

"No, Jaz. They had to take them out and throw them away. It was hurting his body to keep them in."

"But he only has two kidneys. Who's going to be his garbage man."