Chapter 5

One of the nurses at the ER remembered Jennifer. She remembered the man in the truck too, and would mention it to her husband that night. But for now she put the things in motion that got Bobby out of the truck and into treatment for post drowning situations. There was still water in his lungs, and they told Jennifer that he would have to stay in the hospital, at least overnight, if not longer. The same nurse who recognized her called Mindy, and handed the phone to Jennifer.

It was an interesting conversation.

Mindy and Jennifer left the front desk of the hospital, headed for the elevators. Mindy had lied, saying they were cousins of Bobby Higginbotham. It was the first time Jennifer had ever heard his first name. Somehow the time had never seemed right to ask him what his name was. Besides, he was an adult, and teens didn’t call adults by their first names. Plus he was The Hermit. He would always be The Hermit to her.

Mindy needn’t have lied, actually. The hospital didn’t really care who visited a patient. When they got to the room, they found him separated from his roommate by a hanging cloth curtain. He was reading a book. His roommate was apparently watching TV on the other side of the curtain. The TV was on, anyway, and aimed that way.

“We have to stop meeting like this,” said Mindy, without a trace of humor in her voice.

He put the book down on his chest.

“Hi,” he said. “I agree wholeheartedly. Can you get me out of here?”

“I doubt it. I had to lie to get us in here.”

“Why?” he asked.

“I didn’t think they’d let anybody except family see you,” she said.

“Please don’t say you’re my sister,” he said, his voice heavy.

“Why not?” she asked.

What he was thinking was the word: “incest.” What he said was, “Never mind. Thanks for coming.” He looked over at Jennifer, who was just staring at him. “Thanks for saving my life ... again.” The last word sounded almost impatient, or scolding.

“I’m sorry!” she said. “I just came to see you. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I wasn’t scared,” he insisted.

“You know what I mean!“ she hissed in a vibrant whisper.

“I do,” he said. “You are forgiven.”

“I want you to know my daughter is not going to trespass on your land again,” said Mindy, her voice formal.

“Wait!” he said

“Maybe that was the wrong word,” said Mindy. “What I mean is that she won’t come over any more without notice, and your affirmation that it’s a good time for you.”

“It’s okay,” he said.

“No, it’s not,” said Mindy. “Every time she just pops over to see you, something terrible happens. There has been enough of that.”

“But it’s not,” he insisted. “Terrible, I mean.”

“You almost drowned!” said Mindy.

“Yes, but something else happened ... something important.” His face was twisting, as if he was in pain.

“What could be more important than almost drowning?”

“I don’t know yet,” he said.

“What?” She was clearly confused.

“I’m no good at talking like this,” he said. “So just listen, okay? I don’t know if I can say this or not. I’m still not sure about any of this, but Doctor Zee says it was important, and I believe him.”

“Who is Doctor Zee?” asked Mindy.

He glared at her. “Are you going to be quiet and let me talk?”

She nodded, her lips firmly closed. She looked unhappy.

“He’s my new shrink,” he said. “I mean he’s the resident shrink here, and somebody told him I was suicidal, so he came to see me.”

“You’re -” Mindy started, but then chopped it off as his hand came up and he pointed directly at her. Then he took that finger and brought it slowly to his lips, in the universal sign to be quiet.

“They asked me if I’d ever had thoughts of hurting myself. Like an idiot, I said yes. That was a long time ago. But they all went apeshit and called Doctor Zee and took all the sharp things away from me and all that horse shit.” He blinked. “Sorry. Poop. Horse poop.” He threw up a hand. “Anyway, it turned out to be a good thing, because he’s easy to talk to. So we talked, and I told him what happened ... and he says maybe I’m ready to make a breakthrough, because Jennifer is different than anybody else. But I’m still not sure, and I’m scared, so I don’t know what to do yet. But it definitely isn’t bad.”

Mindy looked at him for a long half minute. “Does any of what you just said have anything to do with you almost drowning?”

“No,” he said, almost happily. “It just happened while I was almost drowning.”

“But you’re going to be okay.”

“I’m fine,” he said. “Except I need a favor.” He frowned. “I think.”

“What can I do for you?” she asked.

“Not you ... Jennifer,” he said.

Mindy looked at her daughter. Jennifer was uncharacteristically quiet. Of course that might have something to do with the fact that her mother had screamed at her for going off without telling her, and going to The Hermit’s place without telling her, and somehow getting mixed with whatever it was that had put The Hermit in the hospital. Jennifer had been genuinely contrite about it. She’d been really scared this time, and knew things had been very serious this time.

“What could my daughter do for you?” she asked, still staring at Jennifer.

“I need ... Doctor Zee thinks I need...” He stopped, and was quiet long enough that Mindy looked away from Jennifer and at him again. His face was writhing again. He was obviously in some kind of distress. “He-says-I-need-for-her-to-touch-my-scars!” he gasped, his words crashing into each other as they burst from his lips.

Mindy blinked. “You mean your battle scars?”

Suddenly his distress was gone, and he leaned up off the pillow, his abdominal muscles lifting his upper torso effortlessly.

“How do you know about my scars?” he whispered. “Did she tell you? She told you, didn’t she?” And, just like that the distress was back, even worse. He was panting, his eyes wild.

“No!” said Mindy, much too loudly for the environment. But it calmed him. “She did not tell me.”

“Then how?” he asked. It was almost a whine.

“When the doctor cleaned your wound ... when he pulled that splinter out of your calf. I saw them then.” Her words had no special tone or emphasis.

For the second time in two days, he found out someone had seen his scars, or at least a portion of his scars, and had not reacted to them with revulsion.

“Why would the doctor think her touching them would help you?” asked Mindy. There was only curiosity in her voice.

He was floundering a bit. He knew it. He pushed the call button for the nurse. “Can you hold that thought for a minute?” he asked, his voice shaky.

“Yes,” she said.

She waited patiently, watching him, but he did nothing. A nurse came into the room.

“You called?” she asked.

“Yes. Is Doctor Zee, by chance, available to come talk to me?”

“Are you in distress?” asked the nurse. She turned to Mindy and Jennifer. “I’m sorry. You’re going to have to leave now.”

“No!” barked Bobby. “They need to be here. He needs to talk to them. Is he available? Yes or no?”

The nurse was clearly ambivalent. She knew the psychiatrist was treating this man. She didn’t like this. She avoided working the psych ward intentionally. She just wanted regular patients. They hadn’t moved this patient to the psych ward, but she was still nervous about him.

“I’ll see,” she said, stiffly.

“He recommended a treatment,” said Bobby, calmer now, “and these people may be able to help with that. I just need him to meet them, and explain some things. I’m not going to freak out or anything.”

“I’ll see,” said the nurse again. She hurried out.

“Please stay,” said Bobby, addressing Mindy again. “He can explain it to you better than I can. It’s really complicated.”

“He thinks she can help you with ... something?” she asked.

“I got hurt bad,” he said. “In the war, I mean. Real bad. And it fucked up ... I mean it messed up my mind. I’m better now, but there are still ... um, I think they call them issues. And something happened while she was saving my life today that the doc says is important. It sounds silly, so please, can you wait?”

Mindy had meant for their visit to be in and out, as painless as possible, and as clean as possible. She still liked this odd man, but it was true that whenever Jennifer went over there, bad things happened. Perhaps it was better for everyone that he be allowed to be a hermit, and they go on with their old lives.

But he obviously held no grudge. He even looked happy to see them. At least part of the time ... when he wasn’t freaking out.

The nurse came back.

“It will be half an hour. Perhaps a little longer.”

“Okay, thanks,” said Bobby.

The nurse left again. Bobby looked at them. “Is there any chance I could talk you into going somewhere and getting me a cheeseburger and fries? I’m going to starve to death on the food they serve me here. And maybe by the time you get back, he’ll be here.”

“You can’t tell me about this yourself?” asked Mindy.

“It would sound flaky coming from me,” he said. “I know it would. And he can explain how it works. I don’t know how it works. All I know is that what happened when she helped me get dressed to go to the hospital ... it was a good thing.”

Mindy looked at her daughter. Jennifer hadn’t said anything about helping get anyone dressed. She’d just said she shouted at him and he fell in the pool and didn’t come up. It was Jennifer’s belief that she’d scared him, and he’d hit his head on something ... or something.

“Come with me,” she said to her daughter. “It appears we have more to discuss.”

“He was taking a bath when I got there,” said Jennifer, who couldn’t meet her mother’s eyes.

“You went in his house and yelled at him while he was taking a bath?!” yelled her mother.

“No, he takes a bath in that big pool of water outside.”

“And he was naked.”

“Yes.”

“So last time he saw your naked breasts, and this time you saw his naked ... everything!”

“I wasn’t paying any attention to that,” argued Jennifer. “Not when he started drowning. I yelled ... to kind of tease him or something ... and he went all stiff and then fell down. And when he didn’t come up I went in after him. My clothes were still wet when you came to get me, Mom!”

“I know that,” said Mindy crossly. “I was there.”

“Well when I did CPR on him, and he woke up, I knew he had to go to the hospital, like I said. But he was still naked.”

“That’s the part you left out!” accused her mother.

“So I got some clothes and helped him put them on. He was coughing so hard that he couldn’t do it by himself.”

“Why didn’t you tell me he was naked?”

“What difference did it make?” asked Jennifer. “I had other things to think about.”

“Was it hard?” asked her mother.

“Was what hard?” asked Jennifer.

“Don’t play games with me, Jennifer Elaine Franks!”

“Oh,” said Jennifer. “You mean his ... um ... organ?”

“Organ? You’ve got to be kidding me,” sighed Mindy. “His penis ... dick ... tool ... cock ... his prick, Jennifer! Was it hard?”

Had Jennifer been a few years older, she might have realized that was a very strange question for her mother to ask, under the circumstances. But she wasn’t. And she was used to answering the questions adults put to her.

“Not later,” she said. “When I helped put his clothes on.”

“Not later,” mused Mindy. “So before?”

Again, Jennifer didn’t think this was a strange chain of questions.

“When I first got there. I saw what he was doing and sort of watched for a little bit.” She looked away.

“And it was hard,” suggested her mother.

“Yes. He was washing it.”

“Over and over, I bet,” said Mindy, irony dripping from her voice.

“Yes.”

“So you watched him masturbate, and then jumped out and yelled at him? It’s a wonder you didn’t give the poor man a heart attack!”

“I didn’t think he would mind!” complained Jennifer.

“And what in the world convinced you that surprising a man while he was jerking off just wouldn’t be a problem, Jennifer?”

“Well ... he had seen me sort of naked ... so I thought...” She shrugged.

“And what did you think would happen then?” asked her mother, no longer sarcastic. “Did you think the two of you would play show and tell, and laugh and have tea?”

“I didn’t think about that at all,” admitted the girl.

“And that is the problem,” said Mindy.

When they got back, grease-stained bag in hand, there was a short, balding man with a Van Dyke beard standing beside the bed. He and Bobby were chatting amiably. The man looked at them and beamed. He spoke and his voice came out heavily accented, as if he had been in the U.S. only a very short time.

“I am Dok-tor Ephriam Zebelstrauski, und I am zo de-lahted to meet you.” He stuck his hand out. As Mindy shook it, he said “Ferry, ferry de-lahted, I am indeed! You must call me Dok-tor Zee. Efferybody does.”

“You’re the psychiatrist?” said Mindy.

“I am, indeed, ze head schrin-ker!” he said, clicking his heels together. He looked at Jennifer. “Und you, my dear, are ze young vuman who has rrrre-paired somezing in Bobby’s head!” He rolled all his ‘r’s in a ridiculous manner, but smiled so much it was impossible not to like him.

“Could you explain that?” Asked Mindy. “How could she do anything to help him ... um ... mentally?”

“Ach!” said the doctor. “Hee’s pheesycial inchuries - zey are long time fixed. Boot up here,” He tapped his head with one finger, several times, “he ees still vurried zat peeple vill be horrified ven zey see dese scars. Yes?”

“I understand,” said Mindy. “But they’re just scars!”

“Ex-actly!” bellowed the doctor, clearly elated. He turned to Bobby. “I see vat chu mean!” Then he turned back to Mindy. “It zeems, mah dear, zat you, and your beautiful dotter, here, do not rrrrreact to zeze scars as do most ozzer peeple. You are not disgusted by zem ... yes?”

“Of course not,” said Mindy. “It’s terrible that it happened to him ... that he had to go through that, but they are only scars. He got them protecting us. How could we possibly dishonor him by being so shallow as to be disgusted by his scars?”

If the doctor smiled any wider, it seemed as if his face would split in two. He had a gold tooth, which seemed odd, somehow.

“Zeese attitude is goot for heem,” said the doctor. “You make heem feel normal, yes?”

“He is normal!” insisted Mindy.

The doctor looked at Bobby. “I like zeese vooman ferry, ferry much. Zey must both touch your scars, if you please.”

“What is all this about touching his scars?” complained Mindy. “If it bothers him for people to see them, it must surely be worse for people to touch them. Why would you want us to hurt him?”

“May I ask a q-vestion?”

She nodded.

“Vood eet bozzer you to touch hees scars?”

“Of course not!“ she yelled.

“Vell,” he said calmly. “Eet bozzers efferyvun else. Zey vill not touch heem. Zey trrrreat heem like he has disease.”

“That’s awful!” said both Mindy and her daughter at once. It was as if they had practiced.

“Can you see how haffing zomeone touch heem, who ees not distressed by eet ... might be helpful?” The doctor raised his shoulders in an exaggerated shrug at the end of his question.

“Oh,” said Mindy.

“I touched him already,” said Jennifer. “When I was helping him get...” She stopped, and blushed.

“I told him about that,” said Bobby. “I told him how it didn’t seem to matter to you. It blew me away. Nobody has ever touched me like that before.”

“Nobody?” Mindy’s voice almost broke.

“Don’t cry,” begged Bobby, urgently. “They all cry. They all pity me. I don’t want pity.”

“Of course,” said Mindy, wiping her eyes. “It’s just so sad that people can’t see past ... that.”

“Zo!” blurted the doctor. “You vill do ziss ting?”

“Touch him?” Mindy shrugged. “Of course. Why not?”

“I love zees vuman!” barked the doctor.

But then he was all business. He invited the women to come to the bedside, one on either side. He told Bobby to roll over onto his stomach.

“Now?” There was panic in his voice.

“No time lahk zee prrrresent!” the doctor belted out.

“Shit,” groaned Bobby. When he rolled over, the hospital gown he was wearing gaped open, showing everything he had.

Including hundreds and hundreds of puckered, white scars that covered his back, buttocks and the back of his legs.

Both women gasped at the enormity of it. They both saw his shoulders tighten ... his whole body, actually. To Jennifer it looked almost like what had happened when she yelled, was going to happen again. Instinctively she put both hands out and pressed them to his mottled back. The skin was hot. He stopped moving, but it was different this time. It wasn’t so tense. Mindy added both her hands, on the other side, and whispered, “Relax, Bobby. It’s fine.”

“Ohhhhhhh,” he groaned. His upper torso shook, then, and they could hear sobs coming from the pillow his face was buried in. They looked at the doctor, who smiled sadly, now, but motioned for them to move their hands.

For the next ten minutes, the two women slid their hands over every inch of his body they could reach. Jennifer tried to touch each, individual scar with her forefinger. It was a coping mechanism, because the damage was so horrific, but her mind handled it well. Mindy did his buttocks, but that was fine with Jennifer. He cried, and every once in a while he jerked as if someone had touched live wires to his body, but eventually he calmed. When he stopped crying, and turned his head sideways, they stopped sliding their hands, and just let them lay on his skin.

“Zis vas goot, yes?” said Doctor Zee, softly.

Bobby nodded, rubbing the side of his face against the pillow. “Zees vas goot,” he aped, tiredly. Then he craned his neck to look at Mindy. “Thank you. I can’t believe it. I can never repay you for what you did for me today.”

“We’ll see about that,” said Mindy, her voice light.

“Anything,” said the man on the bed, who felt fully relaxed for the first time since he could remember. He’d always been alert ... on guard ... worried about people reacting badly to him. Now, at least with these two people, who he had only known for a month or a little more, he felt fully human again. It was almost like they were members of his squad. “Anything you want ... I will do it for you.”

“We’ll see about that too,” she said softly.

And then she leaned down and gently kissed a scar on his back.

That much intimacy, between people who were really just barely friends, was a bit much for them all to take. When Doctor Zee left, things got uncomfortable, somehow. Bobby was still lying on his stomach, his entire backside exposed.

“I can’t turn over,” said Bobby, as his face got red. “Could you pull the sheet over me?”

“Of course!” said Mindy, doing that.

To her it was obvious why he couldn’t turn over. She was close, but not enough to get the cigar. While it was true that Bobby wouldn’t have wanted to turn over and flaunt his manhood in the first place, the intimacy of what had just happened had affected him deeply, creating a kind of passion that resulted in a diamond hard erection. He had almost ejaculated, which was one reason he had been sobbing. It had been so long since he’d felt the loving touch of another human being, that he had ignored the guilt his erection caused. But now that guilt was back. And he knew himself well enough to know that this kind of erection wasn’t going away without some specific attention. So he had double the reason not to turn over.

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