The words came again. Gus said Johnny was…..alive? Johnny was here? With supreme effort, Maggie opened her eyes.
“Where is he?” she croaked. Her throat felt like it had been used to sand down an entire gymnasium floor. The pain shot through her and made her shudder and close her eyes once more. She opened them immediately and gazed at Gus. There was a flurry around her as a series of little beeps sounded and two nurses and one doctor came running. The patient was awake. Maggie endured the bustle, poking, prodding, and questions with as little movement and speech as possible. Irene was there, bursting in and rushing to Maggie’s bedside. Tears streaked down her soft cheeks. Shad was allowed a little later, but he hung back by the door. He stared at her wordlessly, but she could see the relief in his brown eyes, a relief that relaxed the tightness around his mouth and curved his lips into a small smile. She tried to smile back. Her lips were so dry she could only manage a grimace, so she raised her hand to give him a little wave. The motion caused a tug at her arm and she looked down at the I.V. stuck in her left wrist. It reminded her of the dream. She had been with Johnny, but he couldn’t see her. He had been driving Irene’s father’s car. He had smelled so good, and he was painfully real. The dream was unlike anything she’d ever experienced.
“We’ll let you rest, dear. I can see that you’re still a little foggy.” Maggie realized that Irene was talking to her, and had been talking to her for several seconds. She looked at her aunt apologetically. Shad tipped his head in farewell and Irene and Gus began to follow him out.
“Gus!” Maggie’s raspy whisper rose from the bed, compelling him to wait.
“Go on. I’ll just be a minute,” Gus assured Irene. He waited until they left the room and the door swung closed behind them. He turned and looked at Maggie soberly.
“Johnny,” Maggie insisted, her eyes beseeching.
“He’s here. Down the hall, actually. He’s recovering from a gunshot wound to his chest. He’s pretty out of it. I don’t know if I can get you in to see him… but I promise you I’ll try. He’s got a sister…she’s looking out for him. I don’t know what she’s told the hospital staff.”
“A gunshot wound?” Maggie scraped out in horror. “Someone shot Johnny?” Then the rest of what Gus said registered in her wool-filled brain. “A sister?” Maggie rasped in disbelief.
“I never told you. I guess I just never thought about it. Chief Bailey and Dolly Kinross had a daughter. You know Principal Bailey?”
Maggie nodded her head, dumbfounded.
“They found him at the school, just lying in the rubble, right where the rotunda stood. He wasn’t burned or anything. He just had that wound, and he’d lost a lot of blood. Principal Bailey happened to be there when he was found, and she recognized him. I reckon she’s spent her whole life lookin’ for his face…and her poor momma before that. She’s pretty shaken up, but she’s a strong woman.” Gus wrung his hands, obviously missing the hat brim he usually abused.
“He’s really alive? He’s really here?” Maggie felt the realization rise up and tears spill over onto her cheeks.
“He really is, Miss Margaret. As God is my witness, he really is. Praise Jesus,” Gus marveled, shaking his head in wonder. “I ain’t never seen the like…”
~2~
And a Time to Every Purpose
2011
Everyone was calling him John Doe. He had stayed silent the first few times he had awakened. At first it was because he didn’t know where the hell he was. Shoot, he didn’t know WHO the hell he was. He had fallen back into oblivion before he’d had time to ponder anything at all. The next time he was awake for longer. The first thing he was truly aware of was pain. He hurt everywhere, like he had been run over by Gene’s tow truck. Gene. He remembered Gene. And little Harv. He’d drifted off to sleep not long after, reassured by the fact that he remembered something and someone. When he woke up again, a woman sat by his bed. The room was dark and no one but the two of them sat amid the bleeping machines that looked like the robots from one of the programs on the television Jimbo’s dad had purchased and now proudly displayed in his living room. Jimbo’s pop had positioned the set right in front of the windows so everyone who lived on the block would know he had a TV. He left the windows opened when he watched, and sometimes the kids playing ball in the street would abandon their games and listen outside. Johnny had been able to watch it a couple of times. Sometimes the whole neighborhood came over to watch the thing.
At first he thought the woman was his mother. As soon as the thought occurred to him, his mother’s face rose up in his mind. The glow of the lights was hardly sufficient to make out the woman’s features, but there was something very like his mother in the way she sat, her head nodding in sleep, her neck bowed gracefully in tired supplication. It wasn’t until a nurse came in and snapped on the light to check his vitals and poke at him that he saw that the woman was not his momma after all. She was wearing men’s pants, and her hair was styled in a boyish cut. The nurse also wore pants….when did that become the norm? Hmmm. He didn’t care for it. He had always kind of liked a nurse’s uniform; there was something sexy about it. The woman sleeping in the chair bolted straight up and met his gaze in alarm.