The Aspen Experiments

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – Date Night

Next Monday John and I bumped into each other, literally. I was walking around a corner in the science building and I threw up all over him. He laughed it off to Dr. Hendricks, and got us out of physics, but I didn’t appreciate his niceness so much this time. The whole horrible thing was his fault. Plus, I had to go see Dr. Shammas again.

 His hair looked as bushy as ever and he'd had Mexican food for lunch. He looked in my eyes and ears and throat and listened to my chest.  He asked all sorts of questions about my symptoms.

“It’s just the one symptom,” I told him. “I feel perfectly fine most of the time. I think, well, I think…”  I trailed off. He was looking at me with suppressed excitement. I felt like an idiot trying to say that another student was making me sick. 

“Maybe we should do a blood test to make sure you don’t have a parasite of some sort,” he said, still looking at me closely. “And I think, maybe a vision test,” he paused, as if debating whether to allow himself a piece of dessert. “Yes,” he finally said, like it was a treat, “I’ll do a vision test as well, sometimes changes in vision can cause disorientation and nausea.”  I half expected him to rub his hands together and laugh or maybe drool in anticipation.  He took some of my blood and while taping the cotton ball on me, asked me how I was adjusting to Rosemary Choate.

"It's great, just great," I said.

"You'll need to lay here for a minute. We don't want you getting dizzy or nauseated again." He leaned forward. "I understand your parents are in Mexico City?"

"Yep."

"Second largest city in the world."

"Okay." I didn't feel like being helpful. I'd gotten one too many strange vibes from him. Not to mention smells.

"I grew up in Cairo," he said. "Not as large as Mexico City, but close."

"Huh."

"A missionary couple came to Manshiyet Nasr, where I lived. They didn't stay long, but their visit meant a lot to me as a child."

"That's...that's cool. Is that how you became a Christian?" I asked. Maybe I was the one with a problem, judging him just because he liked to talk about religion.

"No, no, we were already Christians, but they illustrated an interesting point to me."

"What?" I asked.

"The necessity of the end."

Okay, I wasn't wrong, he was weird. "The end of what?"

"The end of the world, the beginning of the new heaven and earth - eternity. Don't you believe in heaven?"

Questions about heaven make me uneasy. People who spring questions about heaven are capable of anything... like hugging you unexpectedly or picking your nose.

"Yeah, I believe in heaven," I told him. "Can I go now? I've got a lot of work to do."

"Certainly." He leaned back in his chair finally. "I'll see you on Tuesday at ten for your vision test."

"This coming Tuesday?" I clarified.

"Oh... let's see, it'll take a week to set it up... Let's make it the following Tuesday, just in case."

Jayden caught me on the way to my room, and asked me out on a date. I pictured myself puking all over John.  "You know what? I'd love to!" I said, somewhat defiantly. He was a little taken aback at my tone, but happy anyway.

Then I went on to my room and slept until the phone rang. It was my mom, calling from Mexico. Dr. Shammas had called to inform her of my illness. She offered twice to fly me out to them, or for her to fly to see me. I tried to convince her I was fine.