Me, Myself, and I

old ties and more loose strings

Dad came back to the waiting room alone. He kneeled in front of me. "Julia, Mr. and Mrs. Wood asked for both of us so they could confirm if you were the one in that photograph. Now that you've done that, you should go home and get some sleep."

"That doesn't make any sense. Why call us in the middle of the night? They've clearly known about this for a while now. Why won't you just tell me what's going on?"

"Julia-"

"When can I see Ben?"

He stood up, rubbed the bridge of his nose. "No one is seeing Ben."

"Have you?"

He squeezed his eyes shut. The man couldn't tell a lie if his life depended on it. Something I used to my advantage more than I'd like to admit.

"I'm not leaving until I get to see Ben," I said.

Dad sighed, watched the waiting room door a moment before patting me on the shoulder and walking back out. My legs fidgeted to follow him, but movement across the room sifted my senses. Kyle, who'd been stiff as a board when my dad walked in, once again relaxed in the green love seat he'd claimed. Nick had to catch a ride to Rio for a photoshoot. Micah's whole clan left for their hotel. But Kyle stayed frozen, arms crossed, eyes on the wall ahead. I sat in the corner by an old video game console.

I pulled out my cellphone, tapped the search icon, and whispered "Ben Wood". One video post. I clicked on it. Just an ad for Mayor Peterson.

Ben had left the house after fighting with Kyle and his parents. Who would Ben have gone to see? Anyone? Someone must've found him. No, he'd left with friends. And that narrowed my list of suspects by a substantial amount.

"Kyle?" He raised an eyebrow. "Who dropped Ben off at the hospital?"

He went back to staring at the wall. "Dunno. Some chubby blonde kid. He headed out when we all got here. Said something about a road trip."

This would be easier than I thought.

I went through my old contacts. I knew the location. The first name on the list. Hadn't used it in so long. I clicked the green icon and watched Kyle's eyes close, unconcerned, the ring clicked. Quiet a moment, the zipping thread of traffic, crickets?

"Yuhuh?" he answered.

"Austin. Where are you?"

"Um. Either Mississipi or New Mexico. What time is it?"

His post-graduation roadtrip. Right. "I'm at the hospital. Ben's here."

"Oh, yeah, yeah. Back again? How's he doing? He seemed kind of groggy when I left. Family said he should be good to go soon, though."

I stopped chewing my nail. "What are you talking about? They said he had a seizure."

"Well yeah he has a brain tumor."

"WHAT?"

"Yeah, but it's just benign."

"Buh-what?"

"Noncancerous."

I felt Kyle's eyes on me now. I turned to face the corner, my voice lowering. "Why was Ben with you? What happened?"

"Well we were supposed to meet for a bowling night and then we saw him bee-line out his front door. I think he'd been fighting with his parents or something. He asked us to take him back home after a pit-stop. We were driving back to his place when he had a seizure out of nowhere. But he woke up just fine. We asked what had happened and the doctor dude said Ben was born with a tumor in a bad spot. Frontal, temperate lobes or something. Oh, temporal. Thanks Stuart."

I remembered their bowling night plans. That had been the night of graduation. Over a month ago.

"And you left?"

"He was fine!" The phone chinked. There was a screeching, like tires on black ice. Which didn't make sense because it was the middle of August.

Another therapy kid. His best friend, Stuart's voice: "Austin watch out! Focus on the road. Give me that."

"Don't be such an...agh!"

The sounds of traffic shrieked to a halt. Stuart coughed twice. "Hi Julia. Sorry, Austin just hit a deer."

I should have asked if they were okay. That would make me a decent less self-obsessed human being.

Instead: "So Ben has a brain tumor?"

Stuart paused. "The doctor said there's no way they'd manage the surgery to pull it out. Too dangerous. They did radiation therapy to shrink it down and he recovered fine. Didn't he?"

I turned around again. Sure enough, Kyle stared back.

"Why didn't you guys tell me?" I whispered.

"I mean, ya'll weren't really talking. And it's not like he didn't recover or anything. We left after he woke back up."

Maybe he did recover. The first time. My mind buzzing, I hoped the right words came. "Enjoy the trip. Everything's fine. I just needed clarification."

"But—Austin, stoppit! That thing has probably got rabies and plague and—"

I pulled the phone away from my mouth, hand over the speaker, finger moving to the red icon. My wrists pulsed up to my elbows. The picture was more vivid now, wired in his pale face, still and sharp breaths on a stupid hospital bed. Maybe they'd intended for me to see Ben. But Dad knew better. Thought that I'd look at Ben's unconscious body and I'd see someone else's.

Then again, my dad had retired his place in the hospital long time ago. This article came out over a month ago. Why ask for him? Why now?

"They did that surgery," I said aloud.

Kyle stared at the door a moment, unclamped his hands, then nodded once.