Boys of West Denton ✓

chapter thirty-seven

harris

There's nothing quite so fun as waking up in a hospital bed. "Mom?" My throat is raspy, sore. There's this weird, chilly tickling in my nose, but when I put my hand there to see what's up, I feel one of those little oxygen tubes, and the discomfort of an IV drip in the crook of my elbow. My eyes are attempting to adjust to the fluorescent lights when a deep voice comes out of nowhere.

"Harris?"

My eyes focus on a man in a lab coat and scrubs, holding a clipboard. He looks familiar, although I couldn't tell you why. He's just got this familiar nose. I can't explain it.

"Glad to see you awake," he says, grinning through a thick, bushy beard and crossing over to me. He's pale like Seb, although his eyes are a sharp, similarly familiar green. I feel like I've seen him around, but can't figure out where. "I'm Doctor Miller."

Ohhhh.

Puzzle pieces slide into place through my brain fog. Miller. Evan. Mom's coworker doctor guy. Maybe puppy guy friend? Interesting.

"Neil?" I guess.

He laughs. I don't know why he laughs, but it's deep and throaty, kind of like if Santa just kicked back a bourbon on the rocks. "It's nice to finally meet you."

"Uh, yeah, you too. Why am I here?" I've realized that I'm in this hospital bed with little The Fault in Our Stars-style tubes shoved up my nose, wearing a hospital gown and all. "And where's my mom?"

"Your mom went to go home and grab a quick change of clothes, and make sure Peaches was alright. She was still in her scrubs when she brought you here. Do you remember her bringing you here?"

I shake my head. After that blood in my elbow—which, oh god, never again, please—there's nothing.

"Well," Neil—the Neil, ohmygodwow—says, "you had a really bad fever. We ended up taking some blood and doing a sputum culture. You were somewhat awake at one point, and we took a urine sample too. When you were out again, we also took an X-ray."

"Well, with all that, I'm guessing you know why I'm here?" I can't see Mom leaving me alone if they hadn't figured it out. Still, all I can remember of this morning is fuzzy, yet concerning. Coughing up blood. Searing body pain, equally searing migraine. Using up nearly an entire roll of new toilet paper.

Instead of answering my question, Neil says, "So your mom says you went swimming in the quarry? Picked up a pretty standard case of oral thrush?"

"Yes." Damn that quarry. "Is that why I'm here? The oral thrush?"

"Nope."

I wait for him to say something else. "....Okay?" Does he know his son punched me? Is that why he's being weird? Because I thought me and Evan were chill.

Neil itches the edge of his beard. The scratching sound makes my nose wrinkle up, but I don't think he notices. "So, Harris, you've got Legionnaires'. It's not the end of the world. We found some infiltrates on your lungs, but nothing like an abscess or pleural diffusion."

"Sorry, but uh, doctor words don't make sense to me, Dr. Miller."

His smile isn't as tired as I'd have expected. "Just consider it severe pneumonia, Harris. When you went swimming in the quarry, did you choke on any water or anything?"

I think back to it. Jumping in. The just-right water. The spluttering as I surfaced and tried to get Seb to join me. "Yes."

"Generally, this is something you'd find in say a hot tub or aerosol can," Neil says, finally stopping with the beard scratching. "It's really just breathing in contaminated water. We had a few other cases a couple weeks ago, all kids who had been in the quarry."