Junior's Luck

Junior's Luck-Chapter 9

The door swung open before the chimes could finish their melody. Kelsey hardly recognized Junior's mom with her powder blue dress, makeup, and curls in her straight hair.

His father had dropped him off at Junior's house after they made the rounds of the taverns and bars and sold the cans they collected to the recycling center. Kelsey wanted to tell Junior about the visit to the haunted mansion that morning.

"I'm sorry, Kelsey. l was just leaving to join Junior's father at the hospital."

"Hospital?"

"Remember? I told you he needed some different medicine. We took him in on Thursday."

"Oh, yeah," Kelsey mumbled. How could he have forgotten that?

"I got the weekend off so I could stay at the hospital with Junior. He's missed you. You've had a busy week, huh?"

"Sort of." He'd been busy all right, busy with Olivia, busy making out with his best friend's girl.

Girls were the only things that came between Kelsey and Junior. Not that they ever fought over them, but when one of them became interested in a girl, he gave most of his attention to her, at least for a while. It happened when Kelsey was first attracted to Arlene and also when Junior took up with Olivia.

It didn't last long. The boys soon grew bored with their respective girlfriends and found themselves back in the old habit of spending most of their time together. Now Olivia had crowded Junior out of Kelsey's thoughts for a few days.

"You can go with me to see Junior if you want to." Mrs. Rush pulled the door shut. The dead bolt snapped into place with the turn of the key. "Junior's father will bring you back. We're taking turns staying with Junior. Do you think your parents will mind?"

"Not if it's a short visit."

"Let's go relieve the first shift." Junior's mother escorted Kelsey down the steps, her arm around his shoulders.

*****

The dimly lighted halls of Memorial Hospital smelled of disinfectant. It turned Kelsey's stomach. He held his breath as much as possible while he and Junior's mother walked between the lime green walls.

They entered Junior's room, and Kelsey saw his friend bathed in the supernatural glow emitted by the shaded fluorescence tube above his bed. Mr. Rush rose from a chair secluded in a corner and approached them.

"He's sleeping," he said in a hoarse whisper. He gave Junior's mother a hug.

"How is he?"

"About the same."

Junior lay motionless. Two clear plastic tubes led from his left arm through some kind of orange box with a green digital display to a couple of bags of liquid hanging from a hook on a pole. Another plastic tube looped over both of Junior's ears and passed under his nose. Wires ran from his chest to boxes with lights and displays sitting on a shelf over his bed. The blip, blip from a monitor signaled the only evidence that Junior still lived. After what seemed like a minute, Kelsey noticed Junior's chest rise and fall slightly. Then nothing but the blip, blip for the longest time. Then Junior's chest rose and fell again.

His parents stood next to Kelsey, staring at their son. Mr. Rush had his arm around Junior's mother; she rested her head on his shoulder. Kelsey never saw Mr. and Mrs. Rush together. Junior's father was always working. Even when he got laid off, he was out looking for work and was never at home when Kelsey visited Junior. Junior didn't talk much about his dad either, so it seemed to Kelsey as if Junior didn't have a father.

Seeing Junior's parents together in this way rattled Kelsey. It was his job to console Mrs. Rush. With Junior unconscious, Kelsey had no role left to play. He felt out of place, as if he had intruded, like the time last year when he walked into his parents' bedroom, unannounced, and caught them making out. Kelsey didn't know what to say and neither did they, so they all pretended nothing had happened. He didn't know what to say now. It had become very lonely for him in that room.

"Kelsey came by the house to see Junior, so I brought him along," Junior's mother explained after a few minutes.

"You won't have a chance to talk to Junior this evening. He sleeps all the time," Mr. Rush said to Kelsey. "I'll take you back with me."

That relieved Kelsey. He didn't want to stay any longer. Not only was he uncomfortable around‌ Mr. and Mrs. Rush, but the sight of Junior strung up to bags and electronic boxes made him nervous. Kelsey feared Junior would die at any moment: the blip, blip of the monitors becoming a steady, annoying beep, Junior's mother screaming, his father shouting for help, the doctors and nurses rushing in with the defibrillator machine, Junior lying there with people poking his limp body with needles and sticking tubes down his throat, and making him bounce off the bed with electric shocks. And all of it accompanied by a steady, annoying beep in the background.

Kelsey had seen it many times on TV; he didn't want to witness the real thing.

Junior's father lit a cigarette after they got into the car. His drawn and expressionless, unshaved face laid bare his utter exhaustion. He took a drag on the cigarette, smiled and sighed. A cloud of smoke poured from his mouth and little streams of it slithered out of his nostrils.

"Is the new medicine helping?" Kelsey asked.

"The doctors say it is." Junior's father kept his eyes fixed on the road ahead. "It's making him sleep. They need to adjust the dosage. We can bring him home after that."

"Will he still have to have the tubes in his arms?"

"They come out in another day or two. He'll take the medicine in capsule form after that."

Kelsey decided to wait until Junior returned home to see him again.

Mr. Rush pulled into the driveway and let Kelsey out. While walking to his house, Kelsey wondered if Junior dreamed while he slept in the hospital. He wondered if he ever dreamed of Olivia.

Photo by Olga Kononeko on Unsplash.com

Note: This is Chapter 9 of a 32 chapter novel. I will post a new chapter each week.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this chapter, please click the star.

I plan to publish this novel after it appears on Wattpad. You can help me make it better by providing feedback in the comments section: Are you invested in the plight of the main character? Does the plot hold your attention? Are you looking forward to reading the next chapter? Are there gaps or inconsistencies in character development or plot?

K.C. Knouse is the author of two published collections of short fiction: Twenty Miles West of Branch, Texas and other stories and A Short Stack of Short Fiction: Three Character-Driven Short Stories . Both are available on Amazon.com.