Justin Time (Chapter 7) An original Novel
Link to beginning of story:
https://steemit.com/fiction/@justephen/justin-time-chapter-1-an-original-novel
Link to Chapter 6:
https://steemit.com/fiction/@justephen/justin-time-chapter-6-an-original-novel
Chapter 6 Review:
With the aid of Kyle and Connie, Katherine is finally ready to perform on Justin. During the procedure, Kyle has a heart attack and Justin goes into cardiac-arrest. A young doctor arrives just in time to revive both Justin and Kyle. Around 2:00 am Justin 'awakes' and Katherine is overcome with gratitude.
Chapter 7: The Detective
Eight year old Blair was safely sleeping in his small bed under his soft warm covers, while having a wonderful dream. He was dreaming that he was walking his dog, Ruffus on a clear sunny afternoon and they came upon a big beautiful tree with a large variety of colored fruit. There must of been dozens of different colors. As he strolled closer he realized this enormously magnificent tree had great branches sprawling in all directions. Still as Blair got even closer he realized the colorful fruit was not fruit at all, but hundreds of varieties of candies! Candy of all sizes and shapes!
He and Ruffus then dashed to the tree and as they came to it, they realized the candy was too high for them to reach. So, Ruffus sprouted wings and flew up to the branches and started picking a variety of candies. A few minutes later, both Blair and Ruffus were sitting on the soft grass underneath this spectacular tree enjoying every tasty bite. Realizing it was getting late and his parents would get worried, Blair told Ruffus they had to get back as soon as possible and they had traveled a long distance. Ruffus suggested that Blair get on his back and he would fly them home. Jumping on Ruffus' back they took flight.
It was now dark outside and they could see the city lights below. Blair noticed that they were traveling directly over Saint Ander's Hospital. When Blair looked to the side he noticed a mirror. As he looked directly into the mirror, he didn't see his reflection at all! He saw Justin's reflection. As he gasped in surprise, he lost his balance and started falling down, down, down through the hospital roof and landing in Justin's gurney. Blair woke up. His heart pumping fast and he looked at his clock. It was 2:03am.
Blair was at first scared and disoriented. Then he smiled as he was thinking. With a sudden burst of adrenaline, Blair jumped out of his bed, dashed out of his room and burst through his parents bedroom door, leaping onto their bed yelling, "Justin's awake! Justin's awake!"
"Blair! What are you doing?", yelled a startled Francis. "What do you mean Justin's awake?" Blair's dad, Leon, was still waking up as he was rubbing his eyes.
"It is hard to explain I just know he is."
"It must of been a dream honey"
"It was not a dream!", Blair yelled.
"We will discuss it in the morning dear", said Francis in a calming voice.
"Okay mom, but you will see.", he said walking out the door.
What are you doing Connie?, wondered Katherine who had the most pleased and content look on her face as she was examining Justin.
"I am trying to clean up your mess. The doctors will be here shortly and.."
"Oh yeah that's right.” exclaimed Katherine.
"I will clean up, but you better tend to Justin and put the bandages back on his head and whatever else."
While Katherine was examining Justin, he didn't say anything, but he was following her with his eyes.
"He seems attentive.", said Katherine.
"How are you feeling Justin?"
"What am I doing here mommy?" . "You had an accident dear, but your okay now.", she whispered with tears in her eyes.
"Was it a bad accident?"
"Yes dear."
"Oh." He hesitated and then said, "I love you mommy",and then closed his eyes.
"I love you too dear." Overcome by gratitude, Katherine checked to see that Justin was indeed asleep before she let out a welled up gasp of relief. She then looked up towards the sky and whispered, 'thank you, thank you for gracing us with this miracle!'
Within ten minutes the room was clean and the bandages were back on Justin's head. Katherine then grabbed a nearby chair, sat next to Justin and held his hand. With love in her eyes, she just sat there staring at him.
Ten minutes later William walked in with Nurse Latresky. “Oh my god! Is it true? Is it true? My boy is back?”
Katherine, nodded with tears in her eyes.
“Since you seemed to be occupied, I took the liberty of calling William myself.”,said Connie.
William continued,”Oh my god it's a miracle! We have waited so long. Honey, you did it! You are so incredible. William grabbed the other chair, sat next to Katherine and put his arm around her and his hand on Justin's. He and Katherine wept together.
Nurse Latresky had left them alone for about 30 minutes. She finally had to walk in and said, ”Okay you guys, I will finish up. It may be a good idea if you were not here when Dr. Pearce arrives. You go home and get some sleep and I will watch Justin. I will let you know if anything changes.", said nurse Latresky.
"Maybe you're right Connie.", said Katherine.
"Before I go, I want to visit Kyle. I would guess they took him to the 4th floor cardiovascular department in ICU. Oh! What is that in your hand Connie?"
"Oh it's nothing. I mean...strange...It is a sealed envelope. It was very strange. A young doctor approached me. He seemed like he was in a hurry. He asked if he could trust me. He seemed pleasant enough so I said, 'yes'. He then handed me this envelope and said, 'It is very important that you follow the directions exactly as instructed. Please do not open it until you get home and open it privately.' I would explain more if I could, but I have to go right now.'
After that, he left real quickly and I was just standing with this envelope in my hand. Hundreds of thoughts went through my head. Who is the man? Should I open the envelope now? What is inside of it? Why me?"
So Connie, are you going to open it?"
"I don't think so Katherine. Although I am dying of curiosity, something tells me to keep it safe."
After they visited Kyle, who was doing fine, they drove home. Katherine was telling William of that nights events. She explained how Kyle was suffering a heart attack at the exact same time that Justin went into Cardiac-arrest. She couldn't find Connie and then a doctor arrives just in time to help both Kyle and Justin.
“I hope I see him again to thank him. He never told me his name or anything. He just came and left.” “Very strange.”, said William. When they arrived home, William just remembered he had something to tell Katherine. "I have even more good news." I landed the Millionaire Moguls account!"
"Excellent dear!", cheered Katherine. "Yes it is, but about an hour after they told me the great news, I received an interesting call from the owner of the Bel De Flur Exclusive restaurant. It is a separate division of the Bel De Flur Country Club and is privately owned. The owner just wouldn't stop yelling at me. He accused me of stealing his account and of being paid off. After he ranted for five minutes, he just hung up. I couldn't get a word in edgewise!"
"Well he will have to get over it.”, she commented. “But for us, this is a great day and we will never forget it!"
They both slept for just a few hours. After waking up, they grabbed a quick bite and drove down to the hospital to see their son.
When they arrived, they saw Dr. Pearce, the chief neurologist checking on Justin.
"Amazing recovery your son made.", he said with a smile. "His faculties seem to be doing wonderfully. We of course we will need to do plenty of testing, but by the looks of things, I think God was looking down at your family."
Then head nurse Decantor walked in and said, "Nurse Latresky told me he recovered early this morning around 2:00 am. Congratulations I believe is in order."
"Thank you.", both William and Katherine said simultaneously.
Justin was sleeping so they just sat down peacefully and waited. After a few minutes, Dr. Pearce and nurse Decantor left the room. A few minutes after, Francis and Blair walked in.
"He is just sleeping mom, he will be awake soon.", smiled Blair.
"Blair woke us up last night yelling that Justin was out of his coma. I told him that …"
"He has recovered from his coma Francis!"
"Told you mom! I knew it. I can't wait til he wakes up. I have so much to tell him!"
Francis, Katherine and William were dumbfounded and didn't know what to say. Finally, after a few seconds Katherine asked, "How did you know that dear?"
"My dream told me he woke up so I knew it.”
“He jumped on our bed around 2:00 am last night. He scared me half to death and my husband Leon said..."
"Did you say 2:00 am?", asked Katherine.
"Yeah. Maybe a few minutes after. I remember because I looked at our clock wondering why he would wake us up at that time."
"Wow, he really is an amazing boy", said William.
"I know." said Blair.
"What other predictions do you have Blair?", asked Katherine.
"I can't tell you."
"Why not?", Katherine asked.
"Because then I would have to kill you.", Blair said with a smile on his face.
"That's not nice Blair.", said Francis.
"I hear daddy say that all the time mom."
"Changing the subject." William said laughing, "I just landed a real nice account yesterday."
"Good for you William!", said Francis.
"We should be real busy for..."
Suddenly, they all turned their heads as Justin started to stir. As Katherine and William started approaching, Justin opened his eyes.
"Hi Mommy. Hi Daddy." "Oh! Blair!!! What are you doing here?"
"I am here to see how my best friend is doing."
"I guess I had a bad accident. I don't remember it though. I had a dream about you Blair."
"I had a dream about you too. Last night."
"Well in my dream", continued Justin, I was looking in a mirror and I saw you flying on Ruffus. You lost your balance and fell."
"I had the same dream."
"That is weird.", they both said in unison.
"It sure is!", said Francis and Katherine, while exchanging very surprised looks.
"How are you feeling today Justin?”, asked Katherine.
"I am still a little tired and my head hurts a little, but I think I'll be fine. I think I have to go to school tomorrow. Right Mommy?
"Oh dear...there are a few things I need to tell you."
"Like what?"
"Blair, we better go honey", said Francis.
"But Mom, we just got here."
"We will have plenty of time to see him."
"Oh mom", said Blair as he was escorted out. “Bye Justin, I will see you soon.”
Katherine tried to explained as much as possible and Justin kept asking more and more questions about the accident and comas in general. She purposely left out her role in his recovery. He found it impossible to believe that he lost ten months of his life. When he heard what Blair did for him at school, he knew he had the best friend ever and made a promise to himself that he would always be there for Blair. He thought to himself, "Justin Day, Strawberry Waffles, Justin Clan".
For the next few weeks, Justin had many visitors including school friends and family. His recovery seemed like it was going very well with no permanent injuries. It was now coming to the end of summer and school would be starting up in a couple weeks. Katherine and William discussed whether he should stay in the second grade or go onto third. Although the school recommended him staying in second, they felt Justin was quite capable of catching up so they agreed to put him in third grade.
Back at the lab, Kyle who recovered well, was back working on his stem cell research. While he was examining one of his chimpanzees, he noticed a man walking in. The man said, "I am Detective Armstrong. Are you Kyle Lamberg?"
Kyle was thinking "What is a detective doing here?" "Yes I am", said Kyle.
"I heard you just recovered from a heart attack. I hope you're doing well."
"I am doing much better thank you."
"I am hoping you can help me with an investigation."
"I will do my best Detective."
"Thank you. I am sure you will. How long ago did you have your heart attack?"
"It was about four weeks ago."
"By any chance, was it on July 30th?"
"Let me think...hmm..it was on a Thursday...yeah, that would be July 30th I believe."
"And where were you when you had this heart attack?"
Suddenly Kyle's thought sprinted and he realized what this investigation might be about. "I was at Saint Ander's Hospital.", he said as he began to perspire.
"For clarification purposes, I am not talking about where you were treated, but where you were when you had your heart attack."
"Yes. I was fortunate enough to be in a hospital when I had my heart attack."
"Do you recall the approximate time it was?"
Kyle thought about fabricating his story, but there were way too many witnesses and he didn't want the detective to think he was not cooperating. "I believe it was somewhere around midnight. Maybe a little later."
"I see. And what were you doing at the hospital at midnight?"
"I was visiting a patient."
"Was this patient a friend or relative of yours?"
"No. He was my co-workers son."
"Is your co-worker's name Katherine Time?"
"Yes it is." Kyle was now sweating and he did not like what was happening.
"Was she there too?"
"Yes she was."
"Why did you decide to visit at such a late hour?"
"I often have troubles sleeping at night and Katherine asked me to keep her company.", he lied.
"Did you notice Katherine doing anything you would call 'medical treatment' on her son?"
"Is this investigation about Katherine? Is she some kind of suspect?", asked Kyle who was now getting a little annoyed.
"At this point, I am just investigating and asking questions.", said Detective Armstrong calmly.
"Well, I have a lot of work to do, so please excuse me.", said Kyle as he turned his back on the detective and started examining the chimpanzee. "Thank you for your time Mr. Lamberg. You have been very very helpful.", Armstrong said with a smirk on his face. As the detective left, Kyle just sat there, feeling like the world was collapsing upon him.