Ricky Talk couldn’t speak. He was
a blubbering mess of tears and mucus which he sucked in on every breath,
causing him to sob harder. Boss was lying on a bed just specially for him. They
were in the middle of Boss’ home in the Towers.
Boss was connected to machines and
they beeped and buzzed like little bugs were stuck inside. But Boss could
hardly make a sound. His eyes were closed and his mouth was covered by a weird
shaped cup. If not for the soft breaths Ricky would have thought Boss was dead.
And he cried because he thought each breath was the last one.
“Help him, Sammy,” he begged his
friend.
Sammy reached up and put a
comforting hand on Ricky’s shoulder. “It’s OK, Ricky. He will be fine.”
Sammy’s voice was very nice. It
was calm and it helped relax Ricky. Ricky looked back at Boss. He was not
moving. He wasn’t breathing! “Sammy! Is he dead?!” Ricky asked, frightened.
“No, Ricky, he isn’t dead.” Sammy
said, and just as he did Boss took a deep breath, coughing. It was like magic;
Sammy spoke and Boss got better. “Look. He is just waking up from a long
dream.”
Boss slowly opened his eyes. He
looked lost, like he couldn’t lift them up high enough to see the world. Then
his eyes rolled around and stopped on Ricky’s. It made his heart jump. Boss’s
face looked strange. It wasn’t the same scary look he usually had, instead he
looked as if he did not know who Ricky was. He stared at him intensely and Ricky
tried to smile back but felt afraid.
“See that, Ricky? Boss is happy to
see he has visitors, aren’t you, Boss?” Sammy said in a playful tone.
Boss’s eyes darted past Ricky and
he focussed on Sammy. His breathing became stronger and more...more breathing.
Ricky’s heart lifted. “Keep talking, Sammy, you are fixing him!”
“It will take much more than what
I can do to fix him, Ricky.” Sammy moved around the other side of the bed and
leant gently over so Boss could see him, “But he will be fixed.”
Boss seemed to choke and coughed
violently. It looked painful and it made Ricky want to cry again. He loved Boss
and it hurt to see him like this.
“Ricky, can you give me some time
alone with Boss?” Sammy said. Ricky was puzzled. “Can you walk over by the
window for a little while? I’m going to help Boss.”
Ricky sometimes didn’t know what
Sammy meant with his words sometimes. But he loved it when Sammy would say the
same thing but not the same and it would make sense. Ricky walked over to the
window and looked out at the big buildings. There were tiny people below on the
streets and tiny cars. In the sky the clouds still looked very far away. One of
them looked like a giant pony. There was a staircase outside the window that
went upstairs to Mark’s room. Ricky remembered Mark. He waved at the staircase
like he would when Mark was walking up and down. It made him sad to think of
Mark. Mark was dead. Ricky didn’t know what dead was except that dead people
don’t move and when they leave they never come back.
Ricky heard the beep of Boss’s
machine get louder. No, not louder, but more! Like the breathing, it meant
Sammy was fixing him. Ricky raced over, huffing in excitement. He saw Sammy let
go of Boss’s leg. “You’re doing it, Sammy!” he shouted.
Sammy turned quickly, “Ricky,
didn’t I tell you to stay by the window?” Sammy sounded like angry Sammy. Ricky
felt scared. He looked at Boss hoping to see him smiling and better and
breathing but Boss’s face looked scary. He had tears and he was hurt. Ricky
began to cry again. “Shh,” Sammy soothed. He gently turned Ricky away and
hugged him. His arms didn’t get very far around Ricky’s big body. “It’s OK,
Ricky. Sometimes fixing can hurt as well.”
Ricky sobbed heavily. He loved
Boss and he loved Sammy. He didn’t know why Sammy would hurt him. But Sammy was
kind and smart. Surely he was helping Boss. Ricky looked back at Boss,
expecting him to nod and smile. But Boss was just staring back at him with that
same intense look of fear.
It scared Ricky.
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