Fook (48 page)

“I appreciate that. We both do.”

“Mom.”

“What are you doing out of bed?” Tiffany’s
mother turned to see her daughter standing in the hospital room
doorway.

“I needed to use the bathroom,” Tiffany
leaned against the doorframe, obviously still uncomfortable and a
bit groggy from delivering the night before.

“Okay, I’m coming. Excuse me,” Mrs. Brown
excused herself from the Nesbits.

“Of course,” Jennifer motioned her toward
her daughter.

“I want to see him,” Tiffany stepped into
the hall wincing in pain as she grabbed the doorframe, her mother
rushing to her side.

“You need to lie down,” her mother grabbed
her other arm as a nurse also rushed to her side.

“You shouldn’t be moving around yet,” the
nurse scolded the teenage girl.

“I want to see him,” she insisted.

“Sweetheart, are you sure about that? Didn’t
we talk about giving it some time before—“

“—I know what we agreed. I changed my
mind.”

Jennifer’s eyes widened in fear as she
squeezed Bill’s arm.

“Not about that,” the girl addressed the
Nesbits, realizing how her comment could have been taken. “You two
are perfect. I’m still going to sign the papers. I just want to see
him. They took him away so fast last night that I didn’t even get
to hold him. I just want to see him through the glass.”

Exchanging looks, Mrs. Brown nodded her
approval to the nurse who turned to retrieve a wheelchair from the
nurse’s station. With her mother’s assistance, Tiffany carefully
lowered herself onto the doughnut shaped pillow, placed on the
chair by the nurse, before being wheeled alongside the Nesbits.

“Isn’t he perfect?” Jennifer commented to
the young girl, whose eyes began to well up at the sight of her
son.

With a nod, Mrs. Brown signaled for the
nurse to retrieve little Oliver so that they could get a better
look at him through the glass. Agreeing, the nurse disappeared
around the corner.

“He’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever
seen,” Tiffany smiled with a quiver in her voice as a tear broke
free and ran down her cheek.

Appearing in the nursery doorway, the nurse
smiled at her audience as little Oliver began to squirm in his
clear, plastic basinet as if anticipating his first meeting with
his new parents.

“Oh look,” Jennifer pointed excitedly as she
tightened her hold on Bill’s arm.

The maternity ward had been busy the last
couple of days and Oliver’s basinet was at the center of a sea of
newborns. Passing the first child, the nurse looked down with a big
grin. It was clear that she loved her job; her favorite part being
the times she had direct contact with the babies. Making her way to
Oliver’s Basinet, she plucked the clipboard from the tiny bed,
confirming that she had the right child, before returning it to the
tiny hook and reaching for the now fully awake child.

He didn’t need to see his wife’s face. The
numbing sensation in his left arm told him everything he needed to
know. The truth was, he was just as excited.

Sliding her hands under Oliver, the nurse
prepared to lifted the blanket wrapped baby from his bed, but
hesitated as the lights in the nursery suddenly dimmed, then
brightened, before dimming again with a slight flicker.

“What was that?” Mrs. Brown commented on the
strange power surge.

As the lights returned to normal, the nurse
shrugged to the crowd at the window before returning her focus to
the task at hand. Reaching for the baby, she slid her hands under
him before pausing once again, but this time in reaction to an odd
sensation traveling up her arms. Pulling her hands out from beneath
the blanketed infant once again she noticed the faint blonde hairs
on her arms standing straight up as the sensation continued its
migration toward her shoulders and across her neck to her head.

“What the…?” Bill commented, eyes wide as
the nurse’s shoulder length, bob haircut stood on end, and a
static, crackling sound slowly began to build as the lights, once
again started to flicker.

Turning to the window, eyes wide with fear,
the nurse started to take a step back toward the nursery door, just
as a flash of bright light erupted over Oliver’s crib, followed by
a loud electrical snap and a shock wave that sent the terrified
nurse flying toward the large glass window. Striking the glass with
her face, a small trail of blood marked the cracked glass as the
stunned woman slid down the large window and collapsed to the
floor.

Shielding his eyes from the intense light,
Bill looked up from the injured woman. The blast that had sent the
nurse face first into the window had also pushed all of the other
mobile basinets to the outer edges of the room, leaving Oliver’s
basinet by itself at the center.

“What’s going on!?” Jennifer yelled, as she,
Mrs. Brown and Tiffany continued to look away from the bright
electrical light show continuing from within the nursery.

Wanting to answer, but silenced by his
brain's inability to comprehend what he was witnessing, Bill
continued to stare silently awestruck, as the bright light slowly
faded while blue arcs of electricity continued their dance around
the room.

“Bill, what is it?” Jennifer looked up at
her husband’s stunned expression while continuing to shield her
face, before realizing that the light had dissipated.

Still unable to answer, Bill continued to
stare, mouth agape.

Lowering her hand from her face, Jennifer
turned in search of her own answers, though instantly wished she
hadn’t as the only reaction she could muster was a blood curdling
scream that instantly drew the attention of the other two
onlookers.

At the center of the room, still in the
basinet, was the very child who only twelve hours earlier had
entered the world, filling a long felt void in their lives, only
now...he wasn’t alone. With him was a man, sitting on a metal
chair, head back and screaming, though his cries were muffled by
the loud electrical noise and wall between them.

It wasn’t the man’s mysterious appearance
from the bright light. It wasn’t even his cries of apparent pain or
anger that were most disturbing. What baffled the horrified
onlookers the most, was the man’s apparent cohesion with both the
basinet and Oliver.

Finally breaking free from his immobilizing
shock, Bill ran toward the nurse's station, and the entrance to the
nursery.

The last bit of air erupting from his lungs
in an gurgled scream, Jason lowered his head, momentarily pausing
on the three, aghast onlookers before continuing down to the face
of the screaming infant protruding from his chest. He didn’t need
an explanation. He knew where he was, and he knew what had
happened.

The terrified newborn thrashed as much as
his little body could, his head rolling back and forth while his
arms bounced up and down on the mattress in front of Jason, while
his tiny feet kicked against the other end of the firm surface to
Jason’s back.

With each violent shift, Jason could feel
the infant pulling at his insides as their bodies were now one,
their skin fused perfectly at the center of his chest and back. Not
knowing if they were going to live or die, as the lightening storm
continued around them, Jason slid his hands under the shoulders and
head of the infant, the nurturing touch calming his younger
self.

A pound at the glass pulled his attention
away from the child as a woman he’d never seen before began beating
her fist against the transparent wall, screaming as tears poured
down her face.

“Hey!” Bill yelled as he appeared in the
nursery doorway.

Ignoring the threatening cry to his rear,
Jason returned his focus to the life cradled in his hands, making
eye contact with the infant as a wave of calm washed over them
both.

Closing their eyes, as if sharing the same
thought, they vanished.

####

Coming 2015

Stranger than FOOK

“Come on. You have to come up,” Justin begged,
leaning over from the passenger seat for another denied kiss.

“I told you, I’m not going up to your room
because you’re drunk and all you want is sex right now,” Kristy
laughed as she continued to dodge her boyfriend’s aggressive
advances.

“Nooo!” Justin protested, filling the car
with the stench of Jack Daniel’s and beer as he slipped a hand
between her thighs.

“No! Bad boy,” Kristy playfully scolded her
inebriated date as she grabbed his wandering hand and playfully
slapped him across the face, drawing a brief look of shock,
followed by a devious smile and ultimately another advance.

“Ooh! You know I like it rough. We could do
it right here. Come on.”

“Justin,” Kristy whined, but did not shove
him away this time as he began kissing her neck.

“Right here in the car,” he mumbled between
kisses.

“Right here? In front of your dorm? What if
someone sees us?”

"Let them watch. You're so fucking hot. You
have nothing to be embarrassed about."

"I wasn't worried about me."

Pausing in his exploration of her neck, he
was met by a broad grin. "Ha ha," he smiled before locking his lips
to hers, stopping any further protests. She didn't fight the
aggressive advance this time as she reclined the driver's seat,
inviting him across the center console as their lips remained one.
"This is actually going to happen," he thought to himself, shocked
that his forward approach had actually worked.

It wasn't like they hadn't done it yet. By
relationship standards, theirs was still fairly new, having met
only two months earlier at the beginning of the school year, but
things had started off hot and heavy and had continued to progress
rapidly. They'd done it in a back room at a party; in a locked,
nightclub bathroom; they'd even done it in a stranger's motor home
in a quiet residential neighborhood one night. This girl was
definitely adventurous and he really didn't have any reason to
complain, but with each daring act, the line was moved, which only
begged him to move it further.

Though she wasn't a prude by any means, she
was
hesitant about putting herself in any situation with a
real likelihood of being caught or seen by another person. He
didn't look at this hesitation as a turn off though. He looked at
it as a challenge. Though no stranger to landing attractive girls,
he was particularly proud of Kristy, and something inside of him
wanted nothing more than to show her off...in every way
possible.

"Wait," Kristy attempted to speak around
Justin's lips as he continued his advance, having blindly
unbuttoned her blouse like a pro but stumbling a bit with the
intricate belt keeping him at bay. "Justin. Justin wait."

"What?" he pulled back, taking the pause in
action to look down at the damned contraption around her waist.
"What's wrong?"

"This isn't comfortable. Why don't we get in
the backseat?" she flirted.

He wasn't going to argue. He had been
expecting her to put an end to this daring tryst at any moment,
which is why he'd been hurrying through her clothing and probably
why he was having so much trouble with the belt. If she wanted to
get in the back seat, he wasn't going to argue. That meant that
this thing was a done deal. The only problem he could foresee was
figuring out where to move the line to next.

Sliding back over the console, he started to
recline the passenger seat, to make it easier to slide up and over,
into the backseat.

"No!" Kristy blurted as he placed his foot
against the dash in preparation for the climb. "I don't want to
damage the car. Let's just get out and go around."

"If she wants me to go around, I'll go
around," Justin silently complied as he lowered his foot, popped
open the passenger door and jumped out, closing the door behind him
as he reached for the backdoor's handle.

Click.

"It's locked," Justin complained as he
repeatedly pulled on the handle before leaning over to look back in
at the girl who was buttoning her blouse. "What are you doing? Open
the door."

Ignoring her boyfriend's pleas, Kristy
continued buttoning her blouse, readjusting herself as she returned
her seat to its upright position.

Figuring that she couldn't hear him, Justin
reached for the front passenger door again. It too was locked.
Peering in the window again, his date was once again completely
clothed and checking herself in the rearview mirror before turning
to offer a “sorry" through the glass.

"Sorry? Just open the door."

"Good night, Justin. I'll talk to you
tomorrow."

"This isn't funny," Justin complained as the
car's engine started. "Where are you going?"

Continuing to ignore the ongoing protests
outside her car, Kristy put the car in gear and pulled away from
the curb, glad to see that Justin had chosen not to chase after
her. Though she felt bad about giving him what was sure to be an
excruciating case of blue balls, she did have her limits and there
was no way in hell she was going to do it in the backseat of her
car while parked in front of a busy boy's dorm.

Bewildered by the sudden cold shoulder,
Justin just stood at the curb, watching as his date's car rolled
down the street. A brief flicker of the brake lights gave him hope
that this was all just a cruel joke, intended to make him suffer
for being so forward, but the hope was short lived as the red
lights faded and Kristy's car disappeared around the building.

With a lowered head and a mumbled "great,"
he turned and headed for the door.

*****

At just over fifty-thousand a year, not including
room and board, one would think that a school, such as Cornell,
would hire only the best contractors for building renovations. When
Justin had visited the school last summer, he'd instantly fallen in
love with not only the university's law school, but the town of
Ithaca itself. The quaint northeast charm of the surprisingly busy
little town had far more to offer than the dull, endless cornfields
he had grown up with back in Nebraska. On top of that, the school
had promised its incoming freshman that it would be undergoing a
multimillion dollar facelift over the next year, prior to their
arrival, with most of the money being spent on onsite housing. The
once drab and outdated buildings were going to be turned into,
"modern technological suites," was how the senior giving them the
tour had put it. So far the only thing he'd seen was a fresh coat
of paint in the lobby and free Wi-Fi throughout the building. It
was hardly impressive. To make matters worse, the construction that
was supposed to have been completed by the beginning of the school
year, looked as though it had hardly even been started. There were
holes in walls where pipes were being fixed. Only about half of the
lights worked and if you were lucky enough to still have a
functioning bathroom in your room, the odds of getting even
lukewarm water were about fifty percent. Thankfully he and his
roommate still had one such room.