Portia was not going to live.
That was the prognosis. Everyone
cried. After an hour in the crowded
intensive care unit, Mr. Summers carried his passed-out wife to the waiting
room. He told Verna and Ayame the bad
news. They cried.
Donny sniffled himself to sleep in a soft chair crammed in the corner
of the ICU, which was packed with people and overworked staff.
Mickey sat in a hardback chair beside Portia's bed, holding onto her
right forearm in both his hands.
Mickey's head bowed low. He was
asleep, but before that, he had prayed to whatever God would heal her.
Lyle walked into the room. Not
some glowing, effervescent, cloud-walking Lyle as some painters have depicted
it -- just Lyle. Mark you, he was
wearing his golden robe but, otherwise, it was just Lyle. Lyle went from bed to bed, brushing the robe
over each of the patients.
Inevitably, Lyle tiptoed over on the right side of Portia's bed. He leaned over and brushed the golden robe
across her face and head. Her eyes
opened.
"Hi," he whispered.
"Hi," said Portia, very surprised to see him and even more
confused as to where she could be.
"Feel better?" asked Lyle.
"Better than what?" asked Portia.
Mickey woke up. He was pretty
certain he was dreaming at first but then he reached out and grabbed for Lyle --
and the sonofagun was there!
"Goog…" Mickey's hand
flinched back -- then he saw Portia's eyes open.
"Hi," she said.
"Good…" Mickey gagged.
Donny's eyes opened and he turned to see what was up. He stood up out of the chair so fast he could
have passed out from the blood-rush to his head. "Lyle!"
He grabbed Lyle and hugged him.
"Lyle!" Then he saw
Mickey kissing Portia and Portia's left eye was open, looking at Mickey and it
blinked.
"Porsh?" said Donny.
Mickey pulled back to reveal a thoroughly kissed Portia. "PORSH?!"
"Hi," said Portia.
"Holy shee…" said Donny and was interrupted by a big smack
of a kiss from his sister as she sat up.
"Where is everybody else?" asked Portia.
"No, wait," said Lyle.
"I gotta tell you something."
"Well, tell everybody," laughed Mickey.
"Okay, sure," said Lyle.
"Where's Verna?"
It is not an overstatement to say that Verna leapt into Lyle's
arms. Lyle fell over, onto the floor,
joyfully enduring his wife's kisses. For
a few minutes, everybody was happy.
Once the kissing and the hugging and the tears and the more kissing
and the photographs and the kissing and the hugging and shushing from the
nurses was over, everybody finally said they'd listen to Lyle.
"I gotta go," said Lyle.
"Go where?" asked Verna.
"I have to go back," said Lyle.
"Go back where?" said Verna.
"I gotta go back to the other galaxy," said Lyle.
"You HAVE TO WHAT?!" said Verna.
"Shush," said a nurse.
"The robe," said Lyle.
"It's like a spaceship. It
took me through four fuzzynavels inside of an hour. I am soooo buzzed. You know, they knew all along I was going to
wear it inside out. That's why they
picked me. Can you believe it?"
"Why do you have to go back?" said Verna.
"Because, I gotta keep them convinced not to blow away the
Boomers. In fact, to blow away
everybody. You know, there's a waiting
list for good galaxies and if we blow it, they're gonna take this one away
before we wreck the starter planet."
"But you can't go," said Verna. "I mean… can I come?"
"Sorry," said Lyle.
"I asked. But guess
what? They said that you guys should
come and visit anytime. The satellite we
met, on the other side of the fuzzynavel, it's still there. If you can get back there, it'll show you the
location of the fuzzynavel to their galaxy.
I was only there for a couple of hours but it’s a very crunchy
place. Lots of purple -- don't ask me
why."
"Listen," said Verna.
"This is nuts. What do they
need YOU for?"
"Like I said," repeated Lyle. "Somebody has to keep telling them --
'look, these humans, they're okay. I
mean, look at me, I'm human and you like me.
Stick with them. They'll make
it.'"
"What?" asked Donny.
"Are these aliens forgetful or something?"
"I don't know," said Lyle.
"That's just what they tell me and I believe them. Now listen, you got to get out there and
convince the rest of humanity that what I said on the stage is true. The Boomers gotta quit and let the next bunch
take a shot at this thing before it's too late.
You've only got one year. There's
tons to do. I'll do my job. You guys gotta do your job, okay?"
Everyone looked at Lyle, uncertain.
"Well, I still have to go," said Lyle, starting to
exit. "I don't know how long
they'll wait before trying to kill everybody again. They're really impatient and time works
differently in their galaxy."
"Don't" whispered Verna, her eyes tearing up. "Don't …"
Lyle came back and gave Verna another award winning kiss. He whispered in her ear: "You come get
me."
She smiled. This was something
Verna could do.
"Come on," said Lyle holding Verna's hand.
Everyone followed Lyle out of the hospital room and into the
foyer. Portia removed the head bandage
and felt about on her head for the injury that caused it to be so covered in
dried blood. All eyes were on the guy in
the shiny golden robe as they walked out the front doors of the hospital and
into the courtyard. A number of the
other patients, now perfectly fine, began to follow too. The nurses were chasing after, not knowing
what was going on.
Lyle shook Mickey's hand and then Donny's hand; then he hugged them
both.
From the parking lot, Webivision cameramen from six news teams came
running to the courtyard, yelling to "wait" with news reporters
throwing questions in unison.
Lyle gave Ayame a kiss, and then Portia a kiss and then gave Verna a
kiss for remembrance.
"Was it all a trick?" asked one news reporter. "Was this all a terrible hoax gone
awry?"
Lyle pulled the hood of the robe onto his head. He was one big golden guy except for his face
peeking out.
"You have one year," said Lyle into the cameras, holding up
his cloth-covered index finger and looking about as stern as a guy with the
nickname 'Googie' can get.
"One."
Another bolt of light blasted from within the robe and out of the
courtyard and Lyle was gone into space at near-light speed.
The sky was blue. Lyle was
gone.
"It's a bird," said Mickey.
"It's a plane," said Donny.
"It's my Googie," said Verna. "Great thunderin' potatoes."
Next: Rehired
No comments:
Post a Comment