Prescriptions – 6

Thomas was this obnoxious guy. Tall, skinny and lanky. His hair was that long wavy, dirty-blond hair that you associate with surfers. But he wasn’t the least bit tan. Even living here, along the beach, in the California. Every time he spoke, he had to make some erratic hand gesture to go along with his point, which always ended with this annoying smile. The type you want to punch in the mouth. Especially to stop his incessant laughing.

The thing was, he was popular and I hated him for it.

Here’s this guy, like us, inflicted with a terminal illness, enjoying his life like nothing happened. Not once acknowledging the dilemma we were in, except for when he takes his pills. And when he does, everyone just pauses. Allowing him his time. Some even following along. All he has to do is drop that stupid grin and the conversation stops. then he pulls out his pill box. Grabs some water bottle. Pops a pill. Downs the water. The whole time, everyone is quiet. Up to the point he wipes his mouth and reveals that fucking grin. And everything’s back to normal.

If I weren’t so bitter, I’d realize everyone needed happiness. And this is what he provided. Almost his job. A jester among the lepers. But I didn’t need that.

“Welcome welcome,” Thomas shouted, tossing us a rope.

Helen caught it and pulled our dink next to his ship. His crew pulled us parallel and held it steady for us to get on board. Thomas held out his hand and Helen got on board.

“Hot damn,” he shouted, as he pulled her on board. “You’re going to be popular.”

He slapped her on the ass when she walked by. She flinched and gave a little hop. As I would imagine, she shot him a glance. From where I was standing, I could only see the side of her face. But I swore, she had a girlish smile.

Thomas followed close behind her, laughing.

I was still on the boat.

The deck hands pulled me up.

I watched Helen go up the bridges. Ship to ship, each one bigger than the one before. Like giant odd shaped footsteps. That led up the a house, the cruise ship.

“You should hurry up before you lose her.”

That’s all I remember the deck hands saying. And the thing was, they were right. I already did.

Prescriptions – 5

We took our pills and set off.

The morning air was chilly. It ran its fingers through my clothes as we sped up onto the highway. I didn’t complain. Especially if Helen was okay with it. But really, I wasn’t sure if it was in fact the cold. It could be the sickness.

I pulled myself closer. Moving forward on the seat. My thighs tightened around her hips. My chest was on her back. My hands made their way down her back and around to her stomach. My groin pressed up against her ass. I could feel my cock against her tailbone. It was getting hard and I was getting hot. This was the closest I ever got. She twisted the throttle and sent me back in my seat.

Like I said before, annoying.

I spent the rest of the ride cold. My forearms tucked under my chest. It barely kept me warm.

Within an hour we were there. Overlooking a small bay, a harbor, filled with all types of vessels. Boat houses, yachts, fishing boats, and even a cruise ship. All tied together by make shift lines and foot bridges.

We rode down to the beach and found a boat.

It’s strange that we, the guinea pigs of this clinical trial, have decided to come here. To live on boats. Some of us, may get cured. Some will die. But what was really messed up, was our prescriptions. We didn’t know what anyone was being given. We didn’t even know what we were taking. All the medications were in the form of a white pill. To make things even more fucked up, we knew there was a control group. People that were given placebos, even though we all were sick and well on our way to die.

Hospital Gown

I like my brother. My mom tells me to say that I love him, but that sounds funny. The girls at school say that word all the time. I love my cat, I love ice cream, I love blah blah blah. They go on and on. Most of the things they talk about are so stupid. Not like me and my brother. We don’t need to talk, we just do things.

Our parents didn’t buy us too many toys. I wish they did. So my brother always comes up with fun things to do. Whenever the neighbors wash their car or water their yards, we’d always play with the water along the side of the curb. First it was grass. When you tear off the top a piece of grass it looks like a little boat. A green little boat. Then you put it in the water and watch it go down and down.  All the way into the drain. My brother always laughed at how I could sit and walk the way I do. It’s so funny when he tries to do it. You just have to bend your knees up to your chest and put your butt on the back of your foot. And there, you’re sitting, but your butt doesn’t touch the ground and get dirty. I think my brother’s too fat to do it. He keeps falling over. He also showed me how to make a paper boat. Those were fun to watch gong down the drain. But my mom got mad because she kept having to buy me notebooks. She’s always yelling at us about wasting money. I wanted to yell back, because it wasn’t money. It was paper. Eddie saw us one day and told his dad. Now his dad turns on the water for us to play. He lives at the end of the block. So we start from his house and go all the way to the end. Eight houses. And when the water goes under a car, the water goes weee around the tire and weeeuuuu back to the curb. It’s so neat. Until mom or dad yells at us to stop playing in the water. They said it was dirty.

My favorite thing is exploring the warehouse. I never go alone. My brother says there are ghosts in there. That’s why no one works there any more. They hide behind the prickly bushes. You can’t see them but you can feel them. They run across their fingers across your skin when you walk by, trying to make you look. I don’t. I felt it once. I ran. My brother believes me. Eddie didn’t. But a few days later he felt it too. He should listen to my brother more, but they like to wrestle all the time. I listen to him all the time, especially about berries. He knows which ones we can eat and which ones make your stomach hurt. I don’t pick any without them. They grow all over the place. Red ones, purple ones, and green ones. You don’t pick the green ones, they’re not ready yet. We also play hide and go seek. There are so many places to hide. I like that. My brother always lets me hide with him. Not when he’s it though. But he doesn’t go after me when he’s it. He just tells me to go hide behind the other pole when he sees me.

He always watches out for me. Even when mom or dad yells at us. He tells them that I didn’t know or that he made me do it. Dad didn’t like Eddie. He told me because he was different. He was American. I thought we were American too. But dad says we’re not, we’re Vietnamese. I didn’t get it, but dad says they treat us differently and we shouldn’t play with him anymore. Mom says we should yell at him if he does anything bad. I don’t like yelling, unless me and my brother are seeing who yells the loudest. I always win.

We did stop playing with Eddie. Not because of Eddie. It was because his family. We went up to his house to see if we could race our boats. Eddie and his family were playing with his dog. It was big. A German Shephard. Brown and black and drooled everywhere. My brother hates dogs. So we just shouted over to Eddie. But the dog started to run at us. My teacher told us not to run. So I didn’t. My brother didn’t have Mrs. Jackson so he didn’t know. And he ran. He went behind the car and kept running. I think he was trying to get the dog dizzy. He went around the car ten times. Around and around. But the dog wasn’t dizzy. It bit him. I never heard him scream like that before.

I don’t like it.

It’s not like our contest.

I didn’t tell anyone, but I cried.

I don’t know why Eddie’s family didn’t do anything. It was their dog. They were so nice before. They just let the dog run after us. I don’t remember seeing Eddie, but I think I heard him laughing too.

At the hospital my brother was on the bed. He wouldn’t talk. Not even to me. He looked cold in that blue shirt. The back was open and I could see the big bandage. He didn’t want to look at anyone. I think he was crying too. I brought him a toy we both saved up for, but he didn’t want to play with it. I put it on his arm. It just fell down. Then I decided to listen to my mom. I climbed onto the bed with him and hugged him. I told him that I loved him. We both cried.