Chapter 2

Josh made his way back to Sarah's room. 

"Eric's going into surgery because his brain's bleeding." 

"Oh Josh, sweetheart." his mother started.

"The doctors don't think he's going to make it. Ya know he said he loved me, and then called me big brother." 

"See sweetie, you made a big impact on that boy." 

"Anything on Sarah yet?" 

"No, not ye…" just as he started the doctor came in. 

"Your daughter has a tumor, which would explain the pain, and the flu like symptoms. We have to operate right away; but we need your permission." The doctors and my parents talked out all the details and risks and options they had. My parents agreed and the doctors whisked off and started prepping Sarah for surgery.

"Great, first Eric now Sarah." Josh said primarily to himself. He went into the hallway and slumped down. 

"Dear Heavenly father, I told that little boy that he could trust in you, I told him he could talk to you. I should heed my own advice. Father God, if Eric…if my brother should go to be with you…well please father just take care of him. Also, please protect my sister. I love her too please keep her with us for a while longer."  he dozed off for the 3 and a half hours he'd been waiting for Eric and Sarah. He'd been waiting 3 hours for Eric, and now 2 and a half for Sarah. He was jolted awake when his mother awoke him. 

"Joshua, Nurse Beth is here."  

"huh? Oh, ok thank you. What's going on?" 

"Eric is going to be just fine Josh." 

"Oh praise God, thank you Jesus! When will he wake up?" 

"About 9 tomorrow morning." 

"Great, I'll be there, anything on my sister?" 

"Not yet, but Josh?"

"Yeah?" 

"Eric's going to need a home. His dad just got sent to jail, we can't make contact with any family members, and his mother. Well she's…" 

"Right here." Josh's mother said. "We'll take him in." 

"Thanks mom." 

"It's the least we could do, he's only 5." Nurse Beth left and Josh snoozed until about 3:30 am, when the doctor came into the room.

"Mr. and Mrs. Stewart." it was just the way he said it.

"No, please not my baby." 

"We're so sorry, we did everything in our power."

"Not my baby girl." his mom weeped for the next couple hours then she looked like a hurricane had struck her and his father took her home and she slept for a whole day.

When 9 am came around Josh was already in Eric's room by 7:30, he couldn't sleep anymore. The words he had spoken to his sister before she was admitted into the hospital still rang in his head.

"I'm sure we're worrying about nothing." Then she died hours later. Then Eric came too.

"Mr. Josh?" he asked.

"Hey buddy, you can stop calling me that now." 

"Why?" Josh's dad came into the room.

"Because we're taking you home with us." 

"But what about mommy?" He asked. It didn't occur to Joshua that no one had informed the little boy of his parents. "Does this mean I'm not gonna live with God?" 

"That's right. But your mommy did." 

"I won't see her again huh?" 

"No, she's living with him now, and she's very safe and loved there." 

"I know, she told me before I went into Surgery." 

"She did?" We asked.

"Yeah, she told me not to worry, that she was gonna go live with God now, and that I wasn't to come. That I was opposed to go live some where else, and be some one else's little boy." 

"Your mommy was correct, you are going to be living with us. So since you're apart of our family now, you can call me brother, or just Josh now." 

So, it was because of his Sister's passing, and new brother being gained that Josh had such a need to help sick children. Eric is now 17, a Jr. in high school, and has almost black hair with hazel eyes. He's thin but built cause he plays basketball. so he's usually in shorts and a school jersey. I heard a knock at the door.

"Hello?" I answered and low and behold it was Eric coming home from school, early. Eric lives with us since Josh's parents have both passed away, and Josh took him on, just until he goes off to college. "Why are you home so early?" 

"I don't want to talk about it." he said throwing his bag onto the couch.

"Well that's too bad, what happened. Did you get in a fight?" I assumed.

"No, Kind of…well I don't know. Some jerk started dissing my mom. When I told him she died when I was 5 he laughed and said, no wonder you turned out gay…which I'm not." 

"I know that. Look, those kids are just doing that for their own sick amusement. You have to let it just go through one ear and out the other. What'd you do?" 

"I gave his nice green eyes some black and blue." He said.

"Alright, well I'll go down and talk to the principal and tell him you'll never do this again, and that you'll make up for it with community service." 

"What?" 

"Yes…this is how I'm punishing you, unless Josh feels he needs to add something, we'll discuss this further when he's home. Now, do your home work and afterward we'll think of something for dinner. 

Josh at Work

"Joshua, you have a new patient." said Dr. Stevens.

"Oh?" 

"She's Female, and is a leukemia patient. She's in room 102." 

"Thanks, I'll go there now." He walked into the room. "Hello, My name is Dr. James, what's yours." 

"Sarah." He took a step back, but quickly recomposed himself.

"It's nice to meet you Sarah, I had a sister of the same name." 

"Had?" asked the girl.

"She passed away 12 years ago. She was 12." 

"I'm 13." she said. They talked for quite a while. 

"Well, I must be going now." he said. "I have other patients I need to check on." 

"Of course. It was nice talkin to ya Doc." she said. What a spunky character she is. He was walking down the hall and glanced into an empty room, but it wasn't empty, no there on the bed was Avery. He walked into the room and shut the door. 

"What are you doing here little guy?" He asked. Avery seemed to look at him with saddened eyes. It was almost that look that Eric had on his face when he was 5, that look of aloneness. But as soon as he was there he was gone. Joshua went and called Paige.

"Hey Paige, how's your day going?" 

"Fine, Eric got sent home early from school today for punching another boy in the eyes." 

"Eyes, like literally went for both?" Joshua asked a little shocked.

"Yes, he gave the boy 2 black eyes. I told him that we would further punish him when you got home." 

"Yes, that's fine. Why did Eric punch him?" Josh asked, still a little shocked, as he remembered only the little 5 year old boy.

"The boy brought up his mother…" 

"Always has been a touchy subject." 

"Wouldn't it be for you?" Paige asked, not meanly but more understanding.

"Yes, of course. I'll talk to him when I get home. I got a new patient today. Her name is Sarah, and she's a leukemia patient."

"Wow, how'd you take that?" 

"Well…I think anyway." 

"Good, well I'm going to go, because Eric's getting hungry." 

"He's 17, he can get it…Your voice sounds nice to listen to at the moment." 

"I know, but I promise you can hear it all you want when you get home ok? I love you." 

"I love you too Paige." He hung up the phone. 

"Hey, we have a bloody child in here!!" yelled one of the nurses. Josh ran into the room and there was Avery.

"Wait, you can see this child?" 

"Yes, now get to work Doctor!" Josh looked on at Avery, who's every ounce was covered in blood. 

"I…I don't understand. What's going on here? Why is Avery covered in blood. He ran and got his tools and returned to the room. 

"Alright Av…" he looked up to the little boy who was now some one else. "I'm here to help you, what happened?" 

"My mama got real angry, and upset." the little boy, who was not Avery started crying. 

"Why doesn't my mama love me?" 

"Hey, it's gonna be ok. I promise, we'll get ya cleaned up ok?" 

"Ok…" the little boy kept crying.

"What's your name?" 

"Brandon." 

"Well Brandon, you're safe now." They washed off Brandon's wounds and bandaged him up. The boy slept all through the night, and most of the next day. It still didn't explain why Joshua saw Avery all bloody. He went home early that night from work. 

Back to Paige

"Ok young man, your punishment is not only community service, but…you will come home from school you will do your homework, do the dishes, and do the laundry, you will then go to bed." 

"But it was his fault he…" 

"Eric, you can't blame every one else, you should take some of the blame, you punched him…"

"He started it, plus it was wrong of him to…" 

"Whether he deserved it or not isn't up to you Eric, I'm sorry, but the punishment still stands." 

"Your not even my father…" Eric mumbled and ran to his room.

"Young man, I may not be your father, I'm not even your real brother…but I still love you enough to teach you right from wrong. Need you forget what my family did for you?" 

"No sir…and I thank you, but this seems a little much for a guy who dissed my dead mother, and called me gay."

"He called you gay?" 

"Yeah…but I'm not." 

" I know you're not. I am sorry for your horrible day at school, but what you did was wrong, now please go to your room, we'll call you down for dinner." 

"yes sir." Eric went to his room. 

"Joshua, what happened at work?" 

"I saw Avery, twice." 

"Twice? When?" 

"First time he was in an empty room, second time, he was a bloody mess, like he'd been cut or something." 

"really? That's a first." Paige said wondering what had made Avery bleed.

"I know…I hope I don't have to see that again, it was really horrible. I almost felt a bond with him, like He was my own son." 

"Really?" Paige asked shocked.

"I don't know, I think I need to take some time off work until we can figure this out. It's messing with my work schedule and patients, because when I saw Avery it was actually a boy named Brandon who's mother beat him." Eric had been listening from the stair case, and all of his memories of his father rang in his head. 

"Eric, you're bad, your nothing but a bad boy Eric!!!!" his drunken father had said to him. 

"I'm not bad, I'm not bad…" Eric said.

"What was that?" asked Paige. She walked to the stair case where she saw Eric crying and saying he wasn't bad over and over again.

"Eric!?" She said.

"I'm not bad, I promise I'm not bad." 

"No, of course not sweetie." Paige said hushing him and holding him. 

"Joshua, what are we going to do about that?" Paige asked confused. 

"He's been crying a lot lately, in his room." 

"I know. I think he needs help, like mental help. Just to fully get over what his father did to him and his mother." 

"I think that's a good idea." They scheduled some appointments for Eric with a christian therapist. 

"Thanks again Doctor Lane. He needs some one to talk to about this."   

"Yes. I understand, the boy severely needs some one to hear him out. Is the boy saved?" 

"I believe so." Paige said.

"Yes, he is. I know he his." said Joshua. "I was there, I'm his witness." 

"Very well, that will help." The next week Eric began his therapy.

"Hello Eric, my name is Doctor Lane." 

"Hello, nice to meet you." 

"So, want to talk about what's been going on lately? Stuff at school I've heard has been giving you trouble?" 

"It's not all at school, it's some at home too." 

"Home? surely everything's ok with Mr. and Mrs. James." 

"Yes, they're fine. It's my sleep, one thing keeps haunting my dreams, and every now and then I see him in real life." 

"oh? Who's that? 

"I don't know his name, but he always comes to me asking for my help, but I don't know how to help him." 

"Ok, but does he look familiar, and how does he want your help? How old does this boy appear?" Dr. Lane questioned him.

"He appears to be my age when my father beat me, 5. He has brown hair, greenish blue eyes, and he's always bloody, like he's been cut. He keeps asking for my help to get away from his mother. But I don't know his mother. I keep reminding myself it's only a nightmare, just a dream. But this boy seems so real. I don't know how to help him, or how to make these nightmares end."

"Have you told Mr. and Mrs. James?" 

"No, I didn't want them to think me crazy." 

"You're not crazy. Sometimes God gives us dreams, but then at some time we will help a person like that. It's more or less a vision." 

"I just don't understand it. He keeps saying…Help me, it's my mama, you have to tell my mama, but I don't know what to tell her, or who she is." 

"Hmm, well I'm sure these dreams will stop, I have a lot of patients come in here with nightmares. Just pray before you go to bed last night that God will clear your mind, and help you sleep. Eventually those dreams will stop. Now, what about school?" 

"Oh, it's not that big of a deal. Kids mainly bugging me about being "gay" which I'm not." 

"Mhm, why do they say that?" 

"Because when I was 5 my dad beat me, and my mom died. I don't know how that would make me gay though." 

"Perhaps one of their family members died, and they are just expressing their own feelings." 

"So, they're the gay ones?" Eric asked confusingly.

"No, that's not what I'm saying either. You should pray for those boys, and maybe try to talk to them." 

"Sure…ya know I feel that with a few more of these appointments I'll be ok." 

"Good, I'm glad you feel that way Eric, I am here to help."