Date: Thu, 22 Nov 2001 10:39:43 -0800 (PST)
From: Zane Green <zaneg7@excite.com>
Subject: Jaded 5

 JADED By: Zane Hunter Green

Chapter  Five: Ty and Anton
The copyright of this story belongs to the author. This is a piece of
fiction not based on any real person. This story is for a mature audience as
it has adult material. Let me know what you think of it. Please send E-mails
to ZaneG7@Excite.com

 Ty:

I remember bits and pieces of what the Doctor said, "He's a tough patient as
he was ready to jump off the operating table and run a 1,000 yard dash"...I
nodded..."He's going to be a handful, but you already know that Ty. Just keep
him on bed rest if you can. When all the tests come back we'll make the
decision whether he need radiation again, but at this point because of his
prognosis I'm hopeful..."

Anton jumped in, "You talk as if I'm not here, don't I get to express my
opinion."

"No," said the Doctor "It's Ty I'm concerned about, he has to put up with
you. Now you listen to him, all right? Promise, and next time you stay at
the hospital, pillow soccer will have limited hours."

Anton smiled slyly. He had invented games to keep the Telemetry floor in a
state of fun and silliness. There wasn't one other patient or staff member
that didn't want to give him a personal goodbye.

Now my problem was to convince Anton to stay idle for more than a few hours.
I drove him home from the hospital, and he seemed to relax as he watched the
scenery. It was a fifty-mile trek. I was hoping that we wouldn't start
having to make the hundred mile round trip for radiation treatments, but if
we had to I would drive him. The only thing that mattered was his health
right now; it had been the center of our world for the last four months. And
I was taking it much worse than him.

When we got home I unloaded his suitcase and took it upstairs as he walked
around the shop. "It looks good, Ty. You are amazing, my man. Well give me a
few days and I'll be able to get back to work."

I dreaded when he would see the books. I had taken a loan out under the name
of the business to pay for medical bills. Originally when they found the
tumor he wanted to go to Mexico, and buy medications but I lied to him and
told him our insurance would cover decent care here. I knew that the big C
like the big A was nothing to mess around with. Well actually I told eighty
per cent of the truth. But twenty per cent of doctor, medication, and
hospital bills were a great deal of our net worth. Our savings funded the
other twenty per cent. I had to take out the loan to pay our suppliers and
cover regular expenses. Well we would make it up now that he was getting
better.

Everything was really his anyway. I had arrived with almost nothing.

I finally got him to agree to go upstairs in bed.  "Doctor's orders" was my
mantra. I brewed him a pot of Lapsing Souchong his favorite tea, although to
me it smelled like pipe tobacco. He sipped the tea as I sat in the hardback
chair beside the bed. He looked like he was beginning to dose.

"I love you Ty, thanks, and thank," he whispered.

I leaned over and kissed him on his pale lips. "It's nothing, you... just
relax. I've got some work to do downstairs in the shop, you know the balance
the books stuff, but here, use this if you need me." I handed him a small
silver bell.
I went downstairs and stopped to open a box  that had arrived while I was
away of  hooks, threads, and dun hen feathers. I thought to myself that we
could save money if we raised the birds ourselves... I stopped unpacking when
I heard the silver tinkle of the bell. I ran upstairs. "What is it Ant?
Anything the matter?"

"Ty I have a very bad feeling about something."

My stomach did a nosedive I stood there mute hoping that he wasn't going to
tell me he was in pain. I hated for him to suffer, or worse, that he wasn't
sure that all this intervention was worth it, that he might not make it,
after all, or that he no longer loved me. "Ant, what's wrong?" Maybe he just
wanted to talk.

"No, no, get that mask of tragedy off your handsome face. It's not about
me." He pushed down his sheets.  "I just have an uneasy feeling about
something.

 "You've been through so much Ant. That has to be it, look try and get some
sleep. Michael is coming over later. He said he made our dinner."

"Oh God, Not another turkey pot pie."

"I'm afraid so."

"Well you'll have to eat most of it, I have no appetite. Isn't that a great
excuse?"

"No, we'll tie you up and force feed you!"

"Oh Please I beg of you, I'd rather go back to the hospital and eat the
unidentified mush they call food. Anyway you know how I get these feelings,
well every time I close my eyes I see this child, a boy really. I can't see
him very well so I have no idea who he is, but he's lost and afraid and
probably in danger. I wish people would treat every child as if they were
their own. It makes me sick, that people don't follow the obvious, that the
only way to worship is to care for others. Anyway this boy needs help."

"Why don't you send this kid your thoughts." I tried to say cheerfully, but
I thought to myself, why don't you worry about yourself for a change. You
need to sleep, not worry about some imaginary boy that exists somewhere far
away. There were millions of kids that led sub-standard lives. Fretting
about them wasn't going to help Anton recover.

"I will, I wish every kid had a warm bed, and a loving person like you in
their life Ty."

I thought to myself, Right, If he only knew...I would fall apart without him.
The demons were already telling me to prepare for the nightmare of life
without this man. I gave ten per cent of our income to charities that helped
kids because of Anton, but like Scrooge that was one of the things I stopped
doing. We couldn't afford it any more. There were all those medical bills. I
knew that Anton would have a fit when he found out!