Page 81 of Two for Joy

“Can you tell me your name?”

“It’s um … um, give me a minute and it’ll come back to me.”

“Can you remember what you did today?”

Romeo eased himself down on the pillow. He stared at the light in the ceiling until Zander moved closer and blocked it from view.

“Hey… Romeo?”

“Romeo.” He repeated.

“That’s your name.”

He gave Zander a wonderous look and laughed lightly. “Yeah, of course it is, Romeo.”

“Do you remember what you had for breakfast?”

“No.”

Zander unhooked a pen from his top pocket and shined it into Romeo’s eyes. He cursed and ducked away. Zander hummed, then backed off.

“I’ll keep a close eye on you.”

Romeo hadn’t over done it, Zander was concerned, but not overly so. He moved along to the next curtain and disappeared behind it. Romeo closed his eyes and tried to picture the medical A-Z he had in his cell. Grade three concussion. That’s what he needed to be taken to the city hospital, for them to look for damage on his brain.

Nausea, confusion, amnesia, trouble speaking, Romeo was going to present with every symptom until Zander had to do something.

First on the list, nausea.

Romeo picked up the bucket from the chair by the bed. He thought of Chad, sliced, bleeding, his throat slit, and rather than fight the build-up of bile, Romeo relished it until he heaved into the bucket, choking and spitting. The more he threw up, the worse his headache got, until he wasn’t faking, it was a cycle of headache and sickness.

Zander peeked looks at him, but took a long time to come back over. Romeo wheezed, and panted, then looked up at him.

“Where am I?”

“On the hospital wing.”

“Hospital wing,” he repeated, “I don’t understand.”

“Justin Steel punched you in the face.”

Romeo turned his head, then went to reach for it with his secured hand. It rattled, he stared down at it, then yanked on it some more.

Zander took the bucket off his lap, put it aside, then pinned Romeo to the bed by his shoulders.

“Calm down.”

“Why have you chained me up? You can’t—you can’t do this.”

“I need you to relax, Romeo.”

“Romeo?”

“Yeah, it’s your name.”

Romeo stopped fighting against Zander and sunk into the bed. “Yeah … of course it is.”

“Try and … try and get some rest.”

---