“I’ll go and get a bag ready now. Can he have his teddy with him, he might respond if he knows Lion’s there.”
The emergency technician nodded, “But let me give it to him so you’re not in the way of us saving him.”
Without another word, Adam sidestepped the scene, looking down at Jacob, silently praying as he passed. The door shuddered as Adam breezed through towards the stairs clearing two to three steps at a time. He turned at the landing and entered into Jacob’s room. He picked up the SpongeBob SquarePants rucksack and ransacked the drawers for pajamas, socks, and T-shirts. Then onto the toy boxes for small toys he could smuggle into the hospital.
He ignored the ring of the house phone.
Wait.
It was too loud to be from downstairs and that was the only phone in the house.
Adam turned and looked at the dull pink phone lying in the center of the room.
Alone and disconnected.
It rang.
Loud.
Shrill.
Adam edged over to it and looked at it for a moment trying to ascertain whether he imagined it or not. Adam bent down, picked it up and answered it.
“Anne, is that you?”
“He belongs to me.”
Adam gripped the phone, “No, Anne, he doesn’t. Did you make this happen? Did you cause all this?”
“He belongs to me.”
Adam’s jaw shuddered, his hands shook, and the phone rattled against his ear as he tried to hold it still. His words trembled as he spoke.
“Don’t take him away, Anne. I’m begging you. Don’t take him away from life. He’s just a little boy. He’s not seen the world yet. He still believes Santa comes down a chimney every Christmas, that a fairy takes away his teeth for money. He still thinks there’s a monster waiting to get him in the closet at night. Don’t be that monster, Anne; I beg you. Jesus Christ, Anne I’m begging you. Don’t take away Jacob. Please. Let him grow up. Be a boy. A teen. A man. Let him live his life as we meant him to. We’ll all be back together one day, I promise. I swear on it. But let us live first. Please, Anne. Please? He doesn’t belong to us. He belongs to the world, don’t you think?”
Silence down the phone. A long spiraling silence drew out like a knife.
The line went dead.
“No Anne! Please wait!” cried Adam down the phone, holding the receiver to his heart, “Don’t take him away.”
Adam slumped to his backside and clung to the phone so tight the blood left his knuckles.
The silence felt as long as death.
“He’s breathing!” a voice shouted from outside.
Then an eruption of cheers.
Dropping the phone, it clattered to the floor with an empty echo. Grabbing Lion and the rucksack, Adam ran down the stairs to see his son. The emergency technician swung round and stopped Adam before he came too close.
“He’s breathing, and that’s good. But he’s not cleared the woods just yet.”
“He will. I know that now,” replied Adam, silently thanking Anne.
Adam hopped in the back of the ambulance five minutes after they had Jacob secure on a stretcher, hushing Jacob as he tried to talk.
“No, Jacob, it can wait.”
“But…”
“No Jacob. You need to rest. I love you, and your Mommy loves you. But she wants you to keep praying after this. No more telephones.”
Jacob licked his lips and pulled the oxygen mask away from his mouth, “I know, Mommy told me over that radio…”
Adam looked over at the ambulance’s radio as it fizzed, crackled, and then went silent.
“I know Mommy’s safe now. I feel tired, Daddy. I want to sleep.”
“Stay awake until the ambulance people tell you that it’s okay to sleep. Okay?”
“One more thing, Daddy.”
“It can wait, Jacob. You need to rest. Here’s Lion.”
“But…Mr. Murkowski,” said Jacob as he took Lion and hugged him.
Adam looked to Jacob, reached over, held his hand and never let go.
***
“I’m glad he’s okay, Adam. Andy’s been worrying about him the last couple of days. Sorry, hang on.” Larry Murkowski wrapped his hand around the receiver and cocked his ear towards the ceiling before taking his hand away to talk. “Yeah, sorry about that. I keep hearing a noise from upstairs. Anyway, mind if me and Andy drop by once Jacob’s better?”
Larry nodded. Paused. “Uh-uh. That’s great. Sorry Adam, I keep hearing phones ringing from the attic. Sounds nuts doesn’t it? Only one up there is disconnected, I had enough of being disturbed at night…I’m sure I disconnected it…hang on; I’ll be back in a minute…”
Stuffed dolls are often a girl’s first friend and beloved throughout her life. This particular dwarf doll was handmade for a special child, making it doubly full of love. All that love simple couldn’t be contained by cloth and stitches.
Writer Laura J. Hickman is from New England, formally of Las Vegas by way of New Orleans where she creates her ghostly-casino-voodoo infused work.
PROTECTING SWEET SADIE
Laura J. Hickman
CLAWS of pain ripped through Sadie and she whimpered as she tried to fight through the waves of nausea slamming into her. The only things keeping Sadie from screaming out in agony were her two lifelines — her boyfriend Michael (who tried to keep her calm) and her stuffed Dopey doll.
Dopey had kept a constant vigil over his sweet Sadie ever since she was two years old and he first snuggled into her arms after her open-heart surgery. He and the surgery saved her life. Dopey was her reward for living through the medical hell and each night after receiving him, Sadie nuzzled him against her body, feeling safe and loved.
As they both aged, Dopey’s thin cloth exterior frayed, releasing tuffs of his interior stuffing. Sadie loved Dopey, almost more than her own life, and therefore hated the idea of his possible demise if he stayed with her each night. To protect him, she placed him in a special spot on her desk, overlooking her as she studied, played, and slept. Dopey protected his splendid Sadie from his new post, and even though he missed being in her arms nightly, he loved her even more for wanting to protect him. He promised himself he’d always stand by his stupendous Sadie; she would always be Dopey’s human.
However, as he watched these new horrors attacking his strong Sadie, Dopey’s anger raged through him.
“We have to get you to the hospital!”
Michael tugged lightly on Sadie and her body moved in slow motion as she slid from the bed to the floor. Her hand grabbed Dopey for moral support as Michael helped her up and kissed her lightly on the lips. “We both are here for you,” he reassured. “Dopey and I will get you through this.”
Sadie used Michael as a crutch as she took her first step on the path to the emergency room. Her body shook with agony and tears tumbled down her face, leaving tiny rivers of exhaustion across her cheeks. Her mind blanked as her body fell victim to the mayhem eating away at her insides. Everything from her toes to her hair hurt. Her hands clutched her old friend Dopey as if he was her only port in a hostile sea of suffering. A small part of her subconscious knew Michael longed to hold her, help her, heal her, but right now all he could do was stroke her hair and whisper soft words of love and support as she laid curled into a ball on the hospital bed.
Sadie clutched Dopey in one hand and Michael’s in the other as they waited for a doctor to explain the distresses Sadie’s body fought within itself. Holding Dopey opened a small part of her mind and flashed her back to her original surgery, and Sadie couldn’t help but wonder how she had endured so much pain at the age of two. Inside Sadie’s mind, she imagined Dopey’s voice soothing her frightened soul. I protected you. Your family protected you. Your doctors protected you. And now Michael is protecting you! We all are here to help you heal and help you out of this darkness.
After an eternity (or just an hour or so) the doctor entered and explained why Sadie’s body revolted against her and how to fi
x it. Too lost in her own suffering, she prayed Michael listened and understood. Words slipped through the raging attack on her body: benign cysts, immediate surgery, pain medicines, and a long recovery and hospital stay.
Michael held Sadie as much as he possibly could while her body was tied down with wires and tubes. “I’ll reach out to your family,” he promised.
Sadie nodded, slowly, almost as if she did not comprehend his words, but rather only heard the softness and caring in his voice. Sadie’s mind slowed as the medicine dripped into her through the IV. The pain lessened with each drip until Sadie finally felt nothing.
Dopey smiled as his special Sadie slept (with the help of the mighty drugs flowing through her system). Her heart steadied as the pain vanished from her consciousness. He’d done it again; Michael and he had saved his spectacular Sadie. Dopey understood this was not the end, but at least soon they would be past this anguish. Dopey knew what hospitals meant and how surgeries caused more pain, but in the end they usually healed humans. This was not the first time since they’d met that his suffering Sadie had faced surgery. Each time he’d stood by her, just as he would this time.
Part of Dopey hated Michael and the doctors, not because they were helping to heal his superb Sadie, but because he could not stay snuggled up against her when this surgery took place. She was no longer a child and adults could not take silly toys into the operating room, like she did when she was a child. Dopey wanted to scream and cry at this, but he understood the doctors had to follow procedures. So he waited instead, propped up on the counter — a look out, a protector. He watched doctors and nurses come and go. He watched her parents arrive and hug Michael and try to hug his splendid Sadie. His heart swelled with pride at the love he saw from all of them; he knew he was a part of that love and that he would never be left behind or forgotten. Their course set, Dopey settled into his spot and waited for them to go home again.
A few days passed before Sadie was finally wheeled into the surgery that would end her most recent bout of misery. Dopey waited with bated breath for her to return to her room, now filled with flowers, cards, balloons and even a new stuffed animal — a distinguished (and oversized) stuffed penguin. “Hello good Sir!” the penguin had introduced himself to Dopey. “My name is Benedict, and I am told I was named after a character from favorite play of Ms. Sadie’s and Mr. Michael’s. Who pray tell are you?”
“I’m Dopey. And you seem like a chivalrous penguin, so we shall be friends! My stunning Sadie and I will enjoy you in our lives, and I promise I’ll introduce you to life at her place when we get home. But right now, we need to work on healing her.”
Benedict smiled; he had a purpose now, and truthfully Dopey was grateful for the help. After all, standing watch over Sadie, waiting for her to be out of the hospital and free of this scary place was tough work!
The door opened and a gurney rolled into the small room, and Dopey watched his no-longer-suffering Sadie get helped back into her hospital bed by her family and Michael. For the next day, she still mostly just slept, every once in awhile waking to ask for water or to mutter nonsensically. Dopey and Benedict did their part by whispering healing love from their perch on the windowsill.
As the days rolled by, more doctors and nurses entered, spoke, then left; fortunately, each carried a bit of good news.
“The surgery was a success. We have no reason to expect any recurrences.”
“Sadie will be in pain and we are keeping her well medicated to control that; if she wakes and asks for more pain meds, please call the nurse.”
One doctor looked at Michael as she explained, “She is a strong young woman. I’m so glad we could finally diagnose the source of her pain. Michael, Sadie is lucky to have you. Had you not gotten her to the hospital when you did, she may have sustained irreparable internal damage. You may have literally saved her life.”
Sadie’s parents and Michael sat, waiting for Sadie to exit her medicine-filled dreamland and start to come back to them. The three of them spoke little, but did take turns going to the hospital coffee shop or outside for breaks. On one of Michael’s returns, he held a small stuffed animal in his hand. This new one was so much smaller than the huge Benedict, more the size of some of the cute stuff animals Michael loved to give to Sadie as gifts of love — the small, clutchable animals she loved to spread around her as she slept. Even Dopey accepted them; they were cute, and they protected his saintly Sadie.
However, there was something different about this one. Dopey watched as her eyes darted back and forth as if she was uncomfortable in Michael’s hand. Dopey hoped this stuffed animal was just scared of hospitals.
Sadie’s eyes fluttered open, “Water, please.”
Michael jumped up to help Sadie sip on some water as he smiled down at her. Dopey loved seeing Michael take such good care of her. Dopey nodded to Benedict, a signal that this is what life would be like once they got home (being the oldest and wisest stuffed animal, Dopey always took on the role as host to new toys).
As Sadie finished sipping her water and waved the straw away, she finally noticed something in Michael’s hand. He held it up to her and declared with a laugh, “It’s a grim reaper!”
Sadie’s body, still in pain and sluggish from the pain meds, reached out to touch the new stuffed animal. She giggled a bit. It was a small grim reaper holding a scythe, which spied at the world with big green eyes and a huge smile. “Tess! Her name is Tess, named after…” Sadie whispered as she cuddled her close to her chest and dozed back off to sleep.
Her parents looked at Michael and smiled, until her mother finally asked, “Where did that name come from?”
“Probably the same place the majority of Sadie’s stuffed animals name’s come from — a character she loves,” her father offered.
“I meant what character!”
None of them knew so the subject petered out as they sat watching Sadie sleep and heal.
Dopey, on the other hand, stopped listening to the humans and kept an eye on this new stuffed animal, held so closely to his sleeping Sadie’s heart.
The slow beeps, clicks, and hisses of oxygen ticked away the minutes and hours in the hospital. Dopey watched as Tess stayed in Sadie’s grasp as she healed. Tess never spoke to Dopey or Benedict. Occasionally, Tess struggled out of Sadie’s hand to look around and nodded a hello to both Dopey and Benedict, but never a word slipped from her stitched, smiley mouth — only her eyes flashed any change in expression. As she surveyed the room, her big, round, green eyes narrowed as she glanced in their direction and Dopey wondered if she might be sizing them up. Little did Tess know, Dopey may be old and have a few puffs of stuffing peaking out, but his ability to protect his soulful Sadie equaled a superhero’s strength and desire!
After a few days, Dopey heard the magic words from her doctor — “Sadie can probably go home tomorrow as long as all her numbers and tests come back good.”
Relief swam through Dopey’s body because he knew once home he could watch over his sweetheart Sadie and maybe even get rid of Tess. The idea of doing harm to another stuffed animal broke Dopey’s already hurting heart, but keeping his super Sadie safe was his job. He thought back to the day his Maker, the caring Ms. Karen, created him and placed a special fabric heart with stitches inside of him so he could understand what the toddler Sadie had just gone through. The morning before he was bestowed upon her, the kindhearted Ms. Karen snuggled him against her breast, giving him a piece of her to protect his future human. “My darling Dopey, your heart needed to be healed just as small Sadie’s did. She is doing better and now she needs to be protected and loved forever. Please look over her as I wish I could, but my job is here to help other broken children find their first steps to a new, healthier life.”
Dopey nodded with pride at the compassionate Ms. Karen and whispered the only words any human would ever hear. “Yes. I will take on this task, I will heal the brokenhearted, and I will stand by my human and love her forever. Thank you for giving me life, the chari
table Ms. Karen!”
Finally back home, Dopey planted himself in his place upon the desk to be able to keep a watchful eye on the room, his snuggleable Sadie, and of course that new stuffed animal. Dopey still acted according to his position and introduced both Tess and Benedict to all of the other toys, stuffed animals, the furniture and of course the artwork.
It was actually the beautiful mermaid in the painting next to the window who confirmed to Dopey that he wasn’t imagining things. Late one night (one of the first nights after they’d all returned home), she whispered to Dopey, “I feel as if the waters of our room and safety have changed. Something is not right in here! I feel cold, as if icy tendrils are sneaking up to my tail to whisk me deep under the water!”
Since Dopey knew they all needed be more careful and watch over their sleeping Sadie, he waited for the cat, Lenny, to come visit their room. Once Lenny snuck in to snuggle with his human, Dopey asked the cat if he would help to keep a watch out, too. After all, Lenny had the ability to leave the room on his own and eavesdrop on the conversations of the humans, something Dopey and the other items in the room could not do.
By day, while Sadie rested in the other room on the couch, Dopey and many of the others chatted about her recovery. Each of them wanted to know about the hospital stay, about the new stuffed animals, and of course how long Sadie might be able to stay at home with them before going back to that evil place called WORK.
A small teddy bear with a cape named Clark asked Dopey to tell the story — again! — of her last surgery, back when Sadie was only ten years old, leading up to when he came to live with the family.
Dopey laughed as he thought back to those horrible days, smiling as he recounted her last surgery. He started with when his scared Sadie had come to him.
“Dopey, I’m scared, but I know you’ll be there for me!” she told him. “Thank you for watching over me for the last eight years. You are my hero!”
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