Chapter
25
“How does it look?” Howie questioned Dr.
Karebyn who was exiting the room Nick was in holding his black doctor bag.
“It could be worse,” Dr. Karebyn said
briefly, “but basically gentlemen if you can’t get him to eat and soon, I’m
afraid he’ll have to be hospitalized again.”
They all groaned, “But at a hospital
he can check himself out,” Brian argued.
“In this house he can still...” Dr.
Karebyn paused as he stared at the adamant faces of the four men surrounding
him, “Ok, I get your point... but in this house he is slowly starving himself
to death.”
They swallowed hard at those words,
“What can we do about it? He refuses to eat and we can’t ram it down his
throat...” Kevin was saying in frustration pulling at his hair, “I swear this
kid’s gonna give me grays.”
AJ giggled, “I think I am starting to
see some premature graying Kev...”
“Oh shut up, at least I’m not gonna be
bald when I hit 30...” Kevin was muttering with a small smile.
“Well I still got 8 years on that old
man,” AJ grinned devilishly. Kevin put him in a headlock and gave him a
noogie. This made Brian and Howie laugh. Dr. Karebyn watched the
scene with a smile, he laughed lightly and immediately the Boys’ full attention
was back on him.
“We’re sorry,” Howie was apologizing.
“No, no, don’t be sorry. I was
only going to say that with friends like you boys, and this wonderful
environment, Nickolas should be fine. You just need to get him to eat, or
drink a glass of milk, something,” Dr. K blinked and looked thoughtful, “You
could buy him some nutrient supplement drinks, the kind he can take through a
straw.”
Kevin was nodding, “I’ve seen millions
of those on the shelves of drug stores and grocery stores. Anyone in
particular I should get?”
“Hmmm, I would go with Ensure, but
anything of that nature would be good for him, even the generic store brands.”
“Thank you,” Kevin said, “for
everything you’ve done so far.”
“Don’t thank me yet. We still have a
patient in there that has yet to show any improvement... well except for the
fact that he is now completely devoid of any mind altering substances.
The real problem here is psychological...and I personally do not think he
is going to get any better until he releases some of the demons in his head.
Has he talked to...”
“He talked to me,” Brian butted in,
“It was a real cathartic experience. He cried himself to sleep.”
Dr. K nodded, “Good. I’m no
psychiatrist, but I know that talking and crying are good. Just keep it
up and you should definitely start to see a change in his demeanor.”
The Boys walked the doctor to
the door. “Thank you again Dr. K,” Howie said thanking his old family
friend, “I don’t know what we would have done without you.”
“You’re welcome Howie, and if you need
anything else, don’t be afraid to call me,” Dr. Karebyn smiled and gave Howie a
brief hug. Then he left for his car. Howie closed the door after
him.
“I’m going to the store,” Kevin said
after a few seconds, “I’ll be back in a little while.” He left the front
room to get his car keys.
BJ entered the room with a stretching
yawn, “Hey.... Was that the doctor I just heard leaving?”
Brian nodded, “Yeah. You have a good
nap Beej?”
BJ nodded and rubbed her eyes with her
fists. She had been up all night with Nick on a night watch, “What’d he say?
Anything good?”
Brian gave her a tight smile,” He
needs to eat.”
BJ frowned, “I know that... Is that
all he said?”
Brian nodded, “Yeah, and that he’s
drug-free.”
“Hmmn,” BJ bit her lip, “Well then
what’d he say we could do about the fact that Nick won’t eat anything?”
“He said we should buy him nutrient
crap he can drink,” Brian said with a sigh, “something. Hell, he said a
little milk will do.”
BJ groaned, “God how are we going to
do this? He won’t open his mouth for anything unless it’s to tell us to
go away. “ She carried the same look on her face Kevin had earlier, “I swear
I’m gonna be irregular this month!”
Brian almost choked, he hadn’t been
expecting that one.... The gray hair comment, that’s what he was expecting. BJ
grinned manically at him and pranced by, going into the kitchen.
Girls!
“No Mom,” Leslie was saying into the phone.
She was talking to her mother on her sister’s cell phone. BJ would kill
her if she knew. She was in Nick’s room in the closet. She kept the
door open a crack so she could keep an eye on Nick who was sleeping fitfully on
the bed. Every now and again he would make a small whimpering noise and
utter words, talking to invisible people. Leslie trembled as some of the
things he said registered as something she had heard before.
“Nick what is this all about?” Jane
had taken Nick by his hands and sat him down at the kitchen table. Five
minutes earlier she had been on the phone with Nick’s friend Brent.
Leslie had smiled when she answered the phone and had discovered who it
was. It had been a long time since she had heard Brent’s voice on the
phone. He had requested to speak to her mother and Leslie had reluctantly
yielded the phone to Jane.
Pleasant exchanges were made as Leslie
wondered around the kitchen searching the pantry for something to nibble on.
She had discovered a box of snack cakes. She removed the box and
was pulling out a single plastic wrapped cake when she heard her mother hang up
the phone and call Nick downstairs. Nick was home again from tour.
He spent most of his time in his room sleeping during the day.
Leslie was aware that it disturbed her mother that Nick slept so much
during the day and sometimes wouldn’t find it in himself to fall asleep at
night.
Nick was slow to appear. He had
probably been asleep. Aaron appeared beside him almost confirming
Leslie’s assumption that he had been asleep. Aaron had probably woken him up.
Leslie frowned at Aaron. He was so saturnine lately, especially
when Nick was around. Leslie guessed it was because Nick was ignoring
him, but he shouldn’t take it to heart, Nick was ignoring everyone.
He was lukewarm and polite only when needed to be, otherwise he was
totally antisocial.
Jane stared at him with an odd expression
in her eyes. Her voice when she had called him down had been odd too.
She beckoned him closer. Nick stood in the doorway of the kitchen
looking pale and tired. His slow movements toward Jane looked like they
required every bit little bit of energy he had.
BJ came into the kitchen then.
She looked every bit as pale and tired as Nick did, but they all knew
why. She ventured to the fridge oblivious to the tense scene evolving in
the kitchen.
“Brent just called,” Jane said to Nick
still staring at him in that odd way, her voice so strange.
“Did he want to talk to me?” Nick
asked looking confused.
Jane shook her head, “No, he wanted to
talk to me.”
Nick blinked, “So....?”
“Nick... Honey,” Jane paused shortly,
“are you ok?”
Nick blinked and looked at her
curiously, “I’m ok.”
Jane bit her lip and drank in his
appearance, which Leslie has to say was looking a little sallow, “Were you
sleeping?”
Nick nodded.
“Did you stay up again all night?”
Jane questioned. Nick looked surprised, his expression clearly read, “How
did she know?”
“Nick... when’s the last time you’ve
eaten anything? Did you eat today at all?”
Every eye in the kitchen was on Nick
now, and Nick fidgeted uncomfortably. “Nick?” Jane pressed.
“No,” Nick shook his head, “I’ve been
asleep, I’m not hungry.”
“You sleep too much Nick,” Aaron said
quietly coming to Nick’s side.
Nick’s eyes glanced down at Aaron,
“I’ve been really tired. I just got off tour, God! What is this?” he backed
away from Jane and Aaron.
That’s when Jane took his hands,
“Nick, Brent says you’re not eating. What is this all about? Is he right?
Nick, I want to believe him. I haven’t seen you eat a thing since you got
here, when usually I can’t keep you out of the kitchen.”
Nick pulled away from her, “It’s my
business what I do with myself. I told Brent to get his own because I
didn’t need him in mine.”
The kitchen was silent after Nick’s
bitter confession.
“When’s the last time you’ve had
anything to eat?” Jane asked him grabbing his arm as he tried to storm out of
the kitchen.
Nick whirled on her his eyes blazing
with fury. It was the most life Leslie had seen come into his eyes for a long
time, “I don’t know mother, ok? I don’t know! I’m fine. Nothing bad has
happened, and I lost weight.”
“Nick, you’re hurting yourself.
When you don’t eat your body starts feeding off itself,” Jane was
explaining to him, “Who cares if you lost weight?”
“I do!” Nick snapped, and muttered
something else to, and tried to leave the kitchen again.
“Uh-uh, you’re not going anywhere
young man. You sit down there, and I’m going to make you something to eat.
And you are going to eat every single last bite of it, too,” Jane was
furious, “How could you be so stupid? You’re supposed to be an adult
now... you’re always insisting that you are, and telling me how much you don’t
need me in your life, but then you do something like this!“
Nick was leaving again, but Aaron
caught his arm, “Nick, please.” He tried to shake him off, but Aaron held on,
“Please...”
“Aaron let GO!” Nick was yelling, but
then another arm grabbed him on the other side. Where had Angel came
from? Leslie wondered. She stared at her younger sister, whose face was
disguised with make-up. Angel had turned out to be quite superficial over
the past few months.... AD. After the divorce... that’s what they had
taken to calling it. Leslie realized that most of the major changes and
problems in the family had taken place AD.
“Oh just sit down Nick and shut up,
they’re not going to let you go!” BJ snapped in an ill-tempered manner.
She pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and sat down in the one
across from it, “SIT!”
Nick shot a wild glance around the
kitchen at everyone’s purposeful face. He groaned loudly and plopped down
in the chair BJ had pulled out. The clinking of pots and pans could
be heard. Leslie came to sit in the chair next to BJ; she stared at Nick
who had leaned his head in his hands. Aaron and Angel stood together. It
was a weird sight to Leslie’s eyes to see the twins together again. They
had grown apart, AD. Leslie watched her mother set down a bowl of
steaming soup in front of her older brother. She handed him a spoon and
stood next to him waiting for him to eat it. Nick rolled his eyes and
took the spoon. The whole family (minus Dad) sat and watched Nick
leisurely finished the contents of the bowl. He pushed the dish aside and
pushed away from the table, “Can I go now?”
Jane gapped at him, “Nick...? Ah, well
yes.” Her face was slightly flushed with embarrassment. Nick left the
kitchen with Aaron and Angel trailing behind him. Jane collapsed in the
chair Nick had been sitting in, “Oh my God...” she rested her head in her arms
on the table and her shoulders shook as she cried.
“Mom?” Leslie asked in alarm, she
tentatively touched her mother’s arm.
“It’s all wrong,” Jane said, “this
family has fallen apart...” She sat up and gripped Leslie’s hand suddenly, “I’m
sorry.”
“For what Mom?” BJ stood up on her
side of the table, “For being a good wife to a backstabbing son-of-a-bi...”
“BJ!” Jane yelled in warning.
“Well it’s true!” BJ slammed the chair
into the table and left the kitchen.
“BJ’s gone wild... Angel’s transformed
into a selfless Barbie Doll, Aaron’s gonna have an ulcer before he’s 16, and
Nick’s...” she shook her head.
“He’s what Mom?”
“Have you seen inside his eyes
Leslie?” Jane asked her daughter. When Leslie shook her head Jane said,
“They’re empty. No soul in there... It’s like he’s not Nick anymore, and
he no longer gives a damn about himself. I’m afraid he’s gonna...”
“Gonna what Mom?” Leslie inquired.
“I’m afraid he’s going to kill
himself, when no one is around to stop him...”
“Leslie, are you still there?” Jane
Carter’s voice spoke sounding a little fuzzy on BJ’s cell phone waves.
“Yes, Mom, I’m still here,” Leslie
spoke finally, keeping her gaze on Nick, who slept on his side with his back to
her now.
“Where are you?”
Leslie blinked and took a gulp, BJ’s
wrong, she told herself. BJ is wrong, Mom needs to know, “We’re in Florida.
We’re staying at Kevin’s house, and yes Nick is with us.”
***
