Stephen - 1. Chapter 1

“Who are you, and where am I?”

“I'm Michael, you're in a hospital.”

“I'm not sick, so why am I here?”

“What do you remember? Think hard.”

“I remember telling my dad that I might be gay.”

“Then what happened?”

Stephen began to shake as his memory returned. “He hit me very hard and threw me out of the house. Why did he do that? I didn't say I was gay but that I might be gay.”

“What else do you remember?”

“I was running away from some kids, they were throwing stones at me. One must have hit me on the head cause I don't remember the rest.”

“You were knocked out, those kids began to kick you. You're in a hospital.”

“I can't be in the hospital, I don't feel any pain, and I don't have any bruises.”

“Look at that bed.” Stephan's mouth dropped open as he recognized the boy in the bed."

“That's me.”

“Yes, that's you”

“I'm very banged up. My leg is in the air on that pulley. How long have I been here?”

“You have been here three weeks now. You're in a coma from being hit on your head.”

“What's going to happen now?”

“That depends on you.”

“I don't understand. Why does it depend on me?”

“You can go back and continue with your life, or you can come with me.”

“But my life is over. Everyone will think I'm gay and hate me. Why am I gay?”

“God made you that way.”

“If God is love, then why make gay people that are being hated and mistreated. Gay people experience a lot of hate and pain. I'd think if God loved us, he wouldn't cause us so much pain.”

“God didn't create you to be tormented. God created you with love as He did with all of his children.”

“Then where does the hate come from?”

“The hate that you experienced comes from fear. People fear that which they don't understand. There are many people out there that are misreading God's word and creating this fear. Your father believes this and acted as he thought he was suppose to act. But that doesn't make what he did was right. He was wrong.”

“These people like my dad get away with this?”

“No, not really, they are unhappy. Without God's love, they are lost.”

“If I go back, what will happen to me? I don't have a home, I don't want to live on the street being afraid of everyone.”

“I can't tell you what will happen if you go back except to tell you God loves you, and in some way, He'll protect you. Don't lose faith in Him. He has great plans for you.”

“I don't know what to do. What should I do?”

“I can't tell you, this is your decision, but know that God is with you.”

Stephan sat on the floor and thought about what Michael had told him, “If God will look out for me, I'll go back.” Michael smiled as he slowly vanished, Stephan found himself in bed, hurting in places he didn't think he would ever hurt.

Opening his eyes, he saw a nurse standing by his bed. "Hello, welcome back to the living. We thought we lost you for a while."

“My throat...” The nurse gave him some ice chips to suck on to sooth his throat.

“Your throat is sore because we had to put in a tube to allow you to breathe. I just removed the tube since you had started to breathe on your own.” I looked at her, her eyes twinkled, she had a quiet but comforting voice. I tried to say thank you but it didn't come out just right. “Don't try to talk. Let your throat get use to not having that tube in. Keep sipping that ice water, I'll see that you get some ice cream later."

She set my bed so I wasn't laying flat. I watched as she left the room. Closing my eyes I drifted off to sleep. Michael came again and asked how I was feeling. I told him that I think I'll be ok, but my throat was sore. He smiled as he slowly left.

"Stephan, can you hear me?"

I opened my eyes, there was the nurse with a man who I guessed was the doctor. "Welcome back, I'm Doctor Jennings. Do you hurt anywhere?” I pointed to my leg, arm and head. "Your leg was broken as well as your arm. You had two broken ribs. You're lucky they did not puncture your lungs. The bump on your head was the most severe injury. Until you awoke, we couldn't access the damage. I'd like to do some tests now that you are awake.” I just nodded my head. He had a small flash light that he used to look into my eyes. He told the nurse to get some drops. When she was gone, "The injury to your head has affected your eyes. I'm going to put some drops into your eyes and watch the movement of your iris. Right now they are hardly moving with the light. Before you leave the hospital, I'll have an eye doctor take a look.” The nurse returned with the medicine, the doctor put the drops in my eyes. Then with the small flashlight again, he asked me to look to the right, to the left, up and down. Then asked me to look straight at the door in front of me. When I did, I thought I saw Michael.

“Michael”

The doctor and nurse looked at the door. There was no one there. I thought I had seen Michael, but maybe it was the drops. I think all doctors do the same thing, take you temperature, blood pressure and check the wound dressing. Satisfied, he wrote on the chart at the bottom of my bed. As the nurse left, “I'll have some ice cream sent in.”

I really didn't expect anything. I just thought about what Michael said. Then I began to worry about what was going to happen to me once I was discharged from the hospital. I guess my worrying resulted in my blood pressure rising as the nurse came in to check it. "I know you have a lot of questions. But for now, you need to remain calm so that you'll get better."

“What's going to happen to me? I have no place to go when I leave here.”

The nurse looked at me, I saw a tear in her eye. “I'm not sure what’s going to happen once you leave the hospital. Your father was contacted when they brought you in and he signed papers stating he was no longer responsible for you. He will still responsible for your hospital bills. Do you have any other relatives?”

“I think my mother had a sister, she lives somewhere in Europe. I never saw her, I remember my mom saying that one of these days, we’d go and visit her. My mom came from Denmark, so maybe that’s where she lives.”

“Don't worry, we'll try and find her. For now, just focus on getting well.”