One Moment - 2. Chapter 2

One Moment

Chapter 2

“Is he sleeping?” Mary Rancourt asked Mark, as she walked up to where he was sitting in a chair between Matt’s bed and the empty one beside it, with a tray of food.

Mark looked up from the book he was reading and smiled at her. “Yeah he’s been asleep since the moment he laid down.” He turned and looked at the clock on the wall near the door, stretching out his body as he did so. “Nearly four hours now. He hasn’t even stirred. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anyone sleep so soundly.”

“Probably has a lot to do with the pain medication he’s on. That stuff tends to make people very sleepy.” She set the tray, which held a peanut butter and jelly sandwich; some sliced cucumbers and a box of milk on the end table near Matt’s bed and looked him over. “Handsome little guy huh?”

Mark looked up at her and chuckled not having thought much about it himself. “I guess so. You going to wake him, to eat?”

Mary nodded as she leaned over closer to the bed, “Yeah, I think his eating properly is just as important as him getting enough rest. The doctor’s report we have says he’s underweight, I don’t imagine he ate all that well on the streets.” She reached out and gently pulled back the blanket that was still high up over Matt’s shoulders so it was about halfway down his chest. She wasn’t too surprised to see his face and hands glistening in sweat as the room was pretty warm yet he’d bundled himself up like it was forty degrees in there or something.

“Matthew?” She said gently nudging his arm. Other than the hand near his face flexing a little bit she didn’t get any response and nudged him one more time again saying his name. This time his eyes slowly opened, his face turned into the pillow as his arms and legs slowly moved outward in a partial stretching motion.

A moment later, his face turned back out of the pillow and he looked up at her confusion filling his face.

“My name is Mary hon, I work here, and I brought you some lunch. We figured you must be pretty hungry.”

Even though he was groggy Matt had to admit, at least to himself that he was hungry.

“I have it right here.” Mary said motioning to the tray on the end table causing Matt to glance over. “You just sit up and we’ll adjust your pillow so you can sit right here and eat.”

Matt slowly sat up his body groaning in protest, not only from his injuries but also from the many hours his muscles hadn’t moved while he was sleeping.

The minute he’d sat up fully Mary made quick work of adjusting his pillow against the headboard of the bed then helped him slide back on the bed so he was sitting up against it. He didn’t exactly need that help but she hadn’t given much room for him to object. She set the tray over his lap its two legs on either side of his legs making the tray so it was at a comfortable eating height.

His stomach rumbled seeing it was peanut butter and jelly one of his all time favorites though he did a good job of hiding his pleasure when he saw that was what he had for a sandwich.

He looked over at Mark, his presence there not registering in his mind until just that moment.

“Yep I’m still here, I’m sure Dr. Marshall told you about the three foot rule?”

Matt nodded remembering him gabbing on about something like that.

“Well I’m the one that’s staying within three feet of you today.”

Shrugging his shoulders ever so slightly to give the impression he really didn’t give a shit, Matt looked back down at his sandwich then picked it up and took a big bite. Mary left the room leaving instructions to just leave the tray on the end table when he was done and she’d come back and pick it up later.

While he ate, Matt wondered what time it was. He’d left the hospital at just before eight am. He figured he was in that man’s office for at least an hour listening to all those rules and regulations but had no idea how long he had been asleep. His eyes wandered around the room and before long fell on the clock over by the door. He was a little surprised to see it was already nearly two, which meant he’d slept at least four hours if his other calculations were correct, and he certainly didn’t feel very rested. He hoped he’d get to go back to sleep after he finished eating.

He ate while Mark read, until his food was gone then moved the tray shakily over to the end table by his bed. Mark looked up from his book.

“You need to go to the bathroom yet?”

Even though he just wanted to get back to sleep Matt’s bladder was telling him otherwise and he nodded. Mark set his book down on the corner of Matt’s bed and stood up. Matt pushed the blankets back with his feet and slowly got out of bed. He followed Mark back out into the hallway where they took a right and went straight to the end of the hall and through an open doorway that led to the bathroom.

To his left was a large counter with three sinks that had a very large mirror running along the back. On the far side of that was a stackable washer and dryer. A wall ran opposite that about halfway back up the room and had six hooks with six towels on it. To his right was a narrow hallway with three saloon type doors lining its left side. Mark led him down the narrow hallway and pushed open one of the doors. “I’ll wait right out here.”

Matt looked at him certainly getting frustrated with this three foot whatever in hell it was and stepped inside the small room that held nothing more than a shower stall and a toilet. He lifted the seat on the toilet, did his business that seemed to take forever causing his ears to turn red in embarrassment, as he knew damn well Mark could hear every last trickle that came out of him. God, he couldn’t imagine the first time he had to shit, how in heck was he supposed to do that with some strange man standing less than three feet away. A door or not some things just required more privacy than some small door that didn’t even fill up half the height of the doorway.

He shook himself off finally and flushed the toilet then walked back out of the room not even looking at Mark as he headed for the sinks and gave his hands a good washing. After he was through at the sinks, he walked back out the door stopping just outside and noticing a small room to his right that he hadn’t seen on the way into the bathroom.

Mark who had nearly crashed into him when he’d suddenly stopped looked in the direction Matt was, into the small room that held only a mattress to the right. “That’s where you go if you become out of control.”

Matt turned his head back and up at Mark not really understanding.

“Say if you got really mad, and became either verbally or physically abusive to staff or the other boys. You would have to spend some time in there with staff sitting just outside the door until you calmed down a bit.”

Swallowing hard Matt looked into the small room again. It was barely big enough to hold the small mattress that was in it, so he certainly did not want to have to go there ever, not to mention the fact that everyone would be able to see a person in there every time they had to go to the bathroom. He looked back up at Mark deciding this was another time where he needed to speak.

“How long is a person usually in there?”

“Usually a few hours.”

“What’s the longest anyone’s ever been in there?”

“Geez,” Mark put his finger to his chin and thought back. “Well I think in the time I’ve been here probably eight hours.”

Matt cringed hoping that if he ever did find a way to escape he wouldn’t be caught; he sure didn’t want to spend any time in that room let alone eight hours. He continued walking down the hall realizing there was another bathroom way at the other end of the hall. He figured that must be for the other six boys in the other bedroom, the door of which he figured was just down the hall from the room he was in. He kind of wanted to see the other room but didn’t feel it was worth asking about, and anyway, he wanted to get back in bed.

Once in his room he climbed back into his bed, got into the exact same position he had been in earlier and was off to sleep within a few minutes. Mark resumed his position in his chair and picked his book back up; glad he’d remembered to bring it that day having had the thought that he’d be doing just this all day long. Usually his day was filled with either helping out in the classroom or doing other more interactive activities, though this was far from the first time he’d had to just watch someone sleep. He had been on the night shift before, on that shift he’d gotten plenty of books read.

Three hours later at shortly after five in the evening a few of the other boys filtered into the room, their day of classes having just ended and the first round of chores about to begin. Two of them walked up behind Mark and looked down at Matt.

“So that’s the new kid huh?” Brian a boy of seventeen, one year older than Matt asked.

Mark nodded and closed his book figuring he was in for a barrage of questions, which usually happened when a new boy arrived.

“He’s one of them charity kids right?”

Mark nodded again as it wasn’t kept a secret, it was better to just have it right out in the open than to have the other boys constantly asking when his family was coming to visit or something. This was a situation that had proven in the past to be more uncomfortable than just having it right out in the open from the beginning.

“Man,” the boy with Brian whose name was Andy said shaking his head. “Why they gotta do that charity thing anyways? Those kids are always way messed up.”

Mark sighed lowering his book to his lap and looked up at Andy, “First off Andy, it’s ‘Why do they have to do that.’”

Andy rolled his eyes but repeated the sentence as it was a rule if you messed one up you had to repeat it properly, then added a ‘well?’ his voice tinged with impatience at the end.

“Secondly,” Mark continued. “That’s a very selfish attitude you have there. I would also say a bit prejudice. No one here is perfect otherwise you wouldn’t be here correct?”

Andy thrust his hands in his pockets and fought to keep from rolling his eyes, cast an evil glare at Matt’s form on the bed, turned, and stormed off.

“Watch yourself Andy,” Mark warned at Andy’s retreating form, which caused the boy to slow his walk and straighten his shoulders. Andy had been on the wrong side of trouble for a long, long time. Had been in the little room near the bathroom more times than Mark could count. He’d actually just recently learned how to keep himself out of trouble and it was almost humorous how quickly he could change his attitude at the prospect of being in trouble.

Mark looked up at Brian who was still standing over Matt’s bed. “You have anything to add?”

Brian shrugged and shook his head before he too turned and sauntered off knowing he had to set the table before anyone could eat.

Matt whose eyes were still closed forced himself to keep his breathing even. He didn’t want anyone to know he was awake, and did not want anyone to know he’d heard the entire conversation. Even though he still wasn’t planning to stick around, if possible, his heart sank knowing for certain now that the rich brats here were just as snotty as the rich brats back in Freeman were.

He lay there his eyes tightly closed telling himself over and over he didn’t care. He was going to get away soon somehow; he had to, even if it killed him. He just had to get a little stronger first. If just walking to the bathroom caused all out exhaustion he knew there wasn’t any hope of him getting away from Mark or any of the other staff, let alone find a way to get that door open plus run for how ever many miles it took to lose them and get back to where he needed to be.

These boys could look down on him and hate him as much as they wanted. He didn’t care about them and he certainly didn’t expect anyone to care about him. He would do just fine on his own, he always had, times got rough, but they did for everyone. He was still alive, so therefore he considered he was doing okay being on his own.

He hadn’t gotten fully back to sleep yet when he was nudged awake again; again, Mary was standing over his bed smiling down at him. “I brought your dinner.”

Masking his irritation wondering how in hell he was supposed to rest when they kept waking him up to eat he slowly sat up again. His dismay at having been woken was somewhat lightened when he saw a big plate of macaroni and cheese with tossed salad on the tray she lowered over his lap.

“What kinds of dressing do you like hon?”

He shrugged not feeling like talking at that moment.

“Is French okay?” she asked after his lack of response.

He nodded and she left the room only to come back a minute later and deposit some bright orange dressing onto his salad. “Eat up before it gets cold. I’ll be back to pick up the tray later, like at lunch.”

Matt ate quickly wanting to get back to sleep before any of the other boys showed up in the room again. He didn’t want to hear their snot ass comments while he was fully awake and sitting up. It was much better, in his opinion, to at least pretend not to hear the things they said.

When he’d finished everything on his plate, he moved the tray over to the end table and shook his head when Mark asked if he had to go the bathroom again. He certainly didn’t want to be up walking around with those other kids around. He was just nestling back into bed when he heard Mary’s voice again.

“Don’t go to sleep yet hon, you’re due for more pain meds.”

Always up for pain meds, he slowly sat back up and took the cup of water and pill as she handed them to him. Once he had swallowed the pill, he handed her back the cup.

“Do you want a book or a magazine to read?” She asked figuring he was bound to be a little bored by now.

Matt quickly shook his head as he lay back down and pulled the covers back up tightly over his shoulders.

“He seems to just want to sleep.” Mark said looking up at Mary.

Matt bit his tongue irritated Mark had spoken for him but not irritated enough to actually open his own mouth and tell him so.

Matt stayed in bed for three days; he had to admit he kind of liked getting waited on and was a little sad the morning he woke up and was told he had to start getting out of bed. He was sad that he wouldn’t get to lie in bed all day anymore and scared he actually had to get up and be face to face with the other boys. He had not spoken to any of them in his time in bed, if he was actually awake when any of them walked into the room he either pretended to be asleep or just didn’t make eye contact with any of them. They didn’t seem to mind that as not one of them had said a word to him either.

Not that they didn’t talk about him, at least when they thought he was sleeping. He had been dubbed ‘CC’ which he’d figured out pretty quickly meant ‘charity case’. Mark had always ceased their negative comments but he’d still heard plenty before Mark had gotten them to actually shut their mouths.

Mark had stayed by his side every day that he’d been in bed while another man who hadn’t spoken more than two words to him sat with him at night.

He was glad, though he wasn’t going to admit it, that Mark was there the day he had to get out of bed. He was also glad to see he’d gotten to sleep in later than the other boys did and for the time being at least wouldn’t have to face them.

“I guess we’d better start with you taking a shower.” Mark said as Matt wiped the last of sleep from his eyes as he was sitting up in bed.

Matt had taken only one shower in the past three days, not being clean didn’t bother him too badly. In the past eight months he never did have a real shower and just being able to clean himself had been a difficult task, especially in the colder months. More than that though he just didn’t like seeing himself naked, if he was naked he could see the injuries on his body, injuries he’d gotten on a night he didn’t want to remember.

He got out of bed and walked to the end of it. He opened his dresser and looked over the clothes, still in awe of all the nice clothes he now had. It took him a minute to decide on a pair of jeans and a blue sweatshirt. He tucked them up under his arm along with a pair of boxer shorts and some socks and followed Mark out of the room and into the bathroom.

Mark sat on the bench outside the first shower/toilet room while Matt walked inside. He relieved his bladder then peeled off his clothes and stepped into the shower. Pressing himself into the wall so the immediate cold spray wouldn’t hit him, he turned on the water. He played with the knob a minute or so before the temperature became a steamy hot then stepped under the spray keeping his eyes up away from the sight of his fading bruises and healing cuts and scrapes.

He soaped himself up with the soap that came out of a dispenser in the shower and after rinsing off, he filled his hand with shampoo from the shampoo dispenser and gave his hair a good washing. Then he just stood there for a few minutes under the hot spray letting the water cascade over his body wishing it could do more to rid him of the dirty feeling that seemed to consume him since that night at the truck stop.

Shutting off the shower, he stepped out of it and looked around swearing under his breath as he realized he’d forgotten to grab a towel off one of the hooks in the outer part of the bathroom. Knowing he had no other choice, he took a deep breath and spoke.

“Mark?” He asked questioningly though he knew damn well the guy would be sitting right outside the door.

“Yeah?”

“I forgot my towel.”

“Oh,” He heard the sound of Mark getting up and his sneakers walking across the floor before a towel was tossed up over what these people considered a door. He grabbed the towel muttering thanks and dried himself off.

He pulled on his new clothes impressed that they fit as well as they did despite the fact they were a little too loose, he’d much rather have loose clothing than clothes that were too tight. After his clothes were on, he walked out of the small room where Mark stood up from the bench and looked him over.

“Wow you look good in clothes.” He said his face filled with a grin.

Matt glanced at him quickly before he walked over to the sinks where he ran his fingers through his hair and gave his teeth a good brushing. After hanging his towel back up on one of the hooks, that now had his name above it he, followed by Mark of course deposited his dirty pajamas into the hamper in the bedroom.

“You know how to make a bed?” Mark asked he as led Matt back over to his bed.

Matt looked up at him as if he was a complete buffoon before he pulled his blankets and top sheet off the bed entirely and set them on top of his bureau. He then busied himself laying the top sheet over the bed and was about to put the first blanket on when Mark’s voice stopped him.

“I guess I should rephrase that. Do you know the proper way to make a bed?”

Matt looked up at him, the blanket hanging from his hand. He looked back over his bed again not sure what he had done wrong.

Mark smiled at him and stepped closer to the bed, bending over he took the corner of the sheet and flipped it up. “You have to tuck the sheet in here, have you ever heard of a hospital corner?”

Matt shook his head picturing some dark corner in a hospital. He watched closely as Mark showed him the ‘proper’ way to fold up the corners and tuck them under the mattress. After he did the right side, he led Matt over to the other side.

When he just stood there Matt took it as his cue to try it on his own. He did the best he could as he remembered what Mark had shown him then looked up at him.

“Not bad,” Mark said nodding his head up and down. “You’ll have to work on it some to make them as neat as possible but it’s good for today. They inspect the room once you boys are in class. If things are out of place or your bed isn’t made right you lose points and if you lose enough of them it could result in a level drop.”

Nodding Matt tried not to roll his eyes at the prospect of yet another rule he had to try to remember. He had never had to follow many rules and suddenly having so many was very overwhelming. Once the bed was made he followed Mark out of the bedroom and into the dining room that they walked through and then into the kitchen. A couple of women were in there talking as they sat on stools that lined an island and going over some paperwork. He recognized one of them as Mary, the woman that had brought his meals for the last four days and was not at all surprised when she turned around and smiled at him.

“Hey Matthew, nice to see you up and about today. How are you feeling?”

He shrugged not sure enough how he was feeling to put it into words, he felt better than he had in a couple of weeks but still not nearly as good as he was used to feeling.

Mary gestured to the woman on the stool beside her. “This is Karen; she’s one of the cooks.”

Karen nodded and smiled at him and he was relieved to see she didn’t offer her hand, as he didn’t feel like shaking any hands.

“Do you want me to make you some toast?” Mary asked.

Mark looked at him as well. “Weekdays it’s either toast or cereal for breakfast. Which would you prefer?”

Not wanting to be a pain in the ass and knowing cereal was easier he chose that. Mark led him to a cupboard and opened it up revealing more cereal boxes than Matt had ever seen in one place with the exception of a grocery store.

“Which do you want?”

Matt looked them over and reached for the box of Rice Krispies. Mark showed him where the bowls and spoons were.

“Do you want any juice or anything to drink?”

Not feeling very thirsty Matt shook his head, as he always liked to choose the option where he didn’t have to speak if possible.

“You do need a cup of water at least.” Mary spoke up, “You have to take another pill.” She got down off her stool, filled him a glass of water out of the tap, handed it to him, then walked out of the room. Matt was seated at the dining room table with his bowl of cereal and Mark right beside him by the time she returned with the pill.

She stood and watched him swallow the pill, something he had noted she did every time she gave him one, then took the empty glass and disappeared back into the kitchen.

“You won’t have to go to classes today.” Mark explained as Matt ate. “Today you’ll get the grand tour of the place, meet a lot of the staff and Dr. Marshall wants to meet with you again.”

Matt’s heart sank, he’d been afraid of that and almost preferred to be in a class room full of the boys that he knew disliked him. He just had to hope that the good Doctor did all the talking again and didn’t do as he had seen shrinks on TV do and sit and stare at him until he talked. He did not intend to talk to the man, threat or no threat.

When he was through eating Mark led him back into the kitchen where he was told to rinse out his bowl and set it on the sideboard. When he was through Mark gave him a quick tour of the kitchen.

“Most of these cupboards you don’t even have to worry about.” Mark said as he walked to a set of cupboards along the wall that the doorway to the dining room was on. “These however are where your snacks are. You always have to ask to have a snack but as long as you are allowed one you can choose any one thing in these two cupboards.” He opened the cupboards and Matt saw an array of gummy candies, single serving bags of chips, crackers, meat sticks, and a shelf full of all kinds of fruit.

Mark closed the cupboard then walked to the other side of the kitchen where Matt had just rinsed out his bowl. “This is the sink for dishes. If your chore is dishes then you’ll find the detergent and cloths under here.” He opened the cupboard under the sink briefly then reached up and opened the upper one. “Up here are all the dishes, you’ll need to know that if your chore is drying the dishes, also if it’s setting the table. You’ll find all you need right here.”

Matt followed him back through the door to the dining room where they stood in front of a large white board on the same wall as the door. “This is the list of chores and who has them. They rotate every week. You won’t be on the list until tomorrow so when you come in for breakfast make sure to check it so you know what your chore is for the week.”

After they left the dining room, they took a left down the hall and walked back into the hallway with the bedrooms. Instead of going left they went right and Matt got to see the other bedroom. Instead of everything being green like in his room, this one was all done in blue but other than that, it was the mirror image of the room he was sleeping in.

Further down the hall towards the bathroom he saw another small room with just a mattress in it identical to the one on the other side of the hallway he’d asked about his first day there. Mark explained it was used for the same purpose as the other small room.

The bathroom at that end of the hall was an exact mirror image of the one that he used and they spent little time in there as Mark explained he’d never be using that bathroom.

They walked back into the main hallway, instead of turning right into the dining room they took a left into the large living room he’d seen the first day he was there. He noticed a fireplace on the far wall he hadn’t seen before that had two chairs that sat facing it. He saw a table with a game of checkers set up on it and two chairs on either side of it along one wall, a ping-pong table in one corner and an upright piano in another corner.

After they left the living room, they walked back into the first hallway that he’d walked into when he’d first been carried into the house. They took a left as he had already seen all the rooms to the right and came across a large classroom. Matt cringed as he saw all the other boys were in the room, some sitting at desks listening to a woman who he figured had to be the teacher as she wrote something out on another white board. There were a couple of round tables with a few other boys sitting at them and what looked like two other teachers, one at each table talking quietly with them as they wrote on paper.

One wall had a row of lockers and he found it somewhat funny there were sixteen lockers and only twelve students. But he didn’t spend much time thinking about it as he quickly surveyed the room, seeing it looked pretty much just like any regular classroom and just wanting to get out of the room before everyone started staring at him.

“That was the classroom. You have classes every day from 8:30 am to 5 pm with forty five minutes for lunch at noon.” Mark said as they walked back into the hallway and headed right to one more room at the end of the hall.

Matt looked the room over, finding it to be oddly laid out. There were three different parts to the room, each one containing a couch and two chairs separated by walls, but leaving enough room for easy access to each of the separate sections.

“This room is for visitors, basically Saturdays are visiting day so that’s really the only day this room sees much action.” Mark didn’t add that Matt probably wouldn’t be in the room much as he didn’t want to point out to the kid that his family wasn’t going to be involved in his rehabilitation and he wouldn’t be getting any visitors.

“So that’s that.” Mark said as he led him back down to the hall to Dr. Marshall’s office. “I’ll leave you here; he’ll call for me when you’re done.” He knocked on the door once before he opened it up and ushered a very nervous Matt into the room where the doctor was again waiting behind his desk.