This is a short story. An exerpt from a.... (Non RM ) project I'm working on.
Spoiler
“Nmrmph.. normal... n--norm--normal... I—normal. I just want to be normal...” Samuel was mumbling in his sleep, when he was awakened by a massive hug and a nuzzle from his foxy friend. Samuel was in a hospital bed with hospital blankets on him. Josie was at Samuel's side, stroking his black hair. The poor boy could barely breathe.
“What... what happened to me?” he mumbled, barely able to speak.
“Shh, be still, my grandson.” She answered in a most affectionate manner, with wailing and weeping in the distance.
A strong-looking man in a white lab coat came up to Samuel, adjusting a bunch of tubes and levers above him.
“Hey buddy. How you doin'?” he said, in a rather familiar voice, but Samuel just couldn't put his finger on it. The man had dark hair that seemed to have a touch of green in it, his shirt was gray, and his blue tie had crocodile patterns on it. 'crocodile...' Samuel thought to himself. He had a brain storm for a fleeting moment, then it was gone. The doctor had a sleek face with strong, chiseled features.
“Dr. Kalah's going to take good care of you, Samuel. You are strong, okay?” Josie said, squeezing Samuel's hand gently. Dr. Kalah examined Samuel, then he pointed to Kenta.
“This little guy here your friend?” he asked.
“Yes he is. Please, don't make me get rid of him!” Samuel pleaded, teary-eyed.
“No, never! Just make sure he doesn't drop onto the floor, OK?” Kalah leaned toward Samuel closely to inspect Kenta, squinting his eyes at the fox then walking back over to where Samuel's family was. Samuel tried to overhear all that was going on, but no less than a minute into the conversation he wished he hadn't. Samuel heard words like “Three days...”, “Virus”, “Caught in time”... and “Dead by morning!”
Samuel was terrified! Was he going to die? Was the state of his illness finally to a point where there was no more hope? For the first time in his young life, Samuel began to recall all he had seen before the tragedy occurred. He used to dream so much and see so much. Some of the things he would dream of and see were powerful kings, beautiful queens, princesses, faraway lands, and exotic people. He would see gigantic beasts similar to the ones he saw back on the other world. Would Samuel finally be going to join them forever? Was this his time?
He looked at the sleeping fox on his belly and started to cry.
That moment was quickly shattered by a stark realization: Samuel was hooked up to tubes, switches, wires and countless machines! He started to scream and panic, Dr. Kalah rushing over to his side to comfort him.
“It's okay bud! We're about to take all this junk off of you and you're actually going to go home!” he said with a smile. He turned off the whirring machinery and unplugged cord after cord, disconnecting tubes that were hooked up to electrodes taped onto Samuel. As all this was happening, Samuel's parents went over to his side, Elle squeezing Samuel's hand, while Jay rubbed and kissed his forehead.
“Samuel, don't you ever scare us like that again!”
“What happened, Daddy?” replied Samuel, anxious to hear what went on for himself. Perhaps there was an answer for what Samuel had gone through.
“All done!” Doctor Kalah said, smiling from ear to ear, seemingly glowing. “Samuel, here's what went on with you.”
The doctor got out a small crocodile plush and gave it to Samuel as he began scribbling on some papers.
“Well Samuel, you’ve had a viral infection for the past three days... It was getting bad and you were very, very sick! If you hadn't come in when you did, you would have died...” The doctor hung his head low, almost in shame while saying that last part.
“You are a very, very lucky boy. Your friends and family are all very good to you.”
“That would make some sense...” Samuel pondered. “I felt lightheaded and sleepy all the time for the past couple days. I also felt weak! Could that be what happened?”
The doctor smiled and nodded. Three days... That was about how long ago Samuel had wished on that shooting star! Something inside of him began to stir as he pondered these thoughts. The beast, that nightmare... Could all of this be related somehow? Most little kids' biggest fears are the boogieman, or at least,
“Wheat or white on my lunch today?”
“Open up!” A nurse came out from nowhere with a giant peach colored gummy-bear. “This is your medicine, and you have to have one a day for the next week, okay? Don't worry; it tastes a little bit like peach juice.” Samuel nodded and ate the whole thing in one bite. The gummy-bear was very mealy and it tasted strongly of vitamins. After a few moments Samuel became sedated.
“Oh! Peaches have juice now?” remarked Jay.
“Oh Jay, please hush!” Elle scorned, still frightened for her little boy.
Samuel began to close his little eyes, not able to control them.
“Doctor! What's going on?” snapped Josie, afraid that Samuel may be headed into a relapse.
“Don't worry, Mrs. Zerep. Samuel will be just fine. A side-effect from the medicine is grogginess and/or sleepiness.”
“Alright then...” Josie shuffled her feet a bit then grabbed her purse, as Jay grabbed Samuel, and Elle picked up the crocodile plush from the floor, and Kenta from the hospital bed. Unable to hold back sleep any longer, Samuel once again drifted off to sleep.
