And Brenda Married Me

Chapter 2
And Brenda Married Me

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Chapter Description: Simon learns more about Jason's Syndrome and has some hard decisions to make

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Roger grabbed a wheelchair, and rolled me in through the ER doors.’

"Dr. Farrell?" a nurse asked.

"Yes, this is Simon Thompson, I need vitals immediately, and please find a room."

"This way," she said. Roger rolled me down to a cubicle.

I opened my mouth for the thermometer.

"One hundred and three point five," she read out. "Pulse is one hundred and thirty, and the blood pressure is.... Two hundred over one fifty."

I closed my eyes. "You said it would be rough, but it won’t kill me?"

"Simon," he said, gently. "I promise you won’t die from this, only that you will wish you had."

"Roger?" said a man in the doorway.

"George, good to see you. Simon, this is Dr. Owens. He works here."

’Simon Thompson, Dr. Owens. We’ve never met, but I know your computer. Mrs. Owens...." I grabbed a bowl and threw up.

"My wife speaks very highly of you, too. Good to meet you, Simon? How old are you?"

Roger shooed the nurse out of the room.

"I’m forty two," I said, even though I heard my voice crack.

"George, Simon has what’s being called Jason’s Syndrome. It’s being researched all over the county, privately, no government involvement at all, but it isn’t publicized. I can vouch for Simon’s age, too, we’ve been best friends from first grade."

"And this Syndrome would make a forty two year old man look like he’s early twenties, and sound much younger still?"

"Yes. It has that effect. George, what we are dealing with is an, as of yet, unknown biological agent, that is being spread around the country but at least one, if not two individuals. There are three known cases, and the first two had major, physiological changes."

"Wait a minute. What sort of changes?" I cut in.

"I was hoping this discussion could wait until Dr. Kline arrived, but...."

"Roger, I know you have no bed side manner at all. But you’re my best friend. I need to know what to expect."

"Okay, the first person to get this was Jason Todd, one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet, and you will meet him. He was fifty when an old man in a truck stop dumped a bottle of ’Summer Memories’ on him. He spent three weeks in the hospital changing. He wound up as a seven year old boy.

"From what we can tell, the scent of the lotion will induce a memory, a very pleasant memory of the victim’s childhood, and the biological agents will regress him back to that age."

"Oh, my God. I remembered being ten in music school.

You mean I’m going to be a ten year old?"

"I couldn’t say, for sure. It would match your singing voice."

"Roger, no biological agents could do that." Dr. Owens commented. "I can understand if it was nanites, or nanobots or whatever the sci-fi people call them, but....?"

"Up until now we haven’t had much of a sample to go on. Apparently the agents are flushed out of the victim’s system rapidly. I drained Simon dry of blood hoping that by putting it on ice, we could get enough of the material to really study. The only tests we have been able to run do show it is biological in origin."

"And an old man is spreading this around?"

"Yes, I know what this sounds like, but Jason and Carlos both stated that it was an old man that dumped the ’Summer Memories’ over them.

"Simon had a different experience. For him, it was a little kid, that dumped the ’new and improved’ version all over him at lunch today. Since we will probably never find the old man, or this kid, I couldn’t say if the old one is recruiting his great grand children to help, or if he used the stuff himself. He was getting ancient according to Carlos."

My bladder and bowels gave out at that moment. There was nothing I could do to stop the flood of liquid running onto the bed. I must have passed out.

The next thing I knew, it was morning. Bright sunlight poured through the window. Jake Post stood by the bed looking at me.

"Uh, hi, chief," I said. I cleared my throat. "Still kind of scratchy. I didn’t expect to see you here."

"Simon?"

"Yes, sir. I’m not sure when they are going to let me out of here, but I will be back to work as soon as I can."

Roger walked into the room. "Hi, Jake. Amazing, isn’t it? Glad to see you back with us, Tiger. You’ve been out three days."

"Three days? You’re not kidding are you. What’s wrong with my voice?"

"You’ve changed a bit. Jake has been here, every day. but, here," he said and handed me a mirror.

I stared at the face of a ten year old boy. Fresh faced, skinny as all get out, and with a sprinkling of freckles. I now had bright, yellow hair with some red highlights, and my eyes were a brilliant green.

I almost threw the mirror down to look at the rest of me. I was a kid, a scrawny, kid with a face that would be a bully magnet.

’Simon," Mr. Post said. "I have seen you change while you were here, and I still don’t believe it, but.... I can’t have you back at work, looking like that."

I nodded my head. "I kind of figured that."

"But, Roger and I have been working out another sort of arrangement."

"I could do commercials," I blurted out. "I even wrote a jingle for the store."

Mr. Post’s mouth dropped open. "If it is anything like that song you wrote, ’The Journey Home’? I will pay you a fortune to use it. I paid the ad agency a fortune for the old one."

I took a sip of water. "Look, I can’t write lyrics but here goes." I sang the jingle, the music I had written weeks before, with new words.

Mr. Post looked at Roger. "We have a deal. That was really catchy, bright and I loved it. Simon, I won’t even pretend to say I know how you are feeling. I don’t. But, you can count on my support."

"Great. If I write out the commercials can I be in them? Did I just say that? I know exactly what the scripts should be."

"You do that, and Roger can have them sent to my office. Get out of here, soon."

He left as another man walked in. "Hey, he’s alive."

"Simon, this is Dr. Kline."

"Hi, Mr. Thompson. I know this will be hard, but how do you feel?"

"Fine," I said. "I feel like I could run a mile or two."

"You probably could." He sat down by the bed. "I understand that Roger has filled you in on Jason’s Syndrome?"

"More or less. I’m not sure I understand it all, but I just

saw a kid in the mirror, and I believe it all."

"Okay, you said the aftershave you were dosed with was ’new and improved’?"

"That’s what the kid said."

He nodded. "It must be. It took Jason three weeks to complete his changes, and about the same for Carlos. You did it all in three days."

"I’m not going to get any smaller than this?" I asked.

"No, and you have been stable for the last few hours. Simon, I am ready to release you from the hospital now, but there are some issues that Roger and I need to go over with you."

"Brenda has not been in," Roger told me, softly. "She doesn’t believe that you are sick, or even here, and the first day she did send a lawyer with divorce papers over. He quit the case, and gave me his card if you want to use his services. He couldn’t side with Brenda after everything that happened.

"I know, Dr. Kline knows, Jake knows and not one of staff here knows that you are forty two. Once you step outside those doors, you will be ten. No one will treat you as an adult, and no one would believe this. I don’t believe this, but this is the first time that I’ve actually seen the Syndrome work, rather than just study it.

"There are two options that I can see. You can hire that lawyer, or someone else, and divorce your wife, but I don’t see that working since Simon Thompson will never be able to appear in court. In fact, Simon Thompson will never be able to appear anywhere. So, the other option is that Simon Thompson died from his illness.

"I have been trying to warn Brenda of this, and even David here called her a number of times trying to get her to at least see you, but she refused."

"But if I died, what about me?" I asked.

"You’re my nephew, Simon Farrell, or pick a name you like. We can have the death certificate for Simon Thompson drawn up. I can place the obituary, and you can rewrite the will anyway you please.

"After the funeral and the reading of the will, I will take a trip up to Boston, or somewhere in Massachusetts, I really do have family there, to pick up my young nephew who just lost his family. We will have a birth certificate for whatever you want to call yourself drawn up, and papers to show that you’ve been home schooled, or what have you, and your new life can begin -- don’t sing that."

"That’s a lot to think about," I said. "Is there any way I could get a computer with internet access?"

"Yes, I have one right here," Dr. Kline said.

"I have five life insurance policies. I want to change the beneficiary on four of them. I will leave Brenda one policy."

"That’s very kind of you," Dr. Kline said. "In fact, after the things she told me about you, I am rather surprised, but...."

"We were married for twenty years, if nothing else. I know she thinks she can make a new life for herself with Larry, and I will put that in my new will.

"Roger, you remember what Brenda always said anytime I mentioned anything about a kid, or children no matter who they belonged to?"

"Sure, ’Shut up about those stupid brats.’"

"She wouldn’t listen to me when I told her about your nephew, ten years ago, and how I was chosen as his godfather since he was named after me. I never met him, but I sent him presents every year.

"I have to leave him something that will let you and me into the house to collect my stuff, and my safe. I have a safe filled with our nest egg in my office...."

Roger’s phone rang. "It’s your wife. Do you want to talk to her from your deathbed?"

"Yes," I said.

"Hello, Brenda," Roger answered the phone

"Roger, where are you? And where is that lousy bastard that calls himself my husband?"

"Brenda, I know you don’t believe this. Check with Jake Post, but Simon is here, in Lamont Memorial Hospital. He’s not in good shape. I’ve been telling you this. He could very well die from the poisoning he received. The least you could do is come down here and see him."

"Okay, I called the hospital and he was admitted in critical condition. He’s got some doctor I never heard of."

"Dr. Kline, he’s a specialist from out of state."

"So, the bastard really is dying? Thank God for that, tell him to hurry up about it. Larry is going to leave his wife as soon as this is over, and at least he has some ambition. Simon never did."

"You think that might be because his mother, and you beat it out of him? He could have been a great songwriter...."

"No. Don’t you ever say that. It wasn’t my fault that happened. Look, I just took out a major life insurance policy on him. Tell me when he’s gone."

"Brenda, that may not have been the best move. They could get you for fraud."

"I’ll have the money, and I won’t have to let him take me to court to be free of him."

"Okay, do you want to talk to him?" Roger asked, shaking his head.

"No. I just want him gone."

"Look, after the funeral I have to drive up North. I need to pick up my nephew, and Simon’s godson. The kid just lost his folks, and both of us were selected to be his guardians.... Well, probably just me now, but...."

"I don’t want to hear about some stupid brat. I hate kids."

"Okay, but Simon did leave him something in the will...."

"What?" she shrieked. "He never told me about some stupid brat."

"I don’t know. Look, I know for a fact that he tried over and over to tell you about my nephew, who is a great little boy. But you wouldn’t hear about some stupid brat. The kid is devastated that he might lose his Uncle Simon, too. I know they never met, but Simon must have sent him a ton of presents and cards over the years."

"Stupid brat. I know, Simon always bought me little gifts like flowers, and perfume all the time. Cheap bastard. Okay, the kid can have whatever Simon gave him. Hell, he can whatever he wants of Simon’s stuff. I’m going to be in Rio or somewhere like that with my money." With that, she hung up the phone.

"Okay, the fifth policy goes to the kid, too," I said. "I am going to enjoy writing this will."

 

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