Glimmering Hope

Continued from "Super Sick" and "Is This the End for Lead Man?!"
~~~

Antony Chumbo grimaced as light from a newly opened shade poured into his eyes unannounced by a stranger.

"It's two in the afternoon," the stranger said, "Little late for a hangover."

"It's not what you think," Antony groaned.

"Oh, it is what I think," the stranger kicked the metal boot clamped to Chumbo's left leg. "Funny thing, the lead suit that keeps you alive is also slowly killing you. Who'd have thought?"

"How did you—?"

"It's my job to know. You should get that foot looked at."

"I have," Chumbo sighed, "Nothing works. I tried everything."

The stranger grinned. "Not everything."

~~~
More adventures of the Impregnable Lead Man

Gabi

From the terrace Gabi could see enemy tanks depart for Ornes to the north. The thought that they were enemies troubled her. Not only were they her fellow countrymen, but they had treated her and her mother with dignity and respect. For rebels they certainly had manners.

Gabi sighed as her thoughts now turned to her brother, fighting somewhere to the north, possibly even in Ornes itself, about to be attacked by the men she had been forced to house. If the rebels had made it this far north, what chance did the governmental army have? What chance did Jacques have?

Lost Verses to 'Oh My Darling, Clementine'

Dancing pretty, through the meadow,
It was really quite sublime.
Didn't know it was a minefield
Long-abandoned, Clementine.

CHORUS:
Oh my darling, oh my darling,
Oh my darling, Clementine!
Thou art lost and gone forever.
Dreadful sorry, Clementine.

Dusted off a can of carrots
Hidden back in the pantry.
Should've checked the expiration
Dated May of Eighty-Three.

CHORUS

On an impulse we decided
To visit the city zoo.
But you jumped the barricade,
And tried to box the kangaroo.

CHORUS

Sleepless nights within the lab
Playing God with DNA.
Crossed a line man was not meant to.
Monster-hybrids destroyed L.A.

CHORUS

Bad Dreams

I haven't slept in days. The walls wobble around me like Jell-O until I touch them and they become solid, but then the floor buckles underneath me. Still it's better than sleeping.

Because when I sleep, I dream, and I dream of him.

He chases me, laughs at me, plays with me like a cat plays with a mouse. I dare not even close my eyes anymore. His face is there. He grins that toothy grin that haunts me in the waking world.

I see people and shapes that are not there. I wonder if I'm asleep. Maybe he's gone.

Maybe.

Weekend in the Hospital

It was the third time that evening that he soiled himself, and the nursing assistant scolded him. "Why didn't you press the call button, Randy?" she said with the voice of a kindergarten teacher.

"I tried," he said. It wasn't Randy's fault he soiled himself, and it wasn't his fault he couldn't reply well. He did not seem to be very quick mentally, and the tests and medications he was being put through and on surely didn't help.

I lay in my bed on the other side of the curtain, praying I would never have to suffer the indignity he did.