That night, Trudy waited and waited to see her daddy, but he never showed. She sat in her room for hours, staring at the ticking clock on the wall, but the only person that visited her that night was a female nurse, who brought her food just in case she required sustenance. Angel children normally did not eat, since they were only human in general shape, and only ever really organic at all when exposed to low altitudes. Trudy drank her orange juice, but had no idea where it was going, since she had no stomach. She did not feel heavier after partaking in the beverage, and after dismissing all thoughts, she decided it was time to leave the boring hospital room. She grabbed two markers off the whiteboard at the foot of her bed and pushed the door open.
She didn’t know where her daddy was, or if any doctors or nurses were awake, so she went to the only room she knew somebody was waiting inside.
The lights were on, and Caspio LeBlanc was sitting on his bed. He glanced over to her. It was darker earlier in the hall where she had first met him, so she didn’t notice just how dark and heavy his eye bags were. She stood in the doorway until he looked away, and assumed that meant she could enter. She walked in, passing a silver counter with pill bottles and random needles and other medical instruments, and sat down next to him on his bed.
“I can’t sleep,” Caspio growled softly. There was a raspy dryness to his voice. Trudy noticed that he was shaking and swaying slightly, all the while staring at the ground. His legs were crossed and his hands clutching his bare feet. He hated how his species didn't have to eat, drink, or even breathe to continue living, but for some stupid reason, they had to sleep. It made as much sense to the scientists at IOTH as it did to him. “They won’t leave me alone.” He turned suddenly to face to her and she backed away a little, startled. A patch of his chalky hair was missing along his hairline on his left side. “Don’t tell,” he pleaded in a hushed voice. “I can’t help it. I don’t do it on purpose, it just happens and I can’t stop.”
Trudy placed her markers, one black and one red, on his lap. “Let’s draw,” she simply stated.
There was a moment when Caspio stared at her in confusion, but then he accepted her offer, feeling that his secret was safe until morning. “I have some markers in here too,” he said, pointing to the whiteboard at the end of his bed. On the whiteboard were notes of his condition, what pills he had taken and a measurement of pain.
Trudy stood up, grabbed the eraser and removed all the notes. There were three markers magnetized to the board; green, black, and red. Caspio got up and stood beside her. The two began to draw.
***
“Dude, ‘the hell are you doin’ in here?”
Allek moaned groggily.
“Get up, man, it’s two in the morning. Did dean Sing make you come back out here?” Dr. Mark Chariot stood behind Allek’s office chair. “And who put this ugly afghan on you? ‘Doesn’t look like one’a Luke’s...” he mumbled, staring down his block of a nose at a striped colorful blanket covering most of his friend’s upper half.
Mark put the beeping phone which cued him of Allek’s presence in the staff room back on the receiver. “Alleeeek.”
Allek didn’t budge. It was far too comfortable under that ‘ugly’ afghan, and he was having a lovely dream of dean Sing prancing around on the beach outside his trailer in nothing but a thong.
“Fine. Dean Sing is gonna be pissed. Is this stack yours?” Mark continued to ask his drowsing colleague, even though his previous questions had gone unanswered. “You still have a couple left‒gross!! Dude, did you drool on your keyboard?!”
He cautiously set a box of Kleenex on Allek’s lap and picked up the last few papers from Allek’s desk. “You owe me for this.” And he sat down in the next cubicle over and picked up the phone.
“We apologize for calling so late, ma’am. Am I speaking with Janice? How are you, Mrs. Yi? This is doctor Mark Chariot from Institution On The Hill...this’ll only be a moment. Is Tate there with you? We here at IOTH are taking a quick census. Thank you, Mrs. Yi. Again, our deepest apologies for waking you. Have a nice night.”
***
“Wake up, you imbecile!” a flat, thin object smacked hard against Allek’s face. “This is very unprofessional!”
Allek squinted pathetically at dean Sing, who had just whapped him with a rolled up newspaper as if he was a disobedient dog. She was standing behind him, primped and refreshed, with matching ruby red eyeshadow and lipstick. She didn’t have her lab coat on, as it was the weekend, and instead was wearing a spaghetti strap black shirt and black yoga pants. Her every curve and crevice was on display. In her hand was a steaming cup of coffee. She was the epitome of motivated‒or peeved to the extreme, and she looked hot. “What time is it?” Allek asked, rubbing his stinging cheek.
“Time for you to get out of the faculty office. We’re locking up for the weekend and we can’t be blamed for that awful stench you’re emitting. Like a dirty jockstrap, really!”
Allek pulled up the collar of his shirt and sniffed it. He didn’t smell anything.
“Vile,” dean Sing went on. “What are you waiting for? Your ass to calcify onto the chair? Hurry up! And take that hideous blanket with you. For god’s sake, Allek. Sleeping on the job. How incredibly unbecoming.”
“What happened to the paperwork?” Allek asked, remaining completely calm. For some reason, dean Sing had called him by his first name. In their many years working together, she had never addressed him by anything other than ‘Mr. Branch’, purposely emphasizing that he did not have a doctorate. Was she being nice...? He stood up, a good five inches taller than his boss. “The last thing I remember is seeing the sunrise, and getting yelled at by some lady who didn’t speak English.”
“How dare you talk about our patrons like that! You should be grateful you have work in the first place! And just so you know,” dean Sing’s face was turning purple with rage, or was it blush? Allek could only hope. “Dr. Chariot generously donated his time to finishing your work.”
“Awesome!” Allek pulled the blanket he somehow obtained the night before around his shoulders. “I’ll be going now. Thanks for the wake-up call, dean Sing.” He strolled over to the elevator and looked back only once. Dean sing was still facing his desk. “You look really sexy in those pants,” he quickly chirped as he pressed the button for the bottom floor.
***
Allek’s landline rang the instant he set foot into his trailer. He picked it up and sat down on his little couch. “Yes?” he asked, not knowing who would be on the line to ruin his weekend next.
“You’re not gonna believe this, man. That angel girl, the one who keeps saying you’re her dad? She’s saying she spoke to your wife- Trudy. I mean she’s saying she spoke to her just a couple days ago.”
“Whatever, Mark. You know she’s just trying to mess with you. There’s no possible way she could‒”
“I asked her what she looked like. Your wife I mean, and she described her to a fucking t, man. She’s freakin’ me out. She gets really quiet and she talks all choppy and then she stops talking altogether if it’s not about you. It’s like she’s hiding something.”
Another voice called out from behind Dr. Chariot. “Mark? Who are you talking to, hon?” “Allek, like you asked me to.” “Did you tell him about Trudy’s mishap with mister LeBlanc?” “Not yet...”
“What is the little devilspawn doing with Caspio?” Allek asked, sighing.
“They got a buncha the hospital’s markers and drew all over Caspio’s marker board. There’s some cryptic shit on it. You gotta see it.”
“Just tell me, guys. What’s the big deal? Did she draw some imaginary friend who just so happens to be the ghost of the hospital? I know how Caspio is; he scares Chelsea with his nightmare crap all the time. Damn kids...”
“No, she just drew like a bunch of balloons. I wouldn’t have been worried if she didn’t start talking about it.”
“You’re worried about some kids drawing balloons. A little bit ridiculous, ya think?” Allek rolled his eyes.
“Well, she said that Trudy-your wife, she said she told her that when people on earth lose their balloons...like when they release them into the sky and stuff, they float up to ‘heaven’, and the little kids who died get to play with them up there. That’s some weird crazy shit, man. Even Caspio’s nightmares aren’t that weird...Allek? Man?”
***
Allek was consumed by a tossed sea of emotions. He didn’t know whether he could trust this angel girl or not. He didn’t know whether to be angry at her or to fear her. He parked his car in the closest spot to the doors of the IOTH hospital and barged in. He flashed his ID to the secretary and punched in the numbers to the highest floor as soon as he reached the elevator. When the bell went off and the doors opened, Dr. Chariot and nurse Smithy were standing before him.
“Get out of the way,” Allek ordered.
“Allek, we know you’re mad, man, but you can’t do anything to the kid. It’s against the law,” Mark said, stepping aside as Allek walked right between them like double-doors. “Allek, please,” he went on, following his colleague down the hall with nurse Smithy at his heels. “She’s just trying to make sense of it here.”
“Mr. Branch, we can’t allow you to cause a scene in the hospital. This could cost me my job!” Luke insisted, reaching out to grab Allek’s arm.
Allek shrugged him off forcefully. “This stupid kid needs to know where to draw the line. This isn’t a game, she’s screwing with me and I’m not just gonna sit around and do nothing about it.” He made a sharp turn into the wing he knew the pink-haired girl’s room was, but stopped before anybody inside could see his shape through the window. The light was off in the hall as it had been to stop the girl in the room from getting out of bed multiple times nightly. Allek leaned back onto the wall and crossed his arms. Mark and Luke both stopped as well.
“What are you thinking, man?” Mark asked, stepping in front of Allek.
“I cried for months after I lost them,” Allek choked out. “I was miserable. I didn’t know if I wanted to go on. This little brat wants to bring it all back up again and all I wanna do is move on. Who fucking does that? The kids are supposed to make us happy, not t-toy with us. I don’t know what to think of this, Mark.” He slid down the wall, pulling the button on his lab coat loose and up around his face in shame and sorrow.
The hospital door right beside him creaked open. “Please, no,” he croaked.
“Daddy...?” came that soft, sweet voice.
“I’m not your daddy,” Allek said, not looking over to the child. “I don’t wanna be your daddy.”
She sat down beside him and snuggled up close. “It’s okay. You’re okay. Everything is okay.”
“It’s not,” Allek sniveled. “How did you know about what my wife said? She used to say that. I’d be like,” he hiccuped “‘Babe, what do you want for our anniversary?’ and she’d say, ‘let’s release some balloons’ cause she liked to give tribute to all the fallen children. God, I fucking miss her. How could you possibly know that? How?”
“Mommy told me. We used to play.” She wrapped her arms around his and pressed her forehead into his shoulder. “We used to talk about you. She said I had to go. So I went to you.”
Mark and Luke backed away and looked at each other, both unaware of what to do.
“Mr. Branch?” A female voice sounded from behind his two colleagues.
Allek looked up.
“Excuse me,” she stepped around the doctor and nurse, and held up a clipboard to read from. “I’m the geneticist who performed the DNA testing on miss Trudy,” she tilted her clipboard to the pink-haired girl. “We found blood on your lab coat and took a sample the night you found her. We just received the results, and it looks like she is a family match for you, professor.”
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