Through the Fog Page 3

  Evan lunged at the passing dog and dropped his foot down onto the long leash, halting the terrier just a few feet from the end of the driveway. He gently reached down and scooped up the tiny dog, then walked back to the girl just as her grandmother came trotting up behind her. Evan approached slowly and handed the dog to the girl. She immediately wrapped her hands around the animal and rubbed her nose against the back of its small head.

  The woman looked lovingly at her granddaughter, then up to Evan. “Thank you, young man!”

  Evan nodded and smiled at the girl. “You’re welcome.” With that, he calmly turned and walked back to the street to retrieve his skateboard. He didn’t notice the girl whisper something to her grandmother behind him.

  Turning the board over with his foot, he glanced up just in time to see the small girl run up to him, the dog still in her arms. Without a word, she shyly held something out to him. Evan lowered his hand and she dropped a shiny quarter into his palm.

  “Thank you,” she said meekly and ran back to her waiting grandmother.

  Evan watched her run back and then gazed down at his reward. He smiled and slid it into his pocket.

  As he continued along the sidewalk, Evan thought about the boys in the car. They were the ones responsible for his accident. They’d thought it was funny when they cut him off on his bike, causing him to crash into a parked car. They thought it was even funnier when they told everyone at school.

  He’d been getting harassed for years. Was it because he was short? Because he was quiet? He’d never bothered anyone and yet they kept at it. And now his bike was smashed, he had to see multiple doctors, and his health was in danger. All because of their sick enjoyment of picking on someone.

  No more.

  Her office was two blocks farther down Magnolia. Evan climbed the stone stairs and stopped in front of the second door on the right, knocking lightly. He almost knocked again when Dr. Mayer opened the door from the other side. The small building was deathly quiet; the offices were closed on Saturdays. Shannon smiled politely at Evan and motioned him in.

  They made their way down the hallway and entered her office, where Evan sat down on the couch and watched Shannon close the door.

  She pulled up her chair and sat down next to him. “How are you, Evan?”

  “Pretty good.”

  “How do you feel?”

  “Okay, I guess. I slept last night but only a little.”

  Shannon nodded. “So you go back to school on Monday?”

  “Yeah.”

  She watched him, studying his body language. He clearly wasn’t looking forward to returning to school, even though the year was almost over. “I take it you’re still getting harassed?”

  He shrugged.

  “Same boys?”

  Evan shrugged again. “There’s a lot of ’em.”

  Shannon gave a sympathetic nod. Recent laws obligated her to report instances of harassment at school. But she wasn’t sure how effective that would be; it could make matters worse. She also didn’t know whether the law applied to kids who were technically legal adults. She frowned before raising an eyebrow. “So what do you think you’re going to do?”

  “I don’t know. I think I’ve had enough.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “That’s why my accident happened. Because I never stood up to them.”

  Mayer gave him a smile. She’d suspected as much. “I hope you’re not planning to do something irresponsible.”

  “Nah.”

  She nodded, and decided not to press it. Instead, she changed the subject. “So do you know why I asked you to come in today?”

  “Because of the visions?”

  “That’s right.” She crossed one leg over the other. “Is that okay?”

  He nodded. “Yeah.”

  Shannon withheld a wry smile. He wasn’t too talkative this morning. “Evan, I need to ask you something before we begin.”

  “Okay.”

  “After the dream you had here the other day, I’m a little concerned about you, physically. What I mean is that your body reacted very strangely last time, which worries me if we’re going to try to learn what this is. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  “You’re worried something might happen to me?”

  “That’s right.” She nodded. He was a sharp kid. “Which is why I wanted a doctor to look at you.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He said you looked fine. But you did have a concussion. Do you know what that is?”

  Evan thought a moment. “A head injury?”

  “That’s right. It’s a head injury, and while it’s not necessarily permanent, it can cause people to black out for a little while or have trouble focusing later. Do you remember if you blacked out when you had your accident?”

  Evan tried to remember. “I don’t . . . think so. It all happened pretty fast, but I don’t remember blacking out.”

  Shannon nodded again. “Well just to be safe, I’d like to ask your permission to have someone join us for these exercises, to help me.”

  “Who?”

  “My sister. She’s a nurse and works for the doctor you saw yesterday. I’d like her to help me keep an eye on you and make sure we don’t have any problems.” Her next words were deliberate. “As your counselor, Evan, I have a responsibility to keep you safe. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  Evan nodded his head. “I think so. This is the only way we can do it?”

  “I’m afraid so. Is that okay with you?”

  This time a small grin crept across Evan’s face. “Is she nice?”

  Shannon managed a smile. “Well, I didn’t always think so when we were younger.” She stood up, out of her chair. “Wait right here.”

  Shannon walked to the door and opened it. She stuck her head out and called to Mary. A few moments later, she stepped back and held the door open.

  Mary came through the door and smiled at Evan. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail. “Hi Evan. I’m Mary.”

  “Hi.”

  “Do you remember me from the office yesterday?”

  “Yes,” he replied with a small grin.

  “Good.” Mary walked to the couch and put down a large bag. “I’ll try not to get in the way too much. Can I have you lie back and relax?”

  As he did, Evan looked back and forth at the two curiously. He hadn’t noticed the resemblance yesterday, but it was obvious now seeing them next to each other. “Who’s older?” he asked.

  Mary feigned a look of shock and looked back at Shannon. With a chuckle, Mary turned back and reached into the bag, pulling out a small, box-shaped device, which she placed on a nearby table. She pulled the table closer to the couch. She then turned on the device and waited for the display to light up while she unwound a small wire with what looked like a finger splint on the end. She gently slid this over Evan’s left index finger.

  “This will keep track of your pulse and oxygen level. It’s not too uncomfortable, is it?”

  He shook his head. “Nope.”

  “Good.” She turned to the small device, which was now displaying a group of numbers, and firmly pressed a button. The numbers reset and a few moments later displayed his current levels. Next, Mary placed a long thin strip on his forehead. “And this is for your temperature.” Finally, she pulled out the familiar thick blood pressure cuff with a bulb attached and wrapped it around his upper arm.

  Behind her sister, Shannon quietly pulled down the shades on the opposite wall, darkening the room. She sat back in her chair next to Evan and waited for Mary to finish taking his blood pressure. “Okay, Evan, what I’d like to do is see if we can repeat what happened the other day. Do you think you can do that again?”

  “I’ll try.”

  Shannon reached over and grabbed a clipboard off her d
esk. “So tell me, exactly how much sleep did you get last night?”

  “Just a little,” he replied quietly. “They’re happening almost every night now.”

  Shannon and Mary silently exchanged looks.

  “Well, let’s just see if we can do something about that,” Shannon said with a wink. “Now Evan, I’d like you to think about the corner of the room like you did the other day. But this time, I want to tell you that I had Mary tape a piece of paper to the back of my desk chair. If you think you can see it, I want you to tell me what color you think the paper is.”

  Evan looked a little puzzled. “Okay.”

  What she didn’t tell him was that she had also laid a colored piece of paper on her desk in plain view. It was a common psychiatrist’s trick for testing subliminal associations. If Evan claimed to see the paper on the back of the chair but reported the same color as the paper on her desk, it could reveal whether his visions were really occurring on a subconscious level or based on environmental stimuli.

  After nearly ten minutes of silence, Evan’s eyes finally closed. His head relaxed and settled deeper into the thick cushion. His heartbeat descended into the low sixties and his breathing gradually slowed.

  It was just a few minutes more before the steady beeping of Mary’s monitor changed. Both women looked at the display.

  “His pulse just jumped to ninety!” Mary whispered. She continued watching, surprised again as the number passed 100. She quietly pumped more air into the cuff and measured his blood pressure again. His systolic pressure was still barely within the normal range, but her eyes opened wide when she noticed the strip on his forehead. It was changing colors.

  Mary quickly, but gently, touched Evan’s hand. She looked worriedly at Shannon, and in an urgent whisper, told her: “He’s losing body heat fast!” She checked his blood pressure again. It was also falling quickly. Correction, it was plunging!

  She looked worriedly to Shannon. “Something’s wrong!”

  “What is it?”

  “I don’t know!” Now her whisper was frantic. “We have to wake him up!”

  Shannon leaned forward. “Right now?”

  “Right now!”

  Shannon was immediately out of her seat. She grasped Evan’s left hand causing the small monitor to fall from his finger. “Evan!” She said aloud, “Evan!”

  He did not respond. His chest began to move erratically.

  “Evan!” she said louder. “Evan, wake up!” She slapped his face lightly. “Evan, can you hear me?”

  Mary gasped when his pulse passed 120. She stood up quickly and pushed Shannon out of the way. She held nothing back, slapping him hard and yelling, “Evan! Wake up!”

  Just as Mary was about to hit him again, Evan suddenly jerked his head. His eyes fluttered and began to open as he instinctively brought his hand up, trying to regain his bearings. He opened his left eye first, blinking repeatedly, followed by his right. He brought his hand the rest of the way up and over his eyes to block the light that Shannon had just turned on.

  Mary grabbed his left hand and pressed her fingertips against his wrist. His pulse was slowing. She pumped more air into the cuff. His blood pressure was also rising.

  “Evan, can you hear me?” Shannon asked.

  “Yes,” he said slowly. He shut his eyes again hard then reopened them. He tilted his head up, searching for the source of her voice. When he found her, Evan furrowed his brow. “What happened?”

  Shannon patted his shoulder and tried to smile. “You just got us a little worried.”

  “Oh.” Evan lowered his head to the couch and squinted toward the ceiling. After a long pause, he looked back up at her. “Who’s Roy Rogers?”

  9

  Shannon made sure Evan was asleep before quietly closing the door. She exhaled slowly, turned around, and walked back down the short hallway to where Mary was waiting.

  Mary wasted no time letting Shannon know how she felt. “What the hell was that?” She thrust the piece of pink paper at Shannon.

  Shannon didn’t answer. She simply stared at the paper that had been taped to the back of her chair.

  “Well?” Mary folded her arms, waiting. “Are you going to tell me?”

  “I just wanted to see . . . ”

  ”You’re one of the most analytical people I know. You’ve never gone for this kind of thing! Why would you . . .” Her eyes grew large as she realized what was happening. “Oh my God! This isn’t about that kid at all, is it? This is about Ellie!”

  Shannon didn’t reply. She lowered her head and eventually began to shake it from side to side. “I’m losing it, Mary. I mean it. I am really losing it!”

  Mary froze.

  “I can’t take it,” Shannon said, quivering. “I just can’t take it. It’s killing me!” Her eyes began to tear up. “It’s not getting better, it’s getting worse, and I am barely holding it all together!”

  Mary stammered, “B-but I thought . . .”

  “It’s not getting better,” she repeated. “It’s just a mirage, a facade that I put on to try to get through each and every day. And it’s just me . . . all by myself, trying to hold everything together—the bills, the house, the practice.”

  “What about Dennis?”

  Shannon shook her head again and wiped the tears from her eyes. “He barely talks to me anymore. He barely talks at all. He hardly eats anything. He just sits there wallowing, wasting away and letting it fill him like a terrible disease. And you know what?” She looked helplessly at her sister. “It’s filling me too, and I can’t stop it. Every day is worse, and even though it’s supposed to get better, it isn’t! It’s all I can do just to make it through the day.”

  She backed up against the wall and covered her face with her hands. “God, the worst part is waking up. It’s the worst torture you can imagine. For just a split second you forget; you forget and think it was all a dream, and then immediately it hits you like a train again. It wasn’t a dream, it’s real, and it’s even worse than it was yesterday.”

  Mary wrapped her arm around Shannon’s and let her sister’s head fall against her shoulder.

  “Sis, I don’t know what to do. I’m at the end of my rope, and I don’t know how much longer I can hang on.”

  Tears began to run from Mary’s eyes as she pressed her cheek against her sister’s hair. She didn’t know what to say, so she didn’t say anything at all.

  After several minutes, Shannon managed to regain her composure and wipe more tears away. With her head still against Mary, she eyed the pink paper in her hand. She took a deep breath, then reached out and took the paper, holding it out and studying it. “I know we agreed on this test to disprove the hallucinations, or prove they were subliminal, or whatever. But before Evan walked in, it suddenly hit me. We weren’t doing anything to see if they were real.” She shrugged. “Look, I know I’m a psychiatrist and I’m the analytical one, but . . . what if they are real? What if he can see things? What if he could help?”

  Mary couldn’t hide her look of surprise, nor the look of sympathy that followed.

  “Am I crazy?” Shannon cried. “Am I just some desperate mother hoping for a miracle no matter how irrational it seems? Or is it at least possible? I mean if he can see things, maybe he could see . . . other things?”

  Mary frowned. From the beginning, she had been unable to even imagine the horror her sister had to go through over the last year and a half, and now to find out the pain was even worse felt like a dagger through her own heart. She reached out and took her sister’s hand. “Anything is possible.”

  Shannon forced a grin. “I’m not sure who is more skeptical now, you or me.”

  Mary shook her head. “Not me, not on this. Remember who you’re talking to. I was an ER nurse for seven years. I’ve seen things happen that no one could explain. I mean strange things. No, I’m not claiming anything
is impossible here.”

  After a long silence, Mary glanced at the paper in Shannon’s hand. “So why did you choose that name?”

  Shannon sniffed again and wiped away more tears. “Well, we knew that if he said the paper was pink it would indicate something subconscious. But if they weren’t hallucinations and what he was seeing was real, then I needed a way to know. So I wrote a name on the paper that would be easy to read but one he’d probably never heard before.”

  Mary smirked. “And you picked Roy Rogers.”

  “He was Dad’s favorite.”

  Mary nodded her head reluctantly. “Well, maybe this kid Evan can help you, and maybe he can’t. But you’re going to tell him. You’re going to tell him because he needs to understand. And let me tell you something else: exam or no exam, what just happened in there, I have never seen before. I don’t know what’s going on with this kid, but it’s dangerous!”

  10

  Mary climbed the steps of the large office building and walked past an ornate fountain near the main entrance. As she reached the glass entry doors, she saw the reflection of the ten-story UCLA Medical Center building across the way.

  Established in 1955 and later renamed the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, it was the most prominent medical center and hospital in all of Southern California. The building Mary had just entered belonged to Latham and Brown, one of the most distinguished law firms in Los Angeles County, and they represented the medical center exclusively. It was no surprise that it was located close by.

  She stepped off the elevator onto the third floor and was taken aback by how many people were working on a Saturday. Then again, given their stature, maybe she should not have been surprised. The lobby was impressive, with spotless marble floors and tall pillars on either side of the wide entrance. To the left was a circular wraparound desk with a receptionist sitting behind it.