Authors: Steven Gossington
That night, Aaron jerked awake to the owl hooting outside. His fingers trembled, and he heard sharp buzzing in his ears. He recalled a dream about that final meeting in Connecticut when a sneering chief of staff with glinting eyes demanded that Aaron resign from the hospital.
There’s going to be a showdown between Race and me, and I’ve got to stand tall.
He got out of bed and roamed the house, ending up in his office desk chair, where he sat staring into space. He woke up several hours later, slumped in the chair, with Red’s head in his lap.
Chapter 50
Five days later, on his way home from work, Aaron spotted activity at the Taggett’s old house. As he approached the property, he saw a brown SUV parked out front and then a “sold” sign came into view. He drove to the cul-de-sac and parked near the dirt driveway.
A woman walked around a corner of the house and stopped. Aaron stepped out and waved. “I’m a neighbor,” he shouted. He walked onto a lawn recently covered with soft green St. Augustine grass. They rendezvoused in the front yard and shook hands.
“I’m Emily. We just moved in.”
“I’m the family doctor in town. I haven’t been here long myself.”
Emily smiled. “It’s good for us that a doctor is close by. It’s me, my husband, and two kids.”
“Welcome, and I hope you’ll be comfortable here.”
“They tell me you don’t get tornadoes that often around here. Is that right?”
Aaron nodded. “That’s true. You probably heard about the big one that came through here recently.”
“While I was driving around town, I saw some of the damaged areas.”
“We’re not likely to have another one like that for a long time.”
Aaron paced around his house later that evening. After a while, Red stopped following him. Aaron stopped and shook his head.
Sometimes I can’t even hear because of the buzzing in my ears.
Aaron’s arms and legs tingled as he crawled into bed for the night. Several hours later, his body jerked awake. He was breathing fast, and his skin dripped with sweat. He remembered fragments of a dream, a woman with shining white hair that flowed down her body and two other faces that floated before him.
Mom and Dad
.
They screamed for help as a wild-eyed, scruffy man pumped bullets into their bodies. With a husky laugh and a contorted mouth, the man pulled his trigger, again and again.
Aaron rolled out of bed and walked to his office. He picked up the framed photograph of his parents, and his eyes filled with tears as he stared at their happy faces.
He looked toward the ceiling. “I’ve got to let go of this. Mom and Dad, help me let go of this.”
Aaron plopped down in his desk chair. He put his hands over his ears to smother the buzzing sound, and he closed his eyes to cover up the wavy lines in his vision.
Several minutes later, an idea popped into his head and his eyes flew open. He bolted to his bedroom and pulled on running clothes and shoes. Aaron heard Red barking, but he didn’t stop to pet him as he dashed out of the house, slamming the front door behind him. An owl hooted from a nearby tree.
Aaron hurried along his street and soon passed by Marley Brighton’s house, turning right at the intersection. In a short while, he made it to the front door of his clinic and peered inside. He pounded several times on the door.
He was supposed to meet me, but no one is in there
. Aaron shrugged his shoulders, turned and walked away.
Funny, how my shoes sometimes don’t touch the ground.
Someone directed him back down the road. Aaron gasped as he saw a faint light hovering over Rocky Donnigan’s trailer home. He ran faster, away from the light, following the voice's instructions. Eventually, he left the road and climbed over fences and trotted through fields and sprinted down a driveway to a house. He banged on the front door and then lurched back and ran away toward the trees.
Aaron flinched as another voice shouted at him, and he stopped and looked around but didn’t see anyone. “Who yelled at me?” he said.
No one answered.
I’m trying to do what I’m told.
He sprinted into the Big Thicket, stopped, and turned around. “Stop talking to me like that. That’s not fair. Why are you cursing at me and calling me a worthless doctor?”
Ripping off his shirt, soggy with sweat, he turned in circles and watched the trees dancing and swaying around him.
I’ve got to find a place to hide. I’ll look for a big hole in a tree trunk to crawl into.
After weaving through the pines for several minutes, he spotted a bench and stumbled over to it.
I’ll sit here for a while and think about where to hide.
He crossed his arms and rocked back and forth. All the images around him, the bench, the trees, the ground, were blurred and wavy, as if he were looking through translucent glass. People he didn’t recognize began to float out from the trees and across his vision. Faces bobbing and drifting in front of him dissolved into the heads of animals and into unrecognizable, snarling mouths with glistening fangs that dripped with blood. As Aaron waved his hands to swat away the menacing teeth, his head began to spin and he fell off the bench and rolled around on the ground.
A huge face appeared before him. It was covered with saggy skin and draining sores, and the mouth was sending out commands to him, with words and letters materializing in the air. “Go to the middle of the Big Thicket and find the evil one, Race Taggett. Kill him. Kill him.”
Aaron sat up and struck at the face with his fists. His body began to whirl and tumble, and he slid into a deep black hole and fell headlong into empty space, hurtling down, the grotesque faces yelling at him and flying after him deeper and deeper into the abyss . . .
Aaron’s eyes flew open. Above him was a white ceiling with bright fluorescent lights. He tried to lift a hand to scratch his nose, but his arm wouldn’t budge, so he raised his head and glanced around. “What the . . .” His wrists and legs were tied down to a stretcher.
Aaron’s eyes focused on a person standing at his bedside. “Daniel, is that you?” he said.
“Ah, you’re back with us. Yes, it’s me, sir,” Daniel said. “We brought you to the hospital.”
“What for? What happened to me?”
Daniel looked down. “Grant Belkin called EMS.”
“Was I in a car wreck?”
“No. Mr. Belkin found you wandering around.”
“Wandering?”
“Out of your head.”
Aaron’s vision blurred as he stared at Daniel. “Out of my head?”
“You were in the Big Thicket.”
Aaron sighed, closed his eyes, and fell back to sleep.
Aaron awakened several hours later and took note of the same ceiling and stretcher. Daniel sat in a chair near his bed.
“Hello again. You’ve been snoozing,” Daniel said.
Aaron lay quiet for several minutes and then looked at Daniel. “You said that you brought me here. In an ambulance?”
“Yes, sir.” Daniel stepped to the bedside as a male nurse walked into the room.
“So, he’s awake now?” the nurse said.
Daniel nodded. “He just woke up.”
“How do you feel?” the nurse said to Aaron.
“I’m confused about what’s going on with me.”
“Well, at least you’re coherent again. Let’s get these restraints off. I’ll tell the doctor you’re awake.”
Aaron stretched his arms, propped his pillow, and sat up. He turned to the nurse. “I guess I was incoherent?”
“You were, but you’re better now. Try to relax,” he said.
“Thanks for taking care of me.”
“That’s what we’re here for.” He patted Aaron’s shoulder, noted his vital signs, and left the room.
“I’m glad you pulled out of it,” Daniel said.
“So am I, whatever it was.” Aaron took a deep breath. “Incoherent in the Big Thicket. I have a bad feeling about this.”
“The doctors here will sort it all out.”
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” Aaron read the tag on Daniel’s shirt. “So, you’re riding with EMS now. Are you training to be a paramedic?”
Daniel grinned. “Yes, sir. I’m in school now. The EMS company lets me help them out.”
Aaron shook hands with Daniel. “I appreciate all you’ve done for me.”
“It’s the least I could do.” Daniel stared at Aaron for a few seconds. “Good luck to you, Doc.” He gave Aaron a thumbs-up as he walked out of the room.
Several hours later, Aaron looked up as Grant Belkin and Rachel appeared at the door.
“Come on in,” Aaron said. He blushed and shrugged his shoulders as they approached his bedside.
Aaron held hands with Rachel. “I’m sorry—”
“Don’t worry about a thing. You’re okay now.”
Aaron squeezed Rachel’s hand and then turned to Grant. “You found me?”
“You made a ruckus at my front door, then you ran off. It took me a while to track you down.”
Aaron gazed past him. “I remember a loud buzzing in my ears and my eyes went blurry. I heard people giving me orders and then I started seeing things, hideous creatures floating in front of me.”
Grant nodded. “You were hallucinatin’.”
Aaron’s eyes widened. “It was very real. Like a horror movie, except that I thought it was actually happening to me.”
Rachel patted his hand. “I’m glad it’s over.”
Aaron shook his head. “I never want to go through that again. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.”
“They gave you medication when you got here. I think it’s workin’,” Grant said.
“At least the buzzing and weird visions are gone now. What the heck happened to me?”
Grant scratched his cheek. “The doctor will be here soon.”
Aaron sighed. “Then I’ll get the scoop.”
“A lot has been happenin’ to you lately. People can become ill with all that stress.”
A doctor entered the room and introduced herself as a psychiatrist.
“What do you think is wrong with me?” Aaron said.
“It appears that you had a breakdown, a psychotic episode.”
“That’s what I figured.”
“We gave you an antipsychotic medication when you arrived here. It seems to have helped. At first, you were hallucinating.”
“Am I schizophrenic?”
“Not necessarily. If you’ve never had an episode before, this could be the only psychotic break you’ll ever have, but now we know you’re susceptible. It could happen again.”
Aaron shook his head. “I surely hope not. Do you think something led to my breakdown?”
She leaned toward him. “They tell me you’ve had plenty of shocks to your system recently.”
“That’s true. So, you’re saying maybe I had a breakdown from post-traumatic stress?”
“Not maybe. I think that’s your main problem. Anyway, I’ll prescribe medication to help prevent it happening again, then I’ll see you in my office in one week and we can adjust your therapy from there.”
“I can still practice medicine, right?”
“Of course you can, but you may need to remain on medication.”
“Oh, how well do I know that mantra: ‘Sir, remember to take your medicine.’ ”
She nodded. “Good. I don’t believe you’ll be a problem patient.”
“I appreciate your help.”
“I think you’re going to be fine.” She smiled at Aaron and left the room.
Grant touched Aaron’s arm. “You’re back to the Aaron we all know.”
Aaron laughed. “I guess that’s good. I’ll try to be a better Aaron now.”
“Take it from me, you’re better already. It’s all for the good.”
He looked up at Grant. “You say that like you really mean it.”
“I do.”
Aaron grabbed his hand. “Thanks for finding me.”
“I did what anyone else would do. We’ve got to keep you healthy. This town needs a good doctor like you.” Grant nestled his cowboy hat back on his head. “See you back at the ranch.”
After Grant left, Aaron held Rachel’s hand and looked at her. “You didn’t know this about me before. I didn’t know this about me.”
Rachel shook her head. “It doesn’t change anything.”
“I must have a genetic flaw—”
“No one is perfect. All of us have flaws.”
“Think about it for a while.” Aaron swallowed. “I’d understand if you—”
Rachel squeezed his hand. “I want to be with you.”
Aaron grinned and looked at her eyes and dimples. A familiar warm flush coursed over him.
“I’ve got to check on things at my house,” she said.
“Sure. I’ll be all right.”
Alone again, Aaron stared out of the window of his room at the morning sky.
I wonder why Race Taggett didn’t find me out there.