Disclaimer: All the characters so far belong to Stephen the genius King besides Jeremiah, Leon's actual character and not just his name and Gloria's surname Deloring.

Burn with me

Snake

Healing Hearts Hospital, Longmont, Virginia

Gloria Deloring looked around for a full fifteen minutes, finally finding a decent, yet suspiciously private space for her slightly used, old, bronze colored new 1979 Lincoln. In the not so distant past, she had barely the money for an old, smelly used 1975 Trabant, which she had taken a bank loan in order to afford. Now with the huge promotion from secretary to the head of the Shop, she had all resources at her command, even if that meant hundreds of thousands of dollars for car shopping at her choice. At first she protested it was a waste of money. Then they told her how much money the Shop sponsors gave them and that they insisted that the new head of the shop could hardly drive one of the announced worst cars for all time for work. That had shut her up. Then again, she would have given up everything as long as Cap waked from his coma. She got out of the car, locked the doors, made sure she had not forgotten anything in the car, which she had, her phone, locking the car doors again and made her way to the blinding white, renaissance type, column filled building that was the hospital. In two minutes she was in the big, fancy, gold encrusted, mirror walled, scarlet carpeted elevator. As she made her way to Cap's hospital ward she heard terrible screams that for some reason sounded so damn familiar. Upon entering the room, a terrible sight welcomed her.


He had only been eight back then, young and wonderfully innocent, oblivious to the dangers of the world, when he had entered the family stables to visit the horses. After he patted them, fed them and spoke to them a little, he decided to take a nice nap on a big, comfortable looking, golden sunned haystack. He had fallen asleep with pleasant fresh smells of timothy, clover and hay around him, dreams of nature and pleasantness covering him. He did not notice nor suspect anything was amiss. When he awoke, his three year old, much as innocent brother James had just entered the red and white building. Suddenly Leon noticed something green and slithery sliding on his leg, making its way up his body and towards his calf. Leon was now sweaty and fearful as he realized, with no little horror, that it was a snake now crawling up his flesh. He shouted to his brother, no, screamed to him, agony and fear in his voice, to get their father to come and help. By the time his father had arrived, Leon had already received the agonizing bite of the snake, the pain running through him rapidly. It was no serious bite, however due to the fact that the snake had already exercised his fangs and emptied them upon a different helpless creature a while back. By the time the doctor had tended to Leon's wound, and had rendered it a minor injury, the snake itself had already escaped back into the wild, never to be seen again.

Yet it had scarred both himself and his little brother forever, leaving a snake bite in Leon's calf and a scar in James's soul.

Leon awoke with a start, cold sweat coming down his back, his last memory being when he was eight, in the stables. Then as he got used to the bright light, white surroundings and white coats everywhere, he realized where he was and who he was yet did not perceive to how he had got there.

Then a sharp noise louder than before pierced his ears in pain. It was a scream, one with a word, a pattern and a voice he could never mistake, his little brother. At first, he thought he was hallucinating, but the startled doctors made that assumption disappear. Then he realized the noise was closer than he had thought, much closer. It was right next to him really. He looked to his left realizing to his shock, that his little brother who was celebrating his sixtieth birthday that year was in the bed next to him, ripping and destroying his oxygen mask pipe thingy, he could not remember its name. Wait a moment he thought…

His brother was choking himself. Probably out of confusion, thinking his breathing equipment was a slithery, transparent snake. Suddenly an elegant, twenty eight year old woman entered the room dressed in an Italian, brownish beige, specially designed business suit. As the doctors rushed to his brother, Leon knew they would be too late. Leon himself attempted and succeeded in climbing from his bed and proceeded to coming to the aid of his brother and saving him from himself. Yet as he neared James, Cap was already breathing in very shallow breaths. As he finally looked into James's eyes, his brother said one word: "Lenny?" and then he died.


Gloria walked into the room upon the horrible sight. The first thing that she perceived from her position at the door and away from the incident was that her former boss, Captain James Hollister, was trying to destroy his breathing aiding equipment and in other less subtle words, choking himself. She froze unable to move but only to observe. It was one of her rare, almost never occurring, unforeseeable and almost completely forgotten panic attacks. Strange, she thought. It had not happened to her when she saw the building in flames which her employer had entered and when she leaped into the flames to save him. Next, she observed the man lying in the cot next to him stirred. He was, most absurdly, an older and more handsome version of cap, she mused.

Then the man, who was obviously in a coma a second ago, rose from his bed with great strength and looked around. He saw her and just for a moment their eyes met, his, cold ice blue ones and hers, warm brown affectionate ones. Then he averted his gaze to the left and saw her boss, struggling and fighting. The man's face changed to shock and recognition and he stumbled out of the bed in a hurry. He knelt next to Cap's bed trying to assist him and hold his hands. Gloria did not know how much longer her boss could survive without his breathing device that kept him alive for the past few months. Suddenly Cap looked at the man kneeling next to him and recognition overcame him. He parted his lips and uttered one word, his glance hopeful. She could not hear the word but she guessed the tone was one of question. Then as soon as he had uttered the word, he stopped breathing.


Once his brother died, Leon started crying, crying silent, deadly tears that stung his mouth with their bitter salty taste. It was a wonder to him as to why he could not cry at his parents' funeral yet how now he could empty his heart here in a sterile hospital ward. Through his tears, he could see the woman whom his eyes met with, snap out of her waking coma and approach him. He at once observed that she as well was in grief of the incident for tears were already starting to form in her eyes as well. She knelt next to him and taking out a handkerchief from her right pocket, she wiped the tears from his pale, olive skinned face and proceeded to swallow down hers. "Gloria Deloring" she offered her hand. "I used to work for your, brother, I am guessing." "Yes" he answered. "My brother, I am Leonard Hollister. It is nice to meet you, or at least it would have been nice under different circumstances. I just woke from a goddamn coma, to this. I really do wish I could have spent more time with him. By the way what year is it?" It took her a moment to perceive all the information he had just given her and replay. "Nineteen eighty three" she said.

"Fuck!" he cursed. "Four years wasted. Four years which I lost and could have spent with my brother but for that damned African snake!" he said. She took it all in and then made a decision. "Would you like to come with me for a cup of coffee? So maybe we can talk a little. Maybe even about your brother." The question seemed to come to him as a shock, and for a second he wondered, for the second time that day, if it was all a dream or hallucination. Before his coma, no woman had asked to sit with him for ten years, not since his scandalous divorce. A second later, he regained his senses and the reason she mentioned for the talk. After another moment's hesitation, he accepted her invitation and together they silently left the hospital

(Not without confirmation of his remarkable recovery from a doctor and permission of leave),

and made their way for the quiet and lonely 'Café the triste' downstairs.