A Second Chance
Chapter Four
After a long week with Sano…
It was a clear bright morning with a slight overcast. Sanosuke liked to leave the all windows open in his apartment during the summer months. A breeze blew through the window, causing Kenshin to shiver. He was sleeping on the couch with a thin blanket and a squishy pillow. He huddled the blanket tighter around himself.
The breeze became a strong flow of wind, and it blew through the window, clapping the shutters. Kenshin snapped awake, in a panic, with clenched fists held in front of his face. He lowered his fists and sighed with relief when he realized nothing was there. He went back to bed.
~o~o~
Sano parked his trucked in the driveway, and got out. The gravel crunched beneath him as he went to get groceries out of the cab. Once he'd gotten them he carried them to the stoop, through the door, and up the stairs. Once he reached his apartment he set down the groceries and pulled keys out of his back pocket. The moment he walked in he found Kenshin snoring and laying on the floor, with a blanket twisted around his legs. Sano guessed that Kenshin fell off the couch in his sleep. Sano walked away from the rare spectacle to put away groceries.
The crinkling of paper bags and thumping noises woke Kenshin up.
"Sano…" He muttered.
His friend kept messing with the food.
"Sano!"
"Is that you Kenshin? I thought you were asleep."
Kenshin came out to the Kitchen entrance with the blanket wrapped around his body. He tried to tell Sano how sick he felt but it was too late. Kenshin's stomach was having sharp, shooting pains, he grabbed his belly and crumpled forward. Kenshin was now on his hands and knees, all the color left his face when he threw up on the linoleum floor. Sanosuke stepped over the vomit and picked Kenshin up by the shoulders. He took Kenshin to the bathroom and told him to throw up in the toilet. Kenshin kept throwing until he had lost all the food in his stomach, after that he was dry heaving. Sano tried to stay calm, he thought Kenshin was fine, and suddenly this came up.
Sanosuke didn't want to take his friend back to the hospital. Kenshin would try to jump out of the car or something crazy like that. He hated having tests done, being poked and prodded, and staying inside constantly. If Sano took him back there he'd probably refuse treatment. Sano knew how to cut corners.
"Kenshin! Are you ok Kenshin?" Sano called.
"Mmmmmm." Kenshin mumbled.
"What does "MMMMMmmmmm" mean!?"
Kenshin coughed a bit and then said "I'm fine."
"Come on I'm taking you over to the couch." Sano insisted, hoisting Kenshin up onto his feet and giving him a body to lean on.
They made it back to the couch. Kenshin immediately sat down, Sano handed him a blanket, and he spread it over his legs. The redhead lay back on the couch, in order to relax. Sano was getting something out of the drawer under his TV.
Sanosuke knelt by the coffee table and pulled out some rolling papers. He rolled some mysterious green stuff into each paper and sealed it with a lighter. Once he was done he walked over to Kenshin.
"I want you to smoke this. It'll make you feel better."Sano offered.
Kenshin snorted at him. "I know what that is Sano. I'm not stupid! Its fucking weed in a fucking joint."
Kenshin snatched the joint from Sano's fingers and asked him to light it. It only took a couple minutes before his headache went away. Sano lit his joint and joined Kenshin. Kenshin forgot about his stomachache and everything else. He saw images he hadn't seen in awhile.
"Come here Kenshin!"
"No."
"If you don't get your ass over here I's gonna have to give you a whoopin'."
A ten-year-old Kenshin ran to the kitchen table and hid under it.
"You want to play games boy! I'll play along!"
The man got on his hands and knees, and crawled over to the kitchen table. The closer the man got, the further Kenshin backed away. Kenshin tried to climb a leg of the table and get to the top. But the man grabbed hold of his ankle, dragging him across the floor, to the other side of the kitchen. He dropped Kenshin without a care.
"Stand up boy!" Kenshin's father commanded.
Kenshin sat.
"You disrespectful little shit!" shouted his father, and he slapped his boy across the face.
He picked up Kenshin by the shirt collar, holding him up to eye level. "Now you listen here boy! You will mind me and your mama, and show us proper respect." Kenshin spat in his face. Kenshin's dad threw Kenshin down so hard he smacked the floor. "You'll behave! I'll make sure you learn!" His dad yelled. The man unbuckled his belt and pulled it off.
"Stand in that corner boy!"
Kenshin did as he was told. His father took the belt and lashed Kenshin several times. Then he swatted Kenshin till he was on the ground in pain.
"Do you want me to stop boy! Will you behave?"
Kenshin nodded furiously. His pride was hurt, and he was boiling with anger.
Kenshin was screaming and holding his head in his hands.
Sano came running. "What's wrong!?" He shouted.
Kenshin took a breath and let it out. "Sano, do you remember when I told you about my childhood. I had a flashback." He admitted.
"Sure, I remember. Was this one bad?"
"It was awful…"Kenshin muttered.
Sano wanted to hug his friend, but he knew that that wasn't the right thing to do right now.
"When do I have to go to Rehab?"
Sano turned around and looked at the clock on DVD player. "In half an hour. You should probably start packing up your stuff."
Kenshin did a mental checklist for all the stuff he needed. He went into the laundry room and gathered all this clothes. He had more clothes by the couch but that was pretty much it. Kenshin had about half a dozen outfits, a toothbrush, and a razor. He packed it all up anyways.
"Sano, I'm ready." Kenshin hollered.
"Did you enjoy your week at Chateau Sagara?" Sano chuckled.
Kenshin laughed. "The accommodations were nice. Plenty of hospitality. Clean sheets, a fresh mint on my pillow, life couldn't be sweeter." He said sarcastically.
~o~o~
A woman walked into the office Kenshin had been waiting in for the last 15 minutes. She was wearing a bright blue uniform dress that matched her light blue eyes. Her shoes were white slip-ons and her long black hair was neatly tied back in a braid. The nametag on her shirt bore the name 'Kaoru'.
She reached across the desk and chirped "Hello Mr. Himura, I'm Kaoru, your substance abuse counselor." Kenshin, though puzzled, shook her hand.
"How are you feeling today Mr. Himura?"she asked.
"Fine. I guess."
"Can I have a word to describe how you feel? Maybe that would help you."
"Okay. I'm irritated."
"Why's that ?"
"Is this kept confidential?"
"Only your doctor may see these records, ."
"Call me Kenshin. And you see I've been getting sick a lot."
"Why does that make you irritated?"
"When I don't do drugs I get really sick. That's why I want my drugs. But my friends took them away from me."
"Do you understand why you are in this facility?"
"To get clean or some bullshit like that."
"Do you want to get better Kenshin?"
"That depends."
"Depends on what?"
"I don't know if I can just suddenly stop drinking and smoking."
"Many people have walked through these doors without a hope in hell. They came back out of the center clean and sober."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. You could be one of those people Kenshin. Now, I need to ask you a series of questions."
"What for?"
"You are a new patient and so we need some information for your medical records."
"Alright."
"What is your full name?"'
"Kenshin Himura."
"How old are you?"
"I'm 23."
"What is your birth date?"
"June 20, 1985."Kenshin said.
"Have you done any drugs in the past?"
"Well no shit! I'm in rehab."
"What kinds of drugs?"
Kenshin sighed with frustration, holding up his hand. "Acid, Ex, PCP, Crack, Weed, Dope, and whatever else I did I don't remember." He had counted all his fingers for each drug he had named.
"Do you drink?"
"Hell yeah!"
"How often?"
"Every chance I get!"
"I mean more like 1-4 times a day."
"A thousand times a day!"
"You know that this will be charted, right?"
"Whatever." Kenshin said nonchalantly.
"Any past traumas or abuse?"
Kenshin's skin crawled, his violet eyes stared intensely at Kaoru. "What does that have to do with drugs!?" Kenshin snarled.
"It could be the reason you drank and did drugs in the first place. I'll ask again, have you had any past traumas or abuse?"
"No." He choked.
"Okay…" Kaoru finished writing miniscule details on Kenshin's chart and then clapped it shut. "Are you ready to go to your room?"
"Yeah."
"Gather your belongings and I'll take you there."
Kenshin got out of his chair and picked up his two canvas bags full of clothes. Kaoru made sure to leave the room before him so that she was the leader. They walked through a few sets of heavy double doors, which had to be open with card keys. Kenshin figured only staff could open the doors, and all patients were pretty much on lockdown. He did not like that. He thought that rehab would be more open and laid back.
"You will be staying in the West Wing of the hospital. We have four wings, East, West, North, and South." Kaoru explained.
"Why is this place on lockdown?"
"We have patients that come to the center not yet sober. They have to detox in a safe environment. We don't want them running out in public while hallucinating, Kenshin."
Kenshin did not talk after that last response. In the last two hours that he had spent with Kaoru, he had come to know her as curt and callous. After plenty of walking they reached the double doors to the West Wing. Kaoru tried to make a cute joke about the 'West Wing' TV drama. Kenshin thought it was stupid. She slid her card key and let Kenshin in. The nurses swarmed around the mysterious, new patient with red hair.
"How ya doin' boy! I'm Keisha, the head nurse." The charge nurse announced brightly.
"I'm Yolanda, I'm your medication nurse. You talk to me about candy boy!" Yolanda giggled.
The other nurses were happy to introduce themselves to Kenshin.
They asked all sorts of things about Kenshin.
"Why is your hair red?" Kenshin: "I was blessed with it."
"Why do you have purple eyes?" Kenshin: "Why do you have brown eyes?"
"What's your addiction?" Kenshin: "I'm addicted to love!"
The head nurse saw that Kenshin was stressing over all the questions, "Everybody get back to your duties!" She bellowed. Keisha found Kenshin sitting in a chair, in the corner of the hall. "Why you are over here all alone?" She asked. "I'm thinking." "Why don't you do some thinking in your room?" Keisha said, thoughtfully. "I don't know where it is." Kenshin stated. "Don't worry I'll show you." She reassured him.
Keisha carried on of the canvas bags to room 16A and set it on Kenshin's bed.
"Your roommate's in group now. But he'll be out soon. He can give you a tour of the place, he's a nice boy." Keisha clarified. "You can do some thinking now."
Keisha left Kenshin alone to get settled. He began unpacking his things and merely piling them onto the bed. He could smell fresh sheets. Kenshin shoved all his stuff off the bed and jumped on it. The bed rattled and bounced when he landed on it. He dove his face into the pillow, and hugged the mattress. The bed had white cotton sheets and a green blanket over that. Kenshin rolled over onto his back, looked up at the ceiling, and then closed his eyes. He drifted off into his imagination.
Before he knew it he was asleep.