Recovery
Part 23
Jing-Mei tried to catch her breath as the others took in what Mr. Santini just said.
Kerry: I didn't know Erik has a twin brother.
Mr. Santini: Well, he doesn't anymore. Thanks to his old man.
Jing-Mei: Oh man, I don't know if I want to hear the story behind that. I wonder why Erik never told me.
Carter: I guess he had his reasons. It's more of the Malucci mystery.
Luka: Were they identical twins, Mr. Santini?
Mr. Santini: Right down to the exact olive tan of their skin.
Jing-Mei: What I can't figure out is how did Rusty know about Nicholas, unless you mentioned him to the boy.
Mr. Santini(shaking his head): Not me. I know that subject is taboo---like off limits. I would never do that. Besides, until you mentioned the name, I forgot he even existed.
Mark: Well, Rusty spent alot of time with Erik's sister, she probably told him.
Mr. Santini: I doubt it since Sophie didn't even know that she had another older brother much less that he was Dr. Dave's twin.
Kerry: Why?
Mr. Santini: He died before she was born and no one ever told her. I didn't even think that Erik remembered. Look, we still don't know if that is the Nicholas that they were talking about.
Jing-Mei: Let's just assume it is. Why didn't Erik mention it to me before?
(pause) Mr. Santini, what happened to Nicholas?
Mr. Santini dropped his head down to the floor and then looked back up, licked his lips, hesitated and then told them what they obviously wanted to know?
Mr. Santini: I don't know all the details, the boys were only about two years old when I saw their father carry young Nicholas out of their apartment and take him to the hospital. Nicholas never came home.
Carter: What about his brother?
Mr. Santini: I don't know. I just saw their parents with Nicholas. Ddd...Erik was nowhere in sight.
Jing-Mei: How did Nicholas die?
Mr. Santini ran his hand through his balding grey hair, nervously and secretly wanting to get out of there before he said something he shouldn't.
Mr. Santini: Drug overdose.
The ER was silent with shock.
Kerry: Drug overdose---he was only 24 months old.
Mr. Santini: I know. (pause) Listen, I really don't know anymore of the story and I've already told you too much. Take my advice, Dr. Chen. If you want Erik to recover with some of his sanity in tact, you will NEVER EVER mention Nicholas to him. Trust me. It could only do more harm than good.
Impatient, Rascal starts to bark, whine and pulling on his leash. Mr. Santini silently thanked Rascal for creating a diversion to help get off the subject.
Jing-Mei: I've got to get Rascal home. I'll be back later when Rusty comes out of surgery. Good bye everyone.
Jing-Mei takes Rascal home, feeds him and gets something to eat herself. The whole time, her mind is focused on what Mr. Santini was saying at the hospital. All of a sudden, Jing-Mei jumped out of her seat, ran into her bedroom and searched her closet until she came out with Dave's photo album. She skimmed it, thinking that maybe she missed something the last time she looked through it, but only saw the same pictures that had been in there. Pictures of Dave and Sophie as children and the pictures of the boys and Rascal that she took after she backed over him with the car. There wasn't one picture of Nicholas. She took the photo album and placed it in a bag and finished her lunch before she headed back to the hospital an hour later.
Back at the hospital, she learns that Rusty is still up in surgery so she goes to visit Erik. She walks in and sees him twisting in bed.
Jing-Mei: Uh oh.
She runs over to him and shakes him. Several minutes go by and she unsuccessfully wakes him by shaking him. She gives up and decides to get Dr. Legaspi, hoping she can help him, when he jumps up and screams.
Erik: Hhhhelp mmmee!! Oooout mmmmeee geeettt!! Nnnnnnnnnoo!
Jing-Mei turns to see Erik sitting up in bed, sweating. She goes back over to him and tries to help him lay back down but he resists and remains in seated position. She sweeps his sweat-covered hair from his forehead.
Jing-Mei: God, not another nightmare. Erik, can you tell me about it?
Erik: Ddddon't nnno wwwant toooo.
Jing-Mei: That's okay. You don't have to tell me. Just settle down.
Against her own judgment, she pursued her previous line of questioning from the last time she saw him.
Jing-Mei: Erik, does this nightmare have to do with the last one you had? About the two children...
Erik starts to rock back and forth, furiously shakes his head and grabs his ears and holds them.
Erik: Nnnnnnoooo, wwwwant ttttalk aaabout iiiiittt!!
Jing-Mei: Erik, stop that. Alright, we won't talk about it. We won't talk about anything that you don't want to.
Jing-Mei starts to search the room, looking for something to talk about that will change the subject. She remembers the photo album in her arms.
Jing-Mei: Hey, I have something here that will take your mind off that nasty nightmare you had. Erik, do you remember this?
Jing-Mei shows Erik the book. He smiles and reaches for it when someone enters the room. Erik pulls away from the book and goes back to rocking in bed.
Legaspi: Did I come at a bad time?
Jing-Mei: No, you didn't. It's always a bad time. Erik hasn't had any good times in a very long time.
Legaspi: Dr. Chen, walk with me to the door.
Jing-Mei puts the photo album on Erik's bed and goes with Dr. Legaspi.
Legaspi: Have you had a chance to speak with him about our sessions?
Jing-Mei: I tried but it's very difficult trying to get through to him. He agreed to them.
Legaspi: Really?
Jing-Mei: Well, he said he would go along with them, for me. He trusts me.
Legaspi: That's good. He needs somebody out there he trusts.
Jing-Mei: There's only one thing. I want to be in on those sessions.
Legaspi: Actually, I'd rather do these sessions privately---only me and the patient. There's less distractions that way and there's also the matter of privacy.
Jing-Mei: I understand your rules and the reasons behind them but in this case, could you make an exception. Given Erik's delicate health condition, I want to make sure there's a medical doctor there just in case something happens. And if that's the case, I'd rather it be me.
Dr. Legaspi considers what Jing-Mei has said.
Legaspi: Well, under these special circumstances, I agree that a doctor should be available, especially if the sessions get extremely tense, like I think they will. Alright, but if I feel that I don't have Erik's full attention and am unable to put him under hypnosis then I'm afraid that I will have to ask you to wait outside the room during our meetings.
Jing-Mei: Agreed.
Jing-Mei and Dr. Legaspi turn and stare at Erik, who is still sitting up in bed, with his arms wrapped around his folded knees, squeezed into a tight ball and rocking.
Legaspi: How long has he been like this?
Jing-Mei: This time for only few minutes.
Legaspi: He's done this before?
Jing-Mei: Afraid so. Dr. Legaspi, there is one thing that I do need to speak with you about Erik, but let's go in the hallway.
Jing-Mei and Dr. Legaspi exit Erik's room. Jing-Mei wonders how to approach the psychiatrist about this subject without sounding crazy herself.
Jing-Mei: Dr. Legaspi, it's about Erik's latest nightmare. I won't go into much detail. He dreamt about two children locked in a cage. Now, I've established that one of the children was Erik. I figured the other one was his sister, Sophie.
Legaspi: And it wasn't.
Jing-Mei: No, It was a boy. Then I thought maybe the other child was one of our sons, in particular my baby Antonio.
Legaspi: And it wasn't either of them?
Jing-Mei: No, Erik said he knew the other child but couldn't say the boy's name. All I got out of him was the first letter of boy's name. It was N. That's when the rocking began. Erik, sort of, clammed up on me after that.
Legaspi: And you want me to find out what the name was?
Jing-Mei: Kind of. I do want you to explore this nightmare, as I do with the other ones, but what is bothering me is that my older boy is downstairs having his tonsils out. Right after I left Erik yesterday, I went to visit Rusty and he had a nightmare, too. About two children locked in a cage.
Legaspi: Spooky.
Jing-Mei: Even more than you think. It appears that they had the same dream at the same time.
Legaspi: Did you speak with your son about it?
Jing-Mei: He said that one of the children was him but the other child was a boy that he didn't know named Nicholas.
Legaspi: Well, now you have a name---given that it was the same dream.
Jing-Mei: I couldn't figure where the name Nicholas came from. If he made it up or there was something significant about it. I spoke with Erik's ex-landlord from both his old apartment here and back in Italy where Erik grew up.
Legaspi: What did he say?
Jing-Mei: The only thing he could come up with was the name Nicholas Mario Malucci, Erik's twin brother.
Legaspi: And you didn't connect the name?
Jing-Mei: Until earlier I didn't even know that Erik had a brother or was even one of twins. He never told me. I guess I'll eventually find out why he didn't.
Legaspi: Why don't you see if you can find his brother and speak with him?
Jing-Mei: I can't. According to Mr. Santini, Erik's landlord, Nicholas died from a drug overdose when the twins were only two years old.
Legaspi: That makes it difficult.
Jing-Mei: Do you believe in psychic phenomenon?
Legaspi: I do think that there are other ways for us to communicate without using our voices or hands and that some people can accomplish it better than others. Psychic connection has been proven in siblings, especially twins.
Jing-Mei: This isn't about a psychic connection between the twins but between Erik and Rusty. How could two people have almost exactly the same dream at the same time about the same little boy named Nicholas but the other child was different? Could Erik have sent Rusty a mental message? I mean since Erik has a problem with communicating and couldn't tell us in the right words about his nightmare so he sent it to his son who could articulate better?
Legaspi: That's an interesting theory.
Jing-Mei: I mean there's no way Rusty could have known about his Uncle Nicholas. Erik never spoke about him with me and he never spoke to Rusty, period. Mr. Santini said he would never tell Rusty something like that and Erik's little sister, Sophie, didn't even know her older brother, Nicholas, existed.
Legaspi: Well, I'm afraid that the only one who could answer those questions would be Erik. We won't know until I start our sessions and break through that wall that he built up around him, like I told you about before.
Jing-Mei and Dr. Legaspi turn to reenter Erik's room when they are approached by Kerry and Carter.
Kerry: How's everything going up here?
Jing-Mei: I was just talking with Dr. Legaspi about Erik and Rusty's dreams.
Kerry: And what did you think about them?
Legaspi: I told Dr. Chen that we wouldn't know much until I've had a few sessions with Erik. Speaking of which, I had better get back to my patient.
Carter: By the way, Deb, Rusty's out of surgery and in recovery.
Jing-Mei: Thanks John. I'll go down to him as soon as I say goodbye to Erik.
The four doctors enter Erik's room and find him sitting calmly and still on his bed, looking through his photo album.
Legaspi: He seems to have calmed down a bit.
Kerry: Did he have an episode?
Jing-Mei: Yes, when I asked him about his dream, he sort of got a little shaky. He started rocking back and forth and wanted no part of my questioning.
The doctors walked over to Erik and looked at the album with him.
Kerry: That's a nice photo album, Erik.
Jing-Mei: He didn't have a lot of pictures in it so I filled it up with pictures I took of the children and Rascal. The pictures of the dog seemed to be his favorite.
Erik continued to turn the pages while the others watched, silently.
Carter(pointing): Now, that's an excellent picture of Rusty there.
The other three look at the picture that Carter is talking about.
Jing-Mei: Yeah everyone, that would be a good picture of Rusty, except one thing.
Kerry: What's that, Jing-Mei?
Jing-Mei: That's not Rusty. It's Dave.
To be continued. Please read and review.