Tangential Planes 5/9

Chapter Five:

Thursday Evening

Charlie woke with a start, wondering if he'd ever get used to waking up to nightmares.

He looked around the darkened room and almost didn't notice Don staring out the window.

"Don..." Charlie said his brother's name to get his attention.

"I have to call you back," Don said softly into his cell phone before shutting it and turning around.

"You're awake. Good. Dr. Karol came by and wanted to see about getting you to eat some dinner."

Don crossed the room and picked up the hospital phone. "Hi, this is Don Eppes calling from Charlie Eppes' room, number 206. Dr. Karol wanted me to let you know when Charlie woke up so he could try eating some dinner. Great. Thanks." He put down the phone and sat down in the chair next to Charlie's bed. "They'll bring you something by in a little while."

Charlie nodded then gestured to the cell phone. "Was that work? Do you need to get back to them?"

Don shook his head dismissively. "It's nothing."

Charlie sighed. "Isn't that how we ended up back here? Back how things were between us when you were in New Mexico? By not talking?"

"When I last checked you were the one not talking to me," Don grumbled. He paused and then sighed as well. "Look, I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. I know you can't talk to me about some of your consulting work but..." He stood up and paced the room, obviously upset. "Dr. Karol was here while you were asleep and he filled me in on your status. Charlie, did you know he wants you screened for Anorexia? That's a mental disorder, do you realize that? Your doctor thinks you might be mentally ill, what does that tell you?" Don's voice was rising in volume and pitch as he became more agitated. "You know I'm kind of inclined to agree with him. The way you've been acting, the fact you haven't been taking care of yourself... God, Charlie he says you've lost seventeen pounds since your last physical and that was only three months ago! I can't remember ever seeing you this skinny! When I first walked in and saw you earlier..." Don finally stopped pacing and shook his head. "You looked..." His voice was soft now. "You looked like those pictures they used to show us of concentration camp survivors. You looked like a living corpse."

Charlie swallowed hard, not sure what to say.

"You don't eat, you don't rest, you keep secrets from everyone around you..." Don came back to Charlie's bedside. "I felt guilty for leaving you, but now I see that while I was leaving you..." Don paused, momentarily unable to look Charlie in the eye. "You were leaving me too."

Charlie's eyes filled with unshed tears.

Don sat back down beside Charlie. "You tell me this project is more important than your health, than your family. I don't know what to say to that, Charlie. I can't even imagine what one man could do for the government that could be so critical and that no one else could do."

"Don," Charlie said softly. "It doesn't matter if you can't imagine it. It only matters that it's true. There isn't anyone exactly like me in the world, so while there are other math experts in the country there's a reason why I was tapped for this project. I just hope the work I managed to complete before this all happened was enough."

"Enough for what?"

Charlie looked away as if to remind Don that he couldn't answer those questions. After a moment, he spoke, but quietly. "I'm not anorexic."

"I'm not the one you have to convince," Don said.

"Fine. I'll do the screening. I'll eat what they put in front of me. I just want to go home."

In that moment, Charlie looked to Don very much like a little boy, not the grown man in whom the government was putting all its faith.