Luke stood at the door. "Oh, sorry, I'm meant to be at Joan Hampton's place…" he said, unsure of how to react.
"Luke, I am Joan Hampton. I changed my name," she said simply.
Luke just stood in the doorway. He hadn't seen his sister in over five years. When he returned from university, she was gone. She still looked the same, except undoubtedly aged.
"I thought you were on the east coast, doing brain surgery or something," said Joan.
"I was, but my plans changed so I moved to New York," said Luke, however he sounded very unconvincing.
"Oh," was all Joan could reply. Then she remembered about why she had called a doctor anyway. "Kevin's in the other room. He's really sick."
"Kevin's here too?" asked Luke.
Joan didn't answer, and instead took him into the bedroom. Kevin was still in bed, but was now sweating heavily, his breathing was staggered and he looked paler than ever. Joan could tell that Luke was shocked to see his brother so sick, so she left the room, while Luke carried out the examination.
Joan sat outside in utter bewilderment. After something like five years, she and Luke just meet up in the most unexpected circumstances. As much as she loved her brother, she wasn't sure how to feel about the whole scenario.
Luke entered the room. The air felt old and stale. He noticed that there were no windows. He walked over to the bed, and saw his older brother lying in bed, muttering, and sweating. Luke felt a wave of sadness roll over him. He felt as though he should have known about this, not just happened to come across him during work like some stranger. He did his examination quickly but thoroughly.
When he emerged, he looked at Joan. "He didn't even wake up. I have never seen him that bad before," he said quietly.
"Yeah, well, he is sick," replied Joan.
"No, I don't mean that, I mean he's thin…and you can see his bones. He smells and he has way too much grey hair for someone his age."
Joan looked at her younger brother closely. He himself had aged a little. For some unknown reason, Joan suddenly felt herself crying. She felt her brothers' arm around her shoulders. She let out uncontrollable sobs. When she had finally calmed down, she looked up at her brother.
"He's been so depressed, ever since his operation was bungled," she cried, "he hasn't been out of the apartment for almost two years. I can't get him to do anything."
Luke looked at his sister in concern. "Well, I'm afraid he's going to have to go to the hospital." He saw his sisters face and continued, "Oh, I think he just has a mild case of pneumonia or maybe bronchitis. He just needs to go in overnight, maybe a little longer. It doesn't help that he smokes either."
"Hang on, why are you doing house calls, and not doing complicated surgery in a hospital? Isn't that what you were doing originally?"
"I'll explain later," replied Luke.
Joan was still feeling concerned over her brother when they piled into Luke's BMW. He drove them to the hospital. Kevin was beginning to become delusional. Joan wasn't sure that he even knew that it was Luke in the car with them.
Next Chapter: Luke Joan and Kevin make some major decisions and make some interesting discoveries about each others past. But you'll never know moreif you don't review! C'mon, just 4.