Frank sat out of the way in the ambulance continually speaking to his brother, hoping that Joe would wake up. The paramedics had cleaned Joe's face and removed his clothes so that there was no lingering chemical. "Come on Joe. Can you hear me? You're going to be okay. Just open your eyes."
Finally, after several minutes of rambling, Frank was rewarded when Joe opened his bloodshot eyes. "W-wha happen? Oooh," he moaned right before he vomited and shut his eyes again.
An hour later, Frank was in the waiting room, thinking that the place looked entirely too familiar, when his mother and father came running in.
"What happened, Frank? Is Joe okay?" Laura asked anxiously as she hugged her oldest.
"There was an ammonia spill in the janitor's closet and he was overcome by the fumes. I really don't know anything else. I just got done with practice and when I went to look for him I found him unconscious," Frank said as he ran his hands through his hair.
Fenton put his arm around Frank's shoulder, "Did he wake up before you got here?"
"Yes in the ambulance. He woke up, opened his eyes, started to talk, and vomited. He was out of it after that," Frank said. "Did you get any more information from the school before you came?"
"They said that everyone else was okay. Some students were treated at the scene, but no one else was brought to the hospital," Fenton said.
Just then the doctor walked up. "Are you Joe Hardy's family?"
"Yes we are. Is he okay?" Laura said without a breath.
"He'll be fine. He was exposed to concentrated ammonia fumes which have caused a headache, coughing, vomiting, and some laryngitis. He also has a knot on his head, but he likely got that when he collapsed," the doctor said.
"Why did he collapse? I didn't think the fumes would have caused him to loose consciousness so quickly," Fenton asked.
Frank jumped in, "Now that I think about it. A step stool was knocked over in the closet. It could be that Joe fell when he was stepping down from it."
"That would make sense," Fenton said. "That would explain the knot on his head and why he couldn't get out of the room when he first smelled the fumes." he said.
The doctor said, "That does make sense and seems consistent with his injuries. Joe's pulse did slow down, but we need to keep him tonight for observation to make sure that his blood pressure remains down as well."
Within seconds of hearing Joe's room number, Frank was on his way leaving his parents to thank the doctor. He opened Joe's door and went to sit next to his brother.
"Hey," Joe said with a gravelly voice when he saw Frank.
"Hey yourself," Frank said softly. "Don't talk, okay. You need to rest your throat. I'm sure it pretty raw after all that ammonia."
"What happened?" Joe mouthed.
"There was an ammonia spill in the janitor's closet. Did it spill when you were climbing on the step stool? You shouldn't have been on a step stool anyway you know, with one arm in a sling, you don't balance well," he said worry evident on his face.
Joe looked at him through blood shot eyes, "What step stool? I don't understand," he croaked.
Frank looked at him searchingly. Does Joe not remember what happened? "Here," Frank said as he handed Joe some paper and a pen. "Write down what you remember."
With a little difficulty, Joe wrote:
spilled soda, Craig harassing me again, almost hit him, went to get mop, no cleaning stuff in the bucket, got ammonia, finally opened it, something hit head – maybe something fell off shelf, then woke up here
After Frank read Joe's note he said, "You don't remember climbing on the step stool?"
Joe couldn't remember climbing on a step stool, but his head was beginning to pound. "I don't think so," he managed to get out and he closed his eyes.
"Get some sleep Joe. I'll be back later," Frank said and he left as his parents were coming in. "I forgot some stuff at school. It's not too late, so I'm going to run back there before they lock up the building."
Vanessa finally left school emotionally exhausted. She had wanted to go straight to the hospital, but her mom insisted she come home at least for a little while first. She went straight up to her room though and pulled Joe's jacket close to her. She loved the scent of his aftershave, but it really did make her miss him even more.
As she pulled the jacket tight around her, she felt something hard in the pocket. She reached in and pulled out the little notebook he had been so happy to find the other day. Vanessa remembered Joe being so adamant that she didn't look in it.
She knew she shouldn't. But after a day like today, she needed something to distract her. Maybe he had written her a poem or something that he wasn't ready to show her yet. She opened up to the beginning of the little book. There was very little written in it, but it shocked her none the less.
It was supposed to be my part – not his
Revenge is sweet
I won't be pushed aside
If it's not my part then no one gets it
The rehearsals will be so fun – for me
Accidents or are they?
I will have my way
Fire – how quickly will it all burn?
The show will not go on
Vanessa shook her head to clear it and reread the words. She knew Joe was upset about the play, but she had no idea he would go this far. Did he plan all of this?
Just then the phone rang and she jumped. She quickly grabbed for the phone.
"Hello," she answered.
"Vanessa, it's Frank."
"Oh Frank, I have to see you right away! Is Joe going to be okay?"
"He'll be fine. What do you need to see me about?"
"I need to show it to you. Can you meet me at the school?"
"That's where I was going anyways."
Forty minutes later they met in the parking lot of the school.
"Frank, I found this in Joe's jacket pocket. I know I shouldn't have read it, but I did. Just read it," she said as she pushed the notebook into his hand.
Frank read the few lines in the notebook over and over not really believing that Joe could have written them. The handwriting was messy, like Joe's, but there wasn't much written so it was hard to tell.
He didn't want to believe that Joe was capable of doing anything like this. But why would Joe have this written in his notebook in his jacket pocket if it wasn't his.
"That's not all Frank. Before I left school today, I overheard one of the teachers say that the concentration of ammonia was also high in the boy's dressing room. The vent in the janitor's closet opens into the boy's dressing room. It is usually left closed, but today the teacher said it was opened," Vanessa said.
"I heard Craig and Alan talking to some of the other boys in the play and they said that they saw Joe pour the soda on the floor rather than spilling it. And that Joe probably opened the vent and opened the ammonia bottle to create fumes in the dressing room. I didn't believe them," she said. "Now that I read this though, I don't know what to think."
"I don't know what to think either," Frank said. "When I went to get him out of the room, there was a step stool knocked over by the vent. It looked like he might have fallen off of it and hit his head. The doctor said he had a knot on the side of his head probably from where he hit the floor."
"Do you think he was up there opening the vent? Could Craig and Alan be right? And I heard Joe threaten Craig today!" she said with a shocked expression on her face.
"This is crazy," Frank said as he looked down at the notebook. "This is Joe we're talking about. He couldn't care that much about this play…Could he?" All of the times recently when Joe had avoided talking about the play and hadn't been totally upfront with him ran through his mind. He stood for a minute and then shook his head, "I just can't believe he would do these things."
"I don't want to believe it either Frank. It just doesn't make any sense. But he's had a rough time recently and he really hasn't wanted to talk about the play at all. Do you think that the ladder falling and the ammonia spill could be the 'accidents'? They did both happen when Joe was there. And the 'fire' part scares me. There hasn't been a fire, yet…"
"I don't know Vanessa, but I intend to find out, hopefully before a fire happens," Frank said as he pocketed the little book. He left her in the parking lot and went inside the school.
The janitor's closet was locked, but he quickly picked it. Unfortunately, everything had been cleaned up and the vent had been closed, so finger prints wouldn't help at this point.
He sighed and went to his locker to pick up the work he had forgotten earlier. Frank was not at all ready to jump to conclusions regarding his brother; he needed to get more information. It was true that Joe was not entirely open with him recently, but that didn't mean that he would do something so horrible.