Chapter 4
THE MAN VISITED SAWAMURA
When Sawamura's condition stabilized, his family just saw him for a small amounts of time. Every time they went to see him, it took them breath away. There were so many tubes and machines everywhere and Sawamura was disoriented. He said it was scary. He did not even remember where he was or why he was there, and his family had to tell him over and over again. Later that night, Kataoka and Rei arrived and found out that Sawamura's condition had become worse again. They visited for a while before Sawamura's family had to leave and back to a small hotel. They hated to leave because they just knew that something bad would happen to him and they wouldn't be there.
Kataoka slept very poorly that night, got up early and called Sawamura's parents. They said all was well. There had been no change during the night. He proceeded to get ready and go back to the hospital to check the young pitcher and Rei came to the hospital later that morning. They had moved Sawamura out of ICU to a regular bed on the floor and nurses took him off the ventilator and Sawamura could talk again.
"It seemed that you was improving, Sawamura." Rei smiled.
"I'm scared... that I don't want to die yet. I wanted this torture to end." Sawamura said, trying to smile.
Sawamura kept improving throughout the day and they all felt better leaving him that night except his father who decided to stay in the hospital. Sawamura got up and said he's going to the bathroom. He got back in bed and about five minutes later, he turned to look at his father.
"What's the matter?" his dad asked.
"I... I can't breath.." Sawamura gasped.
His father told him to push call button for the nurse but Sawamura just kept staring at him with his blank look, so his father went to the nurses' station and told the nurse that Sawamura couldn't breath. She rushed into the room and then called the doctor. Soon, they told his father that they were going to put Sawamura back in ICU. He called his wife to let her know that their son was going back to ICU. Sawamura's father received a call from Kataoka and asked how things were going. He told him they were putting Sawamura back in ICU. After a couple more hours, Kataoka called again.
"They said, he's oxygenating better now and his pulse rate is coming back to normal." Sawamura's father said.
"He'll be okay?" Kataoka asked.
"It looks like we're on the road back, coach." Sawamura's father smiled.
His father find Sawamura having on a ventilator again and looking very pale while the machines keep beeping. He took Sawamura's hand and talks to him knowing an unconscious person can often hear words of encouragement, then he reached up and touched Sawamura's face. His son almost died again. He'd been scared to death just hours ago. Witnessing Sawamura's small improvement now his fear had been vanquished. He spent the entire night awake with him in the hospital.
The next two days, it was 7:00 am morning and the man finally found Sawamura's whereabouts and he went to visit the hospital where Sawamura was staying at.
He went to the nurse's station and asked, "Excuse me, could you possibly tell me where's Sawamura Eijun's room?"
The nurse pushed her glasses back onto her nose and then glanced at the computer screen in front of her.
"Sawamura Eijun..." She said, "He was brought to a private room last night but you won't be able to stay long since he's not feeling well today, unless you're his family." the nurse added.
The man felt devastated and the nurse asked him again, "What business do you have with Sawamura-kun?"
"I'm Kataoka Tesshin's assistant coach from Seidou High School, Ochiai Hiromitsu. I came to see him, see how our pitcher's doing." The man lied, wanted desperately to see the boy.
Then, the nurse rise and escorted the man into the hospital room, the man started to ask the nurse.
"How is he doing?" He asked.
"He woke with a terrible fever today, he's so bad, he can't even get out of the bed." The nurse replied.
"Have his parents been in to see him?" The man asked again.
"They come every night to see him, sir. Sometimes during afternoon." The nurse replied again.
Later, Sawamura had just woken up from a sleep just to hear the noises of the birds outside the hospital window. He looked out the window and saw the flowers nearby. He realized that this day would be the same day that he had experience. He was in a different room now and he was in a room by himself, but he was still in a hospital bed. He soon realized that this was not the ICU room. He had been moved to another room, again. As he lay there in the bed wondering where his parents and what's going on now, a man came into the room. He addressed Sawamura using his first name with 'kun' in the end, which gave Sawamura reason to be alarmed, for all his close friends only or his family called him by his first name, Eijun.
Sawamura asked the man who he was, though it was difficult for Sawamura because he was slurring every word. The man said he was Sawamura's number one fan. As he lay there, the man he had never met before came in and started talking that he's lucky to see his favorite pitcher on this place and asking for Sawamura's autograph. At that time, Sawamura still did not know what exactly happening because he's getting dizzy. The man reached into his bag and pulled out a ball and a marker pen, he noticed Sawamura's color was off and he knew the boy was running a fever but Sawamura took it and sign the ball immediately. Because of the high fever, Sawamura suddenly felt so tired and thought he could fall asleep right away.
"You're sweating, Eijun-kun. I've got the sheets and a dry gown." the man smirked.
The man bent down and looked at Sawamura's now sleeping face. He worked quickly to strip the wet sheets off the bed. He had to turn Sawamura over and over until he managed to get the dry linens on. Then, he removed Sawamura's soaked gown and put a clean one on him. He immediately placed the cloth into the warm water and squeezed the excess from it. He started with Sawamura's face and began to wash his whole body rubbing firmly while watching the figure of the young pitcher and couldn't help but remember the day he met him during Spring Koshien. As he finished, the man smirked and squeezed Sawamura's hand. He watched the young boy sleep, watched Sawamura's stomach rise and fall. The man got up and soaked a cloth in the cold water and then put it against Sawamura's forehead, hopefully, this will get the fever down.
He sat on the bed next to Sawamura and watched him sleeping again. He didn't know if he's really worried about the boy but deep inside, he wanted to kidnap him right away.
"How long has he had a fever?" the man thought, studied Sawamura's sleeping face.
He removed the cloth and touched Sawamura's forehead, "Good, the fever seems to be down."
Then, suddenly someone flung open the door. The man didn't expected to see Sawamura's family, but when he looked around, he discovered two nurses walking in, instead.
The female nurse stared at the man, "Excuse me? Who are you?"
The man refused to say his name and the nurse told him that only close family members were allowed to visit the patient.
"I'm sorry! I'm just passing by." The man said as he walked out the door while the two nurses watched him leave.
"I've never seen him before." The male nurse said.
"Neither have I. I have a feelings he's not from around here."The female nurse said.
"Maybe, he's a friend?" The male nurse wondered.
"Uhmm, maybe?" The female nurse shrugged.
The next day, when Sawamura woke, he was informed by his nurse that a meeting was being set up for him today about the decisions of the two doctors that he would either be released from the hospital to go home for full recovery, or he would stay at the spirit dorm since there's a clinic and hospital nearby just in case he don't feel well and he would also see his doctor each week.
Heading into the meeting, Sawamura was very confident that he was going back to Seidou, and everything was going to be all right. He was taken to the meeting in a wheelchair. Everybody was there in the huge room when he arrived. The meeting included Sawamura's family, coach Kataoka, Rei and his two doctors but in the end, Sawamura had to make all the decisions. He was very exhausted and he just wanted to go back at spirit dorm now. During conversation, Sawamura's mother and father told Kataoka what they wanted for Eijun. But after all, Sawamura was their son, and they're going to do exactly what Sawamura said. He wanted to be released as soon as possible and then he would be out of the hospital, at spirit dorm, and he would heal up and play baseball again. Sawamura felt he had been at the hospital too long already. He didn't even remember the man who visited him.
During Sawamura's absence, the Seidou baseball club routine continued. Players are on the field, in uniform, stretching together and preparing for the practice or game. Then, they watched and analyzed the video of the opposing team's starting pitcher with the help of Nabe. Mogami will spending his time on the phone. Furuya take a nap somewhere. Masashi and Miyuki will play shogi. Kuramochi play video games with the other gamer. Some take batting and fielding practice. Some like to sit and wait. Others like to jog and stretch and some boys simply do nothing.
Coach Ochiai had been running practices for the players in preparation for the upcoming match. He pushed the team hard and attempted to get them to believed they would dominate the tournament. He had not only been exclaiming that they would win the tournament but also reaching Koshien. Of course, the team thought coach Ochiai was nuts and very strict to those freshmen but they practiced very hard for the team. The team also practiced five hours a day by coach Kataoka after visiting Sawamura in the hospital. They practiced batting, fielding, sliding and team plays and endurance was stressed. After practice finished, Haruno and the rest of managers came to the baseball field.
"We've got snacks cart here. Please enjoy the food." Haruno smiled.
The boys grabbed water, onigiri and natto from the tray, then started talking while eating to make the conversation that somehow led to them talking about how well studying in school. The first years told their senpais about how they were struggling a little in their classes and ended up falling asleep every subjects because of the hard training. Haruichi told them that if they didn't study enough, they would end up struggling like Sawamura and Furuya during their first year life. Another topic they talked about was about future career. Upperclassmen asked the first years what they wanted to be after high school then, the conversation topic changed about Sawamura.
"Sawamura's rush to ICU again."
"Really? Is he okay?"
"I heard Pneumonia can be dangerous."
"What if—"
Gradually others joined in the conversation while the rest chose to keep silent but Sawamura's close friend could not take it anymore, so he spoke.
"We don't go to what-ifs, okay? We go to whens. When Eijun-kun turns the corner, we can play together again. When Eijun-kun is better, Kuramochi-senpai will tease and torture him again. When Eijun-kun feels good, we'll give him delicious food except natto. Get it?" Haruichi said.
They nodded and it was the first time they saw Haurichi upset.
"Hey! You looked genuinely concerned to that idiot or maybe you're overreacting a little." Kuramochi chuckled and gave Haruichi an elbow.
"Haruichi is right. How you guys feel when you're spend time talking about negative things to our teammate? Do you feel great?" Miyuki asked the other boys.
"No, captain." the boy replied.
"Good! If someone of you talking about these bad things, each of us here could become affected and feel bad too. So avoid thinking them." Miyuki said.
The boys nodded but overall, it was a very awkward. For 30 minutes of break, no one dared to try to speak for any reason. After what seemed like an eternity, coach Kataoka arrived and they continued practice through the night.
Note:
I'm going to be busy for a while and I'm not sure when will I update.
