World's Greatest Dad: Backstory Part 2

"Don't touch me!" A child's screech pierces air, barely muffled even though walls separate us. Something hard and heavy collides with the floor, and one of my nurses shrieks with surprise.

I am on my feet at once and, leaving Rai asleep in my office, dash down the hallway to the second examination room before the chaos has a chance to settle. A chair lies on it's back, partially buried beneath a scattered pile of papers. Half the contents that used to belong on the countertop are now strewn throughout the room. The second half of these are reserved in a hord at the child's feet for later use. His back is pressed against the corner between the wall and the examination table, and he raises a paperweight over his head when he sees me.

"There seems to be a mess." I frown but force my lips to curve up until my smile at least appears somewhat genuine. "How did this happen?"

"He tried to jump through the window." A man announces while blocking that exit. He is crouched down low as if ready to spring from his location and restrain the boy at the first opportunity. His uniform is almost entirely hidden beneath his nonstandard coat—the hem of which drags on the ground in that position—and his hair is long enough to touch the ridiculous fur collar around his neck. He looks more like a rebel than a police officer wearing that, and I already suspect that his actions will follow suit. "Tried it at the last place too," he says.

"This has happened before?"

The man answers with a short, curt nod, which causes his chin to disappear beneath that hideous fur collar and appear again. "He threw a fit at the hospital. The doctor there threatened to sedate him, but Detective Kim sent us here instead. Said some no-name doctor here had a way with kids. I don't buy it. Not with this brat. He needs a heavy hand." He snapped, fiercely pointing at the boy as if commanding an armed criminal. "You have to the count of three to put down the weapon and surrender. One. Two—"

"I think that will be enough."

He looks at me, annoyed. "You can see what he did here. It was worse at—"

"He will pick it up." I glance at the boy from the corner of my eye. His knuckles are white from grasping the paperweight. "Won't you?" The boy flinches.

"That'll be the day," the man scoffs. "You think you could do better?"

"I can't imagine how I could possibly do worse." I notice a slight smile cross the boy's lips, but it vanishes in an instant. "If you would give us a moment alone..." The boy stiffens, and he grabs an ink pen with his freehand as if it's some kind of knife.

"I'm in charge of him," the man announces, clearly insulted. "I can handle this!"

"Yes, you have made considerable progress thus far." I pointedly pick up the turned over chair and set it upright. "I'm impressed."

"Think you're some hotshot?" He rises to his full height and crosses his arms over his chest, approaching me as hostilely as he can. "Be my guest." He tries to tap my chest as he says those words, but I step aside before he reaches me. With a final glare, he storms outside. I nod for my nurse to wait in the hall, and we are finally alone.

"Well…" I glance over the mess, forcing myself not to return it to order. "Care to tell me why—" The paperweight launches at me, but the feeble throw of a child makes it easy to catch. I lean forward and capture it with one hand. "Thank you." I smirk and set it gently on the counter. "Is there anything else that you would like me to put away?"

He clenches his teeth in fury and winces as the motion reopens the cut on his lips. He presses his sleeve against it and holds out the pen with his other hand. "Stay back!"

"Or you'll write on me?" I raise an eyebrow but calmly take a seat in the chair. "I'll stay over here if you stay over there. You're quite scary like that."

He lowers the pen, uncertain how to react to me.

"Do we have an agreement? Good." I reach over and grab the papers that are within my reach. "Hmm… These are all out of order." I pretend to ignore the boy as I shuffle through them. "It's very inconsiderate to cause a ruckus in someone else's room. I suppose you had your reasons?"

"Jake's mean."

"Yes, he is." Surprise flashes over the child's face when I agree with him. He must expect me to treat him with the same impatient manner the policeman has shown. "But that is no reason to throw things."

I busy my fingers with the papers again and place them into the correct order. While I do so, I try to discern from the corners of my eyes how injured the boy is. Scratches cover skin, and rips pass through his clothing. His wrist, still posed upwards from holding the pen, spots a hand-shaped bruise. I see no heavily bleeding injury, apart from the gash on his lips, but he still needs a thorough examination. He hasn't moved yet. His eyes are glued on my every move.

Finally, I drop my pretense and give him my full attention. The boy immediately tenses up even more. I don't know what happened to him, but he is clearly wary of me, frightened even. He doesn't look starved like Rai did and, considering his body posture, bribing him with sweets wouldn't work.

Rai. He's still sleeping in my office. I should hurry before he awakes. "Would you allow me to take a look at your lip? It—"

"No!"

The panicked outburst stops me from explaining further. Again, the pen is directed at me, and his other hand blindly searches for new ammunition on the examination table. If only speaking sparks this behaviour, I can understand why the room looks like this.

"Alright." I hold up both hands to show that I am not a threat. "But I can't very well leave you bleeding. I'm a doctor. It would reflect poorly on me to send a patient away without at least tending to his wounds. I have my reputation to consider." I smile and tap my finger against my chin as if in thought. "Shall we make a deal? You tell me what's wrong, and I will tell you how to fix it."

"You're not… coming closer?"

"Wouldn't dream of it. I thought we already agreed to this. I will stay here, and you will stay there. You really are quite scarey with that pen. Ink stains, you understand."

"Okay." He grabs the jar of suckers for ammunition. It's larger and more dangerous than a paperweight and, I am afraid to admit, far more precious. It was what first connected Rai to me.

I keep my face calm, unconcerned. A weapon is always weaker when the wielder doesn't know its worth. "Now, do you want to tell me what hurts or shall I guess?"

He doesn't answer but watches me warily as if he's waiting for a trap. So a guessing game it will be.

"Your head, does it hurt?" A frown appears on the child's face, then he softly shakes his head. That's a relief. A punch strong enough to give him a bleeding lip could have been hard enough to give him a concussion too.

"And your chest?" A short, almost invisible nod. Now it is my turn to frown. Just a bruise or internal injuries? I can't be sure until I properly examined him. I must have moved unconsciously because the child flinches violently.

"I have forgotten to introduce myself." I say at once. I still don't know what had happened to the boy, but this tactic had worked on Rai. "My name is Dr. Frankenstein, and your name is...?"

"M…" His eyes leave me for a few seconds as they search the room. I can see his mind work as he makes up his lie, and he finally looks back to me. "M-21."

I glance to the space where he had last looked. An eye chart hangs on the wall. A huge M is near the center and is followed by the two numbers in the next row in a smaller print.

"M-21?" I muse. "That's an unusual name. I wonder what it means." He frowns in response, but I carry on without letting on that I have noticed it. "In any case, it sounds strong. Tough. Are you tough, M-21?"

His eyes narrow, sizing me up. "Tougher than you."

"Is that so?" I grin to accept the challenge. "I once got a cut right here," I point to my side, "and wasn't upset. How did you get your cuts?"

"The bad men came…" His lip quivers a little, and he bites it to keep from crying. "I-I was tough."

I say nothing. I have already asked too much.

His eyes flash to me, terrified and fierce. "They'll come back for me. They said—"

The door opens a crack, and a waist-height black tuft of hair appears as Rai glances in. His eyes are mesmerizing, assessing the situation and weighing judgement. I should ask him to leave; this could become a dangerous situation, but the calmness in his expression somehow convinces me that he is in control. M-21, as he calls himself, is frozen in place. The jar of suckers is in his grasp, but he hasn't moved to throw it. He is likewise distracted by Rai's presence.

Rai steps forward, moving toward the child as though nothing in the room seems unusual. To him it probably doesn't. M-21 backs away half a step as Rai, without a word, reaches into the sucker jar and removes two of them. Rai raises his head to look at me. Everything in me yearns to help him, but if I stand up now and approach the examination table, M-21 may react poorly. Without a pause, as though he fully understands my limitations, Rai holds out the suckers to M-21 in the same way that M-21 holds his pen.

"He wants you to unwrap them." I'm whispering. I don't know why. The atmosphere feels fragile enough to break at the slightest sound.

"Why should I?" M-21 asks, but sarcasm is missing from his voice. "Why would you…"

The question doesn't deter Rai. He is still holding out the candy in his passive, disinterested manner. Finally, as if it was the hardest decision in the world, M-21 sheaves his pen under his arm and hesitantly accepts the suckers. He pulls away the wrappers as quickly as he can, never taking his sight from me, and shoves them back toward Rai as he wields his pen once again.

Rai gracefully inserts the red one into his mouth and offers the other one, sour apple green, to our guest.

"That one is for you," I say, needlessly narrating Rai's actions.

"Why's he giving it to me?" M-21 sounds confused, but he's still sharp enough to realize that he should address the question to me rather than Rai. "Why would he…"

There must be a reason. If Rai has shown attention to this child, it must be important, but I don't have the answer. After a few more seconds, M-21 finally accepts the sucker and pops it into his mouth. The sour flavour must hurt his injured lip, but he doesn't pull it out.

A soft knock startles M-21, and I slowly stand up and walk over to the door. It is detective Kim. I expected him to arrive sooner or later, and I am relieved that it isn't Jake now that M-21 has calmed down a certain degree.

I motion for Detective Kim to wait where he is, and I join him in the hallway. I leave the door ajar to see whether the two boys are doing well.

"I see that he's causing problems for you, too." Detective Kim whispers in a rough voice as he cautiously peeks through the cracked door. "What a mess."

I hold back a grimace. "Yes, he was rather upset when he first came here."

"I'm surprised that he has calmed down this much." He steps away from the door. "I wouldn't be if I went through what he went through."

"What do you mean?" I ask gently. The detective hardly needs a prompt to continue.

"We got a call earlier today about a disturbance. When we showed up, we just found bodies." He shrugs, trying to dispel the memory of it as it didn't weigh on his mind, but an unsteadiness lingers in his voice. The sound is so soft that he is almost speaking only to himself. "Except for that boy."

"Did he see…?" The darkening look on the detectives face is answer enough.

"He hid in a kitchen cabinet. We found his brother's body in the same room, propped up against the door, blocking it." My anger flares at the thought of this small child watching as he loses his whole family. It is no surprise the boy threw things around. My eyes flicker to the gapped door. Rai stands at the window and stares outside as he often does. M-21 watches him instead of the door. The sucker is still in his mouth.

"They seem to be getting along." The detective looks at me expectantly.

I make no answer. It is clear that Rai's easy stillness is calming the other boy down. M-21 is pulling the wrappers from all of the remaining suckers and returning them to the container uneaten. Rai shifts his head slightly to watch the progress from the corner of his eye.

"Really well." He smiles and leaves it at that.

We both observe in silence while M-21 finishes his task. He jumps down from the examination table, the container safely held in both hands. He keeps the door in view while he walks over to Rai and joins his silent vigil at the window. The glass full of suckers changes hands, and Rai gives M-21 a minute smile.

"His next of kin?"

"None. Once you clear him, the child services will put him in a foster home."

Rai, now holding the jar of opened suckers, appears in the doorway.

I take the load from him and step aside. "Ready to go home?"

He nods once and glances back. M-21 is suspiciously watching us from the window. Rai's eyes return to mine with an assumption rather than a request.

I frown immediately, knowing I will give in. "You're waiting on him, aren't you?"

A single nod confirms it.

Detective Kim laughs. "I'll order the paperwork."