Chapter Nine
"Dad, please."
"I can't, Miles. I can't."
"You have to."
"Son, I can't. I just can't. Please stop asking me."
I clear my throat.
Tails jumps about three feet in the air and turns around. "Oh hey Knuckles."
"Can you come here a minute?" I ask him.
"Uh—"
"Yes," says Amadeus, and I look at him and have to look away. I hope no one ever sees me like he is now. When you're hooked up to that many machines it's pretty obvious you're damn sick.
"Dad—"
"Go talk to your friend, Miles."
"But dad—"
"Miles."
Hearing his dad actually raise his voice makes Tails stop in his tracks. Reluctantly he stands up.
"O-okay," he says.
"Thank you," says his dad tiredly, and turns over on his side.
Tails comes out of the room and slowly closes the door.
"Have you left him alone for three seconds, Tails?"
"Yeah," says Tails. "But mostly only when he asks me to."
"He's dying now, isn't he."
"I think so."
"Shit."
Tails sits down on the floor and starts crying.
Oh great. I don't want to sound like a jerk, but I hate it when people cry. I can't handle it and I don't know what to do. I just sit down next to him and stare at the wall like nothing's happening.
After a couple minutes he stops crying and sniffles a little.
"Sorry," he says.
Awkward silence.
"Why are you here?" he asks.
I stare at the wall a bit more, then look at him.
"Because there's no one else," I say.
Tails just looks at me, then says "Oh, Knuckles," and starts crying again. Now I kind of have to do something so I wrap my arm around his shoulders.
I give him a minute, then ask, "What is it your dad can't do?"
"Huh?"
"What you were talking about when I came in."
"He can't cough anymore."
"That's not a good thing?"
"No," says Tails, and the way he says it makes me feel dumb. "That's the reason he's so sick, Knuckles. When you have pneumonia your lungs are full of fluid. You have to cough so you can breathe. But he can't do it anymore."
"Why not?"
"He's not strong enough. He's too tired and doesn't have enough energy."
"Isn't there something they can do about it?"
"He's not going to let them, and even if he does, it's not really going to help. The problem is that he has no strength left. He's just too tired."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'll…I'll just stay with him…until…until he dies, I guess."
He's trying not to cry.
"Damn, Tails, I wish there was something I could do."
Tails stands up.
"Let's go back in with dad, Knuckles. I don't care if they yell at me for bringing you there. He shouldn't be alone and I don't want to be."
He opens the door and we both go into the room. Tails sits down but there's only one chair. I wouldn'tve sat down if there were another anyways.
Tails reaches over and takes his dad's hand. His dad looks at him.
"It's okay. Just go to sleep."
"I'm sorry."
"Dad, don't be sorry. Just keep trying, okay?"
"All right."
Amadeus coughs weakly and closes his eye. He doesn't fall asleep, though; his breath is coming slowly and painfully, and he shakes continually with both the effort of trying to cough and trying not to.
Tails looks at his dad and strokes his dad's hand with his thumb.
"You didn't stop looking, did you."
I'm surprised he wants to bring this up in front of Amadeus.
"No. But we can't find him."
"That's okay. I know you did your best."
"Why are you asking?"
"Dad told me to keep my faith in Sonic."
I roll my eyes. "Nowadays, that's not good fishing, Tails."
Tails glances at his dad. I guess he's trying to figure out if his dad is paying attention or not.
"I don't know why he told me that. I don't know why dad believes in Sonic so much."
"Maybe 'cause he's got a good reason to."
Tails turns around in the chair and stands up so violently that I'm surprised he didn't fall over. I'm also surprised that I didn't fly across the room and deck that jerk squarely in the face like he deserves.
Sonic's standing there in the doorway, wearing a scruffy bomber jacket and a pair of sunglasses propped up over his ears. He's streaked with grease and grime, and instead of his sneakers he's wearing dusty Converse All-Stars.
"Hey guys," says Sonic.