6/VI. Revive and Renew (Remastered)
“Everything? You like everything of me? You’re really not afraid of me?” Michael flew again back down to Earth, he doesn’t seem to understand, but he is drawn back by Adam.
The fellowship they formed that walk in the Garden and how he can stand unfazed by the towering power and stature of the highest Archangel standing before him.
“No, why should I? Is there something that I need to be afraid of?” Adam grinned happily and that smile calmed the anxieties of Michael.
When he landed down at the other side of the Tigris River, he spotted Adam, drooping down and drawing something at the shore of the Euphrates.
He seemed to be bored out of his mind in naming the animals, but when Adam saw Michael.
His gloomy face brighten up with a wide smile and his body language showed excitement as he waved his hands and jumped up and down, like a puppy starved of attention.
Michael teleported once again as he reciprocated the excitement, not so much in body language, but you can see his eyes glimmered, near to teary eyes.
He missed the casual talk he had with Adam the other day.
“Adam…” They stopped at the west side gate, and Michael held Adam’s hands, tightly and softly, gentle yet firm, he caressed Adam’s cheeks as he looked at him straight in the eye.
“I know that it’s been really hard, alone, in the Garden, I appreciate you for welcoming me here, and talking with me here, and…” Adam felt the dread in Michael’s tone, his gentle eyes reflected grief and sadness and if that’s not enough, Michael’s eyes displayed Adam’s feeling of loneliness as well.
“I understand that I was made to be here, to live here, I know that… that’s the only thing that I can do right now, I have no other choice but to…” He looked down in frustration, and he suddenly looked at Michael, shocked that Michael pressed his hands more tightly.
“I… I will talk to Father, maybe… maybe we can get you someone here, with you, all the time.” Adam’s facial expression flickered in hope, you can see his thoughts by looking to his face.
“Really?”
“Yeah! Yeah! I’ll make sure to talk to the Light for you.” Michael was relieved, he really thought that the appreciation he started will end up with drama and break down.
-------------------- // --------------------
Days passed as Adam waited with hope for the Light to appear in front of his eyes and make another one just like him, a partner, just like with the animals, weeks passed, and despair derived from hope began to show in his eyes.
His face scrunched, Michael also seemed to be busy, since he has not seen the angel for about a month now.
Just as he trickled down in despair, the man slept for a long time.
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
As Adam woke up, the sight of a beautiful maiden captured his eyes.
“ADAM, THIS WILL BE YOUR COMPANION.” The Light’s gentle voice filled Adam’s heart with warmth, love, and compassion. Michael didn’t forget him, he didn’t forget his friend, so as the Light, or Father, as Michael called Him.
“This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” The two formed a bond under the highest authority, God.
Michael curiously peeked out of Heaven’s gates down to Earth, and he smiled happily seeing Adam happy and contented with the woman that God has formed. Thank you, Father.
-------------------- // --------------------
The first night the two humans got together in the Garden…
Adam slept soundly he held the woman gently in his arms. The woman tried to adjust in the new environment, the husband that was a first to her, and a hopeful lad with his arms spread out as a pillow for her.
As the woman surveyed the Garden with her eyes, unmoving from her spot as she feared that Adam might woke up from his peaceful sleep.
He noticed there were two glowing trees in the Garden, the one in the centre, and the one just left to the gates.
She remembered Adam telling her about every good food that they can eat and drink in the Garden, play time with the animals and the directions of the four rivers that comes across the Garden, but he became stern when he talked about the glowing trees, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life (Immortality), especially with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
But then, something caught her attention, a light blinding to the naked eye descended from the blue skies to the north-western gates.
She glanced at Adam, unmoving, she decided to rise up and tread to the direction of the Light.
God? Does He visit at night? No… No, no, no…
Questions flooded her curious mind more and more as she approaches the light, as soon as she was near to locate the source, the Light suddenly disappeared, the skies from bright white to blue turned to greyish, darker color, only the moon reflected the light as she walk down the shore of the Euphrates.
What was that? Where was it?
Her eyes darted everywhere, looking for the source of the light. She wanted to talk to the light, on her life’s purpose.
As she was frantically walking around the beach, she looked aimlessly and as she was about to turn around and give up…
[SFX: Thud]
She went face first against Michael’s armour and robe and felt the stinging pain in her nose.
“Ow!” She exclaimed in discomfort. She thought she broke her nose from that encounter.
The armoured knight held out his hands and light shone in front of her eyes, slowly and steadily, the throbbing she felt with her nose disappeared and instead of feeling the cold breeze, a warm fuzzy sensation overcame her worried soul.
“Why are you here? Why aren’t you with Adam?”
“Adam?” The light gradually vanished in the midst of darkness, she’s grabbing the light as if she can grab air, and breathe heavily as is a drug-addict looking for a way to get his fix.
It’s as if she cannot live without the light, it’s as if fear and darkness is swallowing her whole and there’s no turning back.
“Wake up.” Two words, two words changed her that night.
Michael grabbed her face with his two warm hands and looked her into her eye, the anxiety that tried to possess her swiftly washed out to the darkness that surrounded the two of them.
Her breathing came back to normal and her heart calmed down, this was the second time she encountered the Light, but her reaction was different from Adam, pretty far from it.
“What are you doing here?” Michael asked her in concern.
“I… are you one of the light?”
“The Light?” Michael was met with the same curiosity with the woman as when he met Adam, but there’s something different, it’s not loneliness that’s eating up this soul, it’s…
“Yes, I… I am one of the creations of the Light.”
“So… you’re… you’re the same as me?” She squinted her eyes and felt warmth with his answers.
“You?”
“Yes.” Michael gently and slowly took his hands of her face.
“What do you mean?”
“The Light created you as well?”
“Yes, sure.”
“What… what is your purpose?”
“Purpose?” The weeds were rustling as they continued their conversation.
Michael was alerted as he doesn’t want anyone eavesdropping any of his conversations to the humans, especially the angels who are still residing in Heaven.
A tiny two feet golden stripped constrictor boa has appeared before the two and slithered its tongue and got a staring competition between the three of them.
“Sam?”
The woman was quite puzzled as she saw Michael talking to the animal.
The snake slithered near to the two, with its tiny hands and feet, it posture stood menacingly. The woman backed away behind Michael.
“What…”
“One of my brothers, Samael. He was also created by the Light.”
“You have been very sensitive to my presence, Michael, why’ssssss that?” The devil mocked the Prince of Seraphs.
“I’m just happy you came to visit.” Michael docked the questioning.
“How… how come his mouth is not moving but I… hear him?”
“He’s talking to you using your spirit.”
“Spirit? What is that?” The woman wondered and questioned.
“It is something that the Light created us with, this spirit is definite proof that the Light is the one who created us.” Michael tried his best to explain.
“Who is this, another human, I guess?” The snake slithered around the woman, filled with curiosity
“She is… Father created her to be the one for Adam, a lifelong companion. She is-” Michael answered Samael in a truthful manner that night, but he didn’t expect that something will occur the next days because of the slithering snake.
-------------------- // --------------------
“My woman! My wife! She- she gave it to me.” Adam’s disgruntled voice was filled with fear as the Light inquired about the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
He pointed his fingers to the woman, fearing to be destroyed by disobeying God, opening their eyes to what is good and what is evil.
It was true, what the snake has told them, they truly became like the God, knowing what is right and what is wrong.
The woman got teary-eyed, she knew the extent of the powers of the Light, the Heavens and the earth grieved as well with Adam’s disobedience.
“The serpent beguiled me, and… and I did eat.” She directed the blame to the speaking-possessed snake.
One glimpse and the Light immediately knew it was His rebellious son, Samael.
“BECAUSE THOU HAST DONE THIS, THOU ART CURSED ABOVE ALL CATTLE, AND ABOVE EVERY BEAST OF THE FIELD; UPON THY BELLY SHALT THOU GO, AND DUST SHALT THOU EAT ALL THE DAYS OF THY LIFE: AND I WILL PUT ENMITY BETWEEN THEE AND THE WOMAN, AND BETWEEN THY SEED AND HER SEED; IT SHALL BRUISE THY HEAD, AND THOU SHALT BRUISE HIS HEEL.”
God hath spoken in deep sorrow and mourning. His eyes teary and full of wrath, the ground and the lands cried out to the Light, death was imminent due to the sin that entered the Earth through the humans.
God had no choice but to cast the humans out of the Garden of Eden, as the other powerful Tree is also at the midst of them, the Tree of Life, which may give them eternity on earth, but no eternity will happen, that is because sin entered the land through Adam, and death is the penalty of sin, death of the flesh and of the spirit of God.
The angels felt disappointed, but surprisingly, Michael was not.
He felt the same as his Father, great sorrow and anger - sorrow that he will lose Adam as one of his friend, a true friend, and angry at himself for not stopping Samael in exploiting the humans.
“I WILL GREATLY MULTIPLY THY SORROW AND THY CONCEPTION; IN SORROW THOU SHALT BRING FORTH CHILDREN; AND THY DESIRE SHALL BE TO THY HUSBAND, AND HE SHALL RULE OVER THEE.” The Light continued to record the verdict, the judgment of the woman.
“BECAUSE THOU HAST HEARKENED UNTO THE VOICE OF THY WIFE, AND HAST EATEN OF THE TREE, CURSED IS THE GROUND FOR THY SAKE; IN SORROW SHALT THOU EAT OF IT ALL THE DAYS OF THY LIFE; IN THE SWEAT OF THY FACE SHALT THOU EAT BREAD, TILL THOU RETURN UNTO THE GROUND; FOR OUT OF IT WAS THOU TAKEN: FOR DUST THOU ART, AND UNTO DUST SHALT THOU RETURN.”
He couldn’t hold his tears anymore, Adam felt the warmth fading, the spiritual lifeline has been severed due to sin. He felt naked, afraid, cold, and alone.
The Light closed off the Garden, especially the east part of the Garden where the Tree of Life was located.
Security was tighter and God send the Cherubims for additional guards at the Garden.
They were given the Flaming swords, at the half power of what Michael had, to keep off the humans.
Adam and his wife were forced out of the garden and they settled at the north-west out of Eden near the Tigris River.
-------------------- // --------------------
Michael cautiously approached the Throne in the centre of the Silver City as God returned from Earth. The Light, brighter on his arrival, but there was something else, a reddish light within, wrath.
Michael knelt at the foot of the throne as God sat down.
He sighed in disbelief, and discomfort, his heart conflicted against sin and against the sinners, the unholiness and evil has spread through the lands and there’s nothing He can do right now but to watch the humans destroy themselves in the midst of sin.
“WHAT IS IT, MICHAEL?”
“Father, were you not too harsh upon the humans? They’re vulnerable after all.” He tried to convince the Almighty to change His judgment.
Michael knew it was futile, but he still wanted to try and change God’s mind.
“Michael, sin is enmity to me, to my pure nature. How can I walk amidst the evil?” Michael noticed that the Almighty was more wrathful this time around than when Samael rebelled.
“Can I… can I at least help them? Maybe guide them in living?” God still loves Adam very much. His Light still burns for the humans.
Michael was feeling emotional as well upon the severity of the relationship of the humans to spiritual beings, but he can definitely feel the difference of how God acts and feels around the humans and around the angels.
SFX: [Sigh]
A second sigh, it seemed that the Light may change His mind anytime.
“BRING THEM COATS OF SKINS, CLOTHE THEM, AND TEACH THEM TO TILL THE LAND.” He quickly told the Captain of his host to go down and assist the humans in their newfound life.
“Thank you, Father.” He smiled in satisfaction.
It’s what he wanted to do for a very long time after the Light drove the two humans far from the Garden.
-------------------- // --------------------
Michael was ecstatic, he thought he lost a friend, but here is the opportunity, a bridge between humanity and divinity, a guide towards the Will of the Light.
He hurried down to Earth, near the Euphrates River to catch some sheep for the coats of fur.
This is when the fun begins. I thought I’ll never find a more amusing job than this.
He ran around with his heavy armour and chased down two male sheep and sheared the wool out of the animals, and formed a coat of fur.
He brought a rock and a long stick of wood, along with the coats of fur and teleported at the shores of the Tigris River.
Michael’s light seemed to have caught Adam and the woman’s attention. They immediately rushed down to the shores from where they settled, and-
“The Light! The Light! Hurry!” Adam held the woman’s hands as they ran towards the white-sanded beach of the Tigris River.
“The-” Michael was met with a disappointed look from the two as his light dispersed in the air and his armour and the materials he got was revealed amongst the fading of the brightness of his angelic spiritual form.
“Were you expecting Father?”
Michael scanned the two, it seemed they were shaking in the cold breeze of the shore as they ran past everything, naked.
“Here. Put this on.” Michael handed them the coats of fur and Adam and the woman tried to figure out how to put on the coats.
It’s their first time seeing these things.
When they were in the Garden, they were clothed, clothed in God’s Light and warmth.
It was pure holiness that clothed them and they didn’t need any coat, but as they ate the fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, disobedience and evil poured out and the warmth, the holiness slowly disappeared and they realized that they were naked.
“The holes are for your heads. Pfffft… Hahhahahahhhaha…” It was the first time that Michael laughed genuinely with joy as he watched the two try on the coats of fur that he made.
“Why are you laughing? This is a serious… seri… serious… what are the holes for?” Adam was struggling to get his head out of the sleeves part of the coat.
“That’s… that’s for your arms. Those are for your head.” Adam entertained Michael as he was trying to fit his head into the wide seams for the sleeves of the arm.
Eve was a fast-learner. She observed how Adam was doing it wrong and went the other way round - cheeky, rebellious woman.
The three of them settled on the shore as Adam and the woman got the coats intact on their body just right.
“Tis’ warm… how?” The woman ran her hand on Adam’s coat and felt the wool gently and softly embrace her fingers.
“Sheep?” She remembered when she cuddled one of those white, fluffy lambs in her lap.
“Yes.” Michael answered her quickly as he was gathering dried leaves and tree branches near them.
“Why are the leaves… drying? And the trees around us… they’re…” Adam looked around him and at the Garden at the other side of the shore.
“Sin. Death.” Michael’s eyes reflected pity as he crushed the dried leaves from his hands to the gathering of the branches and leaves that he piled up.
“Is the Light still… still angry with us?”
“Yes.” Michael crunched a branch and split it in two with his armed left foot and the sound alarmed the two of the humans.
“So… what do we do now?” The woman was awfully quiet amidst the three of them.
“Live. I’ll teach you how to survive.”
“Live? Here? How can we? We haven’t even…”
SFX: Grrrrrrllllll
“Ate?” Adam and the woman’s stomach were grumbling since it was almost a full day that they were driven out of the garden.
The thorns and thistles were abundant outside of the garden, and every three and plan they come across dies as fast as they touch the ground around.
“Here. Start a fire.” Michael gave Adam, two flint stones, quartz and obsidian, and taught him to stretch his arms and scratch the two stones against each other, it sparked a little, and it’s the first time that Adam saw how fires started.
“I just need to direct the spark to the dried leaves? And we’ll get fire? Like the flaming sword?” He grabbed the stones from Michael’s hand and started scratching the two stones.
“Yeah, but don’t… don’t touch it, it’s going to be painful and hot, once it has the fire.”
“Hot? Warm? Warm is good right? But why not touch the fire if it is good?”
“You will feel pain here.” Michael pinched Adam’s arms, with his armoured fingers with the sharp talons, Adam, for the first time, knew pain.
“Aw!” The woman giggled as the two were arguing about the fire and pain.
“What can I do?” She volunteered. The awkwardness quite disappeared with the three of them working to be able to eat.
“Find a wide leaf, green-y leaf, the one that would not die out as soon as you pick it.”
“Okay!” She rose up and disappeared into the forest near the beach.
“Are you sure that she’s going to be fine? I mean… the animals, they…” Adam became concerned for their safety after they have disobeyed the Light, the animals transformed from being tamed to wild.
They became an enemy to the humans as much as God is an enemy to evil.
“I assure you, she will be fine, I have clothed you both, not only with a coat of fur, but with my presence, the animals would be very afraid of you if you maintain wearing the coat of fur.” Michael weaved the coats with his feelings, emotions, and with his spiritual presence.
“I remember, the animals were anxious and terrified whenever you are near, even before what happened in the Garden.”
“Yes.” Michael sharpened the edges of a long, sturdy branch with his dagger, striking the wood over and over and over again.
“What’s that for?” Adam’s curiosity grew larger as he saw how the angel sharpened a long piece of wood.
“Hunting.” Michael jerked the wood out of his hands towards Adam’s.
“Hun… what?” Adam squinted his eyes, and looked puzzled as he caught the thin, sharpened log.
“Since the plants here outside were withering within your presence, there’s only one way to live and eat - that is to kill the animals nearby and cook them.”
“Cook? Why do we have to? We have all the fruits…” That’s right, there were no fruits outside the garden, no trees, no plants that survive a certain kilometre range of their home and…
“You can cook them in the fire. I will teach you how to live outside the garden.”
“Okay, thanks, Michael, for all of this.” He pointed out the necessities that Michael brought them.
“Hey, we’re friends, right?”
-------------------- // --------------------
“Got it!” The woman hurriedly came out of the forest to the beach and let go of the banana leaves she found in the forest.
The fire was already burning to bright orangey-yellow and she felt warmer as she came closer to the burning fire.
She couldn’t believe her eyes, the colours she saw with the flaming sword were different, the flaming swords with the Cherubs were light-blue, this one was on orangey-yellow-red variation.
She slowly put out her hand closer and closer to the fire and-
“I told you, it’s going to be painful.”
SFX: Gasp* The woman gasped as Michael grabbed her hand out of the range of the fire.
“Sorry.” She got curious as to what Michael was holding on his other hand.
She looked behind the armoured angel and saw her husband afar off from the shore and holding a stick with a rather pointy end and eyeing something in the water.
“We went hunting for fish.”
“Fish?”
“This.” Michael shew the woman the stick he got with a pointy end, something similar to what Adam has on his hands, and there were several struggling fishes at the end of the long sturdy stick.
“Come on, I’ll teach you how to clean and cook the fish.” Michael got his dagger out of its sheathe and got the fishes out of the stick. The fishes are still struggling for air, as Michael strike the fish’s head.
“Cut off the head, clean the gills and the stomach out, and wash it with the ocean water again.”
“Ocean?” She curiously asked.
“That water there.” Michael pointed at the shore, the wild waves of the seas and the restless ocean water.
“What’s that?” The woman pointed at the scarlet coloured liquid flowing from the fish’s head.
“Blood.”
“Blood?”
“It’s something that makes you and the others. If you remove all of this from you, from everything, you will die.”
“Die? Just like those leaves?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Pfffffft… hahhahahhahaha… the first thing you wanna know after going outside is how to kill?”
“Please…”
“Slicing, or poking.” Michael ran his dagger and sliced the fish and gruesomely cut off the tail of the fish, and removed the scale using friction from sliding his dagger against the direction of the scales.
“We don’t eat the scales of the fish, okay?”
“Mkay. Thank you.”
“For what?” The angel was puzzled by the sudden gratitude.
“For being here with us. We were… afraid.”
This is the only thing that I can do after what Samael did to you… I’m sorry in behalf of my brother… I really am sorry.
“No worries, I’ll help you get back on your feet.”
“My feet?”
“Nothing.” Michael then sat the sticks with the fishes near the fire, and turned it around and around about 10 minutes each.
-------------------- // --------------------
“Then? Then? What happened next?” Johnny continued to annoy Arthur as they read the Bible as they were waiting for the discharge documents from the doctor.
“Okay, you don’t have to be so naughty. I’ll tell the rest of the story next time.” Arthur then closed the book.
Two weeks has passed, Matthew and Johnny had been gone to and fro the hospital.
Arthur regained his composure and regenerated health, but there were tell-tale signs in his face that he slept poorly in his private room.
After the emergency call that day, Arthur only became stable after a week, then the COS of CTS, Doctor Jem Miles was only able to do the imaging when Arthur was taken off of ICU.
“As I have suspected.” The doctor slid the imaging film to the intensifying screen.
“What is it, Doctor Miles?” Matthew sprang up from his chair and followed the doctor near the screen.
“It’s VSD.” He wouldn’t elaborate first. He breathe deeply and sighed, and his worried face got Matthew worried as well.
“VSD?” The butler can only wonder.
“Ventricular Septal Defect. The heart attack was caused by a clot due to the cholesterol of the food intake, but when the Doctor Blake performed an ultrasound on Arthur’s chest, he saw a tearing. Here, and here.” The doctor pointed out a tear on the left and on the right ventricle of the heart.
“Wait, wait, food intake?” Matthew shook his head in disbelief. All that they ate that day was broccoli with cheese.
“The EMT filed the report, you were eating broccoli with cheese?” The doctor reiterated.
“Yes, ye- yes.” The trusted chef of the home stuttered as he confirmed.
“Cheese is extremely high in cholesterol. It has high level of saturated fat. We detected the clot near the inferior vena cava here. It’s combined blood and cholesterol, so we figured we can thin his blood to remove that clot.” Miles explained further as he pointed out the places in the heart.
Matthew didn’t understand the parts of the heart but he knew basic medicine.
“We used Clopidogrel to thin his blood, but one of its effect is directly connected to the child’s temperature, that’s why we used ice packs to cool his body down.” The doctor continued to explain as he walked slowly and sat down on his chair.
“Then… if Arthur has a defect on his heart, what- what do we do about it?” The statements of the doctor did not give quite a reassurance to Matthew.
“We have two options.” The doctor looked grim as he presented the option to treat the VSD.
“What are those?” Matthew followed the doctor to the table and sat on the opposite side.
“The first one is inserting the Amplatzer muscular VSD occlude to close the tear. This is the safest method out of the two, and it will be inserted through a small incision in the groin. Mortality rate for this procedure is about one percent.” Miles further explained, pulling out a blue disc that is the equipment that will be inserted to the tear.
“That’s great! That’s good chances, right?” Matthew looked at the brighter side, and smiled at the doctor. If the chances are great, why is your expression so grim, Doctor Miles?
“Yes, that’s right. Good chances.” The doctor smiled sadly back. “But, the problem is that this device is too large for the tear, even if it’s customized, when the heart moves, it contracts and expands, this will cause erosion on the device and on the tear and on the heart itself.” He continued without hesitation, the doctor told the truth to the butler.
Matthew can only sigh and look down at the floor, his anxiety shot off to the roof, his face full of despair. Wait… there’s another method.
He curled his brows and gazed sharply at the doctor. “You said this is one of the choices, what’s the other one?!” He wanted an answer right away.
“The other one is an open-heart surgery.” Matthew’s jaw dropped at the doctor’s response. He didn’t expect that one.
“S—s—surgery?” His eyes widened, as his face devoid of color and his expression – hopeless.
“Yes. The mortality rate for his age is about twenty-five percent. With the heart attack, the clot, and the fever, there’s a large chance that he won’t survive the open-heart surgery.” Miles reminded the butler of what happened in the A&E.
“Then…” Matthew appeared confused and helpless.
“As of the moment, there’s only one thing that you can do.” The doctor butted in. He never wanted to see a hopeless man, but he needed to break the truth to the guy.
“What can I do?” His voice cracked, his eyes near to tears.
“You need to maintain his health, and his heart, once he’s healthy enough for surgery, we can do the surgery here. I will also list him in our transplant organ waiting list if ever the surgery fails to close the tears.” Miles sternly ordered Matthew of what he needs to do while Arthur was recovering.
“I’ll… I’ll make sure to do that.” Matthew can only agree.
Matthew hesitatingly discussed the matter to Arthur three days after his meeting with the doctor.
“Is there any other way you can… you know.” Matthew began gesturing his hands out of thin air.
“What? Heal myself?” Arthur mimicked Matthew’s funny gestures, as if pulling something from beneath the earth.
“Yeah!” He agreed quickly but still had doubts.
“No, I can only do that to others, not on my own. I already tried doing that.” Arthur dismissed the idea immediately.
“Then… what do we do?” Matthew awaited Arthur’s answer just as he did the doctor.
“We hope and wait.” The angel still has an unclear response, but Matthew felt much more reassured with Michael’s answer compared to the doctor’s.
“Mkay.”
-------------------- // --------------------
“Davidson. I should’ve known.” His father, Edward, doesn’t want his name publicised at any matter, hence, Matthew used Arthur’s mother’s maiden name in the hospital forms.
Blood-shot eyes, his eye-socket is clearly greyish and visible. “You haven’t slept?” Matthew asked Arthur as he closed the Bible in front of him.
“No.” Straightforward, he answered sternly.
“Wanna tell me why?”
“I hate hospitals. It’s so hard to be a child. This body requires constant sleep and rest.” He lets out an exhausted sigh.
“That does not tell me anything.” Matthew smirked at the kid, and replied sardonically.
“I remembered the lab that that President brought me to. I remembered those experiments, those doctors, scientists…”
“Stop! Stop! Stop! I… I’m sorry I asked.” Matthew’s playful and joking face turned grim upon learning the reason why Arthur hated hospitals.
{SFX: Tok, Tok, Tok}
The doctor gently swung open the door with his white lab coat, stethoscope, and a chart in his hands.
“Good morning! I’m Doctor Greg Philips. I’m an understudy of Doctor Jemmy Miles. I’m here to discharge you.”
“Is this a standing ceremony? Doctor, please you do not need to. We can walk out of here on our own.” Matthew’s first time in the hospital is a bit of an ignorant pacing.
“No, no, I’m here to tell you about what to do next to avoid these mild heart attacks.” The doctor grabbed his pen from his left side pocket and his prescription pad that was slipped on the chart in his hands.
“Oh… Thank you.”
“Here!”
“What’s…?!” Johnny handed over his cutesy notepad to Matthew. His surprised reaction to the boy-scout readiness of the kid was quite visible.
“Okaaay… Here is Arthur’s prescription.” The doctor wrote what looked like gibberish in the prescription note, and tore it and handed it over to Matthew.
“Las… Lac… La…?” He’s trying hard to read the doctor’s steno. Johnny grabbed it from his hands and turned the paper upside down.
“It’s Lasix: Furosemide, dosage is twenty milligrams per eight hours. S’that right, doc?”
The four year old stunned the whole room with two nurses peeling off the heart monitor from Arthur’s chest, and reclaiming the oxygen back to the equipment ward, and the doctor himself.
“Uhhh…” the doctor dropped his pen along with his mouth in sheer awe.
“Sorry, my kid, he knows these stuff well, they’re good readers.” The half-hearted explanation from Matthew was met with an awkward weird look from the doctor.
“Ooookay, and… yes, that’s… correct. To. The. Letter.” His gaze slided from Matthew back to Johnny that picked up his pen and put it in his fingers to hold - his reaction was priceless, it’s as though it was his first time holding a pen, dumb-founded.
He continually squinted and looked at Johnny with fascination and interest.
“Then?”
“Then, what?”
“What do we do to maintain his health?”
“Health? Whose?...” As Johnny climbed up the bed, he sat beside Arthur and the doctor’s eyes darted to Arthur and came back to reality.
“Oh! Yes!” He shook his head in confusion. “Avoid any oily or cholesterol-ly foods, egg-yolk, fried foods, or fast foods.” He continued to blabber about the text book heart no-no foods.
“No oily foods, got it!”
“And one more thing…” He interjected Matthew before he got to close the small notepad.
“Make sure to get him to rest eight hours or more than that, I noticed his eyebags. He doesn’t seem to like to sleep in the soft beds of hospitals.” The doctor used his pen to point to the baggy eyes of Arthur.
“Yeah, sorry, he’s skipping sleep without me.”
“Attachment anxiety?”
“You can say that.”
“Just make sure he rests properly.”
“Yes, doctor.” Then the three marched out of the room in the Cardiology department on the third floor and went down using the hospital elevator.
The two waited outside the hospital doors while Matthew fetched the car in the parking lot at the backside of the hospital.
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“When did you get the car?”
Arthur curiously surveyed the car’s interior design, a four-wheel drive, black sedan, with a top down convertible feature, and can run about 180-225 horsepower, with black leather as interior for the car seats, and they were both put into the children’s seats at the back of the car.
“About a week ago, Mister Smith noticed that Johnny and I were getting too tired getting a cab travelling back and forth from the mansion to downtown hospital, so… here we are.”
“Thought so.” Arthur nodded in fascination and agreement. “How are they?” The child curiously asked as the two ran their hands and fingers on the interior leather of the car.
“They?”
“Mom and Dad? I didn’t see them visit on the two weeks that I was…” They didn’t visit once. I almost never slept because I was waiting for them as well. He sounded disappointed.
“They’re fine, you know, the usual…” Matthew tried to brush it off. It was a common occurrence that Edward was always absent, and Emily was preoccupied with her work, or chooses to dismiss Arthur’s presence.
“Thought so.”
It took about fifteen to twenty minutes to get from the downtown hospital back to the mansion uphill, but the ride was quite slow and still, Matthew was afraid of this since before the discharge, the talking Arthur would transform back to the quiet and gloomy one
He parked at the front of the wooden doors of the mansion and as Arthur stepped out of the car.
“Where are the guard dogs?” He wanted to at least see the cute, hairy Siberian Huskies that guards their home.
“Oh! They’re roaming around the forest this time.” Matthew had to set them free this time of the day.
“Can we add pet dogs?” This was the first time that the child asked for something he wanted.
“Pet? You… you want some pet dogs?” It was a surprise for Matthew but nevertheless, he wanted to get closer to the kid.
“Yeah… I want an Alaskan Malamute.” The fluffy ones.
“The fluffy one?” The butler said what Arthur was thinking.
“Hmm.” He nodded, and Johnny smiled as he chipped in the names they would name the dog once they get it.
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“Good morning, son.” That voice, and a familiar one yet cold and disconnected.
“Father.” Arthur almost dropped his jaw as he saw the shape and form of his absentee father.
“Dad!” Johnny came running in the adjacent room next to the twins bedroom, to their father’s study room.
“What? Do I not get a hug from my cute little twins? Just Johnny?” He raised his left brow and open his arms wide waiting for Arthur to join in the hug as well.
This idiot, always clinging to them like they hadn’t gone for weeks without us. The angel thought honestly.
“Father…” Arthur smiled and slowly walked up to Edward and hugged the man tightly.
“We’ve missed you.” He continued, Edward can feel the kids trembling in excitement to see him after almost a year of not being at home.
I didn’t want to die… without feeling this… without having… this familial feeling. He clung to that feeling amidst that heart attack.
“Where’s mom?” Arthur’s smile faded in, he slowly let go of hugging his father, and Edward felt the awkwardness from his child.
He always knew that Emily was distant to Arthur, and always saying that he was not her child, despite having giving birth to the baby.
“She’s at work, Master Edward.” Matthew filled in the awkward silence with his answer.
“Matt, thank you for taking care of the kids, and for resolving the hospital issue quietly.” He let go of the kids from his arms, and reached out his hands to Matthew.
“Yes, no need to mention it, Sir.” Matthew handed out the ID’s and the POA file of Edward to his hands.
“Will you be staying today, Master? Shall I prepare your favourite food?” The butler’s eyes glimmered in joy as he saw the children reunited to their father.
The twins bowed down in gloom, they know what their father will answer, usually with, ‘Nah, I’m just here for a few minutes, I’ve got an emergency going.’ Or ‘No, no need to, I’ll be out here at ten minutes.’
“Sure! I’ll be here all day, so please prepare up to dinner.” Arthur almost dropped his mouth.
“Yes, Sir.” Matthew grinned and smiled sweetly as he glanced at the twins.
“Really?!” Johnny lifted up his face, and his gloomy greyed out face transformed to a brighter one, like a puppy wagging its tail.
Arthur was not too much expressive, but Matthew can tell from the surprised face of Arthur that he liked that response as well.
Edward, you really are an interesting man… somehow, I’d like this day not to end…