Read Blood Soaked and Invaded - 02 for Free Online Page A

are more animated now, but I will say I would prefer if you did not disappear into catatonia for weeks at a time in the future. Shawn was this close,” she held her thumb and index finger about an inch apart, “to standing you up and using your body as a coat rack.”
    “Is that what he told you?” Charlie chuckled to herself. “He told me that he’d stick Frank under the front porch to grow mushrooms on. He misses portabellas.”
    Since words weren’t appearing, and noises were easy to misunderstand, I stuck out my bottom lip and pouted with the righteousness of the Truly Offended. The women laughed at me.
    “Well done! Ah, let us take that catheter out so that you can put on real clothes and join us downstairs.” Jayashri put on the gloves, lifted up Quixote and the Panza Brothers, and slid the towel underneath them. “Now, breathe normally and stay relaxed. Do not bear down as though you need to pee. Are you right?”
    “.”
    “Very good. Take a good breath,” she said, gently taking Don Quixote into her hand. I didn’t look down. “Relax.”
    “Uh! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Ahhhh!”
    “Jayashri, I don’t want to see anything like that ever again,” Charlie said, biting down on her lower lip.
    Jaya patted me on the tummy. “Good job, Francis. That was well done.”
    “?”
    “No, I’m very serious! Removing one from a patient who is suffering from a urethral infection… Say, a vicious case of gonorrhea,” she frowned, “… is quite awful. This was so much more pleasant with a healthy and cooperative patient!”
    “Fh,” I snorted.
    “Why do you understand the noises he’s making? I don’t get any of it.”
    “Francis is making vocalizations like a pre-verbal child. I was the star pupil of my pediatric rotation in medical school. I am using context to ferret out his meaning.”
    “That makes me worry that his cognitive functions are impaired.” Charlie put her hand on my leg and gave it a squeeze. “Although, it’s pretty clear that he’s doing some thinking and not just reacting like before he shut down.”
    “Indeed. He seems much more like himself than before. I will dispose of the waste and the towel if you would see that he gets dressed.”
    “Deal.”
    J. left the room, and Charlie embraced me as soon as the door closed.
    “Frank, please don’t do that again,” she sniffled against my shoulder, “unless you give us a week’s notice. Okay? God, I missed you.”
    I held her while she got some of the emotions out and made soothing noises, which she later informed me sounded like a cat with gas. Burbling felines or not, I needed to let her know that I cared and it was the best way I could express it at the time, until I had a brilliant idea. I kissed her.
    As far as kisses go, it was not so grand that a sonnet was required in the aftermath, or so poor that licking the rim of a fish bowl would be an accurate comparison. I did my best to make it honest and loving, since all I had were juvenile noises to get my point across otherwise.
    She got the point. It led to a few more honest, loving repetitions.
    We made me presentable, all the while grinning like explorers in the land of exotic narcotics. Neurochemistry is a miraculous thing, and mine appeared to be back online.
    “?” Eloquent, I know, but it was the best I could do to get across that I wanted to know what was coming next.
    “Ok, I’m going to guess what you mean,” she said, taking me by the hand. “We’re going to go downstairs. Omura, Baj and Nate are playing cutthroat Scrabble. Buttons was teaching Chunhua, Jaya and me a little Krav Maga. You know, the Israeli combat system? Nasty stuff, I mean really nasty. No pretty circular movements or anything!”
    I nodded, because I only grasped part of what she was talking about. The names made sense, and I got a little from context. “Playing” had meaning for me, but everything else may as well have been deep Differential Calculus for all I caught. Understanding or not, I