Enemy: Part 3

The next day I show up to find the stack of items I’d left him untouched.  We go through the same forth and no back of me talking while he ignores me.  After a few minutes I give up and sit in silence like the day before.

***

The next day goes just the same.

***

The next day I arrive and chat with Raz awhile before taking up my seat at the mystery man’s bedside.  We have another one sided conversation where I mumble and bumble my way through any old topic I thought might interest him.  But the man’s will was bullet-proof.

***

The next day I walk in to catch Raz on his way out for a visit with his squad.  I ask the nurse what the rules are around taking patients out and I’m informed they were pretty lax about it, especially with the ship just sitting in limbo like this.  As long as the patient was in good shape the only rule was that they had to be back by lights out.

When I step through the curtain of Bed 10, which still remained shut, I find my silent frenemy just as I had the days before.

“Come on man.”  I motion to the untouched pile.  “At least read something.  I can get you something different.”

I might as well not even exist.

I sigh and shake my head.  Dragging the chair to under the flickering light I step up onto it.  I remove the cover and put the newish bulb that I’d ‘acquired’ in.  Soon the area is bathed in the same harsh white light as the rest of the ship.  I step down again and toss the old bulb in the trash.

“There we go.”

And…that was about the extent of that visit.  The rest devolved into me sitting and him ignoring as usual.

***

The next day I arrive with bad news.

“There’s something wrong with the god damned gate.”  I say as I plonk down beside him in a huff.  “We might be another week or more.  They’re not even letting us go back planetside.  Can you believe that?”

He glances my way and shakes his head in exasperation.

“I know, right?  They could at least let us get some fresh air.”  I pull the top book from the pile and open it up to a random story.  “Let’s see here.  From Missouri, by Zane Grey.”  I clear my throat.  “Ahem.  With jingling spurs the tall cowboy stalked out of the post-office to confront his three…”

“Joseph.”

I slowly look up from the page to see the mystery man looking back at me.  For once it is not hatred I see in his eyes, but surrender.

“He talks!”

“Joseph, please, go away.”  He whispers in a voice as soft and lovely as his pretty face.  “Just go…away.”

“I’d rather not.”  I say.

He closes his eyes and lets out a long breath as a single tear rolls down his cheek.

I swallow and squirm.  “Ahem…um, yeah.  With jingling spurs the tall cowboy…”

“What have you done to me Joseph?”  He says in a voice as fragile as a snowflake.  “Why?  What did I ever do to you?”

I lower the book and close it.  “Nothing.  I…uh…I just…”

“Go away.”  He open his eyes again and pleads.  “Please Joseph.  Just, please, go away.”

I wet my lips and swallow again before clearing my throat.  “Alright.”  I place the book back where I’d gotten it.  I stand and turn…then look back to him over my shoulder.  “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He winces and closes his eyes again then turns his head away from me.

***

The next day I enter the Bay, a new box under my arm, and greet the nurses on staff by name.  I find Raz gone again.  I was starting to bump into him more often outside of the med-bay than I was in, though I knew he still bunked here for the foreseeable future.  I dump the nearly full bucket into the sink and place it back under the leak.

“Knock, knock.”  I announce myself before stepping through.

My reluctant companion lets out a sigh of frustration at my appearance.  “Joseph, stop!”

“I brought you some…hey!”  I see the books and my aud-player in the little trashcan beside his table.  “Come on man.”  I say as I pull them out and brush them off.  “I gotta pay for these books if something happens to them.”  I put them back on the table then sit down and open my box.  “Since you didn’t like these I got you…”

“Take your damn books and get the hell out.”  He says.  “How can I make myself more clear?  I do not want you here.”

“You’ve got twenty-three hours a day to wallow in…this.”  I say.  “I’m just askin for one.  Now, how do you feel about comic books.  I found a whole bunch in the library.  Nothing is in order or anything, no complete sets, but there’s a lot to choose from.”

“Are you enjoying yourself?”  He looks at me in bafflement.  “Do you get off in torturing me?”

“Of course not.”  I take the top comic out of the box.  “Check it out.  Peacemaker 322.  He visits my system in this one.  I had this issue as a kid.  All of us did…”  The comic book is snatched from my hands and a second later torn straight down the spine.  “Hey!”  I grab some of the pages back as the other are ripped to shreds and thrown in my face.  “Dude!”

Leaning over he grabs my aud-player and hurls it to the hard floor.  I was just scooping this up when he takes the book of Westerns and begins to tear one page after another out to flutter to the floor like Autumn leaves.

“What’s goin on in there?”  Comes the voice of another marine.

“Nothing!”  I call back.

I gather up everything within the man’s reach and stash it in the box.  “Why’d you do that?”

“Because you are an ugly, nasty monster.  You are a murderer and a butcher.  Because I HATE you Joseph.”  He seethes.  “Because I loath you.  I loath every Imperial foot that ever touched the surface of my home.  I loath every man on this stinking garbage scow.  And I loath your whole fucking Empire.”

“Shhh, you can’t talk like that.”

“But you Joseph, you I hate most of all.”

This time it’s me that doesn’t talk back, struck mute by the raw fervor of his words.

“Get out! Get the fuck out and don’t come back.”

***

The next day I turn up in a wheelchair that I’d signed out from the quartermaster.  I roll past Raz and give him a high five and skid to a clumsy stop just beyond the curtains of Bed 10.

I stand and pull the curtains apart then say with a grin.  “Come on.  I got some wheels.  Let me show you around.”

The man looks at me utterly flabbergasted.  “What do I have to do to get rid of you?”

“You’re stuck with me I’m afraid.”  I say.  “I thought I’d take you to observation deck then maybe we could catch a movie at the rec.”

“So you can show your pet cripple to the boys?  I’d rather not, thanks.”

“Don’t be like that.”  I pat the seat of the wheelchair.  “Come on.  We can do whatever you want.”

“Joseph.”

“Mmm?”

“Joseph.”  He says again with that smooth feminine tone of his.  “I do not need your pity and I certainly do not want it.  I don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing but…you can stop now.  Okay?  We’re done.”

“I’m not here out of pity.”

“Liar.”

“Sometimes, but not right now.”  I quip.  “Come on.  As if you’ve got anything better to do.”

“This has to stop.”  He whispers.

“You don’t know me then.”  I say.  “Stubborn as an near-sighted mule my Gran used to say about me.”  I chuckle.  “I don’t know what it means either.”

He pushes himself up to sit up taller and for a moment I thought there was hope.  But only for a moment.  “Alright then.  You can be as stubborn as you like, Joe.  But I am done playing along with this charade.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m telling them.  I am putting an end to all of this.”

“They’ll kill you.”  I say.  “And probably me too.”

“Then I’ll die still in my home system.”  His fine features harden like porcelain.  “And at least I’ll have taken one of the enemy out with me.”

Part 4