Page 74 - WTP VOl. X #3

Unto Thee (continued from preceding page)
“What does...I’m not going to say it right....” He tried to pronounce the word the Jesus statue had last said to him, but had no knack for linguistics and so it came out in a butchered tumble of sounds. She asked him to repeat it a few times, pursing her lips and frowning as she concentrated.
“Maybe you mean relacionar?” “Yes! What does it mean?”
“To relate. To...uh...link!” She held up a finger on both hands and then slowly drew them together until the tips touched, smiling as she did so.
“Thank you,” he said after a long moment. She smiled brightly to him before leaving.
It was nearly dark, the blood-orange sky collapsing into indigo when Felix and Priyanka showed up. Jerome was mildly surprised to see them at all, hav- ing embarrassingly forgotten that the police were going to contact the resort. Priyanka walked in first, her face neutral as she surveyed him. Felix, hands in pockets, slouched in behind her, took a few glancing looks at Jerome and then cast his eyes at the ground. Priyanka broke the silence, relaying they hadn’t come earlier because they’d been out most of the day and only found out when they arrived back at the hotel. Felix jumped in, adding that they had assumed he had been in his room, and that after last night a few hours of silence just meant they were all cooling off. It sounded like he was about to apologize for some- thing, but Priyanka shot him a look, and Felix quit talking and resumed staring at the ground. It was several moments before either of them asked if he was okay.
Jerome watched his friends, feeling like he should be angry. He could see that they also expected him to be, from the moment they walked in, and the longer it didn’t happen, the more on edge they seemed to become. But he wasn’t angry.
He told them what had happened, leaving out the Jesus statue, and then said “It’s my fault. I should have listened to you.”
Priyanka’s stoic expression broke for a moment be- fore hardening again. “Yeah. You should have.”
He nodded in agreement and explained he’d be here for a few days but would probably be able to
go home afterwards.
“Good,” Felix replied, finally meeting Jerome’s gaze.
“Listen—thanks for coming to check on me. I’m gonna try to sleep again. And you all don’t need to be spending your last couple of nights of vacation in a hospital room.” Both Priyanka and Felix put up a weak protest, but Jerome raised a hand and they quieted.
“Seriously. I’m okay.”
Maybe it was guilt, a genuine concern, or some com- bination thereof, because they stuck around a bit longer, making pained small talk, only occasionally meeting his eyes. He let them do most of the talking, listening to what they said and more importantly, what they didn’t. Eventually Felix and Priyanka made their exit, promising to return tomorrow. Halfway out the door, Felix turned back and asked yet again “You sure you’re alright bro?”
He only knows you as angry. The thought made Je- rome sad.
“Yeah. I’ll be okay. You?”
Felix almost laughed. “I’m not the one messed up in the hospital bed.” Jerome was disappointed, but not surprised, that the question was avoided. What do you expect? He’s not used to you asking that.
Finally by himself, Jerome tried to sleep in the dark- ened hospital room, but found he couldn’t. His eyes fell on the far wall. It was a crisp white, with a slight sheen that reflected the glow from the medical devces monitoring his vitals. His eyes lingered on that sheen and he thought of how it offered some- thing very familiar, how nice that would feel after everything to just...and then he looked away.
“Relacionar.” He said it better then. It felt less foreign in his mouth, but not yet fully familiar. It would take some work to be able to pronounce it correctly. He couldn’t roll his r’s, and he found his mouth didn’t naturally move in the ways needed. At least, not yet.
Perez is in his second year of Drexel University’s MFA in Creative Writing program, working on a selection of short stories and planning his first novel. He lives in Philadelphia, PA, with his partner.
67