He felt weak. He couldn’t move his
arms or legs very much. His head, chest, and right shoulder hurt like hell. He
was surrounded by strange voices. Slowly and with a great deal of effort he was
able to open his eyes.
“Well, back among the living I see.
You gave us quite a scare. We almost lost you, but you’ll be okay now.” The
nurse said.
“Where am
I?” he asked.
“You’re at County General Hospital.” A
doctor said, coming into the room. “You were attacked and stabbed several
times. You lost almost a quarter of your total blood volume.
Fortunately your blood type is the most common of all, and we had an ample
supply on hand.”
An unreadable look crossed Jay’s face
as he digested that information. “Why am I restrained?”
“The restraints are in place to keep
you from moving around too much and tearing open all of the stitches, which are
over two-hundred. Do you want to talk about it?”
“Talk
about what?”
“Why you were wandering alone in that
particular section of the park in the middle of the night?”
“I don’t know. I guess I don’t really care
what happens to me.”
“Why’s
that?”
“I’ve lost
everything. I have nothing left.”
“Define
everything.”
“I’ve lost my job, my security clearance, my
home, and most importantly, my boyfriend.”
Without further prompting, Jay told the
doctor about the phone call, the threats, the blackmail, everything. Nothing
was left out.
“Hmm...I
see. It is easy to understand why he misinterpreted what he saw. Why didn't you
call the police?”
“Doctor....”
“Curtis.”
“Doctor Curtis, I'm a field agent for
the FBI. If I had called the police, they would have laughed at the FBI agent
who can't protect himself and his secret boyfriend from the bad guys. Not only
would they not have helped, but they would have had a field day with it.”
“I see.
So, does your boyfriend know where you are?”
“No.”
“Would you
like me to get in contact with him?”
“It would
be a waste of time. He doesn't want anything more to do with me.”
“I can see why you would think that.
Put yourself in his shoes. How would you react if you came home and found your
boyfriend having sex with another man?”
“I would probably react the same way,
but after I calmed down I would have wanted an explanation. I wouldn’t have
thrown him out until I had one.”
“Everyone reacts differently to the
same situation. However, there were mitigating circumstances he needs to know
about. Do you have any proof to back up what you're saying?”
“No, but I
will never forget his face.”
“What
about the FBI? Would they help?”
“I doubt it. My supervisor is
extremely homophobic. He wouldn’t do anything but fire me. Once he finds out
that I’m gay, he’ll have my security clearance revoked. You can't even mop the
floors without a clearance. That would be the end of my career in law
enforcement.”
“Why’s that?”
“Once my security clearance was
revoked, not even the local yokels would hire me. True or not, the implications
are that I could not be trusted.”
“So what
do you intend to do?”
“There's
nothing I can do. My life is totally over.”
“Why do
you say that?”
“Like I
said earlier, I've lost my job, my home and my boyfriend.”
“Well, I probably can't do anything
to help with the job, but I think I can help in the other areas. I take it the
two of you were living together?”
“Yes we
were.”
“Is he
out?”
“Yes. He’s
totally out.”
“So it
probably wouldn't be a problem for me to call him.”
“Why? So you can try to convince us
that we're sick and need help to be cured of our homosexuality?” Jay responded
sarcastically.
“You need help, but not for the
reasons you think. You need help to deal with what has happened, get your life
back on track, and hopefully get back together with your boyfriend, if that’s
what you want. You owe it to the both of you.” Doctor Curtis put as much
compassion as he could into the last statement.
“You mean
you don't think we're sick or diseased?”
“No, I don’t. Homosexuality has been
determined by the American Psychiatrists Association to be a biological
condition, not a choice, disease, or mental disorder. What is your boyfriend's
name?”
“Kyle. Kyle Matthews. His number is
555-3485. If you talk with him, please tell him that I love him more than life
itself and I'm so very sorry and I want to see him so I can explain why I did
what I did.”
“Okay.” The
doctor looked at his watch. “I'll check in with you later.”
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