Spirits and Demons

Comic Books

                                                                          Part Seven

  Arriving home, James Michael's brothers were all amazed to see his scar from the emergency surgery. Stitches still in place, each and every brother just had to touch the scar and stitches. Bed rest was what the doctor ordered, James Michael happily read comic books to no end. He read all he could get his hands on, the Archie's being his favorite. He found Archie, Veronica, Betty, Reggie, and Jughead to be highly entertaining. No sooner than he could recover, James Michael was outside gathering branches and placing in the trash can to be burned. Jimmy Don seemed to have felt bad about what he did to put James Michael in the hospital, yet Jimmy Don was still full of anger and resentment. He threw a ketchup bottle with the cap still on it in the burning trash can and we continued gathering branches. As we approached the trash can to put the branches in, there was a loud pop and a few seconds later Jimmy Don ran screaming towards the house since the bottle had exploded and the metal cap had blown off and stuck to his arm burning him terribly. To make matters worse for Jimmy Don was the fact that James Michael had witnessed the accident. After receiving first aid, Jimmy Don related to James Michael that they'd play hide and seek. James Michael had to count to one hundred before he could begin searching for his brothers hiding in the woods next to the house. Jimmy Don seemed to be genuinely friendly towards James Michael so of course he was more than happy to be playing this new game. After finding Ricky and Ronny, James Michael was having a most difficult time finding Jimmy Don. Ricky told him where Jimmy Don was hiding high up on a limb in a tree and pointed him towards it. James Michael could see Jimmy Don's clothing behind the leaves from the distance. He ran all the way to the tree, excitedly calling Jimmy Don's name out loud because he found him hiding high up in the tree. Jimmy Don hollered down to him he had to come close and touch the tree before Jimmy Don had to acknowledge being discovered. Unwittingly James Michael kept running hard and fast to reach the tree and before he could touch the tree he looked up and saw Jimmy Don had thrown something at him. The next thing James Michael remembered was searing pain in his head, Jimmy Don waking him up after having knocked him out with  the thrown heavy, metal pencil sharpener. Bleeding profusely all over the place and a large piece of skin flapping from his head, James Michael recalled Jimmy Don dragging and carrying him back home to the front doorsteps where he'd passed out again. Arlis and Virginia came running out of the house to see what all the commotion was about and discovered James Michael knocked out, lying on the sidewalk bleeding from his head. Arlis screamed for Virginia to grab some towels and to hurry and get in the car he ran to start with James Michael in his arms. On the way to the hospital James Michael could hear his mother say she couldn't stop the bleeding, she was applying towel after towel and the towels were all soaked in blood. James Michael woke every bump in the street that they hit, yet he kept passing out. He didn't wake again until late the next day, lying in a hospital bed once again. He was fortunate to even still be alive after everything he'd been through so far in his young life.