Natural Order

2

Jack awakes in a cold sweat. It's dark. He's short of breath. He is frantic. His breath shortens. He is now gasping, grasping. Air will not come to him. He can't breathe. He reaches for something. He grabs into the dark looking for something that is supposed to be there. It's the inhaler. The same high tech inhaler Melvin used. Jack activates the inhaler. He is slowly able to breathe again. He thinks for a moment. It's very dark. He  flails his hands in the dark trying to find anything that will create light. His hand finds a switch on the wall and, like the first moments of Genesis, there was light. This is not the clinic. Jack looks around. He's in what appears to be a boy's room. A normal boy's room. It has book shelves and a desk. Clothes are thrown on the floor. Above him is a dusty ceiling fan spinning at a slow wobble. He turns to see his bed, which has plush pillows and a duvet encased in a Batman cover . Jack shakes his head as if to remove the haze. He walks to the closet door and opens it. There is a school uniform, the kind that is worn at a private school. Jack takes it out and starts to dress himself in it. He checks himself in the mirror above the dresser. It's starting to feel normal to him, as if he has done this before. Jack calms himself and leaves the room. At the bottom of the stairs, he catches the smell of breakfast being cooked. He follows the smell.

There is a middle aged, attractive woman cooking eggs at the end of the smell. She cracks an egg and is startled by a partially developed chicken embryo in the yolk. She drops it on the floor. She picks it up and puts it down the sink disposal. Jack walks in and sits at the breakfast table. The woman brings the pan over and slides two fried eggs on his plate.

"Another bad dream honey?" she says.

"How did you know?"

"Was it about when you were sick?

"I think so."

The Woman puts the pan back on the stove. She kneels down next to him, looking into his eyes.

"You don't have to be scared, that's all over now, as long as you take your medicine."

"When can I stop taking my medicine?"

"Never, you can never stop," she says with certainty.

"I hate taking it. It makes me feel..."

"Honey, you have to take it or you will have to go back."

"Yes... I know, Mom."

Jack starts to eat his breakfast. It tastes good. It's warm going down. It tastes like the first time he has ever had breakfast. The dream seemed so real to him. He still feels confused. This feels right to him though. The house, the smell, the comforting way about his mother. It feels like things are going to be ok.

"I have an appointment with Dr. Wade today," she says.

A shiver runs down Jack's spine. There is no air for a moment.

"Do I have to go?"

"No, it's just my check up. Please clean out Mrs. Clause's litter box after you finish breakfast."

Jack goes back to finishing his breakfast and puts the plate in the sink. Then it's off to the laundry room to clean the litter box. He looks around to see a few more sets of his school uniform on the dryer. Everything looks normal. A feeling of comfort falls on him. His feelings of happiness wain however, as he continuously fishes cat turds out of the litter box like the endless handkerchief trick at a bad magic show. No fourteen year old boy wants to do chores.  Jack gets exasperated and marches out.

"It's full of shit..."

"Where did you learn to talk like that?"

"Randy."