REMEMBER MORE
CHAPTER 03
Their car pulled into the sprawling mansion that was their home. Once they got inside, Yan helped to wheel John down the hall and into the study at the very end of it.
They found Jonas already inside the room, seated in the studded, leather couch that sat in the middle of it and facing out into the garden at the back of the house. Jonas got to his feet and turned to them when they came in. "Dad. So there you are."
John wheeled himself over to his son. He stopped on the other side of the coffee table. "Well, it's good to see you, Son. How are you? How was the flight?"
"Good." He smiled.
The eyes of the two men met. They smiled at each other. Jonas stood where he was, hands in his pockets, rocking on his feet a little. John sat still in his wheelchair. Jonas coughed into his hand and then they both looked away at the same time.
Yan’s eyes were on Jonas. They flitted over to John and then back to Jonas again. Frowning, she marched up to Jonas and hugged him, catching him by surprise. "How are you?" She squeezed him tight. "It's been such a long time!" She eased back. "And the research? How's the research going?"
"Good...good!" He studied her up and down. "Still as sharp as ever, eh?"
They laughed.
John waved over to them. "So, are you all right? Would you like something to drink? Tea? Anything?"
Jonas rolled his eyes at his father. "Dad, I just came back from China. I don't think I need any tea right now."
John nodded. He smiled.
Jonas ambled over to the wheelchair to stand over John. "So, what's the big deal? You had something important you wanted to tell me. Isn’t that what you said in the email?”
John coughed. And then he coughed some more. Once the coughing started, it didn’t look like it was going to stop.
Yan rushed over to John and began stroking down his back.
John waved his hand at her. He pointed to the other end of the room.
“Yes, sir.” She nodded. “I’ll get it.” She hurried down to where he was pointing. Opening a cabinet door, she pulled open a drawer and retrieved his cough tablets. That end of the study where she was standing was lined with tall storage units, some refrigerated, some not, but all filled with odds and ends and medical supplies, including needles and syringes, IV bags and enough assorted medicine to make any self respecting pharmacist green with envy. A few feet away, beside the cabinets by the wall, was a full functioning hospital bed, all plugged in and ready to go.
Yan stepped over to the sink nearby and got a cup of water as well. She brought these things back over and crouched before the old man. John's coughing had slowed down by now, but he took the medicine from her anyway. He swallowed two of the tablets with water.
“Better?” She smiled.
He nodded. “Thank you, dear.” He glanced over at Jonas and then back at her. “I’m sorry, Yan, but…”
“That's all right, sir.” She straightened up. “I’ll go and see if the cook can make up a snack or something for the two of you.”
“That sounds great.” Jonas smiled at her.
“It’s so good to see you again.” She squeezed Jonas’ hand again before she left.
~~~
After she had gone, Jonas turned to the older man. “Well? I’m here. What is it that's so important that you had to tell me face to face?”
John turned away. He wandered over to the French doors to the back of the property, the ones that the couch was facing. The doors were of the floor to ceiling variety and they made the old man in the wheelchair appear that much smaller. It was a clear night. The stars were out. "I wanted to do this face to face. I wanted…well…I wanted to make sure that you knew exactly what to do once...um...once I'm gone for good."
He chuckled. "What? You planning on going some place?"
"You know perfectly well what I mean." John spoke without turning around.
"And suppose I do. So what? I've known what to do for years now. You've always been well prepared. You've had that will made out decades ago and you update it every year." He crossed his arms over his chest.
John turned around to face him.
Jonas smirked. "And I know who to call. I know Jerry. I've known him all my life. You're not going to tell me that you dragged me all the way back from the other end of the world just to tell me a bunch of things I already know! There's something else, isn't there? What aren't you telling me? What are you hiding this time?"
John scowled at his son. "Sit down."
"I prefer to..."
"Sit down!" John jabbed his finger at the couch.
Jonas scoffed. He shook his head but in the end, he sat himself down into the couch.
John dipped his head down to stare at the paneled, hardwood floor. "This is about your brother..."
Jonas tossed his head back and laughed. "Well, this is a surprise! Isn’t he the one we're never supposed to talk about?"
John's head snapped up. "Will you turn off the flippant attitude for just one second so I can..."
"My own brother…" Jonas began raising his voice. "…my own flesh and blood who..."
"...you're always like this..." John rolled in closer.
"...but no! We can’t talk about him..."
"...you never listen..."
"...who dies in a freak lab fire..."
"...there was no fire!"
Jonas stopped. He turned to stare at his father.
The echoes from the men’s shouting died down.
Jonas eased in closer. "What?"
"There was no fire. That was…” John sighed. “…it was just the story we told them...and you."
Jonas sat up in the couch. "Then my brother didn't die in a lab accident?"
"Well...it was an accident…just no fire." John sat back in his wheelchair. He deflated a little and looked less stiff. Lifting his hand, John pointed over to the liquor cabinet by the wall. Jonas got up and poured his father a drink. Then one for himself as well.
After Jonas sat back down on the couch and placed the drinks on the coffee table in front of them, John coughed into his hand and adjusted himself in his chair.
And then he told him. He told him everything. About the lab, the experiments, the mice. And what happened to Rob and eventually what happened after he ran away from the hospital and back into the lab. And everything he said too.
Altogether, it took him about five minutes to unravel the whole tale. The longest five minutes of his life.
~~~
"So, you're saying he was poisoned?" Jonas was holding his liquor in his hand, twirling the glass around. He never did take a drink.
"It was an accident."
"Then why the big cover up? It was just an accident."
"A man died, Jonas!” John leaned forward in his chair. “From a lack of safeguard protocols that the university should have had in place. It would have meant financial ruin if..."
"But you could've told me! He was my brother! I had a right..."
"I had to protect you."
"From what?!"
"From..."
"This is just like you!" Jonas bounded up to his feet. "This is so typical of you! You're always jumping in to where you don't belong, taking over everything, thinking you know what's best for everybody!" He threw his hands in the air. "Well, you don't, mister! Don't you get it by now? After all these years? You don't know what's best for everybody. And nobody wants you here in the first place! Nobody needs your help!"
"Is that right? So you didn't need my help? Not even when you were a little baby and you had no one there to look after you? Who was going to feed you? Or change you, if not me?"
Jonas turned away. He held his head in his hands. He scrunched his eyes together. "Argh! You're impossible…"
"What about your mother, then? She didn't need me either?" John scoffed and shook his head. "If anything, I probably should have done more, especially at the beginning. Maybe if I had done more, she wouldn't have gone...I mean…she…"
"You can say it. I can take it. She's my mother."
"...you..."
"Go ahead. Just say it then. She went crazy, all right?" He stomped over to the window. He stared out. "Just like my own brother, apparently...must be in the genes..."
"No." John shook his head. "He was not crazy."
"What are you talking about?" He spun around. "You told me just now. You said he…he remembered things. He talked about...like space or something."
"You don't know. You weren't there." He reached into his shirt and touched the vial that was hanging there. "You never looked into his eyes."
Jonas noticed the gesture. It was something he had seen countless times before, ever since he was a little child. Now he finally knew what it meant. "That's the stuff, then, isn't it?" He indicated the vial and its contents. "That's what he took by accident?"
John lifted the vial so now it hung outside his shirt. He closed his fist around it without looking down. His eyes were on Jonas.
Jonas took a step away from the window. "Why do you always carry that around with you?"
John opened his fist again and stared into it. "I should've have known…"
Jonas frowned. "Known what?"
"…I should've looked after him better. Watched out for him…"
"Oh, will you stop?! Please!"
"…I was the one to bring him onto the project. I was the one who asked Professor Beltzner to take him on…"
"...oh, for the love of..." Jonas jumped over and snatched the locket from John's grasp, ripping it from his neck.
John nearly jerked out of his chair. "What are you doing?!"
Jonas took a step back. "You wish you could've taken better care of him? Or my mother?" He took hold of the vial in both hands.
"What are you doing?!" John rolled in closer. "Now, now, Jonas! Calm down…"
"My whole life, all I ever hear is how you want to take care of me and you want what's best for me and…"
"Jonas…!" John eased closer toward him.
"Well, I'm sick of it! You hear me? Why do you think I ran off to China in the first place? Why do you think I had to get as far away from you as I could?"
"Jonas, calm down!"
"You want to take better care of my brother? My mother? Or me? You wish you could've done more…?"
"Jonas…"
"…well, here's your chance!" He snapped the top of the vial off and broke it open.
Behind them, the doors flew wide with a bang.
Both men whipped their heads to it.
Yan came bursting in. "Jonas! No!"
Jonas raised the vial to his lips.
"No!" John reached out for him.
Yan sprinted over toward Jonas. "Jonas!" She threw herself at him.
Jonas tilted his head back.
Yan was on him. The two crumpled to the ground in a heap.
Yan recovered. The vial was in her hand. She lifted it to her eyes and examined it.
It was empty.
She whipped her head back to glare at Jonas.
Jonas sat up. He smirked at her. Then at John. He laughed and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Too late."
~~~
A/N: The picture to the right is kind of what the study looks like in my head. I have a bunch of other pictures too, but I can't seem to make the slideshow feature work just now. :-(