He felt cooped up being stuck in his hospital bed in such a foreign country. He missed being home at Lake Como, in Italy. He just wanted someone there, someone he knew.
He tried to go to sleep, just hoping and praying that Taweret would come back and talk to him...
He'd never felt so alone, so confused, so disappointed with himself, and so terrified.
"You're feeling pretty...."
He cut her off "I feel like shit, Taweret! I'm NEVER going back to the river and as soon as I can get the fuck out of here... I. Am. Going. Home! And if I EVER see a hippo again..." He noticed her now fastening what looked to be a bracelet with an amulet around his left wrist.
"That should help bring back your inner peace with yourself, my Julian," She said softly. "And offer you protection from bad omens and the challenges that lay ahead on your restoration..."
"Restoration?" He growled angrily "restoration of what? Don't you mean recovery?"
Someone shaking his shoulder woke him from his slumber and of course cut his conversation short with Taweret.
He opened his eyes, Sean was staring down at him, tears in his eyes.
All of a sudden Taweret didn't matter to him anymore and he was hugging his little brother.
"Fuck! Don't you leave me to go home to New York!" He almost scolded Sean.
"I've just got here Jules, I am not going to leave you!" He reassured him, "I've got accommodation booked just around the corner from the hospital, I'll be here every day until you are ready to be discharged. And if you want...you can come back to New York with me and stay for as long as you want! Anything to get you fully recovered and back to normal! We just want our beloved Jules back!"
"I didn't fucking die!" He snapped.
"No, but I'm looking down at my big brother and you're not him!" He said. "That attack scarred you...it's changed you! But you made it through! Your ankle will heal, your hip will heal, the bumps and lacerations on you will heal!"
"They've been pumping me with Morphine, Sean...I need to tell you a secret!" He said, the last few words dropping to a whisper.
"O...kay, are you high on Morphine now?" He asked, trying to work out where this conversation was now going.
"Come closer, so I can show you something!" He instructed,
Before he could lean down, Julian shoved the bracelet in his face. "Do you see what the amulet is?"
Sean was quick to realise what it was, it was a gold and turquoise hippo, on a hand plaited band of black leather.
"Now, this isn't the morphine talking but I have a new friend called Taweret!" Julian was now rambling "she is SOO pretty Sean! she's Egyptian! She wears a beautiful turquoise dress with blue stones around her neck! I think she's the wife of a Pharaoh!"
"And, what was her name again?" Sean asked with his iPhone in his hand.
"Taweret!" Julian answered proudly, maybe it wasn't the morphine...maybe he was in love.
"Julian, Taweret..in Ancient Egyptian Religion is the protective of childbirth and fertility. The deity is typically depicted as a female bipedal hippopotamus with feline attributes, pendulous female human breasts, and the back of a Nile crocodile. She commonly bears the epithets "Lady of Heaven", "Mistress of the Horizon", "She Who Removes Water", "Mistress of Pure Water", and "Lady of the Birth House".
Julian looked blank.
"The amulet on your bracelet is a hippo, Jules!" Sean's voice broke him from his trance. "You were attacked by a hippo! Is this Taweret real? Where have you seen her? Is she in this hospital?"
"You think I'm fucking crazy!" He muttered, almost to himself.
"No Julian, I don't! I'm just so glad that I didn't lose you!" Sean told him.
"Will you think I'm crazy or laugh at me if I tell you?" He asked his brother.
"No, of course not! Why would I?"
"Cause I'm high on Morphine and I was nearly eaten by a hippo!" Came his answer.
"Tell me about this Taweret, Jules!" Sean insisted.
"I had an out of body experience whilst I was in surgery..." Julian began. "A woman, of Egyptian appearance came to me, beautiful! Beautiful woman! Long black hair with a gold headdress, a turquoise long dress, sleeveless, adorned in gold and that blue stone...I can't remember..."
"Lapis Lazuli, Jules. It's Lapis Lazuli" Sean helped him out.
"Yep! That's the one!" Julian agreed, nodding vigorously then stopping as his head was hurting from the bump and laceration.
"He needs more Morphine!" A nurse said rushing over, that was hard to understand.
"No!" Sean put his foot down, "He's got enough Morphine in his body! Can he have some water?"
She looked at him blankly, trying to decipher what he was saying.
"More Morphine!" She repeated, smiling.
"NO! Water...Wat...er!" Sean spelled out, then he grabbed the cup on the table over Julian's bed "Water! He. Needs. A. Drink!"
A doctor had come over to them "la yojed al-mazid minn al-mourfin!anne hassal ola ma yakafi minn nizam balada!" She said to the Egyptian nurse.
Finally, the smiling nurse left them in peace.
"I do apologise, Mr...Lennon" The doctor said, checking his chart at the end of his bed. "I am Dr Emmaline Hatchford."
Another nurse had brought a jug of water over and refilled his cup to which he accepted happily and took a few sips.
"Have the staff here been pumping my brother with one of the strongest painkillers that can be administered whenever he fucking moves?" Sean snarled, angrily.
"Sean! Calm down!" Julian said his hand on his arm, grinning stupidly.
"He's bloody high as a kite! Look at him, Doctor!" Sean growled, unleashing his fury on the female doctor.
"He does need the painkillers kept up to him because when they wear off with his hippo bite, it's a brutal pain, but as his doctor that was seeing to him has had to go to another hospital for emergency surgery there, it seems his Morphine levels have been alarmingly high," She said, changing a few figures on his chart. "Look, I am sorry, I am his Doctor now and I will make sure, they are kept at a safe administration amount"
"That accent?" Sean inquired.
"It is Australian, Mr Lennon" She informed him.
"So how long is the recovery period?" Sean asked, "When can I take him home??"
"It won't be tomorrow Mr Lennon! It could be up to a month" She told him straight to the point.
Julian had by now, fallen fast asleep.
"He's very, very lucky to be here with a heartbeat!" Emmaline told him. "Had that hippo bitten harder into his side he could have annihilated his organs!"