CALVIN
"Cal, come one wake up! It's time for school."
Calvin groaned. "Five more minutes, ma."
He kept his eyes shut for a few seconds until he realized something was wrong. His mother was dead for four years now. He sat up instantly from bed and saw his mother, standing in front of him, with her arms crossed together.
"Wait—ma? Is that really you? Are you a ghost?" his voice trembled. He doesn't know if he should be scared or happy.
"What are you talking about Calvin? Come on get up, don't make your dad wait for you."
Calvin jumped from bed and gave his mom a tight hug. For a second, he thought he would pass through his mom, but he didn't. She was as real as he could remember. She even has that baby powder smell. His tears uncontrollably streamed down his face and fell to his mother's shirt. A certain warmth began to swell inside him—the one he used to feel when he was overwhelmed with happiness and gratitude.
"Calvin what is this drama? Are you okay?" her mom tried to push him away but he held her tighter. He won't let go of her this time.
"I'm not dreaming, right? You're real. You're still alive?"
Her mom's eyebrows furrowed. "What got into you? You're watching too much drama on the TV, aren't you? Go now and take a bath!"
"I missed you so much mom."
"Honey, can you help me find my keys. I can't seem to find them." Calvin's dad entered his room. "Something wrong Cal?" his dad asked, noticing Calvin's outburst of emotion. Calvin continued to stare at his parents. He never thought he would see both of them in his room again.
"Ma, please don't leave us again, okay? Please, mom I'm begging you."
"What are you talking about Cal?" asked his dad.
His mom looked at his dad with a worried look. "He's acting weird today, honey."
"Your mom would not leave us, right honey?" they looked at each other and both giggled. "Your mom is obsessed with me, she could never. Did you have a bad dream Cal?"
"Calvin, please. I'm going to get mad if you won't take a bath now. You're going to be late!" his mom warned once again.
Calvin smiled and nodded. Something was definitely wrong but to Calvin, everything right now was the same like how it was supposed to be. His cabinet where he kept his school uniform was there. His study table and his bed too. Even the stretched out lilac t-shirt her mom was wearing was familiar. This couldn't be a dream, he thought. Because everything felt real. He can smell the almost toasted hotdogs and the garlic rice his mom had made. And he can feel the warmth of the sun kissing his skin. Besides, he had just woken up from an absurd nightmare where he met two people who fell from the sky, didn't he?
Calvin, despite feeling estranged, went to the bathroom and took off all his clothes. He thought he might as well play along until he figures out what was going on. But then he found another thing that was weird. He looked at himself in the mirror. He had the same lazy dark brown eyes, same tanned olive skin, and same mole at the edge of his bushy eyebrows but there was something in his body that wasn't there before. His shaking finger traced an insignia—no, a thickened scar, sort of branding from fraternities, burned right on his chest. It was a circle with four dots on the center which looked like a dress button. What the hell is this, he thought.
He tried to retrace what happened yesterday. All was normal until what happened that night near the bar. A vision popped on his head from last night when a bolt of lightning struck him directly as the strange man kissed him. Did that really happen?
"What if I'm dead?" he thought. "Is this heaven?"
In a haste, he put his shirt back and bolted out of the bathroom. His gut twisted and fluttered as a weird hunch had clouded his mind. He ran to the kitchen where he found his mom, holding a baby.
"Ma?"
"Calvin! I thought you're in the bathroom?"
He focused his gaze on the baby. "Who is that?"
His mom stared at him with a weird look. "Are you okay? This is Topher, your baby brother."
"What? What are you talking about? I don't have any baby brother." Calvin immediately walked away out of the house. "This is messed up," he whispered under his breath.
His knees went weak and felt blunt pressure at the back of his head as if something heavy was pressing down on it. "What the fuck is happening?"
The pain on the back of his head continued to worsen and now his limbs felt numb. Before he knew it, he woke up.
***
Calvin found himself in a small cramped white room. He noticed that there was an IV tube injected on his hand and the only thing he could hear was a steady beeping sound.
He tried to sit up from his bed but his arms were so weak he could only move it slightly. And worse, he couldn't feel his legs as if it was still asleep. He looked around and it dawned on him what was going on. He gritted his teeth. Maybe he was really in heaven when he saw his mom. And for that, Calvin regretted waking up.
His tears were already welling up on his eyes when suddenly the door flung open and a nurse came in.
"Oh, you're awake!" the nurse said in surprise. Calvin looked at her. She was intimidatingly beautiful—like a gorgeous supermodel with piercing dark eyes and strong and sharp cheekbones. But despite all that, she somehow looked familiar. Maybe she was really a former model, a really famous one in that matter for Calvin to even recognize her. She smiled widely. "I'm really glad you're awake," she said, a little too enthusiastic enough for Calvin to feel uncomfortable.
She reached for his chest and patted it as if trying to find his heart beat. "Are you feeling fine?" the nurse asked. Noticeably, the nurse's smile disappeared into a frown before she withdrew her hand. Calvin tried to answer but all that came out was a groan. His throat was so dry it was if he ate cotton in his sleep.
"Let me call your guardian," she said.
"Wait," it came out as a weak croak. But the nurse didn't hear him and went straight out of the room. Briefly, he wondered about his mom, once again. His mother used to be a nurse too after all. The hospital setting made him remember how her mother treated her patients.
Calvin sighed. Although he had just woken up, he felt quite tired. Maybe because of his Inception-like dream—a dream over another. Or was it? Because for a moment there, he really believed that it was all real—his parents together again, his mom alive and well enough to cook him breakfast and... the scar on his chest. Calvin, raised his weak arm and placed it on his chest. He was not expecting anything really, he just felt doing it but that's why his heart nearly stopped from beating. It was there. The circle with four dots in it. What the fuck is really happening? Was this another dream?
His dad, as expected, arrived at the hospital maybe an hour or so after Calvin first regained consciousness. By that time, Calvin had caught a few winks but there was no dream now. His dad, upon seeing him hesitated for a second, but then hurried to his side. Behind him came the nurse earlier who might or might not be a famous model.
Calvin's dad looked relieved as he saw his son finally now awake. "I got so worried son," he said flatly but knowing him, Calvin thought that was the most emotional his father had been, especially that there's a stranger nearby.
"I'm fine now Dad, I just had too much—"
"I know." His dad ran his finger on Calvin's hair, disheveling it even further. "Let's talk about that when you're discharged, okay?"
Calvin didn't answer. He was stuck on the word talk since he and his father hadn't done that for a while now aside from "how was school" or "have you done your chores or assignment?"
"Sorry I've slept through the whole day." Calvin said looking at the window with nothing to show but the dark cloudy sky.
"Cal, oh." he scoffed. "I think you need to apologize for more than a day."
Calvin's forehead burrowed. More than a day? Perhaps he slept for 3 days?
"You've been sleeping for more than a month now."
"What? No. I just—I just passed out. I mean—"
"No Cal, you were hit by lightning, remember?"
"So that was real?" he whispered. But his dad didn't hear him. Or ignored him.
"You were very lucky." The nurse chimed in, but not smiling as one would do when saying such a sentence.
***
When Calvin woke up from a coma, he picked up that his body had become weak. But he didn't for a second, thought that he wouldn't be able to walk. His muscles, especially the legs, had atrophied from his month-long slumber. The doctor said that it wasn't permanent. Only a few months perhaps of therapy and he'll be back to his feet, literally.
As promised by his dad, as soon as he was discharged, they would talk. And talked they did on their way home. But it didn't start smoothly. His father was trying to focus on driving but he kept glancing at Calvin. Talking was his dad's weakness so Calvin knew that those glances mean that he had to be the one to start. And without any second thought, he blurted out the first thing he wanted to tell his dad.
"I had a dream about mom. You and her—"
"Oh," his dad whispered. "What...what was the dream about?" his dad hesitantly asked.
"Nothing much. Just a regular day. Like when the time she's still alive."
"Calvin..."
"You said we're going to talk,"
"I know but not this. This will only make us both upset,"
"She looked happy in my dream. And very much alive."
"Please Calvin," his dad said slowly as if he was so tired, as if he had heard this conversation a thousand times. "I know it hurts. But it has been years now. And we can't do anything about it."
"So is that why you have a new girlfriend? Because it was years now?" Calvin's chest tightened and felt his face burn up. He wanted to bash his head on the window of the car. His father was right. Talking about it will only make them upset.
"No. I mean, life goes on, my son."
Calvin scoffed and went quiet but his dad continued to take glances at him.
"Why am I still alive?" Calvin asked.
"You were lucky, like the nurse said. You know Brenda will be happy you're home,"
"Oh, really now?" Calvin scoffed. "You know you're old, right? Not some high school jock or something to have girlfriends."
"High school jock, huh? So, do you have a girlfriend?" his father raised his eyebrow at him.
Calvin winced. "Shit, dad. I just woke up from a coma. That's what you want to talk about? And just so you know, I'm not a jock."
"Then what do you want to talk about?" his voice slightly louder.
"My mom."
"Cal don't push me, fuck." And they were silent once more. "How about school? You missed a month of lessons."
Calvin smiled slyly. "Now I feel lucky."
"But you have to catch up."'
"How? My legs are dead."
"I'll let my girlfriend bring you to class, so you two can bond together."
Calvin clenched his jaw. "Why am I not dead?" he repeated.
His father laughed, which irritated Calvin more because his dad thought he was joking. "Because you're one lucky boy. I'm glad you're home, Cal."