About Leaving and a Comeback

Since mid-December, Robert's situation had deteriorated until it seemingly couldn't get any worse. He had no place to sleep anymore and he was robbed of his money and his debit card. When he tried to get into a building to find some shelter, his leg caught on a rusty nail and the wound was now seriously infected. He hadn't eaten in days, he was dehydrated, and he was tired and cold. He was dirty and itchy everywhere, so much so that he was certain he had lice and fleas. On top of that, he had a fever, whether from illness or the infection he hadn't a clue.

Finally, he gave up. When the last bin didn't produce anything edible, Robert slowly sank to the ground and let go. He stopped shivering and became sleepy. He let everything go, the anguish, the pain, and the loneliness. He was finally at peace.

====

Thom and Lydia walked back from the restaurant where they were having dinner accompanied by Sylvia, Thom's girlfriend, and Donald, her brother.

The latter had designs on Lydia for the night. He wanted her because he thought she was one hot woman, but he also knew that she was successful and he wanted a piece of that too. Tonight, he was trying to go all the way to get into her panties.

Thom didn't like him at all. He thought Donald was too slippery. When the evening was young Lydia and the young man had gotten along nicely until he voiced his opinion about homeless people.

Gus suggested a while back that the twins volunteer for a good cause. They thought it a good idea and chose to work at a homeless shelter. For two young people who lived a sheltered life, it was a steep learning curve. In the beginning their noses were assaulted by human odors they had never before encountered; the stories the homeless told the twins were sometimes heartbreaking too.

The entitled young man argued that these people were lazy and didn't want to work. When Thom told him that a lot of them just had bad luck and there wasn't enough reasonably paid work to change their destiny in life. The discussion soon became very uncomfortable so they changed the topic to something lighter.

The four of them walked back to the hotel where Thom and Lydia were staying. Sylvia had already decided that she wanted to stay the night with Thom; Donald had the same idea about Lydia, but the jury was still out on that, with her acting at least a few degrees cooler toward him. They were nearing the hotel when Lydia saw a human shape sitting next to a garbage bin.

She grabbed Thom's arm. "Thom, over there. Let's have a look."

"Just let's go to the hotel. I'm cold," said Donald. "It's just another tramp. Who cares!"

Lydia rounded on the man. "I'm going to have a look. And I've heard enough and had enough of you. Scram."

"But my suitcase is in your room," the man whined.

"What made you think that it could be in my room? Well bad luck. You're acting the tough boy. Maybe you'll learn something from a night in the streets." Lydia turned away from him and walked over to the motionless figure next to the bin.

"Can I help you?" she asked. When no answer was forthcoming, she touched his arm and spoke a little louder. "Can we help you?"

Up close it was obviously a man with a shaggy beard, unkempt hair, and a gray unhealthy pallor. He wore clothes which did little against the cold.

Lydia took another good look and then her breath exploded from her lungs. She sat straight up and cried to her brother. "It's Robert! O my God, it is Robert. Thom! We've found him but he needs help. He isn't shivering and he's unconscious. Call an ambulance! Quick!"

Thom was already dialing for an ambulance. He gave directions and summarized that the man they'd found was unconscious and suffering from severe hypothermia. There was no reaction to the standard stimuli like pinching his skin.

Thom looked at Sylvia and said, "This is my lost brother. It seems it's going to take a while. Take the key to the hotel room."

"Oh no," replied his girlfriend. "No way. I'm staying here. Maybe I can help, running errands or something?"

"And your brother?" Thom asked.

She shook her head. "He showed his colors. Now he can show what a tough guy he is. You did good, Lydia. He deserved this, but I'll tag along with you two."

When the ambulance arrived the medics carefully lifted Robert into the back. Lydia went with Robert. Thom and his girl dialed an Uber for the trip to the hospital.

In the ambulance, they carefully undressed Robert. Lydia had already told the medic who Robert was and the medic recognized both names.

It was only when Robert was almost naked that the real damage became visible. A very angry wound in his leg. Malnourishment, dehydration, cuts and bruises. Then Lydia pointed out a strange spot.

"What's that?"

"Mange. I think." The medic looked at the thermometer and sighed. "Bloody hell. 83. Another hour next to that bin and he would have been a goner. I'll call for the shock room. There they can warm him and try to get him out of his coma."

"Coma! I thought he was unconscious."

"I think he's in a coma. His heart's beating irregularly, his breathing's shallow. He's in a very bad state."

At the hospital, they whisked Robert into the shock room. A nurse showed Lydia to a room where they could wait; she grabbed Thom and Sylvia when they came in minutes later.

====

Annette was sitting in the 'incident room' at home when her phone rang. She'd been crying after Jesse and Aimee told her that they were missing their daddy and asked when he was coming home.

"Hi, Lydia, sorry you're not calling at the best of times," she said when she answered.

For a few seconds it was silent in the room and then Annette screamed. Gus and Anne came running.

"What's happening?" shouted Anne, startled.

"They found him Lydia and Thom found Robert!" She put the phone on the speaker.

"Lydia, mum and dad are listening. How is he? Can we speak to Robert?"

"No. They're treating him in a shock room. He's in a coma, suffering from hypothermia and a very bad infection. He is also malnourished, dehydrated, and has mange, lice, fleas, and possibly some things they haven't discovered yet."

Listening to it all, Annette was stunned. She'd counted on a happy reunion even though she realized that was a rather unrealistic expectation. She sat down heavily and tears dripped down her cheeks as Lydia and Thom finished explaining what had happened a few hours before. They'd waited to call until they knew that there was a reasonable chance that he would survive this ordeal.

=====

Robert was dreaming or hallucinating again. Unlike last time when he experienced vivid, bright colors as if it was all in Technicolor, this was all in muted shades. He found himself drifting on a gray shapeless plane studded with gray clouds floating in white fog. Robert observed it for a moment, or maybe an age, and returned to unconsciousness.

An indeterminable time later

The second time he became aware he noticed that there was somewhat more definition in the clouds and that it was utterly silent. He tried to look around but the craft revolved underneath him instead until it reached his point of focus. A thought emerged, this is a funny game, and Robert went under again.

Sometime later

Again, Robert became conscious of his surroundings. This time there were undefinable sounds. The plane was in sharp definition and Robert willed it to move. He decided to experiment, but it was lights out again, though this time he went under more slowly than before.

And later still...

This went on and on, each time with Robert being able to stay "conscious" a little longer. In his trials, he found out he could move horizontally in all directions and that he always felt himself to be back at the same place as where he lost his awareness. Several times later, he noticed a change in the scenery and began to notice a slow rumbling sound every few minutes.

Seeing what looked like a mountain range in the far distance, he willed the plane in that direction. In the back of his mind he thought, What the heck, I'm probably dead anyway. He wasn't even upset at the thought. Because it was a decision and an effort of his will, he expected to be put on hold again but that didn't happen, so he willed the plane to go faster.

The mountain range split in two and Robert steered himself between them, going faster and faster. Unable to slow down anymore, he thought it funny that he wasn't afraid, actually even having no emotion at all. Robert also thought this was a great idea for another SF novel.

The gorge became narrower, smaller, and then became a tunnel which dived down as Robert entered it. Suddenly he was in free fall, his first three-dimensional experience in his plane of consciousness.

It was at that moment that he became aware of his body, with sounds starting to penetrate his awareness. The beep, beep, beep from a monitor and a voice he recognized as Annette's. Somehow, he couldn't open his eyes but he heard her sobbing, "Robert, please come back. I feel so ashamed of myself."

Before Robert could help himself, he whispered, "So you should be."

Anne, who was sitting next to him, holding his hands heard Robert whispering. She shot up and cried, "He's awake! Thank God, He's awake again. Robert say something, please, say something?"

"Hello, Anne. Long time no see."

The effort of talking alone was too much for Robert; he drifted into sleep.

====

Slowly Robert woke-up again, finding himself on his back. His eyes closed, he listened to the sounds in the room and felt somehow disappointed. When he sat himself next to that garbage bin, he knew he was dying and had wholeheartedly agreed with that. He thought he'd finally found his peace and now they'd robbed him of that too after someone robbed him of his family. He became angry as he considered it all.

Robert opened his eyes and looked into a face he didn't recognize. She said, "Welcome back to the land of the living. You gave us quite a scare, you know."

"Back in the land of the living? That was certainly not my intention, so why did you bother? Why couldn't you just leave me alone?" Robert almost sneered.

Behind him, Robert heard a sharp intake of breath and someone leaving the room gagging. The woman looked a bit taken aback for a moment and said, "Come now, Mr. Hennings."

Robert interrupted bluntly, "It's Kendrick. Mr. Hennings doesn't exist except as a pseudonym for a writer."

"Sorry, Mr. Kendrick. Duly notified and corrected. I'm Dr. Santana. Pleased to meet you."

Robert grumbled a bit. Dr Santana checked his status and then told him, "You're recovering from a serious infection and hypothermia. You are malnourished and you are dehydrated. Now tell me, your first comment? Did you really mean that?"

"Oh yes. Absolutely. I don't care anymore."

"But your family?"

"My family threw me out and had written me off before I even knew what I supposedly did wrong. My ex-wife had my belongings packed and out of the door when I arrived home early because the school just sacked me. So, tell me, dear doctor, what family?"

The doctor was silent for a while and looked pensively at Robert. She asked, "What are you going to do when you get out of this hospital?"

Robert chuckled, "Don't be afraid. I'm not going down this road again. Too inconvenient, it hurts way too much. I think I'll just sign the divorce papers, cut my losses and disappear to Europe. They say that Scandinavia, or The Netherlands are nice to live in. Most people there speak English as I understand it."

The door opened with Annette entering accompanied by Anne and the twins. Thom and Lydia went to his bed and hugged Robert hard. Thom noted, "You smell a lot better than when we found you."

Robert asked surprised, "You found me? How?"

Lydia replied with a wide smile on her face, "Sheer luck, sheer, bloody luck, big brother, just plain sheer luck. Two hours later and we wouldn't have a big brother anymore."

Robert looked around and noticed Annette. "What are you doing here? You said that you never wanted to see me again! I reckon that we are divorced by now? Or did you come to rub it in a little more?"

Annette recoiled as if Robert had slapped her but Anne came to her side and said, "Robert, she's your wife. She loves you!"

"The last time we spoke, she told me something entirely different and slammed the door in my face."

Anne retorted, "That was a mistake."

"Yes. But seemingly she didn't love me enough to give me the benefit of the doubt!" he shouted in reply. "She just waved a photo in front of me and ripped my heart out!"

Aghast Anne cried, "What happened to you? Don't you have any feelings anymore?"

Now a very tired Robert answered, whispering, "No. Before I was found I was prepared to die and I couldn't have cared less. I was finally at peace with my fate. All emotion, all compassion bled away during those last moments. Now I'm just an empty shell in the form of a very tired human being. Can I go back to sleep please? "

Everyone except the doctor and a nurse fled the room. The nurse changed his drip, and the doctor took a long hard look at the sleeping man. She sighed, "There is going to be a long and hard fight before this man regains his will to live again. And now I am going to be the bearer of that bad news to his family."

Then she too left the room leaving the nurse to do her duty.

====

Annette, Gus, Anna and the twins were waiting outside for the doctor. The latter asked, "Shall we talk in my office?"

When they all were sitting in the doctor's office with the door closed, she said, "I have good news and I have bad news. The bad news first. He wasn't counting on being alive anymore and he has to come to terms with that, hence his first remarks." Dr Santana looked at Annette, who was the first to run from the room.

She went on with, "The good news is that he isn't intent on repeating his action. When we were alone, he told me that he would sign the divorce papers and move to Europe. That begs the question: is this situation due to a bad divorce?"

Annette started, "No, due my stupidity. I don't want a divorce. But it's complicated. Is there a chance that I can get my husband back?

"I don't know," replied the doctor. "I'll ask a psychiatrist and the rehabilitation doctor for an assessment. Shall we make an appointment for the day after tomorrow?"

Two days later.

Annette, Gus and Anne were in the hospital again, this time in a small conference room with Dr Santana, the psychiatrist, and the rehabilitation specialist. Annette was very anxious. She kept her mother's hand in a deadlock and whispered, "I'm so afraid that the psychiatrist is going to tell me that I can't save our marriage. What should I do? What should I tell our children?"

Gus heard everything and said, "Hold on, little one. Keep your head up and don't be so negative. Let's first hear what the doctor has to tell us. "

The specialist started, "Do you know what happens when a person is so malnourished that he has no fat reserves anymore? No? His body starts to consume muscle tissue. That's what happened with Mr. Kendrick. Now with a special, protein rich diet and serious exercise he can get back about 90 percent of that. I gathered that from our conversation that he used to be in very good condition. I recommended aqua jogging and therapy in a rehab pool, in combination with working out.

"The good news is that Mr. Kendrick, albeit not very enthusiastically, agreed with this treatment."

The psychiatrist started with a question, "You're his parents, was he ever bullied in his youth?"

Anne and Gus looked at each other. Anne replied, "We're his adoptive parents from when he was eighteen. He left home one minute before his eighteenth birthday. We read his diaries with Robert's consent. He lived in hell until that time."

The psychiatrist nodded at having his suspicion confirmed.

"What do I have to do to win the love of my husband back?" Annette asked anxiously when the psychiatrist volunteered nothing more.

"I spent considerable time with your husband yesterday and I was impressed with his resilience. But just to reassure you, you never lost his love. Robert is disconnected and feels seriously betrayed by the abrupt way you showed him the door. At the moment he is physically and mentally in a bad state. He was in 'survival-mode' for so long that he detached his feelings and emotions, almost literally shutting them down. Finding himself alive and in the company of people he'd never expected to see again shocked him to the core and he doesn't know how to react to that. Now for us, if you're willing to help, the humongous task is to 're-activate' them."

Gus asked immediately, "But how?"

"I have some ideas, but before we can get you involved in going to see him, I need a few hours with him alone and he needs to strengthen physically. When you go, by all means take the children, but, ahh, Annette--can I call you Annette?"

When she nodded, he continued. "Annette don't push him; that will come later. Let Robert get used to the idea that you'll be around and won't give up on him. And perhaps it's a good idea that you and I talk as well since you blame yourself for the situation your husband is in. For the rest, we'll talk again in two weeks."

Two weeks later.

Since Robert was physically getting stronger, the rehabilitation doctor was of the opinion that he could be released from hospital if he had a place to go to. Robert replied that he had to arrange living accommodations first, which Annette took hard on learning.

It was then that the psychiatrist suggested intervening, saying, "I have some ideas, some just borderline decent and legal but I think that it's time to start manipulating him a bit."

Anne and Gus were apprehensive and looked at the doctor questioningly. Gus said, "Go on."

"Robert needs stimulation. On all levels. Physically and mentally. The nurses are trained to spot if a man is sexually active. They look for stains and tissues. There are no such signs with Robert. I hope you know that with an orgasm the body releases lots of 'happy hormones' but that starts with skin-on-skin contact. What I'm saying is that he needs to be stimulated, maybe even seduced. That's where you come in, Annette. Would you mind going into the pool with him?"

"I hate swimming, but if that's what it takes," Annette replied eagerly.

"I'm glad to hear that. Do you have a bathing suit you can swim in? If not, I would recommend a two-piece. Soft like a sports bra and reasonably decent. It doesn't hurt when he sees you trying to seduce him, but not overly so. That, quite possibly, could have the opposite effect and he might push you away. Just try to make as much skin contact as you can without being overly obvious about it. Oh, and think of a good reason why you would be in the pool with him; I suspect that Robert will know that you don't like swimming. Now, one more thing, the elephant in the room."

With that, the psychiatrist looked at Annette and said, "Robert's convinced that he is divorced. You told him that you were going to see a lawyer and until now you didn't even mention, let alone let him see his children. Can you explain to me why?"

All three looked stricken. Anne stammered, "I don't really know. We thought it was best taking into consideration the condition he's in."

The psychiatrist answered gently, "That has to change as soon as possible. A very important part of his mental well-being are his children. They will get him grounded quicker than any therapy. He really loves them very much. That is one of the few subjects he is enthusiastic about and he has a feeling that you are deliberately keeping them away."

Annette nodded. "We'll correct that, soon."

"Good," said the doctor. "Now back to the living accommodations. What do you suggest? Can he live in your house?"