Whakahapa, 15

(Here we go. Don't know when i'll get the next bit done - school holidays again, already, and we're about to be infested by rug-rats. 4 boys so far & more to come).

Amos woke in the morning, sat up and grinned. Jeroboam was grinning back at him.

“Morning,” he smiled.

“Hi, Amos. Am I allowed out of bed? I need to pee and, if I don't do it soon, I'll wet the bed instead.”

“I, umm, I'll ask Esther. We're allowed to do anything, but I'm not sure if it's safe and don't know how to go about it. We don't want you to hurt yourself.”

“I don't want that either, but I have to pee!”

“Wait. Hold on to it!” He rushed out and across the hall.

“Esther? Esther!”

“Yeah, Boy. What now?”

“Jeroboam's awake and he needs to pee, like now! What do we do? He can't walk to the bathroom.”

“You're right, he can't. Okay, I'm coming. Go back and sit him up again.”

He carefully hauled Jeroboam upright, stuffing pillows behind him. Esther came in and rummaged through the pile of gear that they'd brought up from the hospital and the ambulance.

“I'm sure there was one here somewhere. Ah yes, here we go!”

She stood and showed the strangely shaped, wide-mouthed, stainless-steel bottle with a handle on its side. “Know what this is? No? Well, I'll tell you. It's a peeing bottle. You poke your willy in there and let go!”

“Poke my willy?”

“You don't know what a willy is? It's your penis, Kid. How else are you going to piss in the bottle? Help him, Amos. I need to go and pee myself.”

She left the room and they looked and blushed at each other.

“Amos, I have to go! We've just got to do it.”

“We do. We'll get used to it, I suppose. The first time must be the worst time.”

“It'll be even more embarrassing if I wet the bed.”

Amos pulled the covers down, almost all the way to his feet. Jeroboam was startlingly naked, apart from the bandages, and his 'willy' was semi-erect, (and beautiful!) He took hold of it (!), between his thumb and 2 fingers, and put it into the mouth of the bottle, then looked the other way.

It took a few seconds before he was able to relax and let go and when he did, he peed and peed and they were both starting to worry that he was going to fill and overflow the bottle.

But he didn't, which was a relief. He was greatly relieved all around and smiled widely when Amos, carefully, removed the bottle and covered him up again. “Oh, that's ever so much better! Thanks Amos.”

“Not a problem. It will be easier next time. I've got to go and pee myself now. Don't go away and I'll be back soon.”

They had toasted crumpets with cereal and reconstituted powdered milk with canned peaches for breakfast. Jeroboam thanked them both and said that they had never eaten so well, but he could get used to it.

It was a horrible wet and windy day outside. The teeming rain made a strange hissing noise on the concrete-block buildings and the quiet street out there. Amos opened the drapes to let the gray daylight in and opened a window for some fresh air.

“Is that okay, Esther?”

“Yes, sure it is. It's not cold and not too drafty. You're right, we do need some air in here. I don't think that any of us will be going far today, but I do want to go back to the hospital later.”

“The hospital? Is there something else we need?”

“There is. We need a wheelchair, one of those special ones for taking people to the toilet. Peeing in the bottle will only take us so far, he can't dump in it.”

“Dump?” said Jeroboam. “Oh! Right. I can't do that.”

“Don't hospitals have bed-pans for that?” Amos queried.

“They do, but Eww! Plus, if we can put him in a chair, we can shower him as well.

Speaking of which, we need to get to a plumbing supplies store so we can rig-up a water-heater. I doubt if there'll be one in the central city, I'll drive out to a suburban shopping centre to find one tomorrow. For today, we'll heat some water in a pan and give him a bed-bath.”

“A bed-bath? Like, washing him all over? Oh, wow! That will be my job. I'll do that!”

“I'm sure you will,” Esther laughed. “Won't be much of a chore at all, will it? There's not much else to do on a wet day. We'll rest and talk, I guess.. When we get a generator, also tomorrow, we'll be able to power-up a TV.”

“But will there be any programmes being broadcast.”

“Telecast. No, there won't but there are thousands of old movies we can watch. There's a shop right across the street and it's full of DVD's. Who wants coffee?”

Only Esther had coffee. The boys had a soda.

Amos put some water on to heat on the gas cooker and cleaned and tidied the 'kitchen' set-up in a spare bedroom. (There were LOTS of spare bedrooms). He opened the widows in there to air that out as well. He found towels, face-cloths and little packets of soap in a bathroom cupboard and took them, and the hot water, in to where Jeroboam lay.

Esther announced that she did NOT want to watch this, so she went to explore the hotel while she waited. As she left she told them to behave themselves and remember that Jeroboam was not fit and healthy – as if they'd forget.

Amos was very excited about all of this and, when he peeled the covers down, he could see that Jeroboam was as well. But they were very controlled and they did behave themselves – the last thing he wanted to do was to open up any of his wounds, Jeroboam didn't want that either!

He did take the time to gently wash and dry his genitals. The erection actually made that easier to do.Amos was careful to keep his hand covered with the soapy cloth and then with the towel. Jeroboam lay back with his eyes clenched shut and they competed to see who could blush brightest.

Amos was kind-of disappointed, but also relieved, when he had to pull the covers up again and straighten them. He had never in his wildest dreams ever imagined that he would get to do anything so intimate. That would've been fun if not for the injuries.

He went and got them both tall glasses of fruit juice. It wasn't refrigerated, of course, but was still cool and refreshing. They both kind-of needed that.

“You, umm, you said that Elder Bethuel had photographs of us?”

“He did – dirty ones. He had naked photos of us, and a whole lot of other kids in his album in his room.”

“He's a creepy old man!”

“He was, by the looks of it. There's no other reason for him to have them.”

“Funny!”

“What's funny?”

“It's creepy and it makes me feel unclean knowing that, but I don't mind you looking at a picture of me. That's different. I wish that I had one of you.”

“We could arrange that, but not now. I'm not looking my best right now.”

“I guess not, but you still look good to me. Jeroboam, did I tell you that I'm ever so glad that you're here?”

“I think you did. I'm glad that you're here too, very glad.”

“That's good. What about those Elders?”

“Yes, what about them? Lying, thieving bastards!”

“Jeroboam, I'm shocked! I didn't know you could talk like that. I was shocked too, at how they were living up there. Everyone was supposed to be equal and they were stealing from the rest of us and that's not right!”

“Definitely not right. I wish now that i'd set fire to the place.”

“Yeah? Well, I think I did better than that.”

“What did you do?”

“Turned on the taps on all of the hand-basins up there and flooded the place. By the next morning water was running down the stairs and out the front door. I dammed it and sent it through the hall into the kitchens.”

“Oh, that's good!”

“Yesh. If no-one's stopped it, it will all be a soggy, stinking mess by now.”

“Serves them right.”

“Serves who right?” Esther came back in with a bottle of wine – a big bottle. It was early in the day to be drinking, but she didn't care. What else was there to do?

The boys had a small drink each. Well, you have to try it and a little is meant to be medicinal, wasn't it? One was all they had. It was sickly sweet, too much even for their tastes, and too much would not be a good thing. They drank soda.

The three of them sat around talking, sharing experiences and trying to puzzle out what had happened to their world. Esther said it'd be interesting if a ship from Earth, or one of the other colony planets, was to arrive. They were the only survivors so everything on New Salem was theirs legally as well as in fact.

Amos spoke again about how he remembered two different things – falling into the fireplace, hitting his head and dying in Elder Stephanas' rooms, and also waking in the motel in Engaddi. “It's like I've got a split personality and each one has its own memories! Weird.”

Jeroboam said, “That is weird and I'll tell you something even weirder – I've got dual memories too.”

Esther said, “Yeah? What do you remember?”

“I woke up in my own bed in the dormitory and everyone had gone and I was all alone. But I also died too. I stole a whole lot of pills, went up the hill at the back of the Community and I swallowed them all. I lay down and – well, I should be dead. I don't know how I got back to my bed.”

“No you didn't!” Amos protested. “You're here and you're going to be fine.”

“I hope I am – now I do.”

Esther said, “But you remember lying down up on the hill? This is really strange. I'm not sure, but I think I remember something similar. That is weird!”

“You too? What do you remember, Esther? This could explain everything!”

“I don't see how. But first, Jeroboam, finish your story. Why did you take the pills?”

“Because, because of Amos, becase he was dead. Told you it was strange, it's got to be a dream.”

“You wanted to die because you thought that I had?”

“I did. I didn't want to live any more, not without you. I couldn't, so I did it.”

“You died, and then you woke up, like Amos did?”

“Yes, just like me!”

“Just like me too,” Esther nodded. “I think the same thing happened to me. I was flying a light plane in a storm, I collided with another one, spiralled down and crashed in flames. I remember the heat, so very searing hot. I couldn't breathe, the air was burning, and I was gone. Next thing I knew, I woke in a stranger's house in another town. There was no-one there and i don't know how I got there. There was no-one anywhere until I found you two. How's that for weird?”

“Yes, how's that? That's a hat-trick!”

They chewed that over for an hour, but couldn't make any sense of it and were getting nowhere, so they moved on to other topics. The day went really fast. It was cosy sitting there safely out of the horrible weather outside and no-one was bored at all.

Esther went out in the afternoon and returned with a wheelchair. It was a special one, just a toilet seat on a wheeled frame that could be manouvered over a toilet. They didn't use it, yet. They would when they had to, but weren't looking forward to that – gross!

Jeroboam used the pee-bottle a couple of times in the day. They were probably drinking too much, but that was okay. Amos helped him each time. He probably could've managed it on his own, but didn't want to. Amos didn't mind either.

They ate a light meal. No-one was very hungry (!) They hadn't done much all day. Jeroboam used the bottle again, and then they went to sleep early. Tomorrow would be another day.