Touch Me Not

WAIT! This story is Part 4 of the Thanksgiving "With a Twist" collaboration, so please read the first 2 parts to be completely enthralled in magic, suspense, and a reminder of all you have to be thankful for this holiday season!

Part 1: Thanksgiving takes leave of its senses by Duskshadows

Part 2: Fresh Apple Pie by ANGELA DERSCHA

Part 3- A Deeper Look at Thanksgiving by An Untraditional Mother

Now for Part 4:

Bethany stood in the entryway of their home next to Josh, trying for what seemed like the hundredth time in the past seven years to help him understand how blessed they were. Each time feels like maybe it will be the one, the one that breaks through his selfish preoccupations and reveals the man she fell in love with.

Looking at Josh she said simply “I wish you could see all the love and happiness, instead of all the bad”, and then turned to gather the family for dinner.

A crash startled her and she whirled around in time to see Joshy stagger and fall to the floor at the base of the stairs. He looked terrified, not even comforted at the sight of his mother rushing over to him. He didn't reach for her hand, just lay there looking stunned. As she ran to help him she heard him whimper something about not seeing.

Not seeing what? He has been up those stairs hundreds of times! "What happened?" she said loudly, not sure if she was more frightened or irritated that he had found a new way to be disruptive. That changed when she got to his side and realized he had passed out.

Her heart softened as she looked at him. No matter how grouchy and, yes, thoughtless he could be she just couldn't turn away from him.

Bethany crouched down and softly stroked Josh's hair. "Please get him some water," she said to her brother, "he hasn't seemed himself today. Maybe..." She stopped talking as Josh stirred, then she leaned close to him and said "Honey, honey are you ok? Can you stand?"

Josh pulled his head away from the hand in his hair. What was happening? Who was that? "Stop it!" he cried out loudly. "I can stand on my own two feet. Stop that touching and pawing at me! Leave me alone."

A strange tingling came over him as he said those words. Starting at the tips of his fingers and the soles of his feet, his body had a rapid crawling sensation and a heat that dissipated just as quickly. His yelling must have worked, though: he couldn't feel anyone touching his hair.

Wait.

He couldn't feel anyone touching anything. He couldn't feel anything at all.

"Honey?", he heard Bethany say hesitantly, "Honey, what is it? What's wrong?"

"I just fell," he snapped. "I must have hit my head, maybe it's a concussion. It... it's hard to see anything. Help me up and let's go the Urgent Care, OK? Someone give me a hand."

He heard Bethany take a quick, sharp breath before speaking. He knew that breath, knew it after hearing it in dozens of conversations over the years. It was the breath she took when she didn't want to say something, when she was afraid of conveying bad news.

"Josh? Josh honey, I am holding your hand. Your right hand. Can't you feel it? I'm squeezing it now, squeeze back, Ok?" She sounded close to tears, but Josh though he should be the one that was upset. He squeezed his right hand three times quickly as he got to his feet. He couldn't feel anything in his hand but he knew that Bethany felt him squeezing as her voice brightened while she led him out to the car.

* * * * * * * * *

Four hours later, Josh sat silently in the car as Bethany drove them home. According to her , she was holding Josh's left hand as she drove. Josh couldn't feel it, though. And according to the doctor he may never be able to feel it again.

After a brief examination by the on call Urgent Care doctor he was left alone in the exam room while Bethany was taken out of the room for a consultation. He could hear the voices in the other room rise and fall. He could hear Bethany's gasp and rushed 'no, no, no!' through the walls. He sat in the darkness and thought about everything that had happened since he'd seen that bum begging for money.

And, although he was sitting in the dark, no sense of smell, taste, or touch, he was more angry with that bum and that phony fairy than he was frightened. Everything that had happened was their fault. It must be some kind of hoax, some hypnosis or something, some... Bethany's voice broke through his thoughts.

"Josh," she said quietly. "Josh, it looks like everyone is still at our place waiting for us. Do you want me to tell them what the doctor said? That you have leprosy? Honey, we'll get through this....."

To be continued by Tiandra (AKA The Lady Poet)