The Job

Slowly and painfully, his eyes open.

He is becoming more and more cognizant of himself and his surroundings, and also aware of the jabbing pain in his stomach and his shoulder.

He remembers something as he opens his tired eyes.

Strong arms lifting him up.

Someone gently moving his hair away from his face.

Someone touching his face.

He sees someone standing next to him, and everything is white.

“Joe?” Mike says as he is finally awake.

There’s a woman there instead.

“Oh! You’re awake. You just got out of surgery about... forty-five minutes ago, Mr. Salinas. Your first name is?” The nurse says leaning close by his face.

“I’m...Mike,” He says with a wince. “Ah—crap, I feel woozy. Where is Joe? Is he okay?”

“Joe? Is he here? ... Uh, I will check on that for you, sir. How are you feeling otherwise?”

“Fine. Where is he? I need to see him.”

“Oh, honey, I’ll check. Don’t worry.”

Mike sighs. “I hope he’s here.”

“Is he your dad? Brother?”

“No. His name is Joe Delmonico.”

“Well, unfortunately, he can’t be up here on the patient ward unless he is family.”

Mike crinkles his nose. “What if he’s...” he swallows harshly.

“What, honey?” The nurse asks.

“What if he’s my... partner? Like... my life partner?” Mike says softly.

The nurse looks a bit nonplussed but starts to understand. “I’m not sure. I can ask. Okay?”

Mike nods. “Thank you. When can I be released?”

All of a sudden, the nurse gets a high alert on her pager, and she has to go.

“Sorry, hon, I gotta go. We just got two new patients. One in intensive care. I’ll be back.”

Mike looks over at the doctors and nurses rushing over toward a bunch of people with stretchers.

Mike tries unsuccessfully to sit up to see better, but can’t.

“Oh my, so the other one... died?”

Mike heard the nurse say, as everyone was rushing to get the new patients into ICU.

“Yeah, he was pretty bad. Had blood all over him. Some kind of gun battle.”

Mike frowns, closing his eyes, and is trying to remember what happened right before he got shot.

He went to the hotel to get his other small luggage bag and went outside when...

A man who looked ragged, sort of middle-aged, and had layers upon layers of holy and dirty clothing on, asking him for change.

Of course, Mike replies.

But Mike makes the dumb mistake of taking out a huge wad of cash and gives the man a fifty-dollar bill.

The man doesn’t want it and instead tells him to give up all of his money.

Mike sighs. I can’t, I’m sorry, Mike says carefully. He starts to reach for his own pistol, but the man tells him he better follow and keep his hands where he can see them, or... he’ll start shooting at random.

Mike decides to go to protect the unaware passerby’s, and they walk for a little bit.

He can’t remember what happened next.

The man definitely tried to reach into Mike’s pockets, to grab his wallet, and took his luggage bag.

The man then proceeded to point the gun right at Mike’s face.

His training kicks in, and he kicks the man trying to grab the gun--but instead, it makes the gun go off, lower, near Mike’s abdomen.

Then, out of pure spite for not getting all the money he had wanted, he shoots Mike again. In the shoulder.

Then, he runs off.

Mike opens his eyes again with a start.

He swore he just heard Joe.

“Fuck you!”

Mike hears an echo from across his room on the other side, and it sounds like Joe.

“Man, stop grabbing me! Where... where’s... I don’t need surgery! I gotta get out of here!”

Mike sits up, immediately recognizing the voice, and the familiar attitude of hating hospitals.

“Joe?!” Mike tries to yell.

The nurse comes in.

“You okay, Honey?” She asks.

“Is that... is that Joe?” Mike asks frantically.

“I don’t believe so, hon. Just some new patients.”

“But... I heard him!”

The nurse tries to console him, but Mike tries to get up from the bed.

“Please, lady, that’s... I can get up!” Mike says in frustration.

“The doctor says you can not, Mr. Salinas. You’ll hurt yourself. You just had surgery. You actually will need to stay here several days for recovery.”

“No, I just wanted to see Joe...” Mike says pathetically, lying back down, sighing heavily.

“I’m going to sedate you, sir, if you keep it up.”

“Your bedside manner is starting to piss me off!”

She laughs to herself but then looks at Mike sternly. She’s too tired to deal with this unruly patient, as she had already worked the double shift, overnight.

Preparing the sedative, she says, “Sir, you need to rest.”

“Please.... just tell me if he is here. I’m begging you!” Mike says, already feeling droopy and out of it.

But nothing is said. No confirmations.

He’s asleep, dreamless and disoriented.

But he desperately wants to wake up.

In between consciousness, he tries to reach for Joe.

In a swarm of memories, all of his memories, he remembers all his girlfriends, and his loving but strict parents.

Everyone and everything that led up to right now.

His girlfriend, Jane.

How she struck him on the face whenever he would say something she didn’t like, and got hatefully jealous even though she was cheating on him.

His last girlfriend, Tanya. She was nice, but a pushover, and she left him for someone else. Not truly cheating, but emotionally she stabbed him in the heart.

How he pined for women he only could have for a night or two, but never as long as he wanted.

How his first love was from his college, and they had dated for a while. Amanda loved him well enough, but she was highly ambitious. She didn’t leave him for anyone. Nor did she cheat. Amanda had tons of friends, where Mike had none. Mike didn't like to socialize unless he had to, which had made Amanda resent him after spending so many isolating weekends together, without change.

The most hurtful part of that relationship was—-she left him for her hubris. Her cool intellect, and the way she has planned her life—-it certainly didn’t align with Mike’s.

And his parents. Janis and Zach.

He missed them so much. They were all so happy all the time. And Mike loved them dearly, even though he encountered many hardships after he graduated high school because they had cut him off financially.

And Joe.

To Mike, Joe was who he was waiting for his entire life.

Not to make him whole, but to create a real sense of human connection that lasted, that was never to be unbroken, and to have Mike see that soul mates did exist—-and that Joe truly loved him for who he was.

When he wakes up, he feels dizzier and more out of it than ever.

He sees his doctor, who has no answers for him on the whereabouts of Joe.

"I am sorry. Doctor and patient confidentiality. I can't. Even if they are here."

Mike scoffs and wants to die.

To feel better, he tells everyone about Joe.

His golden locks, his cool blue eyes, his charming and wicked smile.

He tells the nurses all about Joe.

He tells them he is in love.

And it is Joe's fault.

One of the nurse's cracks.

"That hot-tempered blonde?" She says almost to herself. "He's a pistol. I think he is out of surgery now. He needs a kidney."

Mike shoots up from the bed, almost violently. The nurse jumps--- jolted and nervous from Mike's sudden outburst.

"What? He needs a kidney? Joe had surgery?! He is here?! What? Oh my... Oh shit! I... I will give him my kidney. Please, let me see him! Please!"

She realizes the Pandora's Box she just unleashed, and sighs. "Mike, relax."

"No! Let me fucking see him!"

"Okay, calm down! I will talk to the doctor. We can do a blood test to see if you match. And if the doctor thinks it's okay."

"Of course it is okay. It is my body. I wanna help Joe."

"But, you lost so much blood from those gunshot wounds. You recently had surgery. The doctor may not approve it."

"At least... let me... see Joe," Mike says calmly.

She nods, placatingly. "Okay."

She leaves the room, and he prays for once in his life.

He prays for Joe and him to be a match.

And he prays to see Joe again.

He doesn't believe in Hocus Pocus, but ever since Joe, he does believe in God.

And God willing, he and Joe will be together again.