Connie, the nurse, is sitting next to the Brian in the bed. She looks at the me in the bed, then up and sort of across the room, as if she is trying to look for the me that is my spirit or whatever it is, then back down at the me in the bed.

“Brian, I’m going to tell you what I think this is. I think you’re his soul or spirit or something from his mind, that’s come out from him, this boy in the bed, this other Brian, looking for help. It’s up to us to help you. And I intend to make sure that we do just that.”

“Thank you... uh... Connie? Can I call you Connie?”

“Yes, it’s my name, just like Brian is yours and the name of this boy who’s in this bed. You’re one in the same, you just remember that, and I believe that when the time is right you’re going back where you belong, joining your body, this here body in the bed.

“Now, what do you remember about before the time when you found out that you are here, in this hospital room, in the intensive care unit? I suppose first, you need to tell me when you found yourself here.”

I think for about a minute. Connie just sits there, she rubs my hand while she looks at the part of me that’s on the bed. Yeah, the part of me that’s on the bed. I think first about when I woke up, is that the right way to describe it? I don’t know.

“Connie, I woke up, if it can be called that, just before an alarm started screeching and I called for someone and you came in.”

Just then Doctor McFadden came back into the room. I listened, because he called my house, probably talked to my mom.

Connie asks the question I was about to ask. “Did you get ahold of anyone?”

“I called your home, Brian. Your mother answered. I told her that you’re here, in a coma. I described you, and she says that it’s you. I didn’t give her all the details, including that you were raped. I didn’t tell her about your... spirit, or that we’re talking to each other. She never asked how I got your phone number. She’s just so overcome hearing that you’re here and alive. She said she and your father were frantic when you didn’t come home from school last Wednesday. She’s relieved because now she knows where you are, but she’s very worried about you because you’re in a coma. She said she and your father will drive down right away. They should be here in about four hours. She said if you wake up before they get here to tell you that she and your dad love you.

“Now, according to the court I’m supposed to contact the police if there’s any change, like you regain consciousness or... or you die. But you haven’t done either, so I’m not calling them. Yet. Good God, what would I tell them, I’ve been talking to your disembodied spirit? I’d be taken to North Texas State so fast...”

I interruped him, “North Texas State?”

“North Texas State Hospital. Brian, that’s a state mental hospital. If I told anyone what I did, what I’m doing right now,” he turned and looked at Connie, “what Connie and I are doing now, talking to someone’s spirit or soul or who knows what you are, we’d be put in a straightjacket and tossed into a padded room and sedated.”

This is interesting. He actually believes that I’m Brian, or at least part of Brian. And Connie believes too. But he doesn’t think anyone else will believe.

“Doctor?”

“Yes, Connie?”

“We were talking about what Brian remembers. Do you think that’s a good idea? I do.”

“Yes. That’s a very good idea. The more we learn the better.”

“Okay, I’ll keep going.

“Now, Brian, what about before you found out that you are here. You remember any of that? Maybe it would help if you talk about yourself a bit, then the other part will come back. Where do you go to school?”

“Deer Valley High School. I’m a sophomore, tenth grade.”

“You were brought in here on the 12th. That was last Friday. You came in after midnight. Did anything happen last Thursday, the 11th? You remember going to school? Is there anything special about Thursdays for you at school?”

I think about school, about what my classes are, and I remember.

“After school Thursday I took the bus home like always, but it broke down and we had to get off. I was close to home so instead of waiting for another bus I started walking. Then something happened.”

I try to remember what happened. It’s important. I look at the part of me in the bed, and it comes back to me in a rush.

“It was Quin and two of his asshole buddies. Quin was driving his car, and they saw me walking and there was no one else around. They grabbed me and pulled me into his car. They drove me to his house. They have a chicken hatchery out back, they dragged me in there. I remember it was warm because of all the eggs and chicks and because of the smell. I kept fighting them, Quin and Tom, trying to get away, and I kicked Quin in the balls and he grabbed something and started beating on me, he hit my head a couple of times, it hurt, a lot, then everything went black. That’s all I remember.”

“Quin. What’s his full name? Who were the other boys?”

“It’s Quinten Santoni. He and his buddies are juniors. He’s a bully, was on the football team but got kicked off when he got suspended for fighting. Tom Calloway and Grant something, I don’t know his last name, are his buddies who were there. Tom held me while Quin beat on me.”

Doctor McFadden had been writing in a spiral notebook. He stood and turned toward the door. “I’m going to call the police. I’m going to say that Brian was able to talk to us for a few seconds, gave us his phone number and identified the boys who attacked him. Those kids must have driven here from Oklahoma to dump the body where they figured no one would find it, or that it wouldn’t be found until after you died.”

“Doctor, there’s something else I remember. I was on the floor in the back of Quin’s car. There was a piece of smooth metal under the driver’s seat. I pushed my right hand under the seat and pressed my fingers against the metal very carefully to leave my fingerprints, so I could prove he’d dragged me into his car, like in CSI on TV. Then I did the same thing on the metal legs of one of the tables, it has two of the chicken hatching boxes on it and a bunch of tools. He must have used one of the tools to beat on me. My blood would be on that. And I’ve never been in his car or that chicken hatchery before.”

“Thanks, Brian. I’m going to call the police now. You need to think about whether you’re going to talk to them when they come in to see you. I assume you... the part of you in bed will still be unconscious. I just don’t want to be in here when you talk, if you decide to talk to them. And Connie, I don’t think you should be here, either.”

Doctor McFadden left the room. All this time Connie had been holding my hand. I decide to try something. Using the hand of the spirit me I rub the top of her hand that’s holding the hand of the me in the bed. She looks down at her hand, then smiles.

“Did you feel me rub your hand, Connie?”

“Oh, so that’s what it is. It felt so soft, like a little tickle, very soft, very nice.”

I grinned then rubbed her hand again.

“You’re a nice boy. I feel it’s a privilege to have met you. You’re the first soul I ever met.”

“Maybe I’m not a soul.”

“Why’re you saying that?”

“If I am Brian Anderson’s soul, and I’m not in his body, he’d be dead now. He’s not dead now. I’m some sort of... I don’t know, something else. Like you said, a spirit. Maybe like what the Indians say about their ancestor’s spirits. Whatever, something different than a soul. And if I can help it I’m not going to die. I’m sticking around for a while.”

She looked at the bank of monitors. “My Lord, your blood pressure is coming back up. That’s a good sign, Brian, that’s a good sign.”

All of a sudden I get an idea. “Connie, what do you think about this, I touch the part of me that’s in the bed and see what happens? I might go back into my body, and I could help, uh, help me, get through this and get better. And it will be better when I need to talk to the police. If I, uh, the me in the bed, can wake up and talk to the police.”

“If it’s something you want to try, I say do it. But it’s something you gotta decide on your own. Here, let me move so you can use this chair.”

She lowers the rail on the left side of the bed, and steps into the corner in back of the chair. I take her place in the chair, and feel how the cushion is still warm from her sitting there. I’m surprised that I don’t sink right through the seat of the chair like they show ghosts doing in the movies. But I don’t, and I can feel somehow that’s the way it should be.

I reach out for his hand... no, for my hand, my real, physical hand. I pause a few seconds and worry if what I’m about to do will be harmful. But somehow I know it’s exactly the right thing to do. I touch my hand. It feels so warm, probably from Connie holding it for so long a time. I twine my spirit fingers into my real fingers, and I feel my real muscles react and hold on tight.

“Connie... I... I can feel the me in the bed holding onto my spirit hand.”

I’m not sure how to say it, now that we’re coming together. I know that’s what’s happening. I can feel myself, my spirit self, being reassimilated. Oh, my god!