A Good Year at Linwood High, Chapter 11
Luis woke up on Saturday morning with a serious need to piss. Since he wasn't hooked up to an IV, he slipped out of bed and hurried to the bathroom attached to their hospital room. A nurse came in just in time to remind him that he needed to pee in the plastic bottle so they could keep track of his output. If he didn't, it could add to the length of his stay. Needless to say, he used the portable urinal. Fortunately, he produced plenty.
Raymo woke up and asked for his bottle for the same purpose. Luis helped him with it before the nurse got the chance.
"If you keep this up, they'll hire you and I'll be out of a job!" she joked.
"Sorry," Luis blushed.
"No problem. I understand how friends need to help each other."
Although he didn't want to hide the fact that they were a married couple, Luis decided not to correct her assumption. He didn't want to appear like he was rubbing their relationship in anyone's face.
Sabrina and Gavin roused and stretched. Neither had slept as well as they would have under other circumstances, but both had adequate rest to keep going. They took turns freshening up in the bathroom.
When the breakfast trays arrived for the patients, mother and son went to the cafeteria to find something to break their fast.
Raymond was hooked up to an IV but wasn't receiving a transfusion after the initial one the night before. Still, it was enough to keep him from being as mobile as his husband. Therefore, Luis busied himself with helping Raymo eat the mostly liquid breakfast that many post-op patients are stuck with. The thin hot cereal made them think of a Dickensian orphanage.
"Should I ask for more gruel?" Luis grinned.
"Better not; they might expect us to gag down another bowl of this swill!"
"Ah, complaining about hospital food," the nurse said as she came in to check on them. "That must mean you're feeling better. If you keep this down with no problem, I'll find something more substantial for second breakfast or elevensies. You must have appetites like Hobbits!"
Soon after Gavin and Sabrina came back, they were shooed out of the room so the guys could get their washup. The young men longed for a real shower but had to settle for a sponge bath and the promise of being able to shower when they were released, as long as they covered their wounds with plastic wrap. At least they were allowed to wash their own privates. It amused them that the nurse shut the curtain between them when they were being bathed.
The next thing on their agendas was taking a walk to get some exercise. Raymo's IV bag was hooked onto a wheeled stand which he could use to help steady himself. Luis got on his right side to offer an arm. Sabrina and Gavin went along but didn't have any duties other than being a cheering squad.
As they were headed back to the room, Office Fiker greeted them.
"Looks like they can't keep good men down," he called.
"What brings you here so early? Don't they give you any time off?" Raymo responded.
"This IS my day off. In fact, I work three 12-hour days and then get three or four off in a row, depending on the rotation. I'm here to check up on you guys and bring some news.
"A car registered to Robert Barker was abandoned on the north side of F Avenue near the roller dam. From the footprints in the snow, the Cedar Rapids police believe he may have jumped into the river at that point. The current is quite turbulent near the generator. Anyone caught in it wouldn't stand a chance -- not even an Olympic swimmer."
"Could he have faked it?" Sabrina asked. "He's very cunning."
"There weren't any tracks leading away from the scene. Unless he was wearing a jetpack or sprouted wings, I'd say he's done for. It's too dangerous to send divers down, but if he did commit suicide there, his body will eventually wash up a little downstream."
"I still don't understand why he tried to kill my son," Sabrina shook her head.
"From what I've gathered so far, he went on a rant on social media shortly before he showed up at your house. In it, he blamed Raymond for all of his problems. He claimed that your son seduced him and then blackmailed him for money."
"Oh God! I did everything I could to stay away from that creep!" Raymo exclaimed.
"We all know that now, Raymond. Our former chief of police lost his job over how he swept your complaints under the rug. No one in Linn County believed Barker, not even his sons. Or maybe I should say `especially' his adopted sons. They'd been molested.
"On top of that, a lot of the evidence against him came from the child pornography on his computer. I don't understand how he could blame you other than the fact that those things might not have come to light if you hadn't mysteriously disappeared for a few months, casting suspicion on him."
"And I did that because I couldn't see any other way to get away from him!" Raymo said.
"It turns out you did the right thing," Officer Fiker nodded.
"He sure did," Luis agreed. "I'm so glad he hid out in Postville."
"I guess Gavin and I can sleep in our own beds tonight," Sabrina ventured.
"I think you'll be safe, but make sure you arm the security system and you might consider sleeping with your gun on the nightstand."
"Yeah, as long as she doesn't shoot me if I get up in the night!" Gavin teased.
"We'll send one of these pee-bottles home with you so you don't chance it," Raymo joked.
"I was thinking of getting up for a snack," Gavin grinned. "I can hold my pee until morning, unlike some of you old guys."
"So, have you been smoking something that gives you the munchies in the night?"
"NO!"
"That's the right answer," Sabrina said. "You'd better not be!"
When Doctor Mayfield made his rounds after lunch, he decided that Luis was well enough to be discharged.
"Either way, I'm staying with my husband until he's out of here too," Luis insisted.
"In that case, I'll keep you another day for `observation.' Because we don't release patients on Sunday, it will be Monday before you can both go home. Since you're sharing a room, it shouldn't cost the hospital much to keep you and they'll be adequately reimbursed by the insurance."
"That's okay by me. I don't think you're gonna let me go to work tomorrow anyway."
"You may go back to school on Tuesday, but I'm excusing you from gym and from your job until you truly feel well enough to return. You need to be off the pain meds for 24 hours before driving, anyway.
"Raymond might be grounded longer. I don't want him engaging in any stressful activities this week and that includes wrestling! I follow high school sports because my son is active in them, so I'm well aware of your reputation as an athlete, young man."
After the doctor's visit, the two patients insisted that Sabrina and Gavin go home to rest. They were planning to nap, themselves, and wouldn't miss their company. Mother and son didn't put up a fight.
It was just as well that they didn't stay because the guys had a bunch of visitors in the afternoon. Gavin had texted Shawn and some of Raymo's other buds about the incident, as well as, letting HyVee know they wouldn't be in. Thus, word spread quickly.
In the evening, Sabrina and Gavin were at the hospital again. They didn't want the guys to be alone after their ordeal. In truth, Raymo and Luis wouldn't have minded a bit of time to themselves, but they didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings.
Either way, they weren't alone. Several more students came to visit them after dinner.
Sunday afternoon was like an open house in room 3059. Even the Havel boys came briefly to pay their respects, despite not knowing the pair very well.
Since all the visitors were well-behaved, the nursing staff felt that having their peers around was therapeutic for Raymo and Luis and didn't limit the number of well-wishers. Because Raymo had always been a popular athlete and was becoming active in the gay/straight club, he drew a lot of students from school. Luis smiled as he received sympathy from them as well. His stock increased as Raymo regaled the group with the story of how Luis had fearlessly fought off their attacker using glass bottles against bullets.
A few additional people showed up during evening visiting hours. Those included teachers, coaches, and colleagues from the store where the two worked. The adults didn't stay long, assuming the guys would need more rest.
Gavin and Sabrina left early because Raymo told them they should. It wasn't that he didn't want to see them, but there wasn't much chance of a meaningful conversation and they all needed to rest up for the coming week.
On Tuesday, Raymo and Luis were welcomed like heroes when they returned to school. It made them feel great! No one seemed to shun them because of their marital status, which, of course, had left no doubt as to their orientation.
January was filled with a number of activities which were less dramatic and a lot more fun. One of those was the band carnival. A couple of years before, a polar inversion made the weather so cold that the event had to be canceled. This year, the month was relatively mild.
There were games, food, and a silent auction to draw people in and to help them spend money for a good cause. Everyone from little kids to adults had something fun to do.
A major feature of the event was a short concert by the jazz band. It was set up in a corner of the cafeteria instead of in a formal location. So, the kids performing had to compete with other things that were going on. That might have been distracting, but it turned out okay because they were so good that people stopped their conversations to listen. Other band members, who were operating the noisier games, shut them down temporarily. When they finished a short set, the applause was deafening and there were calls for more.
Mr. Dixon promised to have them do a few more numbers in about 45 minutes. He also announced the dates for a more formal concert later in the semester which would be held in the auditorium with better acoustics. Many adults were putting the dates in the calendars on their cell phones as he spoke.
The carnival was a big success and the band raised a lot of the extra money needed to fund their spring trip. Mr. D wanted it to be affordable to all of the members, no matter what their family income or situation was.
Raymo missed participating in the first couple of matches that took place while he was healing. However, he bounced back quickly and soon was strong enough to take part the moment his doctor released him.
His opponents had assumed he'd be weakened and went into the district matches thinking they didn't have to work as hard. Boy were they wrong! Raymo returned to the mat with power and determination that belied the fact he'd been away. He wasn't going to let the creep who had shot him spoil his senior year. Robert Barker wasn't going to win!
Other things were going on behind the scene which would involve Luis. Sabrina had given her lawyer in Iowa City the whole box of bits of documentation which he'd received from his aunt. Anton Navara had one of his paralegals go over everything carefully, spreading it out on a large table in a conference room. The young lady, Gabriela Garza, was studying to be a lawyer and came from a family who had benefitted from her employer's expertise. Therefore, she was very devoted to helping others in similar situations. It wasn't just a job; it was a mission!
After she had carefully sorted various papers into piles, she was going to recycle the original cardboard box. Before she did, she looked it over carefully and found an envelope stuck under one of the bottom flaps. Inside, she discovered a piece of paper which acknowledged the department of Immigration had received documentation concerning the status of Angelica and Franco Garcia. In Angelica's delicate handwriting, there was a list of the receipts and bills which had been duplicated and sent for proof of their longtime residency.
Searching through the piles, she was able to reassemble the documents. She made new photocopies of them so that Mr. Navara could resubmit them to the authorities.
Jim Swanson continued to feel chagrined about how his partner in ICE had treated Raymo when they made a surprise raid on the poultry plant in Postville. When Anton Navara contacted him inquiring about the status of the original documents, he felt he should personally delve into the matter.
After some searching, he found that they had been put into a bin of `dead' files and stamped as rejected. The initials under the stamp were those of his partner, Dan Norton. Because there were no other initials on the form, Jim was certain that Dan had done this on his own instead of running them by the committee which reviewed such cases. It didn't come as a shock because Jim had discovered other actions Dan had taken which weren't entirely aboveboard.
Time was running out for appeals in the DACA program, so it was imperative to have these documents in the hands of the board in Washington, DC as soon as possible. Jim decided to take matters into his own hands. He had some vacation time coming and he would use part of it to fly to the nation's capital. He might be able to reverse some of the damage his partner had done.
Mr. Navara contacted Sabrina with the news immediately, since she was paying for his services. He requested that she not tell Luis lest he have his hopes dashed again. Though it would be difficult to keep it from her son-in-law, she promised not to mention it.
January gave way to an even milder February. Basketball was in full swing and swimming and wrestling were moving toward the end of their seasons. Concert band and jazz band would continue into spring and evolve into some marching band performances again.
Spring track practice would begin in earnest when the weather warmed, as would tennis, golf, and soccer. There would also be a spring musical. It would be a very busy season for many Linwood students.
The band kids all agreed that music was going to take up too much of their time to even think about going out for a spring sport. Most had run track in middle school, but they didn't have all these other obligations back then. Now, they would be in pep band to support the basketball team and might be in the pit for the musical as well. Rhett and Ashton were in the backup for the swing choir and had a busy rehearsal and performance schedule for that group on top of everything else.
On top of that, they had their biannual band trip over spring break to look forward to.
Raymo would end his high school wrestling career on a triumphant note. He was heavily recruited by all three of the public universities and a number of private colleges both in-state and out. However, he decided to hang up his singlet and concentrate on his education instead of continuing at the college level. He felt there would be enough stress on his marriage with classes and didn't want to add to that with practices and matches. He would try to provide for his husband's tuition out of his inheritance so that Luis wouldn't have to work as hard.
The term began to lighten up for Raymo after the state finals in Des Moines. Like many of the musicians, he wasn't going out for track and field either. The coaching staff was disappointed because he was their best prospect for the discus, but they didn't put pressure on him to reconsider. They'd been thankful he was able to wrestle after being shot!
Swing choir would officially end in late February with the performance of the "Fab Five" at the Paramount Theatre in Cedar Rapids. It wasn't a judged competition but rather a chance for Linwood to join Prairie, Jefferson, Kennedy, and Washington in a gala evening to showcase their best numbers. They traditionally ran a matinee and an evening concert on a Saturday to provide enough seating for all who wanted to attend. Friends and relatives came in droves, and the schools split a good amount of money for their programs.
Author's notes: The good news is that my Internet is up. The bad news is that I haven't kept a good record of all who have responded during the outage, so I'm not listing anyone. Sorry!
Thanks to David (Boxerdude) for editing this chapter.
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