Byron Starr - Doppelgänger

“Barbara,” he slurred in a weak and hoarse voice.

Barbara glanced up, unsure if she’d really heard something or not, then looked back down at her book, but only briefly. She suddenly realized Dan had been staring back at her. The voice she’d heard hadn’t been her imagination. She dropped her book. “Dan!” She ran to the door and shouted down the hall to the nurses' station. “He’s awake! He’s talking!”

She ran back to Dan’s bed and squatted down beside him. She reached to put her arm around him, but thought better of it. She might accidentally put pressure on the wounds on his back and head.

“It’s so good to have you back, Dan,” she said, with tears building in her eyes.

Dan realized from Barbara’s actions that he must have been unconscious for some time. He suddenly wondered if he’d been out for months or years. “How long?” he asked, his voice much stronger now than when he’d first spoke, but still fairly weak.

At first Barbara didn’t catch what he meant, then she replied, “Oh, you’ve been in a, uh, coma for four days.”

This was a tremendous relief.

Two nurses came in the door. The younger of the two began checking Dan’s vital signs. The older one pulled a stool up right next to Dan so she could look into the mirror and ask him questions.

“How do you feel, Mr. Chamblin?” the older nurse asked.

“Fine, I guess. A little tired,” Dan said.

While the nurse continued to ask Dan a few questions, Pastor Talley came back in.

“I was at the cafeteria,” the preacher told Barbara, “I came as soon as I heard.”

Barbara hugged Pastor Talley, then turned back to Dan. She clasped her hands together in front of her chest and exclaimed, “God has blessed us!”

Ronald quietly agreed, “Truly the work of the Lord.”

While the nurse was asking him questions and Pastor Talley and Barbara were discussing God’s influence, Dan began trying to remember what had happened that night. He remembered Jeremy at the door, wanting to be let in. Lisa had gotten up and gone to the door. Then something had happened, but what?

“Mr. Chamblin? Mr. Chamblin, are you okay?” the nurse asked when Dan quit answering her questions.

“Yeah, just tryin’ to remember,” he said hoarsely.

“Well, I have just a few more questions. Then in a little while Dr. Thomas will want to see you. Can you feel your hands?”

“Yeah.”

“Wiggle your fingers, please?”

Dan moved his fingers for the nurse, then he started thinking. Jeremy had come through the door, knocking Lisa down. Was something chasing him? No, he didn’t think so.

Then something else caught his eye. Among the many potted plants on the table near the window, there was a basket of silk flowers with a ribbon that read BELOVED SISTER. Beside the shelf, standing on the floor, was a stand of flowers; its ribbon read: MOTHER. These were funeral flowers!

The nurse was just about to ask Dan if he was okay when he blurted out, “The little prick killed his own mother!”

The nurse sat silently. Barbara and Pastor Talley’ss conversation abruptly stopped. Even the young blond nurse who had been flittering around the room doing a whole lot of nothing stopped in the middle of her third check of Dan’s vital signs. Aside from the steady beat of the heart monitor and the faint whisper of voices from outside, absolute silence prevailed in the little hospital room.

“What?” Barbara gasped.

“I said that little prick of a son of mine killed his own mother,” Dan said, his voice still heavily slurred. He tried to turn his head toward Barbara and Ronald, who were just in the blind spot of both his eyes and the mirror below him. This caused immense pain in the back of his head.

Seeing Dan’s face tighten with pain, the nurse said, “Mr. Chamblin, you need to settle down. You don’t want to strain yourself.”

Pastor Talley said, “Dan, Jeremy was at the church lock-in all night. I was there with him. He didn’t go anywhere.”

“I don’t give a shit what you think you saw. I saw the little murdering bastard with my own two eyes. He attacked me before I could get up, then he must have turned on Lisa.”

The nurse turned to Barbara and Pastor Talley. “He may be delirious.” Then she added in a quieter tone, “The doctors haven’t ruled out brain damage.”

“I know what I saw.” Dan tried to yell, but only managed to speak in the same volume he’d been using, only with slightly more spit coming from his mouth. The left side of Dan’s face was numb for some reason, and his mouth refused to cooperate entirely.

Barbara stooped down beside him, and, forgetting his injuries, started to stroke his head. Her hand was intercepted by the nurse’s. Barbara leaned forward and said sweetly, “Jeremy would never do such a thing, Dan. He’s such a sweet boy.”

“He’s a little killer, Bar. I saw him,” Dan said, spitting more, but managing a little more volume this time.

Noting that Dan’s blood pressure was on the rise, the older nurse suggested, “Perhaps we should leave him alone. He needs his rest.”

Ignoring the nurse, Pastor Talley stooped down beside Dan and, while Barbara’s head nodded vigorously at his every word, said, “Jeremy’s been here waiting for you to wake up for four days. We’ve prayed together for you to return to us. There’s no way he would have ever done anything to hurt you or Lisa.”

“You weren’t there, you damn Bible-thumper,” Dan said, gaining even more volume now, and quite a bit more spittle.

“We need to leave him alone until the doctor can have a look at him,” the nurse said as she rose from her little stool.

Still ignoring the nurse, Pastor Talley turned to Barbara and said, “Maybe if we brought Jeremy in to see him it would help bring him around.”

At this Barbara started nodding vigorously before the preacher finished his sentence. She started to say something, but was interrupted by the nurse who bluntly said, “Everybody out, or I’m calling security.”

Texas Ranger Sam Jones was contacted as soon as Dan Chamblin came around, and he wasted no time getting to Beaumont.

At the hospital Sam was briefed by Dan’s doctor, Reginald Thomas, an old friend of Sam’s. Doctor Thomas told Sam that other than some facial paralysis that seemed to be wearing off Dan showed no signs of brain damage, but he did seem a little delusional — he kept insisting his son had been the one who attacked him. Doctor Thomas agreed to allow Sam to have a talk with Dan, but only a brief one, and only if Sam didn’t put Dan under too much stress.

After talking with Doctor Thomas, one of the nurses led the way down the hall from the nurse’s station to Dan’s room. Sam followed behind her, with his hat in his hand. A teenaged boy and an older lady were sitting outside the door to the room. It was Dan’s son, Jeremy Chamblin, and Dan’s mother Wilma Chamblin. Sam recognized them from Lisa Chamblin’s funeral. Jeremy was sitting in a chair outside, bawling his eyes out. His grandmother had her arm around him, trying to comfort him.

“Stay right here while I see if he’s awake,” the nurse told Sam.

She went through the door, leaving Sam in the hall with Jeremy and Wilma. Sam stood awkwardly by the door, listening to Jeremy cry and his grandmother try to soothe him.

“He didn’t mean it, Jeremy. You know he didn’t,” he heard the old lady whisper to her grandson.

“B-but he s-said he never wanted to s-see me again,” Jeremy sobbed.

“He didn’t mean it,” Wilma said, pulling the poor boy to her.

“W-why did he say that? Why?”

That was all it took: Sam had never met the man, but he already couldn’t stand Dan Chamblin.