Todd Revisited: Lapse (Chapter 8)

On the walk back, he thought to himself if there could be anything worse than what he had just been through and what he had been forced to do. Of course, he knew the answer to that; indeed, there was much worse. But, it had been bad enough on its own. To stand by and watch him be with his own family, it was almost too painful to bear. And, as they walked, the weight of the Birthday loot tugging at his forearm, and the hand of a little boy squeezing his other hand seemed to weigh on him immensely.

The kid was named Sam. Almost a gratuitous show of some kind of dedication to Sam Rappaport, the man he loved as a father. The man who was the closest thing to a father he ever had. Clearly, this impostor had chosen the name for obvious purposes. But, the kid was cute, and the kid was hanging off his arm like no tomorrow, and the kid was talking. He had not stopped talking since they left the impostor's house.

Though not fully intentional, he started to drift into his own thoughts, not entirely meaning to block out Sam's little voice, but doing so. They continued to walk, and soon he found himself lost in his own thoughts again. He needed to think. The more he remembered, the clearer things became.

Aman came through the door just as he had uttered the last of his feverish rant. "Find me!"

The doctor trailed not far behind, carrying a black leather bag that notoriously screamed medic.

"Hurry, doctor, he is burning alive with fever." Lilly said, wiping the splashed water from her brow.

Aman went to her side, "Are you all right, dear heart?"

"Yes, yes, don't fuss now, Aman. Don't fuss."

The doctor continued his routine of examining the patient. Lilly and Aman stepped away from the bedside. She continued, "He was saying such strange things, Aman. Asking if I knew him, and asking who he was."

Aman looked concerned, a dark cloud passed through his eyes. "He's delirious, ay? The poor lad. I looked and looked, no sign of papers or identification. American?"

"Definitely. He's got to be with that accent."

"What else did he say?" Aman poured himself a glass of dark beer, and they sat at the modest kitchen table. The doctor still proceeded to do his doctoring.

"He said something about finding him. Oh it was terrible, Aman, terrible. How he shook! And, he cried out horribly, tossing and turning like his skin was on fire. Something was hurting him, or has been hurting him, something bad." She rested her head in her hands. "Maybe we shouldn't have taken him here? If the Men of 21 are after him..."

Aman reached across and took one of her hands. "Now, now, we couldn't very well leave him, could we?"

Lilly glanced over to the bed. She could see the long, chestnut brown hair sprawled across the pillow, the side of his face had a majestic profile. She remembered all too well the other side, marked forever with a scar. And his eyes. As much as they implored her, they also softened her heart somehow. "No. We couldn't."

The doctor returned his instruments to his bag. "He's lost consciousness, possibly lapsed into a coma. There is nothing you can do now but wait. I'll come back every few days to check on him. Lucky I like those blue fin tuna you're about catching these days, Aman, my friend. I'm sorry, there's nothing more I can do without a hospital. I did give him some medicine to bring the fever down."

The constant tug on his hand became more furious and he finally stopped, resting against a tree. "Spiderman, are you ok?"

"Yeah, kid, I'm ok. Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I am ok." Then, "What kind of adventure is this?"

"Hmm. Well this is the Destruction of the Impostor Caper."

"Wow! That's a lot of words."

"Yep, it is."

"Spiderman?"

"Yeah, kid?"

"Why did you stop against that tree? Don't you have superpowers? And why does your voice sound sad?"

He brought himself eye view with the boy. "I stopped against that tree because I was tired. I do have superpowers but they don't work all the time, and they really get weaker when I am around mean people or The Impostor. And I guess my voice was sad because I felt a little sad."

"You don't have to feel sad, you're Spiderman. You can do anything you want."

He thought about this thoroughly before saying, "You know, you're right. I can do anything I want. And that's just what I am going to do." And with that, he took Sam's hand and headed back to the Minuteman.