Dating : When Toxic Rivers Flow Conclusion

We found Roberto in a waiting room down the hallway from Tim’s hospital room. Aside from a slightly swollen jaw and a few minor scratches, he seemed nonplussed at the fact he’d been hours from drowning to death in a steel coffin.

“How are you, dude?”

“I’m good, Henry. I’ve taken worse beatings in the ring from a pair of eight-ounce boxing gloves. The doctor said Tim was busted up pretty bad. Three of his ribs broken, his left jaw, one of his arms in two places, and cuts and gashes all over his face. It’s like somebody beat him with a two by four.”

“Or a bat.”

“Yeah.”

“Can we see him?”

“I think it’ll be okay. He’s been sedated, and they’ve got him in casts and his head all wrapped up in gauze. He kind of looks like a miniature mummy.”

“I’m sure Rice has been called a lot of things, but never a mummy.”

“Just wait till you see him, Henry,”

As laughable as Tim Rice looked, the very nature of how badly the man had been beaten quickly put a damper on things. His right arm was covered in a cast, the top edge just beneath the short sleeve of his hospital gown the entire cast encasing arm all the way to his wrist. From just above his eyebrows, his head was wrapped in gauze, and the left side of his face was severely bruised and swollen.

“Man, they beat the shit of him.”

“Yeah, Henry, they did. I guess the sedatives the doctors gave him kicked in. I think he’s out of it.”

“Yeah, well, we gotta jet anyway. We’ve got to get back to the house, load up and head home. You going to stick around?”

Roberto nodded.

“We’ll see you then.”

We turned to ease out of Tim’s room and had just made it to the door when Tim’s weak-sounding voice stopped us. When we turned, he was gazing at us, his eyelids slowly drifting closed and then open again.

“Henry? Sunny?”

“Hey, Tim. How it going, brother?”

“Uh, I think my current situation is rather self-evident, Henry.”

Everyone in Tim’s room snorted with laughter. Even though Tim would never admit to it, his deadpan, pragmatically correct, delivery style seemed to humorously fit most situations. Especially this one.

“Yeah, Tim. Look, we just wanted to check in with you before we headed out.”

Tim tried to shift into a more comfortable position, winced as he sucked air into his lungs through gritted teeth then decided against moving and became still.

“About this story. I don’t know about Roberto, but I wasn’t prepared for this. This went bad in so many ways. I could have got us both killed.”

“Ah, man, it could have happened…”

“To anybody. That’s what you were going to say, Henry, but I don’t think so. I should have listened to Roberto at the beginning. I had a chance to discuss this with him before you guys showed up. We want you and Sunny to take the by-line on this.”

“What?”

“This is you two’s story now. I want to distance myself as far from this memory as possible.”

“You positive about this, Tim?”

“Positive Shaundrika.”

“And you, Roberto?”

“Sure Sunny. There’s always another story out there, right?”

“Yeah, always another one.”

“We’ll make sure nobody steals your spot in the bullpen until you get back.”

“Oh, I’ll be back, Henry. Dark Sides still needs somebody in that bullpen who can keep the lunatics at bay. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some mending to do.”

“Then it’s settled. Henry? Looks like we’ve got some work to do. You ready?”

“Ready when you are, princess.”

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