Dog Show (Carnal Consensus #1)

IV

AFTER HE ASKED the information desk of the hospital, inquiring where his father was taken, James almost stumbled down the lobby of the third floor. It took over an hour for him to arrive after taking an Uber for a few seconds when he hung up the call. He knew there was something happened with his father. It was a repeat of the year ago scenario when he went to the nightclub with his friends and then an hour before midnight Sonya bombarded his phone with calls. He didn't anticipate it but he honestly expected it — not being negative but James knew his father very well.

And this kind of unfortunate event would certainly lead to cease his college enrollment.

The hallway was filled with people wearing white uniform pacing and occupying the pathway. The connective series of flourescent light hung above the ceilings distilled and generously sprawled broad light down the hallway graciously. The smells of ethyl alcohol and other anesthetic soared over the broadened area of the hospital, the hallway. Nurses and other medical workers were rushing back and forth with medical equipment in their grasp. All of them seemed to be in a hurry taking no time to waste assisting patients who were in need of medical assistance.

Searching and seeking for the correct room, James shuffled hurriedly. When he arrived the porch of the given room by the receptionist, James flinched as the door opened and saw two familiar men.

"Mr Wood, how is my dad?" James asked nervously. His voice was filled with tension and worries and so palpable for Mr Sebastian Wood.

It took a few seconds for Mr Sebastian Wood to recognize the young man in front of him. It was a year ago since the last time he had seen James. But looking at him right, it took him by surprise seeing James firm and muscular — broadened and buffered. "You're James Loyd Vasco, right?"

Nodding hysterically without saying a word, it was the only reponse James could jab on.

"Your father is in stable condition." Sebastian responded with a glitch of worries and agony occupied his eyes. "But he needs to undergo a surgery as soon as possible."

A worried look fumbled on James' handsome frame. "Surgery? But why?"

Exhaling a thick sigh from his throat, Sebastian mustered himself gathering thoughts recalling what the doctor had told him. He knew it would be hard for the young man to process and absorb what he was going to exclaim, but in some instances, he knew he needed to. As Emanuel's only son, it was James' right to know what his father's real condition was and no one should keep it from him.

"There's a blood clot down in his artery." Sebastian started and his tone described his worries. "That was what the doctor said basing the results of his Electro Cardio Graphic test."

At that very moment of his life, James felt the entire world was on his shoulder, burdening and weighing heavily. This was no aftermath, rather, it was another beginning of life sentence that excruciate and crash his soul. They had been in a huge financial debt lately because his father was admitted to the same hospital. Although the milling company had burdened his father's medication for six months, but with the hospital bills, the company only accommodated twenty five percent of the total hospital bills all because the management of the company decided to take charges for his father's maintenance and long term medication.

While the milling company took charge of the long term medication and twenty five percent of the hospital payment.  Unfortunately, the health insurance company only covered fifty percent, especially now that Emanuel was hospitalized again and needed to undergo a surgery. One of the requirements for his health insurance to cover the hundred percent of the hospital bills was to have interval time for three years before being hospitalized again. Practically, it was like having a health loan that needed to pay for three years before you could come up with another full loan.