A Falling Star

Five

Day 3

"How'd you two get together?" Ohm asked the next day.

"Hell." Nanon laughed. "At first, I actually thought one of us was going to kill the other. We argued all the time. Actually, argue is too nice a word; we fought like a bloody cat and dog. I'd come to see him, and after about ten minutes, we'd be screaming at each other, and I'd stomp off, cursing him all the while, only to come back the next night. I don't know what it was about him, but I just couldn't stay away, and I guess he felt the same way about me. The one night I didn't show, he dragged his ass out of bed and stole money out of one of the nurse's handbags to call me from the payphone to tell me to—in his words—get my arse in gear and get the fuck down here. He made me give the money back to the nurse he took it from."

Nanon laughed again, his eyes staring out the window and into the past.

"I'm not sure how it happened, but one day we were still fighting, and the next we were actually talking. The night after that, he grabbed the front of my scrubs when I leant over him to adjust his pillows, and he pulled me down and kissed me. Two days after that, he was released, and he moved in with me. We never even talked about it; I just checked him out and took him home."

"Weren't you curious about his life before the accident?" Ohm asked when he realised Nanon wasn't going to continue.

"I was, but Pat said he didn't want to know. He said he was happy with me and his new life, and whatever was left in the past could stay there for all he cared. I thought he should at least find out if someone hadn't reported him missing in one of the bigger towns or cities close by, but he refused. He didn't see the point. He didn't want to go back to people he didn't know at all when he'd already started to make a life here at Savior Meds. He said if someone wanted him that badly, they could find him."

"Did he get a job?" Ohm asked again, causing Nanon to laugh.

"You're just like Pat. I always said he was like a five-year-old with all his constant questions: why? What? Who? Where? and on and on."

Ohm blushed and looked down at his hands. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be nosy."

"Hey, I don't mind. I love talking about him. It's just funny how alike you are."

Ohm didn't say anything for a minute and then looked up at Nanon with a grin. "So did he get a job?"

"Yeah, he did. He said he obviously liked books, so he made me take him to the library, where he sweet-talked old Mrs. Atthuya into hiring him. I thought he'd get bored after a while, but he never did. He said he had time to read as much as he liked, and in between, he got to catch up on all the town gossip. It wasn't long before almost everyone in town knew him. I'd lived here for six years, and I didn't know even a fraction of the people Pat knew after three months. He was stubborn, headstrong, and persistent, and I loved that about him, but he was also kind, gentle, and sensitive. He had a way of knowing the perfect thing to do to turn my day around. It was like he could get into my head and sort it out for me when I needed it. You know?"

"Yeah, I think I do." Ohm said with a soft smile, then looked up when the door opened again.

He waved his parents in and then grabbed Nanon's hand as he got up to leave. "Will you come back tomorrow?" Nanon just stared at the familiar sight of Ohm's hand wrapped around his for a moment and then nodded his head, not trusting his voice.