Valley Fever | Lawrusso

Valley Fever Chapter 4 / 6

Johnny had been in the ICU for three days now.

His breathing was a little easier, but he was just so god damn tired of it all.

He was exhausted. The act of simply breathing was just too much. There was talk of bringing in a machine that would force the air into his lungs, so he didn't have to bother. It wasn't a ventilator, Garcia said. He wouldn't have a tube down his throat. It'd just be a mask, but even that seemed horrendous to him.

It sounded like once he was hooked up to that thing it'd mean it was all over for him. Once they put him on it, it could cause all kinds of horrible side effects, and he didn't want it.

Daniel was in the bed behind him again. It was the only thing that made his life bearable right now.

Johnny was laid in his arms, as Daniel gently ran his fingers through his hair.

He had his eyes closed, but he heard someone enter the room, and then Daniel started to talk, his voice barely above a whisper.

"I hope it's OK for me to be in here," Daniel said. "He's having a bad day."

"It's OK. You don't have to get up," Doctor Garcia said. "Anything to help him feel better is good."

"I'm not asleep," Johnny said, cracking an eye open. "I can hear you talking about me."

He moved his legs against the bed, trying to scratch them against the cotton sheets.

"You still using that flowery shit in the laundry?" Johnny asked, opening his eyes and looking up at Daniel.

"Huh?" Daniel said.

"I'm itchy again," Johnny complained.

"Itchy?" Garcia asked.

"He had a rash on his legs a few weeks ago," Daniel said. "I think he was allergic to the detergent I was using, but I threw it out. I haven't used it since."

"Do you mind if I take a look?" Garcia asked, as he moved towards the end of the bed.

"OK," Johnny replied.

The Doctor pulled back the sheets, rolled up one leg of Johnny's pyjama pants, then the other.

"When did you have this rash before?" he asked, as he pulled the sheets back down.

"It was the first time he was sick," Daniel said.

"Johnny," the doctor said, as he picked up the chart and flipped through it. "All your notes say you're an Uber driver, but have you done any construction work or landscaping within the last year?"

"Yeah," Johnny said, nodding his head. "I quit maybe 6 or 7 weeks ago."

"Did you just work locally?"

"We were renovating a house in Encino," Johnny replied.

"So you never worked in the San Joaquin Valley, Fresno, Santa Barbara, or Monterey? Anywhere outside of the local area?"

"No," Johnny said, shaking his head. "Just Encino."

"Wait," Daniel interrupted. "You went out to Santa Barbara to dig up that tree. That was the day you came home and had dirt in your hair."

The Doctor ran to the door and called someone over.

"Sally, can you arrange for a blood draw, a CT scan and a Lumbar puncture?"

"I'll get straight on it," the nurse said.

"What's going on?" Johnny asked.

"I don't think you have Pneumonia," Garcia said. "Well, you do, but it's a symptom of something else, rather than the cause of your illness."