His Conundrums

Chapter 5

Coffee

"Hello, Mr. Lauve! How are you, doin'? I bought your food." Joe greeted the old man who looks bored, lying down in a white prison-like room.

"I think boredom can kill this old man right now." He slowly sat up, and Joe helped him settle.

"Oh! No war can kill you, but boredom does, huh?" They both laugh. Mr. Lauve's waiting for this kind of medicine, and Joe showed up right on time.

"Did someone happen to pass by?" Joe asked.

"Oh? Yes, a nurse came by giving me that basket of fruits. She said it was from someone named Mr. Sirius Welsch," he replied.

"Really? He seems kinda sweet giving you these fruits," he said, picking up the perfect red apple.

"Do you know him?" the old man asked.

"Yes, he was with you when the explosion happened," Joe explained.

"Oh! That strange guy who drinks coffee in the afternoon. I heard he was okay. He seems funny," he said.

"I thought you just have a little issue with your memory, but I think that's not just the case. You need to check your eyes, old man."

" Are you saying I have bad eyes with people?"

"No..." He was interrupted by explaining when someone knocked on the door. It was a nurse holding a cup of coffee.

"Do you have any visitors aside from me?" Joe asked him.

"Who do you think you are? Of course! Doctors and nurses came by to visit me," he exclaimed.

Someone opened the door, and it was a nurse carrying a cup that seems like a cup of coffee. "Here's your coffee Mr. Lauve," she said. She put the coffee on the table beside Mr. Lauve's bed.

"Thank you, Miss." The nurse just smiled and nodded his head and then left the room.

"She was the one who brought me this basket full of fruits, but I asked her to bring me a coffee instead."

He knew his intuitions never failed him. While Mr. Lauve was busy peeling off the banana Joe bought for him, he put the apple on the table and slowly moved the cup to the edge made it fall and break.

"Oh! Sorry about your coffee Mr. Lauve. I think I'll have to buy you some downstairs," he said, trying to pick up the broken cup from the floor.

-0-0-0-

"They're trying to kill him, and any minute now, maybe they'll send another person," Joe said while sitting on a couch.

He went directly to Sirius's apartment after buying Mr. Lauve's coffee and found out someone is trying to poison a poor old man.

"Ethylene glycol," Sirius said while checking out Mr. Lauve's coffee Joe handed him earlier.

"It has a sweet taste that you can fool it with a sweetener," he added.

"Vicious!" Joe exclaimed out.

"He needs to be monitored. We can't let him die." He grabbed his jacket and wallet and went straight to the door, leaving Joe behind.

"Did he just... left me?" he said to himself.

-0-0-0-

It was 10 minutes past 4 p.m., and the people are busy with their own business to notice a murder. Right at Redville Street, in an infamous home depot store, 15 minutes walk from Sirius' apartment, and 3 km away from the hospital, there lies a body of an old lady in her 60's, waiting to be discovered.

-0-0-0-

Their heartbeat went faster and faster as they went closer to the old man's room. Before they could even reach the door, they heard the old man screaming. Big sweat escaped their forehead. As they opened the door, three men wearing a white lab coat surrounded the old man's bed. All of them looked at who these two disrespectful people forgot to knock and even banged the door.

"Hey! Don't you know how to knock in an old man's door?" Mr. Lauve gave them an earful.

"Uhmm... who are they?" Joe asked.

"Oh, I've become friends with these doctors. They gave me this TV so I won't get bored," he said while laughing in contentment.

"They bought you a TV?!" Joe asked in disbelief.

"Nah! It's old. They moved it in from the hospital's storeroom." The old man explained.

"Mr. Welsch, how're you doing? You look well." One of the doctors approached Sirius.

"Yeah, I'm good," he said, exchanging handshakes. He saw this doctor every time he visits for a check-up with Nate. They're not acquainted, but he saw him talk to Nate before. But he didn't seem to know the other two. Maybe they were assigned to different departments. The hospital is big, and it's not that you would bump into a doctor from a different department every day.

"We're going ahead, Mr. Lauve. I hope you enjoy watching TV," said one of the doctors.

Mr. Lauve said his thanks before the doctors left the room.

It was the three of them, and only Mr. Lauve's laughs and screams filled the room. He watched a soccer team's fight, and no one can feel the excitement he felt every time his team makes a goal.

"Anyway, what brings you here? You didn't even bring me food." He can't ignore the two men watching him from one corner.