Sky Pirates

Chapter 57

Parker Greene woke from a dream. He took his time opening his eyes, still enjoying the heavy, soft sensation, like he was adrift on a luscious feather bed, surrounded by—

"He's waking up!"

"Hmmm, no," Parker murmured.

Someone placed a cold towel against his forehead. He tried to reach for it, but his arms were pinned to the bed.

"No."

Now, a man's hand, rough and large, was softly slapping him. Not to hurt him, but to pull him forward into the world, into reality. He struggled to keep the dream going, but it was lost to him. No dream. No reality. He drifted in blackness, feeling the hand, thinking of the feather bed. Parker wondered if this is how God felt, how the great Creator experienced the world.

"Parker, come back to us."

That wonderful voice. Whose voice was that? He imagined warm breath against his ear as that voice emerged from swollen lips that tasted of him.

"Parker."

He struggled now to open his eyes. He realized something was wrong, very wrong.

"You can see he's coming back to us." This voice was a woman's. "Just let him come in his own time."

The man ignored her advice. "Parker!" More slapping, a little aggressive now.

"I..." He tried to speak, but nothing more came. Then, suddenly, as if filled with some new spirit, he opened his eyes. Before him, touching him, looking hard at him was Able Currant. Not his lover. Not his friend. The enemy. A pirate. "I..."

"You are back!" Able exclaimed and leaned down closer and closer and kissed Parker full on the mouth. A joyous kiss. "You've come back to us. We've all been so worried." Able indicated the room. Parker could feel people there, but couldn't raise his own head.

"Don't worry. Within a day or two you'll have a full recovery, sir."

"Who? You?"

"Oh, we are all here," said Dr. Collier.

"The last time..."

"Don't try and talk," said Collier. He sat now at the side of the bed and forced a tincture into Parker's mouth. "It shall be like old times. The kind women will bring you broth and help you eat it and I shall check in on you several times."

It was the man he remembered from his college days. The physician who taught biology and administered aspirin and casts to the collection of young boys. It was both a joy and a sadness to see the man again. To know that he, among the other pirates, must be left behind to die, or even killed in the scuffle. Parker had always liked the good, Dr. Collier. But, now, he was one more link in a chain that was binding the world.

Together, Able and Collier adjusted Parker up into a sitting position and one of the little women got up close to him and fed him broth one large spoonful after another. As her hand approached his face the ring she wore grew terrifyingly large before his eyes. When she saw him watching the ring, she smiled at him and then winked. Everyone knew what must be done, what must happen soon. He ate the soup as readily as he could in a desire to regain his strength as quickly as possible.

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