Previous Chapters
Chapter 1: https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot
Chapter 2: https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-eb2
Chapter 3
It rained C.J.’s entire drive to work. Surprisingly he got to work earlier than usual, but Kirk’s car wasn’t parked out front. He decided to go ahead and open up the store, just then he got a text message from Kirk.
“Hey C.J. Kirk here. I’m not coming in today. I’m pretty sick, I’ll need you to close up too. I guess it’s good you didn’t work yesterday, right?”
C.J. swiped the message and started to put his phone away, reconsidered, then texted back. “No problem Kirk, feel better.”
C.J. wasn’t too upset about not having to interact with Kirk today. He could play whatever music he wanted, so he did, and he danced through the rest of the opening process.
There was a steady stream of customers in the store that otherwise uneventful day. Before he knew it, it was time to close up the shop. The store was empty so he put the music back on, just loud enough to fill in, but not overwhelm the silence. C.J. ran out to dispose of the trash then came back and started reconciling the cash register. He didn’t remember hearing the backdoor latch, but maybe that’s because the music was too loud.
Then a loud squeak of rubber caught his attention. He didn’t turn around but sensed something on his right side so he swung his elbow up, hard. He made contact with something metallic and an unpleasant vibration radiated through his right arm. He recoiled and tried to use the back of his head as a weapon, it didn’t work. Whoever stood behind him was losing their patience, “Stop! Give me…” C.J. shuffled again then felt a sharp pain on the back of his head. He felt himself falling as everything went black.
***
Ring-ring-ring
“Hello”
“Hello, is this Sebastian Jacobson?”
“Yes, though I’m not accustomed to receiving calls this early in the morning.”
“Sorry, I’ll get right to it sir, one, Caleb Jacobson, was just admitted to the hospital with a head injury.”
“What happened to him!?”
“Sir, I don’t know, he’s here, and he’s stable. This is Standard Well Health Clinic, I didn’t mention that before. Also I’m sorry.”
Grandpa hung up the phone and took a few seconds to collect himself. He tried to call out, but the first sound he made was less than a croak. Finally, with some determination he managed to speak up, “Ann, are you awake?”
“Yes, who was it dear?”
“We need to get over to SWHC, C.J. is injured.”
Nana, stood, “I guess we better get going.”
The next week was a blur. Nana and Grandpa made at least two daily trips to the hospital during C.J.’s stay. They spoke with Kirk about worker’s compensation insurance and the doctor’s about medical expenses. Bottom line, this was going to cost C.J. a lot of money. Eventually C.J. would come to understand what they already knew; he would be moving into their house. So while they weren’t traveling to the hospital they spent their extra time clearing out what would be C.J.’s bedroom.
During the excavation Grandpa stumbled upon keepsakes from a long time ago, how did I forget about these? He smiled as he riffled through an old map of some land he purchased just before he met Ann, and a treasure trove of camping gear and navigation supplies. They hadn’t visited their property up north in years. As he finished transporting everything to the garage he thought, I wonder if now is a good time for C.J. to take a trip.
He met Ann in the kitchen and they packed themselves some food to take back to the hospital and headed out the door. They were really hoping for some good news.
***
When C.J. opened his eyes the doctor was staring down at him. “Hello C.J. I'm Doctor Jenkins, I’d like to ask you a few questions. How do you feel about that?”
“Umm, hi, sure go ahead Doctor Jenkins.”
“Where are you C.J.?”
“I just woke up, I’m wherever this is ” C.J. raised his arms for effect.
“What happened to you?”
“I’m pretty sure I got hit in the back of the head, it still aches.”
“Do you know what day it is?”
“No I don’t. Maybe, it’s Wednesday, I was attacked the day after my day off, my day off is Tuesday.”
The doctor nodded, “head trauma can take a while to clear; it’s Tuesday.”
C.J. shook his head in disbelief, “Tuesday a week later? Has anyone been to visit me?”
“Of course, your grandparents just left, they’ll be back though. I need to step out to check on another patient, just tap that buzzer if you need anything before we make our next rounds.”
C.J. dozed off.
Kirk’s voice woke him up. “Hey C.J.! Wake up, do you know who did this?”
Groggily, C.J. responded, “I never saw who hit me Kirk. It all happened so fast.”
Kirk stopped typing on his phone, “do you think you’ll be able to come in tomorrow?”
Luckily for C.J. the doctor walked in, “I don’t think that’s a good idea, he’ll need another week of rest, even if he isn’t at the hospital.”
Kirk whined, “Really, it’s been a week.”
The doctor noticed C.J.’s irritation and graciously came to his rescue. “I’m sorry, Kirk was it? We need to let C.J. rest. Can you please excuse us?”
Kirk glared at the doctor and turned to leave. He stopped at the threshold, looked back and said, “I don’t carry workers’ compensation insurance, it isn’t a requirement, I checked. Just so you know.”
C.J. was glad to see him go.
C.J. shook his head and looked at the doctor, “how much is this going to cost me?”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, someone from our billing department will be reaching out to you.”
C.J. sighed, “that sounds like it’s going to be expensive.”
The doctor pressed his lips together, gave C.J. a curt nod and strolled out of the room.
C.J. stared at his feet; lost in thought about the potential cost of his unfortunate head trauma. Just in the periphery of his sight he saw what he thought was a blur of plaid. He turned his head toward the door and let his eyes settle on the new target of his mindless stare, the door frame. Ever so slowly, a blue square of plaid emerged, followed by a green square, then more and more of the pattern appeared. Grandpa slowly revealed himself from the left side of the door imitating a crab in slow motion. C.J. let loose a howl of a laugh that quickly turned into a sob. The sudden eruption of laughter freed all the emotions he’d felt since waking up in the hospital and being greeted with the ominous news of being shackled with life altering debt.
Grandpa and Nana both scurried over to offer their presence as comfort, but spoke not a word. After a few minutes C.J. was able to compose himself, “ I can’t pay for this.”
“Don’t you worry about the finances, let the old folks figure it out.” Grandpa said.
“But how Grandpa?”
Nana interrupted, “C.J. the doctor just told us you’ll be discharged today, hence the celebratory crab walk. Let’s focus on that for now, okay sweetie?”
Grandpa handed C.J. a folded piece of ancient looking paper. “You’ll never believe what I found in the house earlier this week. Check it out while we sort things out with the hospital.”
Once his grandparents left the room C.J. unfolded the paper. It looked like an old map marked with a star, the initials T.L.S. and a scrawl of nonsensical numbers. Huh, this is intriguing.
Grandpa rushed back into the room grinning and pushing a wheelchair, “did you ever think you’d be riding in one of these before me, ha!”
“Very funny grandpa.”
C.J. handed grandpa the map back and asked, “What’s T.L.S.?”
“It’s the listening spot, C.J. I went there a lot when I was your age and I think it’s a good time for you to take a trip up there, when you’re ready, ofcourse.”
“Grandpa, what's so special about it, is it just a campground?”
“Oh don’t you worry about that C.J. I’ll tell you all about it?”
Grandma stuck her head into the room, “Can we go, please?”
Woooooo! Love it
Smooth going till now. Not too fast, not too slow. Keeps you hooked. Waiting for the next part!