I awoke in my roommate's bed with my arms around his naked chest. "Leo?"
"Yeah?" The sexy Hispanic hippie yawned, stretching his back. This drew my attention to a bright red tattoo on his pectoral. The previous night, when he was balls deep in my ass, I had assumed it was a logo of some kind. Now I could see clearly it was a grumpy Care Bear.
'Cute.' The true mark of a 90's kid. "How long are you going to be in town?"
"As long as you need me to be." Leo smiled and kissed my cheek. "Truth or dare?"
"Truth, I guess."
"When did you lose your virginity?"
I forced a chuckle. "I was eighteen, living in Vegas, with my mom. So, for my high school graduation, a few of my friends pulled together our cash and shared a call-girl. She was one of those expensive ones, nice clothes, perfect hair, classy, like the hot school teacher stereotype. She even met my mother."
"She met your mom?" Leo threw his head back in laughter. As a fellow Hispanic he knew my pain. "Let me guess, she was posing as a friend's older sister or cousin, and your mom needed to meet her to prove that you'll have a nice Christian fun time?"
"It was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. My mom refused to let me go to my friend's 'party' without meeting his 'mother.' And yes, our high-class escort was that much older." I couldn't recall much, only that she had been a kind woman in her late thirties, who specialized in taking the virginity of shy, inexperienced men. "I have a feeling if we'd picked up a younger one, she wouldn't have been as tolerant of my circle of virgins." I sighed, as I kissed Leo's cheek. "It was one last night of fun before heading off to college in Seattle, discovering a new world of beautiful men. Like father like son, I guess." The idea filled me with guilt, thoughts of my mother. She never knew I lost my virginity to a prostitute, or that I was even into guys. "Truth or dare?"
Leo thought for a moment. "Dare."
"Do you think my dad could come to visit?"
"Absolutely," Leo said with a smirk. "I think he'd be a lot of fun." Leo stayed in bed while I got dressed for my shift at the clinic.
One long sweaty bike ride later, I arrived to the sight of Tomas waiting outside the front door. The nurse was looking at his watch while flipping through his chart.
"Hello, Jeff."
"Were you waiting for me?"
Tomas nodded as he turned to enter the building. "I have some unfortunate news."
"Do you live here?" I asked as I attempted to follow. Tom was in significantly better shape and as such was a much faster walker.
"Your father suffers from panic attacks and sleep seizures, it's vital that he be given access to care 24 hours a day."
"So, that's a yes?"
"Correct. I reside in military housing until my next transfer."
"So, you're like his personal nurse?" I asked, breaking into a jog as we finally reached my father's room. The door opened to reveal an empty bed. "Where is he?"
Tomas calmly took a seat, taking a sip from a can of soda that was already open. "Richard took a turn for the worst last night. He lost consciousness on the way to the bathroom and took a bad tumble."
"Where is my father?" Was he dead?
"Richard Blake has been temporarily moved to the ICU."
"Which is where?" I asked, getting truly annoyed.
"South building, third floor. last I heard he was in room five, it's not hard to find." His tone seemed to imply he would wait for me to return.
"Because there are only seven ICU rooms?"
"Ten actually," Tomas said as he opened a nearby laptop. "If someone is too sick, they get transferred to the public hospital."
"Ok." I knew he added that last hint for a reason. The nurse wanted to see my next move. I headed to the ICU with my identification in hand. I did, in fact, have a plan in mind.
As I suspected, Richard Blake had no next of kin or power of attorney listed (so he would have absolutely been sent to the public hospital to die.) I was able to meet with a social worker and with my identification (cross referenced with my father's military records,) our blood relation was confirmed. With my father's current state, I was granted medical power of attorney. "Would you like me to accompany you to his room?" she asked.
"No, I'll just pop my head in for a quick second," I replied, using the excuse that I had to get to my volunteer shift. "I'll be ten minutes tops, then I'm assuming Tomas Adele will be checking in on him throughout the day."
I walked down the hallway, to the small patient ward. Rooms 1-4 housed comatose patients, attached to several machines. Room five was at the far end. From outside the door, I could hear moaning; it sounded like a cross between masturbation and my father shifting his sleeping position out of boredom. Leaning towards the former (based on our previous interaction,) I made sure to quickly pull the door shut. Turns out I was only partially correct.
The window was open letting in the bright sunlight of the South Dakota morning. Richard Blake had just finished ejaculating all over his stomach. He was now sleeping naked like a cat bathing in the warm sun, giving me a good look at the unique variety of scars and tattoos covering his exposed skin.
On his stomach was a massive scar, something that looked to be from a large knife. The injury had mutilated a black and gray script tattoo. To the naked eye it appeared to be just random marks. I walked to the sink and moistened a handful of paper towels with the intention of gently cleaning off my father's body before other staff members could stumble upon his compromised state.
As I stroked the warm moisture over his slender stomach, I knew he was only pretending to be asleep. "Is that a Las Vegas tattoo?"
Richard chuckled, his voice scratchy and deep, "A relic from another life."
"Want to talk about it?"
"Nothing much to say; boy meets girl; a strong beautiful first-generation daughter of immigrants. She's the only one who could ever match his level of crazy. We ran off to Las Vegas like the dumbass kids we were. She wanted to be a dancer. Not like a stripper but those dancers who look like they do ballet in outer space. You know what I'm talking about."
"Cirque du Soleil?"
"Yeah, that's it. I could never remember how to say that crap."
"What did you want to do in Vegas?"
"In truth, I wanted to be a chef."