Page 83 of Hunter's Hidden Camera
“Sure.”
“How’d you, like, get pregnant?”
Henry, the Asian dude, leans forward. “I jerked off into a cup.”
“Jesus, Henry,” Jo says, “watch your mouth. These are teenagers.”
“Oh, honey.” Darin wags his finger. “Kids these days have heard and seen far worse.”
Oscar nods his head up and down, almost comically. “You got that right!”
Jo explains, “When Patricia and I decided we wanted to have a baby, we looked into all the ways it could be done. And we decided we wanted a sperm donor who we actually knew personally. And Henry was our guy.”
Darin keeps wagging his finger. “I’m still offended y’all didn’t ask me.”
“They wanted a half-Asian baby,” says Henry. “Half-Asian babies are the cutest!”
The three adults laugh. Oscar starts laughing too, unsure of what he’s laughing about.
Patricia appears. “We can’t get the x-rays back tonight. It’s too late, and there aren’t enough people, and they’re backed up.”
“Typical.” Jo sighs.
“Yeah,” says Patricia. “They’re trying to take care of these two patients here who came in with really gruesome stab wounds.”
“Wait. What?” I say.
“Yeah. One took a knife to the stomach, and the other one got stabbed in the neck.”
Oscar and I look at each other. The color starts draining from his face.
Patricia couldn’t possibly be talking about Nash and Nikolai, could she? If they survived, why would they drive an hour to come to this hospital instead of going to one close to where they already were?
“Those two guys who got stabbed.” My voice is trembling. “Where did they come from?”
Patricia cocks her head. “What? Why?”
“Please tell me,” I plead.
“They went to the ER at some hospital, and the doctors and nurses got the bleeding under control. But they didn’t get a chance to finish treatment, because the staff got overwhelmed with patients and the two guys got agitated and left. And then one of the guys drove both of them all the way here because this was a hospital that he was familiar with. He used to live around here or something, and he wanted to be close to home.”
“Did you see those guys? What they looked like?”
“No. A coworker told me about them. What’s this all about, Hunter?”
“Nothing.” I stand up. “Since we can’t get the x-rays tonight, we should go. I really need to rest.”
“Okay,” Patricia says, “but let’s stop off at a pharmacy first, so we can get you some ibuprofen for the pain.”
Henry says, “Oh, come on, Patricia, can’t you get these guys something stronger? Prescribe them something?”
Patricia scoffs. “I’m not about to prescribe some kids someOxyContin, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
Darin looks at Henry, “That’s right, honey. Don’t you know we’re in the middle of a nationwide epidemic?”
“Ibuprofen is fine!” I say, probably too loudly. “Let’s just go. Sorry. It’s been a lot tonight.”
Darin rolls his neck. “Okay. Let’s get these twinks some ibuprofen.”
