FicWad

‘Now, I’m telling you this with all the kindness and dignity I can muster. Get the fuck out of my bed and put the sheets in the laundry before you leave’ I snapped down the phone, hoping that Joe would leave before Kate and I got home this evening. Yesterday, though fun to catch up with friends, did not have any benefits for my health. I drank a shit tonne of alcohol including perno, beer, vodka, shots, cocktails and don’t judge for this, rum. And yes, I was singing ‘A Pirate’s Life For Me’.

We hit bar after bar after bar, and I’m telling you, those three bars really took it out of me. The second place we arrived at, the Barracuda, was filled with young and pretty girls that Joe felt the urge to talk to and let’s face it, do more with. He found this one girl, I’m certain that what he wanted to do with her wouldn’t be legal for another year or two, and she decided to tag along with us.

What I did not expect though was this girl, Millie or something similar, to come home with us. Joe, though uninvited, decided he was spending the night at my house and in my spare room. Millie, though uninvited, decided to spend the night with Joe. Kate, even though she had promised not to overreact, was pissed that we’d arrived home so late and I still haven’t felt the full thwack of her rage because of what she had to listen to last night.

She’d been having cramps, or nightly morning sickness, I couldn’t say for sure. Her temper was slightly on edge and I’m sure she could have done without hearing Joe’s manly grunts and Millie’s girly shrill shrieking as Joe gave her the time of her life. The only reason that Kate didn’t leave me, scream and shout last night was because she wanted to keep up the pretence that we still had a happy and loving marriage.

‘Patrick?’ Kate spoke sharply.

‘Yes?’ I ask, timidly.

‘You realise you won’t get away with this?’ She remarked coolly.

‘Yes Kate’ I answered.

The morning after the night before was everything it’s said to be. Headaches, vomit, Ibuprofen, shaky driving and a certainty that you’re still drunk and are about to be pulled over. Kate wasn’t exactly supportive and I really didn’t deserve it. Joe had gotten up at daybreak to let this girl out of the house, apparently she had somewhere to be. Probably school. He’d then gone back to bed.

I’d tried ringing him throughout the morning but there was no reply, his cell was either switched off or he was so wasted he didn’t hear. Saying that, at twelve or so, he picked up. Grunting a belated ‘Good Morning’ as he answered.

‘Joe, hi, how’re you?’ I chirped, being annoyingly chipper for someone who was apparently still hung-over.

‘Uh … Dead … Am I dead? Did I make it into heaven? Wait, do I believe in heaven? Uh, I’m dead’ He exhaled, and then started to snore a little.

‘Joe … Joe? Joe! Wake the fuck up!’ I wailed down the line to my supposedly best friend.

‘Huh?’ He awoke, but not really enough to pay attention.

‘Now, I’m telling you this with all the kindness and dignity I can muster. Get the fuck out of my bed and put the sheets in the laundry before you leave’ Snapping at my Jewish friend, knowing that he was taking none of it in.

‘Sure … Sure … Sleep now’ That was it, he was gone.

I flipped the lid of my phone, not really knowing what to do now. Sighing, I considered the various ways I could spend my lunch hour. I considered going out to get food, going up to a canteen to hang out with the medical geeks or going up to surgery and looking through the window at the different operations that were going on. However, I did not even remotely consider how my lunch hour was actually spent.

Nothing ever came of my ‘date’ with Beth. I waited for possibly two hours at Becca’s coffee shop, but she never turned up, so … Two chocolate fudge cakes, three hot chocolates and a latte later I decided I’d go and meet Joe. That, in essence, was one of the main reasons we only ended up at three different bars. He’d been waiting in the first bar, totally oblivious to the fact that I was trying to salvage a friendship. To be fair, I did know that he’d be trying to hook up with some chick a lot younger than himself and I’d only cramp his style.

‘Patrick … I mean, Doctor … Patrick, get to Gerard’s room now, he needs you. He’s having a massive freak out and really needs you’ Beth burst in to my office just as I’d made my mind up. I was about to go to Burger King or KFC or somewhere similar to get lunch when I was summoned to Gerards room. It actually turned out that he was not there and, on a hunch, I went up to Frank’s room.

Gerard was curled up in the visitor’s chair that was just to the left of Frank’s bed. He couldn’t look at Frank, averting his eyes from any part of his body. The monitors were ignored, the wires connecting themselves to Frank’s body weren’t looked at and, generally speaking, he was quite cold towards me as well.

‘Gee, what’s up, buddy?’ I enquired, less than professionally.

‘They don’t understand Patrick, they don’t get it’ He sighed, his freak out having calmed down completely.

‘Don’t get what?’ I ask, hoping for an answer a little less cryptic than the last, ‘What’s happened?’

‘The parents,’ He flicked a quick side-long glance, ‘His parents’

‘What about them?’ I ask a little impatiently.

‘They say I’m ‘Incapable of making reasonable decisions’ and, yeah, they signed the form Patrick’ Using air-quotes to represent the parts of Frank’s parents, Gerard served the crushing blow. They were turning off his life support, ‘Friday. They are killing him on Friday’

Breaking down into another bout of hysterical sobs, it had finally hit home. Managing to extract little more than a tiny amount of information I found out that Mr and Mrs Iero had taken up their ‘Next-of-kin’ rights and had taken away Franks right to have medical care. They wouldn’t even allow Gerard to be responsible for his care. It was the injustice of situations like this.

Friday, November 9th 2007 rolled around soon enough, and for the first time I was allowed a glimpse into the suffering Frank had had to endure. At 9AM sharp I arrived at the hospital and within another ten minutes I was at Frank’s bedside supporting Gerard. His parents arrived within another ten minutes followed by a priest, Dr. Martin, Frank’s physician and Dr. Tennant, Frank’s surgeon. Mikey Way was also there, holding what looked like a guitar case in his hands.

‘May he rest in peace’ Father Reed finished giving Frank his last rites, it was the Iero’s last attempt at getting the family into heaven.

‘Wait, I need to ask something, I need to do something,’ Gerard stopped as Doctor Martin turned towards his life-support machine, ‘Patrick?’

‘Uh … Go ahead’ I nodded.

‘Frank and I loved music. We loved to just lie down, relax and chill out with our favourite bands on in the background. I guess music was one of the most important things in Frank’s life, and sometimes I thought it was more important than me. He loved to play his guitar and I loved to listen to him play. He taught me how to play a couple of track as well. Ones that he’d written himself, ones that he just loved to hear, I guess’ Gerard stopped and looked around, ‘So … What I’m asking is, can I play a song for Frank before …?’

His voice broke but it didn’t stop him from carrying on, the only thing he had on his mind was making Frank proud or at least impressing him a little. It made him all the more adamant that he would not break down, not in front of the people that were causing all of this grief at least. He held his emotions away from the on looking, though small, crowd.

‘That would be nice’ Father Reed chipped in, making unlikely that the Iero’s would object.

‘One of the songs he loved most, it was actually the first song he taught me how to play and the only one I managed to do well, was a song called ‘The Trapeze Swinger’. I remember we were listening to it one night; it was quite late, at least one in the morning. Frank was just about to fall asleep when he told me; he said that he was going to die to this song. Let me give him that, it’s what he wants’ He looked at me, and then to everyone else in the room, accordingly. There were no more questions asked, everyone nodded to his request. Even the begrudging Iero’s.

‘Go for it, Gee’ Mikey hollered from the back of the room, making his way to his older brother to hand him the guitar.

‘Ok, so … Goodbye Frank’ Gerard pulled the guitar out of the case as Doctor Martin moved towards the monitor. Switches were flicked, as Gerard began to strum on the guitar strings. The beeping continued for a little after the life-support was removed, life taken away. Gerard started to sing the song Frank had requested. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Flat line.

‘Please remember me happily, by the rose bush laughing.’