Dr. Johnson was working the night shift. He had been alerted to a patient who had been brought in with a broken leg but the strange thing was the incoherence of his father.
It was a clean break but all the dad could talk about was a magic trick and a scholarship. He was drunk and in shock about the apparent accident. Eventually he had been sent home with the threat of police action. As he was leaving he kept shouting, "Tell him he's fine. Tell him he's fine."
His patient, the young man had just woken up and pressed the call button. Dr. Johnson wanted to make sure that he knew that he was going to be ok.
He went into the room and saw the young man looking pale. His leg was in traction with pins keeping the bones in place.
He asked, "Is my leg ok?"
Trying to make light of the situation, the doctor said, "No, we had to amputate it."
The leg vanished and now there was a lump in the sheet that stopped just below the knee.
The young man passed out again and Dr. Johnson left the sad case to go and check on other patients.
It took about a week for Jake to stop crying. His leg was gone and in its place was a stump. His dad had visited him once but he wasn't able to really look at him. He stayed away.
It wasn't until late in the night shift, a skinny red haired and pale nurse came in to his room.
Jake looked up at him and he seemed familiar. But the nurse was busy fiddling with his monitors and checking his chart.
Then with a speed that was foreign to those who normally care for patients the man pulled back the sheet that was covering Jake.
The naked teen still looked like a star athlete minus about half a leg.
Then, staring coldly at the young man, he said, "You don't know me but I know you. You're Jake Collins. My little brother told me all about you. I think it's great that we're finally getting to meet. I'm Tanner Perkins and Kyle is my little brother.