Walking into the ward, Aaron was looking at two rows of beds with about 12 beds in them. Some of the beds were empty, but there were about 8 beds with boys either sleeping or sitting up reading comics or watching TV. Aaron wished he could be one of those boys, they all had either hospital gowns on or pajamas. Aaron could see that some of them even had underwear on under their pajamas!
Michael took Aaron and Conner to the end of the ward and there, behind drawn curtains Aaron saw Alex laying there in the bed. Alex was laying flat on the bed with no pillow under his head and had a big bandage wrapped around his head that covered his left ear; the one the guard smacked two days earlier. Coming from the bottom of the bandaged ear was a tube that went down the side of the bed and then went under it. Alex had one more tube in him; it came from his right wrist to a tube that came from a bottle over Alex’s bed. It dripped a clear liquid into the tube and a machine that kept making beeping sounds.
Aaron didn’t really know what he was looking at. He got next to Alex and watched him sleeping. “Is, is he going to be OK Michael?” Aaron asked. “Alex has a very bad infection and he’s asleep because of the medicine that is trying to stop the infection,” Michael said to both boys. “It’s going to take a little time to work, so he needs to sleep as much as he can.” “Is he going to die?” Aaron asked.
Michael made it a personal policy to never lie to the boys in his care. He knew that they had a lifetime of lies and bullshit and he wanted no part of it. He always chose his words very carefully when it came to the boys. False hope was worse than the truth. Michael rarely shed tears; he had been in the system way too long for that to happen. “We don’t know,” Michael said and needed to adjust some curtains on the bed next door.
Conner was on the other side of the bed from Aaron. His hand rubbed slowly across Alex’s stomach. Alex’s breathing was constant, but very slow. Conner leaned forward and pushed up Alex’s pajama top uncovering his belly button. He kissed Alex on the tummy. “He’s very hot!” Conner said. “We need to let him sleep,” Michael said to both boys and took Conner by the hand.
Aaron looked down at Alex. He didn’t exactly know why, but he bent down and kissed Alex. Michael needed to get the fuck out of there real fast. They returned to the group and Michael told a group of trustees to take the boys to the unit to wash up and prepare for lunch. The boys filed out as Michael sank into a chair racked with emotions that he wanted no part of. Michael was emotionally burning out like a Roman candle. He was slipping really fast and he knew it.
Doc didn’t say anything, he watched the exchange from his desk and took out a pad and did some writing. He handed the sheet of paper he had been writing on to one of his assistants and got up and walked over to Michael and sat down in the chair beside him. Neither man said anything to each other. They had been together now for over 8 years and knew each others moods very well. The assistant came back with a glass of water and two pills and handed them to Doc. “The boys will be fine for this afternoon and you’ll be back with them by dinner. Take these and go lie down on a bed in the ward Michael, It’s mandatory,” Doc said to his friend.
By invoking the phrase “It’s mandatory” Doc knew that Michael would cease any objections to his being put down. Even the smallest and youngest boy in the unit knew that “It’s mandatory” stopped any and all argument from a prisoner, it was going to happen and that was the end of it. “Rules” could be bent, mandatory was set in concrete. Michael took the pills from Doc’s hand and took the water. The trustee who brought the pills to him helped him get up out of the chair and Michael laid down in the bed next to Alex. Once again, Michael made an error in judgment; he cared and was paying the price for it.
Doc was making preparations. He called a meeting with his assistants to discuss Alex. If the fever ran out of control, Alex would die. At 104.5 Alex’s temperature was critically high. At that temperature, his brains were cooking and he could go into convulsions and die. “Let’s start ice packs and alcohol wraps on the patient. We have to get his body temperature down. Monitor him constantly, if the fever rises to 105 we will need to get him into an ice bath. If it goes to 105.5 we’ll start ice water enemas. If it rises to 106 for more than 2 or 3 hours, we’ve lost him. He won’t have a mind if he lives,” Doc told his team. “I will expect that everything we’re going to need will be within 15 feet of that boy stat.” Doc was pessimistic that he could save Alex. His chief worry was that the boy wasn’t putting up a fight; he was allowing himself to die.
“Monitor the rectal tears for the next three days. We’re not out of the woods as far as a sepsis is concerned” Doc reminded his crew. “Make sure the caretakers have the necessary tools: ointment, diapers and suppositories. I want temperature readings on every one of them every 3 hours for the next 24. If we’ve got any problems, that’s where it will show up first.” Doc’s assistants nodded and prepared to follow his orders. Doc knew they were competent, and would follow his directions to the letter. Doc needed to lay down and rest. At 63 years old, he had been treating children now for almost 40 years. The possibility of losing a child always took a heavy toll on him. “If the patient spikes, you will call me immediately,” Doc reminded his team and left for his room next to the ward.
DOC’S STORY
Closing the door to his room behind him, Doc sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. This was his 10th year of a 5 to 15 year sentence he received for possession of child pornography. For over 27 years Doc had an extremely successful career as a pediatrician. During those years, not once did Doc ever inappropriately touch a child, but he was drawn to the beauty of them.
In children’s bodies he saw a purity and innocence that drew him like a moth to a flame. He absolutely hated the affliction. If there was a piece of his brain that could be cut out to rid him of his thoughts, he would have put the scalpel to it himself. His only release short of actually touching them he found in magazines and pictures. His collection started in Holland on vacation there. Spring cleaning one day his wife found a box in his closet and Doc’s former life and marriage disintegrated.
Doc was sentenced to prison for looking at pictures of naked children. There were no pictures that were sexually explicit, they were pictures from nudist magazines, but they showed children’s vaginas and penises. Every judge and prosecutor knew that if a person viewed a child’s naked body, they were a sexual predator waiting for the opportunity to fuck kids’ brains out.
As with all sentences allotted to prisoners in the State of New York to first time offenders, the sentence of 5 to 15 years was split into thirds. He had to spend a minimum of 5 years behind bars. At the end of the 5 years, he was eligible for parole and would be on parole for the next 10 years. If he did not make parole, or chose not to accept it, he would be released under supervision of the probation department after 10 years. Unless he refused probation and then he would serve the full 15 year sentence.
Doc learned what every other person who was convicted of “sex crimes” knew in very short order. Officially the sentence ended after 15 years maximum. In reality, that conviction brought a lifetime sentence of harassment and abuse by the authorities. The sentence never ends. It’s a scarlet letter. Doc refused parole after 5 years; he had absolutely nothing to gain by accepting it. 2 months earlier, Doc refused to accept “conditional release” at the 10 year mark. Again, why leave one prison for another; it didn’t make any sense to him. Doc had another 5 years to serve, in all probability he would decide what date his obituary was written on. He had absolutely no intentions of ever leaving prison standing up.
Doc and the trustees of Elmira were more fortunate than most “perverts” in prison and they knew it. They were part of a program developed by their jailors. There are many programs within the prison system designed to enhance the guards’ salaries, Elmira is just one of them. Doc was a very valuable asset to the program, he kept the children healthy and away from outside contact with people who might ask questions that none of the guards wanted answered.
Now with the present situation concerning the 12 year old Alex, Doc was deeply depressed about not being able to hold the perpetrator responsible. The man belonged on the other side of the fence but Doc knew that would never happen.
There was no way that the guards who controlled Doc were going to bring the incident to light, it could bring down a spotlight even bigger than the one created by the guards at Fishkill when Donna Payant was killed by Lemual Smith and the entire program almost unraveled because of the ensuing investigation. Spotlights were out. The guard could kill or maim children with complete immunity and there was nothing Doc could do about it.
Doc heard the bell go off for chow, and decided he would join the children who were now gathering in the mess hall for lunch. The new children had a full day ahead of them, they would be receiving their identification cards, have their fingerprints and photo’s taken, have their teeth and chest x-rayed, vision, and hearing tested and that would all have to be done by 5:00; it was going to be a full afternoon for everyone, and then there was Alex and another boy on the ward with appendicitis.
The new boys were returned to the units they had slept in the night before and once again, the doors locked behind them as they entered. Aaron walked back in with Conner, holding Conner’s hand on the journey. Once back in the unit, Aaron looked at Conner’s diaper with envy. Even though all the other boys were also naked except for the ones now in diapers, Aaron wasn’t used to walking around stark naked. If he had access to a diaper, he would have put it on in a flash. One week earlier, he wouldn’t have considered it. However, there were no options, what was the use of even bothering to think about it. His dick was out for public display; fuck it he thought to himself.
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