Chapter 9
Tim opened his eyes when he felt the presence of someone standing over his bed. He recognized the face. But the clothes… they made him do a double take. Tony was in doctor garb. What was going on?
“Halloween’s past, Tony.” Tim stated as he suppressed a yawn.
“Yep.” Tony replied. “It has.”
Tim started to realize he was for real when one of his nurses showed Tony a chart and he wrote something on it.
“Your doctor, Dr. Andrews, been in to talk to you yet?” Tony asked.
Tim shook his head.
“Don’t let her fool you. She looks young and she acts it.” Tony said as he sat. “It took me months to guess her correct age.”
“You…you really are…This is really you?” Tim asked, stumbling on his words.
Tony nodded. “I’m a lot smarter than you give me credit for.”
“Why do you brag about your phys ed. Degree, Tony? I mean….”
“People who look at me don’t see a smart guy.” Tony explained. “They see me as a guy, putting on airs…trying to APPEAR smart. If I act like an idiot, it serves two purposes. First, it fulfills people’s expectations of me. Second, it disarms people and they want to talk to me. They want to tell me things, because I’m not smart enough to figure it out anyway.”
Tim just looked at Tony for a few moments. He saw himself, for the first time, the way Tony described. It was a whole lot easier to take Tony at face value. And while he knew Tony had street smarts. They, in Tim’s mind, anyway, didn’t even compute. He was all about that collegiate, scholarly stuff. But he had to admit, now anyway, while Tony would never know a hard drive the way Tim did. There was no way Tim would know the human body the way Tony did.
Tony could see the wheels turning in Tim’s head. He was about to send them spinning out of control. “I was at Johns Hopkins just a few years before you.”
Tim’s mouth opened and closed like a guppy, trying to get air.
Tony smiled as he walked out the door. “Check out the School of Medicine alumni.”
TBC
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