Free Glimpse by Steve Whibley Page A

for a second and then said, “What if these hallucinations are really… visions?”
    â€œ Dean .”
    All three of us jumped and looked down at the newspaper. For a second I think we all thought that one of the faces in the newspaper had said my name, and it wasn’t until we heard it again that we realized it was coming from the top of the bed.
    â€œMr. V… Vidmar?”
    The man’s swollen eyes fluttered, then opened and searched around the room. He coughed and pointed at me. “Dean Curse?”
    â€œY… yes, sir.”
    His eyes drooped and opened again. He seemed to be struggling to stay awake. “You c… came. I kn… knew you vud.” He struggled to speak, and I had to really concentrate to understand him through his thick Russian accent.
    I stepped closer to the bed, and the man strained to shift his weight.
    â€œSir, we just wanted to come—”
    â€œI’m s… sorry,” the man rasped.
    â€œSorry?” I said. I wondered if we should call a doctor or nurse—he sounded almost out of breath.
    He glanced at my friends and then back to me. “I’m sorry, Dean. I h… had to give it t… to someone. I th… thought I was dying. I couldn’t let it die with me.”
    â€œYou’re going to be fine,” I said. “Just hang in—”
    â€œYou had to give him what?” Colin interrupted. “What couldn’t die with you?”
    â€œDmitri… ask Dmitri about Pripyat.”
    â€œPreewhat?” I asked. “Who?”
    The machines at his bedside started beeping faster until they sounded like a group of panicking robots.
    â€œWhat’d you have to give to Dean?” Colin pressed.
    â€œColin,” Lisa scolded. “Stop. We need to call a nurse.”
    â€œWhat are these kids doing in here?”
    I spun around as three people—a woman in a white knee-length lab coat who I figured was a doctor and a man and woman in faded blue scrubs—strode into the room. “We were just—”
    â€œAre you family?” the doctor asked.
    â€œN… no.”
    â€œNurse! Get these kids out of here.”
    A different nurse than the one we’d met rushed into the room and placed her hands on Colin’s shoulders. “C’mon, you three. You can visit again tomorrow. He needs his rest.”
    â€œWait,” Colin demanded, “we still have questions.”
    â€œCheck his oh-two stats,” one of the doctors said.
    The man in scrubs went to the head of the bed and pressed his stethoscope to Mr. Vidmar’s chest. “Sir,” she said, “I just need you to relax and take a couple deep breaths.”
    Mr. Vidmar barked something in Russian and then craned his neck around the doctor. “Save them, Dean,” he said, his voice stern and even. “Save as many as you can.”
    The doctor pressed Mr. Vidmar back into the bed. “I need you to lay down, sir.”
    I wanted to ask more questions, but the nurse grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of the room. “You three certainly managed to get Mr. Vidmar excited,” she said. “But you heard the doctor—he needs his rest. I’m afraid that at least for the time being, Mr. Vidmar will only be able to have visits from family. Perhaps in a few weeks you could try again.” She rushed back into the room and swung the door behind her. It latched shut in our faces with a heavy click .

Chapter 12
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    We lingered outside Mr. Vidmar’s room for a few minutes, hoping the doctors would come out and tell us we could see him again. They didn’t.
    â€œWell, that was a big waste of time,” Colin said, pacing the width of the hall. “We didn’t get any of the answers we wanted to get.”
    â€œThat was awful,” Lisa muttered. “That poor man.”
    Colin looked at me. “Who’s Dmitri?”
    I shook my head and turned away. All I could think about