Page 84 of Light Up
“Yes. The impact would have shaken your brain.”
Benjamin brought coffee and toast to the table and blew out a noisy breath as he sat down.
“What?” Tal asked, moving his coffee to the right position.
“Louis shouldn’t tell you but if I do, maybe that’s not as bad.”
“Something about Corey?”
“Yes. Louis took a huge risk.”
Tal gritted his teeth.
“I’m going to tell you what he found out. Corey spent a year in a psychiatric unit when he was nineteen. Not voluntarily. He was sectioned. That’s why Louis doesn’t want you to listen to him.”
“A year? Do you know why he was sectioned?”
“Yes, but I’m not going to tell you.”
“Louis wasn’t kind to Corey.”
“I know. I gave him some shit about that. I think part of it was worry about you, the other part guilt for having checked Corey’s records. He thinks pushing Corey out of your life is the best thing to do.”
“Not his decision. Louis took it from me.”
Benjamin chewed his lip. “Are you remembering something?”
“Things that don’t make sense.”
“You had a bad head injury.”
“So did Corey.”
“That’s not a reason to go looking for him.”
“Can you find out where he is?”
Benjamin whined. “That’s a really bad idea. If he’s fixated on you, then getting in touch is bad for him and you. The answer is no, in any case.”
Tal wasn’t listening to no. Things…memories…made-up stuff—he couldn’t differentiate between what was real and what was not—kept sliding in and out of his head. Benjamin had already told him how complex the brain was, how it wasn’t understood. Tal recalled a joke about wearing Speedos. Corey eating poached eggs. Where the hell had that come from?
When he went up to his room supposedly to rest, he called the police and then the hospital. He hadn’t expected either to tell him Corey’s address, but he got a little more information from the police about the accident. Still no truck driver apprehended but they’d been looking at CCTV and had some leads. After Tal managed to speak to a member of the hospital staff who remembered Corey sneaking in to see him, he discovered Corey hadn’t anywhere to go.
“That’s as much as I’m prepared to tell you,” said the nurse.
“You didn’t let him leave without a place to stay!”
“Of course not.”
Tal thought about it. The hospital had been in Deaton. If Corey didn’t have an address to go to, they’d have found him somewhere local. There had to be a limited number of places for homeless people. Tal looked them up and began to call them. He had his story ready. He knew if he simply asked if Corey was there, they wouldn’t tell him.
“Hello, I’m looking to get in touch with a young man named Corey Jenkins. He and I were injured in a car accident a few days ago and treated at Deaton hospital. We were in different wards. Corey saved my life and I want to thank him. Could you please give him my name and number if he’s staying with you and ask him to get in touch?”
Only one place took his number, which was rather foolish of them or maybe more foolish of the ones that didn’t. The one that did was the YMCA. Tal knew it was a gamble. He wasn’t a gambling man, but the deep need to see Corey was pressing on him in a way that he wasn’t used to. He didn’t feel he could ask Benjamin to drive him, so he arranged an Uber to take him there and back. Expensive but he didn’t care.
When he had notification that the car had arrived, Tal told Benjamin he was going for a walk and left before any attempt could be made to stop him.
It was a long journey when he couldn’t be sure Corey would be there. Unwise perhaps, but as each mile passed, Tal felt more and more certain he was doing the right thing.
