Ten Months: Part 1

Welcome to a dramatic saga full of mystery and adventure. Amid disastrous upheaval, one boy's life takes one unexpected turn after another as he is forced to mature spiritually and personally. Can he overcome diabetes? Does God have a plan for his life? To whom should he turn and what kind of man is he destined to be? Least of all, can a diabetic really be a Super Hero? Kevin is unlike any Hero you've ever known! Join the adventure of a lifetime in this one of a kind serial novel. Ten Months will challenge you to ask whether or not you could be a Super Hero too.

ACT I - Confusion

"Should I get undressed now?", he asked.

"Oh, no. That's alright. The doctor will just be needing your shirt off darlin'.", the cute nurse kindly replied popping her bubble gum.

Nervously, he twiddled his thumbs. He wondered why he'd been called back to the office. His thoughts went to his game in his final year, his third in varsity, with scouts everywhere, and a game in just three weeks.

He exhaled heavily as he fought off the fears within himself. "I can't lose my spot in the starting line-up, Pop! Tyrell Jones is going to blow right by me in yardage if I have to sit out even one game this season. Whatta you think it could be?!" Just as his father attempted to open his mouth with some encouraging words, "Finally!", the boy muttered under his breath as the doctor knocked to enter the room.

"Mr. Wahbash and... Mr. Wahbash, thank you for coming back in today. I know that the call was unexpected." The doctor fumbled through his patient's records as he attempted to break the ice. "As you may know, because of the Freedman boy's death last season, the thoroughness of the examinations required for scholastic sports has come under intense scrutiny. As a result, we've begun the new regimen of examinations which you underwent three days ago, Kevin. It seems that we've gotten a few results back that are a bit perplexing. We'd just like to make sure of what we're seeing before we can sign off on your exam this year."

"Ok, well, just tell us what's going on. I mean, my boy ain't on no kind of steroids or nuthn'. So, what gives?"

The doctor replied with certainty, "Be assured sir, what we are checking up on is totally biologic in nature."

"Ok, well, out with it then, man. My boy's in his star year an' ain't nuthn' gonna put the squeeze on that."

The doctor began all of the standard touching under his patient's neck and observations with his instruments. "To be direct, Mr. Wahbash,..."

"You can call me Bo, Doc Freely. You been known' me a lot-a years."

The doctor smiled slightly, "Bo, Kevin's blood glucose levels seem oddly high." His expression changed to concern.

Bo gripped the arms of his chair tightly and thrust forward. "Suga!!! Ain't nobody related to this boy eva had suga cept some twelth cousin on his Momma's side three times removed. How in the sam hill you come to that idea, Doc?! I mean, look at this boy! He's stronga den an ox! Shoot, he done made every record there is to be made. Only one that breaks his records is him. See here Doc, you need to break them machines down to their bearings and grease 'em up or sump'm 'cause day wrong,... straight wrong!!!"

Embarrassed, Kevin chimed in, "Pop,... Pop! G - give Dr. Freely a chance please. And stop pointing your finger at him, would you?"

Bo slumped back into his chair with a twisted up face and crossed arms. He let out one of those snotty attitude puffs of air from his nose.

As Kevin waited for a glimmer of hope in his words, the doctor tried to regain control of the conversation. "Gentlemen, there are several markers that give us a reason to be concerned and,..."

ACT II - Fallout

Devin could tell his brother was bummed as soon as he entered their bedroom, "So, Kevin, what's up bro? They say you got Ebola or something?"

Kevin raised up his eyes toward his brother who was now seated on the bed directly across from his. "Look, Devin, I just got the worst news of my life." He took a long pause as Devin gestured for him to get the words out. "There's no way I'm going to college man."

"Ha!", Devin blurted, "They finally found your stupid gene."

"Man, come on! I'm not playing!" He slumped on his bed as his voice broke. "I'm not playing ever again. I can't play football this year or any other."

"What?!"

"Dude, they think I have diabetes. I almost didn't even get to come home today. They wanted to put me in the hospital. The doctor was asking me all kinds of questions about being tired and dizzy, and binge eating, and blurred vision, and how many times I take a leak, and all kinds of junk. I mean, everything he asked I told him I wasn't having those symptoms but, he didn't believe me. He ran more blood tests and then he shot me full of insulin. Now, I have to take three kinds of pills for a month and see what happens. He said I might have to shoot up on insulin for the rest of my life. Dude! My life is trashed!!!" He collapsed onto his bed completely now. His brother closed his eyes and sadly shook his head as Kevin clutched his pillow and began to sob. Struggling through his sadness and crackling voice, he said, "You should get tested too man. We are twins."

"You think?"

"Well, you never know."

"I mean, being twins there's stuff that's the same about us, Kev, but, there's stuff that's different too. If you don't count the face, physically, we couldn't be any more different. I'm all brains and you're all brawn. You've got that crazy colored left arm too."

"D, man, my crazy birthmark isn't going to make you any more genetically safe! You gotta get checked. Anyway, the doctor did say that I might have just caught a virus that totally obliterated my pancreas though. You could be safe after all."

"How's Pop taking it?"

"He's crushed. What do you think? But, he's been really strong and encouraging. He's trying not to let it show. You know how he is."

Just then, a call came from downstairs.

"Well, come on, Kev, Mom just rang the dinner bell. I think she made pepper steak with onions and green peppers. At least, that's what it smelled like when I was coming up stairs."

"That's ok Just tell her that I'm not hungry. Anyway, after talking to the dietitian they made me see today, I probably can't have any. It seems all I have to do is avoid anything even remotely tasty and I'll be just fine."

Clairvoyant as mothers are, she called again and this time included a special invitation to Kevin.

ACT III - More Fallout

Just a few days later, Kevin's steps were heavy as he walked onto his school's football field. He was both dreading and looking forward to talking to his coach. He didn't want to say goodbye, and there was a terrible finality to this visit, as if he were saying goodbye to any chance for a future as well as to his mentor and friend. He always loved talking to his coach because, in his low southern drawl, he could almost cleave words of wisdom out from the very stones of the Earth. More than that, there was just something genuine and reassuring in his words that always made him feel like it was being passed down from the very throne of The Living God.

"Son, tell me what's goin' on."

"Coach, I,... just don't know. One minute I'm right as rain. The next, they're telling me that I'm like this ninety year old man, and I have to start watching my fiber, and I'm going to have to go on daily meds. I,... I just can't tell you how crazy it is Coach Thompson. My career's over before it ever even got started isn't it?"

"Son, only God can accurately reveal to us what the future holds. What I can tell you is what I've seen in the past. You are the most hard working and most dedicated young man that I have ever had the pleasure to work with. You are an upstanding young man. You have not focused on your weaknesses and have always focused upon your strengths. But, a wise man once penned 'A man has got to know his limitations.' Son, you told me almost nine months ago that you trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior. In light of all that I have ever said to you, I can tell you two things. First, the Lord has a plan for you,... ya hear'n me? Look right here." He opened his little pocket Bible and read from Jeremiah 29:11. A tear fell from his eye. "Second, His strength is all the strength you'll ever need. Yours will never make it. Look here in 2 Corinthians 12 with me,... God knows what he's do'n, Son. You just stick with Him!"

After they took time to talk more and pray together, the coach revealed to him that he'd gotten permission to keep him on the team in reserves until there was a true diagnosis of his condition.

As Kevin left the field with football practice roaring at full force behind him, his girlfriend, Julie-Elaine Mathers, head varsity cheerleader, sent her squad to break early. His head hanging low, he nearly knocked her down as she stepped in front of him.

"Like, Excuse ME!!!"

She startled him.

"Oh, hey Jem! I'm sorry. I just didn't see you."

"Jem,... well,... um,... right! About that,... me and the girls have been thinking about what you and I talked about on the phone the other day and well,... I think I've been pretty doggone good up 'til now! I mean, you're from the wrong side of the tracks and all. Your family really doesn't have any money. Not to mention how I've overlooked how your father is like, a total hillbilly slash redneck Yosemite Sam type character and your mother's like,... B-A-L-L-A-K. You know, like, his African goddess. Hhhn,... I even tried to overlook the fact that you've got that one Black arm. But now you tell me that you're off the team and you're like, going to be a diabetic for the rest of your life. That's just totally G-A-R-O-S-S-S! I mean, like, Tracie says that she has a cousin with diabetes and all he ever does is sweat and get fatter. Not even like the good kind of sweat. You know what I mean? I mean, even his nose sweats! That's just downright disgusting. You can't possibly expect me to put up with this. I have a fan base to live up to mister. So, about you calling me 'Jem' anymore. I'm issuing a cease an resist order or whatever you call it. Just don't do it. You and I are finished. So, you can like, pick your jaw up off the ground now."

With a sharp twist of the finger followed by the hips, she, immediately, turned and stomped her way smugly and defiantly up the hill. Just then he noticed the crowd of cheerleaders all clumped together cheering her on and hooting and giggling at him.

His only response as she strutted was to yell out, "Well, I happen to think that my family is perfect. And,... and your father reminds me of,... well,... what do you know anyway stupid head! It's a birthmark. It's not like it's some hairy mole or something. And Black Is Beautiful. You'll be sorry."

ACT IV - The Emotions

"Dude, I can't believe you called her a stupid head. She insulted our heritage, dissed our whole family, basically called us trailer trash, and said to your face that our father was a hillbilly slash redneck Yosemite Sam. Man, she dumped you with extreme prejudice and the best you could come up with was stupid head?!?!?! I oughta knock the black offa you!"

"D, just help me out, man. I know what I said was stupid but, I just can't think straight right now. I'm seventeen and my life is crumbling.. This just makes no sense."

"Well, while you were out roaming the streets for hours after Little Ms. Cutie Pants kicked your tail to the curb, Pastor J came by to see you. You should call him tomorrow. He said he has something for you."

"I can't believe she's so shallow, D."

"What?! Kev! I can't believe you're so shallow. You dated her! Look, just turn off your light. I'm trying to get some sleep. Tomorrow's Saturday and I still do have a girlfriend to go and see."

By the afternoon, Kevin had stopped by the church and had spoken with Pastor J. He left with two tickets to some small time play in the neighboring town. It would be running for the next five weeks. It really wasn't of any interest to him though. Still, he politely accepted them and placed them in his wallet for safe keeping.

Over the next two weeks, despite not feeling any affects physically, emotionally, he was a wreck. Every day in school was a complete disaster for him. He once swaggered through those halls like a King and was adored by all. All of a sudden, he had plummeted to being less popular than your average choir boy. He would hear whispers about himself everywhere. Worse still, he began to worry about the readings that his glucose meter was delivering. The doctor had let him leave the office with a reading of 493 only after injecting him with a massive dose of insulin and prescribing pills. They didn't seem to be working though. He'd been keeping the secret that just a day after, the meter read 752. Since then, it's only reading was Err.

As he slogged his way from class to class in a daze, suddenly, a friend ran right into him. Grabbing him around the shoulders and shaking him vigorously, he blurted, "Kevin! You are not going to believe what I just heard!" Kevin just stared with no expression or reply. "Dude, you are so out of it. Anyway, I just overheard the colony, you know, the cheerleaders, saying that Julie is going to Homecoming with Tyrell tonight! Man, that really smokes. Yo, I don't wanna be late for shop. Gotta go."

Sometime later, Kevin felt like he just woke up in the lunchroom with an untouched tray in front of him. His brother was yelling at him.

"Bro, you listen'n to me?"

"What?"

"I SAID, it's no wonder she's going with him tonight. With you out of the way, after tonight's game, Tyrell's going to become the number one back in the country. Anyway, all the talk is that everyone's voting for them to be King and Queen."

"I don't believe it, D. She ragged on me for being half Black and he's all the way Black."

"Dude, she's just try'n to grab a meal ticket. Look you gonna come to the game with me and my lady?"

Kevin's eyes lowered and he shook his head. "I don't know. If I see you, I see you."

The bell rang. The kids dispersed. No one could know what was going to happen and how a wounded young man would play into it.

ACT V - A Turning Point

Kevin really thought that he would have had the strength to, at least, go to the game. He had never really expected to go to homecoming after though. Instead, he found himself sitting on the docks playing his acoustic out in the salty air. His fingers were exhausted and dented from all the chording. The mosquitoes were still active for the season and the sun was going down. He wondered if Tyrell had passed him by now. With nothing to do, his mind wandered through several fruitless endeavors. With each thought, his anger swelled. Finally, he realized that clenching his teeth so tightly was only giving him a headache. He hopped in his old '85 Cavalier wagon and started to drive. He thought he'd make use of one of those tickets Pastor J had given him.

Driving and crying has always been a bad combination for even experienced drivers. Kevin was near hysterical.

Kkarrrrashhhh!

When he began to stir, he had no idea what had happened or how long ago. It took him several seconds to realize that he had been driving. The windshield was destroyed. It seemed covered with dirt. He struggled to release his seatbelt in the darkness. Though stiff and sore all over, Kevin summoned the strength to blast the twisted driver's door open with a single kick from his legs. Falling to his knees near the front of his car, he eyed a pile of bricks and debris ahead of him. "Oh no! I hit a building!", he thought in horror. Raising his head to survey the damage, he clearly saw the traffic lights in front of him and against the beautifully painted dusk sky. Perplexed, he rose to his feet. It only got worse.Stunned, he shook his head and tried to listen harder. He thought he must have been missing something. Still, there was total silence other than the roaring crackle of the building ablaze to the right of his car. The smoke billowed like something out of the movies. The air was becoming thick. "The building must have partially collapsed in front of me.", he thought, thankful to be alive. His elation suddenly sank. The smoke parted and a figure could be seen flailing dangerously out of a window several flights up.

He remembered a verse that he had learned since becoming a Christian, "John 15:13 Greater love has no man that this, that he lay down his life for his friends." He made a choice. He wished that he had heard those sirens.

The heat was an instant problem and it was quickly rising. He thought there'd be more light because of all of the fire. With all of the dogged determination he displayed on the football field, Kevin knocked down obstacles and dodged the flames that weren't a complete wall ahead of him. He was closer. He finally knew where to go other than up. Her screams were louder than the wrenching howl of beams breaking and exploding walls crumbling. Knocking down his last door he finally had her. She was barely conscious. "I'm so glad she's just a small thing.", he panted with pity in his eyes reaching down to pick her up. The fight down was far worse than the battle up. By now, he was praying like he'd only ever heard stories about. "Oh Jesus! You have got to help me get this woman to safety!!! I know I'm coming home but,... not yet,... not yet Lord!" "God, PLEASE!!!!!!" At that very moment, Kevin was suspiciously surprised to realize that he was no longer crying. He felt calm and the heat seemed to be dissipating. "So, this is dying? Not so bad. It actually feels nice on the skin. Ok God, we did it. Thanks! I see the doorway through that last wall of flames." Tumbling through the doorway, he crashed to his knees as he tried to shield her from the fall. The pain of the impact and the feeling of the breeze on his face revealed to him that he was alive after all.

"Mmm beaba airhhh" She tried to speak.

Kevin hoped he hadn't hit her head. "Don't talk. Its ok"

Mustering all of her strength, in a soggy sounding wheezing voice, she grunted, "Baby! Where?! My BABY!!!"

Kevin's heart dropped to a new low with the thought of what would happen to her baby. Quickly, he scanned from left to right. "No reflective coats. Only a few neighbors.", he thought to himself. A group approached. "Help her!" He ran back in.

The crowd pointed and gasped in amazement. No one expected to see him alive again. The building was an inferno from the bottom up.

Minutes later, as bystanders comforted the sobbing woman Kevin had saved, a figure began to emerge from the flaming doorway. The crowd roared with horror. As most recoiled, a few brave souls took off their jackets and grabbed whatever they could. A sooted figure of a man stood before them roasting in a swirling column of flame from head to toe. Quickly they knocked him to the ground rolling him and patting out the flames. Someone had a blanket. It finished the job quickly.

Somebody commanded, "Open it."

"No way man! You do it."

"He might need CPR.", a woman cried out.

Someone did it though.

ACT VI - The After Glow

"Officer, I swear, when that blanket opened up, there was a teenage boy and a baby inside. And, I tell you no lie, they were in perfect condition!", a man in a brown shirt exclaimed.

"Yeah, just ask those paramedics. They got the baby right there."

The officer barked, "You just hold on, buddy. Let me finish getting this guy's story. Now, go on."

"Well, anyway, there was this kind of nasty white gooey stuff an' a bunch a burnt up stuff all stuck to the inside of the blanket and all over the coats."

"It was sick!"

"Yeah, it was. And, like I said, this kid and the baby, they were just fine. I mean, he got up and just walked away."

"He was demon possessed! That's what he was!"

The officer barked again, "Listen, you! I told you to wait your turn. Don't get in my way again!,... continue."

"That's all I have to say, officer."

The officer incredulously recapped, " So, let me get this straight, a man with some fire on him,..."

"No! He was burn'n from head to toe. There wasn't a spot a unburnt on him."

"Ok, a man,..."

"No. A teen."

"A teen, burning from head to toe, stepped through a wall of fire,..."

"Kind a leisurely too."

"Ok! And when the fire was put out, he was perfectly fine and, somehow, he managed to produce a previously unseen baby."

"Right, well, when he was on fire, all you could see was one big mass of charred up flesh. I already told you, that. There was something all over them."

"Officer, can I speak now?"

Not hiding his frustration, the officer turned and then growled, "Go on!"

"Those paramedics that just pulled off took some of that stuff with them so's they can see if its poison to the baby. You can akx them to back it up. I sure wish all them other people that was here hadn't left."

"And neither one of you saw where this teen boy went?!"

"We done told you what we saw."

Just then another officer came over. "Listen, Hank, as soon as you're done with these witnesses, we can go. I already got a statement from the guy in the Chevy and sent him on the hospital in the other ambulance."

"Oh, I think we're done here."

NEXT AMAZING ISSUE >> Burning questions arise and some are answered. Some we may never have an answer to. The adventure for our reluctant hero bristles with new activity and there's no shortage of new challenges to face. What will happen? Who will appear next? Come back soon and you'll be able to read the gripping outcome for yourself. Tell your friends where they can find Ten Months. This story's just heating up!