The next day Lena was up and walking around. Surprisingly she wasn’t hurt much, mostly some cuts and bruises, no broken bones. Her and Linnea had gone down the ladder before the explosion. Lena had fallen in some thick bushes which helped break her fall and kept her from getting too badly hurt. Unfortunately Linnea had hit a tree. One more day and we were all out of there and on our way to Japan. I sure hope this surgeon will be able to do something. Every so often there seems to be a shot of pain from that probe. But why? What is the purpose of all this? We had a stop along the way and stayed overnight in this huge hotel. I saw someone there who kept watching us.

The cats noticed this too and told Baldwin, but he didn’t recognize the man and woman. Lena took a few pics of them just in case we can find out who they are. “It may not be anything,” I told Lena. “Then why are they so openly watching us?”, she asked. Baldwin didn’t like it, they were being open, that’s not normal. He took pictures of them also, and they didn’t seem to mind at all. That’s strange. Finally we are off again and this time it seemed to go quickly, here we are already landing. The cherry trees were all in bloom. That got the cats excited, they started talking about getting married here. Cats getting married? How I wish I was back to normal so I would know what was going on.

The next day I was to see the surgeon. Oddly, the day before he had gotten very sick and they don’t expect him to live. Oh no! He was my only hope! We talked with another surgeon, but any kind of brain surgery was not what he did. However, there was another surgeon who had retired, if anyone could remove this probe, he could. Perhaps some hope again? The hospital contacted him and he came in that afternoon. He examined me, I had an MRI done and other tests. What did he say in the end. “It’s serious,” he said, “leaving it would eventually destroy my brain. Removing it, however, could do the same thing.” He said it was my choice, he would do it right away if that’s what I wanted.

He also warned that there may not be any immediate changes, it could take a while. Apparently that probe has been giving me little shocks, which is why those times of extra pain. And it has done some damage, but how much he couldn’t say. But he thought that with time things would get back to normal. But he couldn’t promise that. So I could stay the way I am, get worse, or get better. But which? If it stays, I’m finished. Removing it at least gives me a chance. So that was my choice, get it out of there. In 2 hours I was on my way in to surgery. The cats spotted the people that would help. Meow,meow=These bad people, get different nurses. Lena told Baldwin and he was on it fast. You don’t argue with a man like Baldwin I have found out.

Though I knew him as Daniel, his middle name, though I thought that was his first name. The regular staff were brought in to help with the surgery. The cats said they were fine. The one nurse from the first group was visibly angry as they left. Everyone waited impatiently, finally it was all over. Then I was brought into my room, only Lena and the cats were allowed. It was a long time before I finally opened my eyes. The cats were snuggled in close to me, one on each side, Lena was sitting on a chair beside my bed. She is an amazing woman. She held my hand and smiled. “How do you feel Steve?”, she asked. I just stared for a bit and looked around the room. “Well,” I said slowly, “I’m nowhere and I want to scream.” Meow.=Muffin and me say we need to go home soon. Not safe here. “I tend to agree with that, but no matter where I am, I’ll be nowhere,” I said.

To Be Continued.

Pictures of Mr. Cat are kindly supplied by his human, Nina.

Previous chapters of this story and other stories can be found on my home page under “The Investigators, Inc.” and “20/20 Investigations, Inc.”

©2021 Steve McLeod.