Images flashed across Luke's mind. They came and went like a montage.

He saw a boat sailing between two large jagged cliffs settling into a sandy cove.

He was holding a young guy's hand, being led across an open field of endless grass. The young guy was a bit chubby, had mopish hair, and pale skin. He carried a medical sack slung over his shoulder with the international symbol of the red cross stitched onto the olive bag. His name was Michael, and Luke understood Michael to be his chaperone.

Luke was looking over his shoulder and saw two cliffs covered in moss and greenery. Trees jutted from the sides of cliffs at angles that seemed physically impossible to stay upright, yet the roots of the trees clung to the cliffs and made it look easy.

He stood before a gate guarded by two stone statues of human-like beings with massive wings. Both held swords towards the ground in front of them. He peeked in front of Michael's body and saw two other men. One of them had slanted eyes and straight hair tied in a ponytail. He looked like he was in his late twenties. The other man had blond hair and blue eyes and had a bending river birthmark across the left side of his neck. They both appeared a bit older than the guy whose hand he was holding.

The four of them approached a tree decorated with purple fruit. Michael picked a fruit from the tree and handed it to Luke, "Eat it. You'll feel strange, but the feeling will pass." Luke ate the fruit with Michael's help, and he saw a refracted ray of light shooting away from his eyes, and suddenly he was blinded. He collapsed to the ground.

When he could see again, all was in a blur. He saw ponytail man on the ground clutching his abdomen and reaching to his pocket. Ponytail handed Michael a vial with a dark brown content, "Drink, and then run."

Luke felt like he was on horseback as Michael carried him like a baby clutched to his chest. Luke's eyes came into and out of focus. Looking over Michael's shoulder, he finally noticed Ponytail with stab wounds being consumed by fire. Standing beside Ponytail was a winged human, holding a flaming sword.

Luke heard Michael shout to a another person, "You killed him!"

River birthmark responded back, hoarding two pieces of the purple fruit, "And you'll be next Michael if you stand in my way like he did."

Now, Luke was on the ground, the world was cloudy. He heard a voice call out to him. The voice was that of his chaperone, Michael, "I'll come back for you Luke."

A flame hovered over his face, and Luke felt warmth spread throughout his body.

***

Luke awoke to a dry throat and the sound of his own breathing. Where am I, and why do I sound like Darth Vader?

When his blurry eyes cleared up he noticed that he was in a hospital room. He reached for the oxygen mask over his face and yanked it off. He took a deep breath and filled his lungs with the cold hospital air.

His first breath was loud enough to gather the attention of the man sitting on a couch besides him, "Luke! Honey, Luke's awake." The man got up and hugged Luke. Luke stared into his dad's blue eyes. His face lacked any flaws, no pimples, no zits, no blackheads, no moles. His hair had a luster to it that was derived from gel—even though his straight hair never needed it. He smelled of Irish Springs and his breath had a hint of mint to it. His creamy skin splattered against Luke's body like white paint dripping on a brown carpet.

"We were worried sick about you. Your father and I came straight over when we got the call from your school about what happened."

His father appeared behind his dad and placed his hand on his shoulder. "Heard our son was a hero, doing the fireman's job. Where's your medal of honor?" His father was different from his dad. His father was Vietnamese. His hair was cut short and lacked the luster that his dad had. His father looked like he could bench press cows, while his dad might be able to barely lift a watermelon into a shopping cart.

"He'll get a reward from us," his dad promised. He twirled back and opened up a single strapped bag and pulled out a brown container, "Your favorite from Angela's Pies!"

"Chicken and Ham?" Luke muttered.

"Yeap, with mash and peas."

Luke licked his lips. He reached out to grab it, but his dad pulled it back, "First we need to make sure the doctor says it's okay. I'll go grab her." His dad left while his father stood behind.

"A party gone wild eh? Hope you weren't drinking too much," he smirked.

"No, I hardly drank."

"Riiiiight," his father said. "Just glad you made it out okay kiddo. Don't try that shit again though—being a hero and all. Your dad will be devastated if you died in a fiery blaze. And—so will I," his father croaked.

"No need to worry. I'll stay out of trouble. I honestly don't know how the fire even started," Luke lied. He had a feeling that he was responsible for the fire. He didn't know how, but something must've happened. It was too much of a coincidence for a major fire to break out when he had that freak accident in the bathroom.

His father shrugged his shoulders, "They're still looking into that. As of now, it looks like it started on the third floor."

Luke gulped. That's where the party was. Did my flame set the pipes ablaze within the wall and caused the fire to spread into the hallway?

His dad opened the door bringing in the doctor who took his mind away from the thought of fire. "Doctor just needs to check you quickly before you can eat and leave."

The old female doctor with blond hair and thick glasses stared at Luke's clipboard and flipped through the pages, "Smoke inhalation, mild case of carbon monoxide poisoning, suspended in a state of mild unconsciousness...seems like you paid the price for lingering too long in that fire."

Okay, Luke thought. I'll let the next person I see unconscious in the midst of a fire burn to death then.

Then the doctor smiled, "But, a certain patient is alive now because of your bravery. You should be proud of what you did. You saved that girl's life."

Okay, so now I'm being praised. It's one of those, you shouldn't have done it, but I'm glad you did, moments.

The doctor put down the clipboard and examined Luke, "Tell you what, eat some of that pie and if you're not feeling nauseous in an hour, then you're good to go."

Luke nodded and snatched the bag from his dad's hands and tore it open, digging into his Chicken and Ham pie drizzled with gravy with a side of mash potatoes and mashed peas. It was fantastic. It tasted just like the time when he visited London and got a real British pie over at Greenwich with his parents, both of whom were men. Luke has two paternal caretakers. Luke was adopted at six years old from a local Orphanage in D.C. His parents lived in Laurel, about 40 minutes outside of D.C. where Luke attended school.

After Luke was done eating and an hour had passed without vomit spewing over the floor, Luke was released from the hospital. His parents brought him a change of clothes and once he was done, they left the hospital room and made their way towards the elevator.

As he and his parents were walking down the hallway he heard someone shout behind him, "Hey you!"

Luke glance over his shoulder and stopped. His parents bumped into him and turned back as well. They parted way for Luke to have a direct line of sight with the person who got his attention.

She had red hair. Small white medical tape made a small X across the left side of her forehead covering up her stitches. She had gray-blue eyes, and light skin. Even in her hospital uniform, which made almost anyone look weak and debilitated, she made it look like military armor. She approached Luke in a dignified walk, almost like a military parade march. She stopped inches in front of Luke, sized Luke up and then uncurled her arms and wrapped them around him.

"Thank you for saving my life, now what's your name?" she asked as she pulled back.

Luke's tongue suddenly felt like it slipped down his throat to hide. He cleared his throat to force it back up to work, "Um, Luke. Luke Sanchez."

"Luke huh, cool name. Like the Gospel writer Luke. Guess you rep the name well."

"Thanks," Luke managed to squeeze out from his sealed lips.

"I'm going to cut the small talk now and get down to the asking. You wanna go out with me?"

Luke's eyes exploded as if she had just asked him to cannibalize a child, "Uh, uh..."

"I'll take the stuttering as a yes then?"

Luke nodded. She continued, "Great, where do you live at on campus?"

"Opus," Luke mumbled.

"Cool, I live in the same building, right wing. We can meet up this Friday so we can hang. I'll meet you in Opus lobby, say around 7PM?"

"Su—sure."

"Cool. Sees yas."

She turned around and started skipping away but stopped herself. "You know, you didn't ask for my name. Do I have to do everything?"

Luke mentally slapped himself. "Sorry, what's your name?"

"Nellie Santana. That's Nellie with an 'ie' not a 'y.' Don't screw up the Valentine's Day card."

"I won't," Luke said. Hey, I'm getting better at this.

"So you can communicate with women. That's a plus. See you this Friday."

She disappeared into her room and when Luke turned back to his parents he saw them snickering.

His father laughed out loud, "That was horrible! She did all the work and you still couldn't say more than a couple of words."

His dad tried to be serious, but his chuckling made it difficult, "He's just shy. But, that won't stop the ladies from crawling all over him. I remember those days back in high school. Always pissed them off when I never returned the interest."

"Can we go now," Luke interrupted.

"And he speaks!" his father shouted.

Luke sighed as his parents laughed at him on the way towards the elevator, out of the hospital, and on the drive back to campus.

*________________________________________________*

Author's Note

[His father appeared behind his dad and placed his hand on his shoulder.] How many of you reading this thought, Hey I think he made a mistake here. But then later figured out, Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, he has two padres? 

I'm also curious to see what your initial reaction to Nellie was. Do you think she'll be a likable character? Do you admire her spunk?

A side thought, is it really weird to have a girl make the first move and ask a guy out? Fellas, has a girl ever asked you out? Ladies, have you've ever asked a guy out? Just curious if you want to share.

I released this chapter on a Sunday because it was Father's Day (June 17, 2018), and I thought it'd be best to introduce Luke's padres on such a day. However, the next chapter is also available to read now.

- L. A. Rivera