NINETY-EIGHT

"What do you mean there's nothing wrong with him?!"I asked, almost yelled...almost.

"Sir, your son is in perfect health, he should have no issues with a normal life."

"Well he does!"I yelled,"My son thinks cayenne pepper is spicy, learned the entire periodic table backwards before he learned the alphabet, has fevers and headaches in the middle of every single night and can barely look out the window because he sees my neighbor's dog pooping in some restricted area! My neighbor lives three blocks away!"

"Tommy calm down, the doctor's doing her best... I'm sorry Ms Jackson, for your trouble."Rose softly spoke.

I looked at my wife, wide eyed as she stood up, this was the third hospital we'd been to...in two days and our son hadn't been to school in two weeks, we were at a breaking point, but knew he was in much more pain as he couldn't look at us without crying...or throwing a tantrum.

We decided to cheer him up, so took his sister and he to a small diner by the park, just to get him the experience of some fresh air and new people.

Despite this, he looked at his swinging feet the entire time, with his nose mask and inhaler ready on standby.

He wasn't asthmatic, he just often had a blocked or running nose, it could be allergies, but apparently he was in perfect health.

Rose and I took our orders and when it was Scarlet Sapphira's turn, she spoke,"I'll just have some mashed potatoes, Jack will take that too."

"Scarlet Sapphira..."I said,"... don't speak for your brother, Jack Johnson, what would you like for lunch?"

He didn't speak for several seconds and when I spoke a little louder, he began to cry and immediately hugged his sister and she gently caressed his back and shone her crystal blue eyes into ours, with a look that said,"Please, for both of our sakes..."

We ordered mashed potatoes for both of them, and ourselves.

When we got the food, Jack Johnson barely touched it till Scarlet Sapphira began spoon feeding him.

A homeless person came by and begged for alms, we were going to give him something when Scarlet Sapphira literally scared him off with a threat.

We frowned at her and said to apologize, but she simply ignored us and kept feeding her brother, not once touching her own food.

Jack Johnson still kept stealing occasional glances of the man who went to sit on a kerb, continually asking for money.

I looked back at my food when Jack Johnson tried to wrap up his food and get down from the chair which could easily break his little legs.

I went to help him and asked where he was going, then Scarlet Sapphira disapprovingly said,"He's going to give his leftovers to that dirty hobo over there."

Rose glared at her daughter and said,"Scarlet Sapphira, stop it."

Scarlet Sapphira simply rolled her eyes...at her mother as I told her to calm down.

I then knelt besides Jack Johnson then said,"Jack Johnson, if you give it to him, we may not have enough money to get you dinner, are you sure that's what you want?"

He remained silent and looked away and I stood up and suggested we left.

We walked to and crossed the road, but didn't go far when Jack Johnson took to his heels.

I was about to follow when Rose held me back and pointed and I smiled at him, as he gave the man the food he had left.

When he was coming back, he first had a frown, seeing us, then looked shyly away, seeing his sister.

He then took my hand and waited for us to go.

I knelt besides him then offered him a fifty dollar bill and he looked at me in shock, saying,"Dad, but we wouldn't have enough for..."

"Shhh, don't worry, we have more than enough, I just said that to see if you'd be willing to lay down your life for that stranger and you were, take it, it's yours."

He smiled, slowly took and hugged me, then ran to his sister with a joy I had never seen in him before and it warmed my heart, Scarlet Sapphira though, didn't have the same sentiment as she wanted and told him to stop bugging her.

"But we could buy anything we want, please, don't let me use it alone."These were the most words he had spoken, in months...

"Fine, I'll go with you to buy a plane ticket so you could go to Japan and stay there."She spat.

Rose angrily pulled Scarlet Sapphira by the hand, but Jack Johnson wasn't deterred, he was determined to spend that money on someone else...the man...

The ever grateful man rained all sorts of blessings on the boy and seemed worried about our daughter who kept struggling to wriggle out of her mother's titanium grip.

Suddenly, Scarlet Sapphira stopped writhing as a taxi was passing by, then began pulling towards Jack Johnson, who was already covering his ears.

As the cab crossed the junction, Jack Johnson screamed in pain and fell to the floor, crying and Rose screamed and tried to attend to him while I hurriedly tried to call a hospital.

Rose was pulled back by someone in a crowd as she was basically going crazy, but that wasn't the least of it, as the three inches shorter Scarlet Sapphira lifted her twin brother like a toy and sprinted across the street.

Rose lost it as I dropped my phone, then she broke out of the crowd's grip and ran and pulled both her children right out of the grasp of death by car.

Rose went ballistic, yelling at the little Scarlet Sapphira, even when I told her to calm down, but the girl yelled back,"How absent minded are you guys?! My brother has been in a literal living h*ll all his life and you just send us into cheap restaurants with over spicy food and schools with drug addicted teachers, do you have any idea what you're putting him through?!"

The crowd watched as the two red heads looked eye to eye, then Rose slowly sobbed and apologized, but Scarlet Sapphira, with even more tears said,"Don't apologize to me, apologize to him."

Then carried her brother to the dispatched special service vehicle.

Rose and I sat before the doctor, seeing half the entire city from the height as he spoke,"Your son has been diagnosed with a rare type of synesthesia..."

"Overlapping of senses?"I asked.

He nodded, but continued,"...in addition to his hyperesthesia...and hyperthymesia."

Rose almost fainted as I spoke to him and asked,"Three?"

"Actually, he is a carrier for multiple physiological disorders, but these three are the most prominent ones, your daughter has the same conditions, but is only a carrier and as such, doesn't have a problem."

I held Rose's hand tightly, mostly because I was hyperventilating, before the doctor said,"There is no cure for any of them, but management may be a key process in rehabilitation."

"Management?! How the heck is he supposed to manage this?!"I yelled.

"Wait, maybe he could."Rose began.

"What?"Both the doctor and I asked, and I frowned at him.

"You know how Jack Johnson loves superheroes?"

"Yeah, he'd spend hours writing stories about them...or as those about the regular people he meets on the street?"

"He always played superheroes with his sister and cousins, maybe we could help him realize there may be some good in this."

"Rose, it's a long shot..."

"But it's worth a try, please?"

How could I resist those eyes?

"Fine."

We went into his room...

"Jack Johnson?"I called...