Josiah sighed and wondered if he should’ve felt… more? He had a few positive memories from his early childhood. That should’ve counted for something, right?
He picked up his phone and called Dr. Jarvis. Since it was his emergency number, Dr. Jarvis answered himself.
“Hi, Doc. It’s Josiah. I… uh… you know my bad feeling?”
“Hello Josiah.” The kind tone was almost too much already. “And yes, I do remember. Did something happen?”
“N-Not to my friends, no. But I got a call. I… my parents have passed away.”
Jarvis inhaled sharply, as if unable to not show feeling right then. “Well, that’s unfortunate in many ways right now.”
“Yes, so… I was wondering if you, you know, made house calls?” Josiah felt his body shrink. He pulled his feet on the couch and curled into the corner of the couch.
“In emergencies, yes. If you give me the address, I can be there in thirty minutes, depending on traffic.”
Josiah rattled out the address. “Wait, if you have appointments—”
“I just finished my last one of the day, this is quite all right, Josiah. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” There was a sound of a chair creaking, before Jarvis spoke again. “Can you do me a favor?”
“Uh, yes…?”
“Make yourself some sandwiches, drink some water, and put the coffee on. I’d like a cup when I get there.”
“Okay. Sure.” Josiah uncurled and got up. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Sandwiches, water, coffee.”
“I’ll remember.”
“I’ll be there soon.”
As if on autopilot, Josiah went across the open space to the kitchen and started to do what Dr. Jarvis told him to.
It wasn’t until he was eating a sandwich and sipping water from a bottle when he froze with realization how much on autopilot he’d been. Then he grinned a little, shook his head, and continued eating.
He had the selection of coffee pods out by the fancy maker he rarely used—he was pretty sure it had been Kristin’s, but she’d left it behind for some reason—when the doorbell rang later.
It felt odd seeing Dr. Jarvis out of the office environment.
“Hi, thanks for coming,” he said as he let him in.
“Of course.” Jarvis removed his coat and hung it in the coat rack by the door. “You seem better,” he said as he took in both Josiah and the house.
“Uh, thanks?” Josiah gestured at the kitchen. “You get to pick your coffee pod.”
Chuckling, Jarvis followed him. “I believe that when you called, you were starting to slide into shock,” he said as they waited for the coffees to be ready.
Josiah turned around fast enough that he nearly knocked his mug off the table. “I what?”
“You sounded like you were sliding into a shock.” Jarvis took the offered latte and they went to the couch.
“I felt… okay?” Josiah frowned. He’d felt okay,right?
“You were speaking really, really slowly. I could hear your breathing pick up and you were having hard time answering to my questions about how you felt.” Jarvis sipped his drink, put it on the coffee table, and took out his notepad from his briefcase.
“I… honestly can’t remember you asking me about that. At all,” Josiah admitted.
Jarvis gave him a told-you-so kind of look, but then got more serious. “So, can you tell me what happened today?”
