BROTHERLY LOVE

I

As soon as Karl woke up he could tell that something was different. He had two clues which led him to this conclusion: One, the stabbing pain down the right hand side of his abdomen. Two, the fact that he had woken up in what appeared to be a hospital room; there was all manner of machinery beside his bed, the likes of which Karl had only witnessed on TV.
Karl felt terrible, his head was throbbing and his vision was blurred. His memory was pretty hazy also; the last thing Karl remembered was opening the door to three strange men. Strange in the sense that Karl didn’t know them, and strange in the sense that humans were not meant to be that large. His memory went blank thereafter and he didn't have a clue how he ended up in this much pain, in this hospital room.
‘He’s awake’ Karl heard a familiar voice say, ‘Karl can you hear me? It’s Samantha... Can he hear me?’
‘I’ll go get the Doctor,’ a stern sounding woman said routinely.
Karl tried to lift his head to see Samantha; he strained for a moment but just couldn’t manage it. Samantha moved closer and hovered over him; she looked into his eyes warmly and smiled ‘you’re going to be alright.’
‘What happened? How did I get here?’
Samantha didn’t answer him, she had turned around and someone else had entered the room.
‘Doctor he’s just woken up,’ Samantha said.
A man in a white coat appeared in Karl’s field of vision. ‘Mr. Roberts, how are you feeling?’ it said.
‘Rough!’
‘Well that’s to be expected, you’ve been through quite a dramatic operation, but everything seems to have gone well. You will feel weak for a day or so but I have every confidence that you will make a full recovery. Won’t be long before you can be discharged.’
‘What happened?’
‘Well there’s a detective outside, he wants to talk to you. What I will say is that it would seem you’ve donated a kidney.’
‘I’ve donated a kidney?’
‘Yep. Not sure who to, or where the operation was carried out. Some fine work though. A skilled surgeon must have performed it. It’s quite a complex procedure you know, can’t just have any old fool running round doing this sort of thing.’
Karl was finding it hard to take this all in. It was all too much to comprehend for the moment, he was beginning to feel weak and just wanted to sleep, which is what he did.

Karl didn’t know how much time had elapsed since he had passed out; he was feeling a lot stronger now though. He could see Samantha asleep in a chair next to his bed. The machinery was still surrounding him, beeping monotonously.
An attractive young nurse walked into the room and had a look at the machines. ‘How are we feeling this morning Mr. Roberts?’ she said as she fluffed up his pillows. He was beginning to feel rather cosy, that was until a bolt of pain shot through his right side making Karl remember this kidney fiasco. ‘Could I have something for the pain please?’ Karl asked trying to sound infirm until he realised that he actually was infirm.
‘Certainly Mr. Roberts, I’ll tell the police that your awake now if that’s ok?’
‘Yes’ Karl said. He was quite keen to speak with the police, he wanted to find out exactly what happened to him and how over the course of a night, he had lost an organ which he’d formed quite an attachment to over the last twenty-eight years. From birth really.
‘Hello Mr. Roberts, Chief inspector Stone’ a big man said with a northern accent and a cheap suit. ‘Just a few routine questions if you will sir.’
‘Routine questions! I’ve had a fucking kidney stolen’
‘Well we still investigate in the same way, doesn’t matter what was stolen. Do remember any of what happened?’
Karl played the events back in his mind ‘I was at home, the doorbell rang, I answered… then three big men rushed me… next thing I remember is waking up here, in this bed.’ Chief inspector Stone was writing this all down in his notebook. ‘The Doctors tell me that you were tested for possible donation of a kidney ten years back, could you tell me about that?’
‘That was for my brother, I wasn’t a match… He died nine years ago.’ Chief Inspector Stone wrote some more. ‘And you were contacted recently by the Thompson family.’ Suddenly Karl’s mind made a connection. He had been contacted by the Thompson family last year. Apparently their daughter Rhion (they kept telling Karl her name, ‘Rhion’), had Glomerulonephritis (a disorder of the kidney causing them to no longer function in a meaningful way) and would soon be suffering from complete kidney failure. It seemed that Karl was the only person with a known tissue match. Their whole family had pleaded with him, telling him she was only six over and over again. They were rich, they offered him money. A lot of money. Karl didn’t need the money but he had a feeling that he might need both his kidneys. Why the fuck should she have it when his brother had died. No one had a spare for him; he was left pissing through a machine right up until the end. Fuck her. They upped the offer a few months later. Fuck her.
Chief Inspector Stone left to make inquiries.

II

Eighteen months after it had happened and finally Karl was in court. Police had been quick to apprehend the Thompson family and Karl had been quick to apprehend a lawyer. He wanted the Thompson family to go to jail for as long as possible, even Rhion for handling stolen goods but she was too young to be charged with anything.
He wanted his kidney back; he knew that for sure; that was what today was about. It was his kidney and he had a right to it back. It didn’t matter that Rhion would probably die if the kidney was taken from her young corpse. It was Karl’s kidney and he wanted that bastard thing back.
The Thompson family were staring at Karl, hatred burning from their eyes as they waited for the judge to make an appearance. Karl didn’t care; he had been violated in the most shocking way imaginable. The Thompson’s thought that they could buy anything they wanted; just before this hearing had started, they offered him even more money to drop it. Karl would never need to work again. He told them to fuck it up their arse; he told them that he would get their money and his kidney back and that he was going to donate the money to the Heart Foundation (which seemed ironically amusing to Karl).
This was a most unusual case and the public gallery was packed, mainly with press. Karl had been told by his lawyer to settle out of court but Karl wanted that kidney back. His lawyer was just scared because he didn’t know if they could win or not, there was no precedent for a situation like this.
‘This is a most unusual case,’ the judge said as he got proceedings underway.
Mrs. Thompson began to sob; Karl rolled his eyes in disgust. He was the victim here, not her.

The Thompson’s defence was good, it should be, it had cost them enough. The only trouble was, and something the Thompson’s lawyer had tried to skirt over, they were guilty as hell. Their whole argument had been based around Rhion. Before she had the kidney she was in a hospital bed most of her life. It hadn’t looked good for her, she was almost certainly going to die. The Thompson’s had done what any normal parent would have. Any normal parent with plenty of cash available.
They put Rhion on the stand to show what an amazing recovery she had made, how much life had been pumped into her young body with that kidney, trying to appeal to the jury’s parental instincts. But they were guilty as hell.

‘Although it pains me to say it,’ the judge sighed as he read the jury’s decision, ‘Mr. Roberts is to receive his property back immediately, at the expense of Mr. Thompson.’
Karl cheered and hugged his lawyer. Mr. Thompson burst into tears.
‘You wont get away with this,’ Mrs. Thompson snarled at Karl, ‘I’ll have you killed you disgusting piece of human filth, you’re not taking my girl away from me.’
Rhion hugged her daddy, blissfully ignorant of her fate.
Karl began to laugh as he and his lawyer made their way out of the courtroom. He had an operating theatre to get to this evening and he didn’t have time to waste exchanging unpleasantries with the likes of her.