No Turning Back (The Traveler)

by Omar Tyree

  Finally, the nurse told him, “Doctor Teikata will be right out to see you.”

  “Tee-kah-ta?” Gary enunciated to make sure.

  The nurse nodded. “Yes.” She looked to the double doors to her left and spotted the doctor walking out. “Here he is now.”

  All eyes turned toward the doctor. He was a young Asian-American man wearing thinrimmed glasses. His black hair was cropped short. He almost looked too young to be a practicing physician.

  “Gary Stevens?”

  Gary nodded as Melissa continued to hold on to his right arm.

  “Yes, I’m Gary Stevens.”

  The doctor nodded back and stuck out his right hand. “I’m Doctor Teikata.” He shook Gary’s hand before he looked to his friends and hesitated. There was a pregnant pause.

  “You mind if I speak to you in private a moment?” the doctor asked.

  Gary heard his words but didn’t budge. His heart felt heavy in his chest. His mouth was dry with no answer. What does that mean? he thought as his heavy heart pounded in his chest.

  “Gary, it’s all right,” Melissa told him, breaking the silence.

  “Yeah, we’ll be right out here for you,” Taylor added.

  Gary nodded and remained speechless. He seemed to be in a trance as he followed the doctor.

  When the doctor pushed open the double doors and stood alone behind them with Gary, he took a deep breath and composed himself. It was the doctor’s job to explain each case no matter how brutal.

  “Your mother’s automobile accident damaged many of her vital organs beyond repair,” he began. “Even if she had arrived at the hospital on time, there would have been little that we could have done to save her. She had already suffered an immense amount of internal bleeding at the scene before the ambulance even arrived to her. I’m sorry.”

  The doctor paused and let his words sink in. He had been trained to give all of the bad news in one big gulp.

  Gary stood in a daze. His intuitions told him to expect the worst as soon as the hospital had contacted him. But dead? His mother was dead?

  A young nurse had recognized his mother’s name badge from the Frankfort Convention Center that was tucked inside of her business jacket, and she helped them to track Gary down at his record store.

  After registering the fatal news, Gary raised his two index fingers to his temples and couldn’t feel anything. Nothing came to mind. There was only the doctor’s words between them and nothing to prove that it was all real and not a witch-ride nightmare that he couldn’t wake up from. He felt like slapping himself out of it.

  “Are you prepared to view the body?” the doctor asked him.

  View the body? Gary repeated to himself. Suddenly his temples were throbbing. He felt lightheaded and faint. The doctor even stepped forward to secure him by the arm.

  “I can let you think over it for a minute if you need to,” he suggested. “You also have a couple of police officers here who would like to speak to you. I told them I would need to speak to you first.”

  Gary looked into his glasses and asked, “Police officers?” That added to the equation.

  Dr. Teikata nodded. “Yes, there was a carjacking incident and a kidnapping involved. Your mother was fatally injured while apparently trying to escape from the moving car. One of the men involved was fatally injured as well. The police have the other man in custody.”

  With the new information, Gary became more alert. “A carjacking? Where?”

  The doctor explained, “I don’t have all of the details. Those are questions you’ll have to ask of the officers. But again, I needed to speak to you first about your mother.” He paused a moment and repeated, “Would you like to view the body now?”

  Suddenly, Gary was more interested in the carjacking than viewing his mother’s remains. He didn’t want to see her just yet. He wanted to know more of what happened to her first.

  “Do you mind if I speak to the officers first?”

  Dr. Teikata studied him reflectively. He did not expect that. The young man seemed to be cognizant and focused, much more so than he imagined young Mr. Stevens would be. He nodded and said, “Sure, right this way.”

  Gary sat with two Kentucky state troopers in one of the small patient rooms of the hospital.

  “So, these two guys from West Virginia jumped into my mother’s car somewhere along Interstate 64 and got into an accident while she was trying to escape near Louisville?”

  The younger officer nodded.. “That’s correct. Detectives are investigating the case further as we speak. We’ll notify you when we have more information.”

  “What about the driver?” Gary asked.

  “He’s already been booked, and he’ll be prosecuted for a number of charges, including vehicular homicide, car theft, kidnapping, assault and reckless endangerment,” the older officer added. “Don’t worry, this guy’s going away for a long time. And those are just the charges that we have on him here in Kentucky. These guys were also wanted in West Virginia.”

  Gary listened to them and remained calm. “Would West Virginia hold some kind of priority over him?”

  “No, both states would charge him separately, but since we have him, we’ll definitely hold him and charge him first here in Kentucky,” the older officer informed him.

  Gary spoke softly and remained polite. “And you’ll let me know when the court case comes up?”

  “Of course, we’ll let you know everything,” the younger officer answered.

  “Are there any other questions?” the older officer asked, standing tall inside the small room.

  Gary stood with him and shook his head. “No, not right now. I just need to go back in there and see my mother now.”

  Both officers dropped their heads in response to him. The younger officer took a breath and spoke up first. “We’re very sorry about your loss.”

  “But at least we have the two culprits,” the older officer added.

  Gary nodded to them both and quietly headed toward the door.

  Inside the chilly and lifeless coroner’s room with Dr. Teikata, Gary approached his mother’s body, stretched out across the cold hard table. He barely recognized her. She appeared twice her normal size and was crushed and swollen from the neck down.

  “The emergency team put her on ice immediately to try and reduce the swelling, but there’s only so much that ice can do.”

  As Gary stared down at the remains of his mother and studied her multiple injuries, he was surprised himself that he could view her deceased body without exploding into anguish, grief or a flood of tears. It seemed so clinical, as if he was in a high school biology lab. He could feel the emotions bubbling up inside of him, stirring, but they remained beneath the surface.

  Am I supposed to be going crazy right now or … how am I supposed to act? he asked himself. This was not a game of poker.

  Finally, he muttered, “What’s wrong with me, doc? I don’t know what to feel. I’m … I’m numb.” His voice cracked as he spoke, but he shed no tears and felt no anger.

  “Sometimes, we experience a shock of the nervous system where our natural impulses fail to trigger to the brain,” Dr. Teikata answered.

  “What does that mean?” Gary looked and asked him. “I won’t be able to feel anything? I can’t even cry for my mother?” He reexamined her battered body on the table and said, “She looks like something out of a horror movie.”

  Dr. Teikata translated Gary’s poise. “Sometimes patients develop post-traumatic stress that can kick in long after the initial events have occurred.”

  The doctor grimaced as he continued his explanation. “Post-traumatic stress syndrome can manifest itself in a number of different ways. It can be as simple as a loss of sleep, panic attacks, eating disorders or an inability to work. It can also trigger dramatic mood swings, depression, denial and any number of anti-social behaviors.”

  Gary summed it up and said, “In other words, just about anything can happen.”

  The doctor took a
breath. He said, “I’ll give you a phone number to call Dr. James Rayborn. He’s a good friend of mine and a great clinical psychologist. He can help you to work your way through this.”

  Gary heard the doctor’s words and stood there dumbfounded. The doctor was right. Gary didn’t know what to feel, and he absolutely loved his mother.

  This is crazy! he told himself. Why can’t I cry for her? What’s wrong with me?

  When Gary finally joined Taylor and Melissa back inside the emergency waiting room, a full hour had lapsed.

  Taylor stood from his seat and asked him, “So, what’s going on? Is she all right?”

  Melissa stood and awaited an answer herself.

  Gary regarded their concern and ignored them. What could he possibly tell them? He had no idea what to say. He didn’t want to be bothered with explaining it. He was still trying to process it all himself.

  “So, what happened?” Melissa pressed him. “Is your mother all right?”

  Gary stared forward, absentmindedly. He said, “I hope she’s all right. I just hope she went to the right place.”

  Melissa and Taylor searched each other for a translation. What was Gary talking about?

  “What is it, Gary? What happened?’’ Taylor asked softly, almost in a whisper.

  Gary couldn’t bring himself to respond. Taylor read Gary’s silence and knew the answer.

  Melissa was already beginning to tear, and she hadn’t even met his mother. She had only seen Gary’s pictures of her.

  Gary exhaled and said, “I need a minute,” and began to walk toward the automatic exit doors for fresh air.

  Taylor and Melissa quickly followed.

  I have to set up a funeral for her, and a big one, he mulled as he reached Taylor’s car out in the hospital parking lot. My mom knows a lot of people in Kentucky.

  Chapter 7

  Taylor and Melissa were forced to learn the details of the senseless carjacking and murder of Gabrielle Stevens through television and newspaper reports. Gary refused to tell them much of anything on their drive from the hospital or during the days that followed. He seemed only concerned with preparing for his mother’s funeral. While his staff members continued to run his record store, Gary huddled at his loft with his mother’s estate lawyer to arrange for a detailed memorial service and burial.

  “I want a large marble tombstone with a heart on each side of her name.” Gary ordered as the lawyer made his notes.

  Attorney Christopher Burnett, a tall and slender man in a dark-blue suit, white dress shirt and a mint-green tie, had known Gary for half of his life, almost as long as Taylor had known him. His quick speech pattern made him seem forever hasty.

  “Yeah, I really think your mother would like that. That’s an excellent choice,” he agreed with a nod.

  They sat at the small kitchen table, which was covered with paperwork, including the important estate documents—Gabrielle’s will, trust funds, bank account statements, property deeds, taxes, and health, life and dental insurance policies. These were documents that Gary had never seen or never dealt with before. Still, in his first year of owning a record store, he hadn’t even done his own taxes.

  On the other side of his loft, resting on the comfortable sofa, Taylor and Melissa continued to hover around while checking in on him.

  “Any day now I figure he’ll snap out of this,” Taylor commented on his friend’s dogged work mode. They had both spent a considerable amount of time in Gary’s presence during the three days that followed his mother’s death. They both wanted to monitor any aberrant behavior to make sure he wouldn’t plunge into something extreme. So they refused to leave him, while taking alternating shifts in his company. They had even taken turns spending the night at his loft, but all Gary seemed interested in was arranging his mother’s funeral and estate.

  “What about dealing with your will, Gary? Are you ready to start off on any of that today?” the attorney asked him. In addition to his mother’s important estate documents, Burnett was ready for conversations on preparing Gary’s will in case anything unexpected were to happen to him. It was the attorney’s job to prepare for the worst.

  Gary scanned the stack of paperwork on his kitchen table and waved it off. He had enough on his plate already regarding his mother’s stuff.

  “Can’t you handle some of that? God, man, that’s a lot of shit to think about,” Gary complained.

  “Yes, I can, but I’ll still need you to read and sign it. Or we could execute a power of attorney form, if you like,” Burnett suggested. “But I need you to at least be abreast of the particulars involved that are needed. I mean, a will is all quite detailed.”

  When Taylor overheard the words “power of attorney” and “will” being tossed around in their conversations at the kitchen table, he began to pay more attention.

  Gary glared at the attorney and groaned, “Man, just slow down with all of that, Christopher. I’m still trying to deal with my mother’s funeral right now. Can’t we wait until next week to for all of that?”

  “Yeah, give him some time on that. What’s the hurry?” Taylor interrupted, stood and approached them at the table to support his friend while Melissa watched and listened from the sofa.

  Burnett promptly gathered the load of paperwork and returned it to an oversized folder that sat in the empty chair beside them.

  “All right then, it can wait. I just need for you to become familiar with the terms while we execute your mother’s will, but we can’t wait long. You have a substantial inheritance and we need to get your affairs in order for your own protection. It will all become clear when we review the estate documents. And this is all important, so please take it seriously.’’

  He placed the oversized folder on the table, marked as Stevens Estate.

  “I’ll make sure he looks over everything,” Taylor said.

  The attorney nodded and stood from his chair, towering over Taylor in his dark suit. “Okay, well, I have a few other meetings to make on your mother’s behalf, including a meeting with Mayor Jerry Abramson today. He’s honored to speak at your mother’s funeral.”

  “Yeah, how’d you manage to do that?” Gary asked him.

  Christopher gathered his briefcase and smiled. “Well, Gary, so many people genuinely liked your mother that it honestly wasn’t hard to do.” He took a breath and exhaled. “She is such a tragic loss to all of us. I am really going to miss that woman, as will the community.”

  As soon as the attorney walked out, Taylor sneered, “I don’t think I like that guy.”

  “Yeah, he seems very fake,” Melissa added, finally walking over to join them.

  Gary grumbled. “It doesn’t matter. As long as he gets it all done, who cares?” He had been that way all week—acerbic.

  Right on cue, Taylor sat at the table and asked him, “Have you bothered to call that psychologist Dr. Teikata referred you to?”

  Gary had shown them the referral note from the doctor to help explain the perplexity of his unusual response and moodiness. He eyed Taylor at the table and said, “I should have never showed you that.”

  “Have you called and talked to any of your relatives?” Melissa asked him. “Where are your family members?”

  She found it weird that only she and Taylor were around him after his loss.

  Taylor looked at Gary and knew better. Gary and his mother had never been close to their extended family. It had been a long and unspoken feud that had occurred decades ago.

  Gary answered gruffly, “They’ll be here for the funeral. Other than that, I really don’t want to be bothered with them. Some of them have called me, but I don’t know them that well.”

  Melissa frowned and said only, “That’s too bad. Family is important.”

  Gary shrugged. “Yeah, but my mom seemed really pressed to keep me away from them. So I don’t know what was going on there. I never had relationships with them.”

  “What about at your family reunions or anything? Didn’t you look forward to bein
g around your cousins or whatever?” Melissa continued.

  Gary and Taylor sat there silently. They both knew what Melissa didn’t; Gary and Gabrielle had been the only family they knew … and Taylor. So Gary reached across the table and grabbed his best friend of more than a dozen years by the shoulder.

  “Here’s my family right here: my cousin—brother from another mother.”

  Taylor grinned and said, “Yeah.”

  Melissa shook it off and smirked. Guys! she thought.

  Gary returned to his disconnected stupor. Over the past three days, he had spent a lot of time thinking to himself, zoning in and out of their conversations with him. But he was fully aware that his friends had been watching over him, and he appreciated it.

  He looked up and joked, “Are you guys planning to leave me alone for a while? I feel like I’m in protective custody.”

  Melissa told him, “You are. We’re just trying to make sure that you’re all right.”

  Gary stared at her from across the table. “Thanks. So I guess I should feel privileged to have two bodyguards constantly surrounding me now.”

  Taylor and Melissa eyed each other and chuckled.

  During the burial and final blessings of Gabrielle Antoinette Stevens at Louisville’s Memorial Cemetery on Saturday morning, Gary stood between Melissa, Taylor, Taylor’s family, and several of his mother’s extended family members, who had traveled up from Tennessee. He was dressed in a fine black suit and a burgundy patterned tie. A number of stirring speeches had been made on his mother’s behalf and many tears had been shed from her close friends and estranged relatives. Even Dr. Teikata was there. Even with the torrent of emotion, Gary remained detached. There were no tears or deep sense of sorrow, only a blank emptiness. It was as if he needed more evidence to prove that it was all real.

  The Louisville mayor gave his departing words from the opposite side of Gabrielle’s chrome coffin with gold trim. Wearing a quality black suit of his own with a politician’s blue and red necktie, the mayor was surrounded by his wife, several city and state officials, and the local police officers, some of whom had worked on his mother’s case.