The Inn

by D. R. Mather

  “Oh? I wonder if they’re old. Wouldn’t that be neat, to have the tree decorated in old decorations?” Now Judy had a mission; Kevin could see it forming in her eyes while she spoke to him.

  “I’ll tell you what, take the girls up and see what you can find. Look in the center room that’s across from the stairs – that’s where I saw them. Oh, tell Alex and Roland to come out and get the tree …and….and...” Kevin suddenly got a vision of the strong box lifting show. “Never mind, I’ll get it.” He walked off to the truck and Judy ‘shuffled’ back inside.

  Kevin got the tree out of the back and brought it over to the side of the entry way. It was tall and wide, and stood about ten feet.

  “I hope Will has a ladder,” Kevin said in a low voice to no one in particular. What Kevin didn’t know was that ever since the Colburn’s had taken over the Inn, all they’d had was a small tree that sat on a coffee table.

  Kevin ran inside to ask Will for one of the empty garages for the truck when it happened.

  It really wasn’t a big thing if you think about how the human body works; boots are big and clunky and have a lot of thick rubber around the souls, just enough to misgauge how a person puts one foot in front of the other; a single miscalculation of the right foot swinging around to the side of the left really. It could be as much as an eighth of an inch, but it’s enough to trip a person up just a bit, although usually someone would catch themselves and move on. However, if a person were to do it just as they were about to take the first step from the second floor heading down? The results could take a completely different turn. This is what happened to Cindy as she was about to go down to Will to get the keys for the storage room. As she took the first step from the top, her left foot didn’t quite make it around before her boot toe caught the edge of her right boot. Cindy was in mid-air; she saw the ceiling then the bottom floor, then the ceiling and then the stairs, she may even have seen Kevin and Will during her decent. She hit, four times – once on the right side, then on the head, then the tummy, then the head again. Cindy’s body landed the final time and slid down the last few stairs, her feet stopping her decent by touching the bottom floor. The rest of her was laid out covering three of the stairs. She didn’t move.

  Kevin couldn’t have helped even with his uncanny speed; he hadn’t even seen Cindy until her third impact with the marble stairs.

  “CINDY, NOOOO!” He got to her in a flash, but only to stop her from sliding completely to the bottom floor. Alex and Roland were carrying wood from the hallway through the hidden door panel when it happened. Roland heard Kevin yell out Cindy’s name and dropped the full pile he was carrying. He trotted to where he knew Kevin was. He wasn’t a third of the way across the living room when he heard Kevin yell out really loud to Will:

  “WILL, 911 NOW!”

  Now Roland wasn’t trotting, he was running at full speed. He was now close enough to see Kevin’s feet out behind him as he was kneeling on the floor at the stairs. Then he saw Cindy.

  “NOOOOOOO……” Roland was beside Kevin now, “Oh my god, oh my god.”

  “Roland, calm down, you can’t help like that, just calm down, she’s breathing.”

  Kevin lightly felt around her neck area and it felt like it was still attached right. He lifted her up and as he did so, Roland saw a lot of blood under her. He passed out. Kevin could only stick out his leg to help Roland’s fall, but it seemed to be enough.

  Kevin headed for a sofa, “ALEX, grab that blanket over there and put it on the sofa.”

  Alex didn’t hesitate and did it.

  “Fold it triple where her heads going to be,” Kevin continued. He lay Cindy down and as he did so, he could hear a loud commotion at the top of the stairs followed by the very fast descending of feet on many stairs. He snapped his head towards the noise and saw Beth as she came into view, “Beth, a wet towel and fast! Get Barb out here right away.”

  Judy slowed as she got closer to the bottom; she saw two things at once, Roland laying on the floor, and blood on the stairs.

  “Oh no, oh no.” Judy came around the corner, saw only the top of Cindy’s head because Kevin was blocking most of her, and ran. Kevin was checking Cindy over for broken bones and open wounds when Judy got to her.

  “Cindy?” She slid her hand across Cindy’s head, then looked at Kevin in a pleading way.

  “I don’t know hun, it just happened. I’m trying to find out what she’s broken.”

  Barb came running out of the dining room towards the living room. She had two wet towels in her hand, and Beth was right behind her with a few dry ones.

  When Barb reached them, she knelt in from the side of Cindy, “Kevin, let me in.”

  He got up and moved out of the way. He looked down to his hands, the right one had blood all over it. Kevin ran over to Will, who was now standing at the entrance to the living room, just watching.

  “Will, go meet the ambulance out front so they know where to go.”

  “Right, I’ll go outside.” Will looked like he had just seen a ghost and was ashen grey.

  “Alex, Beth, come take care of Roland. Bring one of those wet towels.”

  Kevin turned to the stairs and saw a set of feet and legs sitting a third of the way down. He moved past the ceiling that cut off a full view of the stairs and saw April sitting on a step. Until that time, Kevin had never known a woman could cry so hard and yet be so quiet about it. He made it to her and grabbed her, lifting her up and carrying her down. As he got to the bottom, he saw Roland was already sitting up.

  “Beth, follow me,” said Kevin. He brought April to a chair and sat her down, then stepped back and allowed Beth to move in.

  “Shhh…honey, Cindy’s alive, okay?”

  April’s face was just soaked with tears. She couldn’t talk, so Beth just grabbed her and held her. Roland had already taken his place next to Cindy, who was still out cold. Kevin went out to the kitchen to wash off Cindy’s Blood; he could hear sirens in the distance once he got near a window.

  “How could this happen?” he asked, confused. “Does she carry the future of mankind or not?” Kevin figured he needed to speak to someone special, and soon. Five minutes later and the emergency rescue team were walking into the front doors with Will following behind.

  “To the left, she’s on a sofa.”

  “Got it,” replied one, and they turned left.

  Kevin was back at the entrance to the living room with Will at his side.

  “You think she’s okay Kevin?”

  “I won’t lie Will, I just don’t know.”

  Two minutes later and Cindy was on a backboard being strapped down to a gurney as they started to roll her towards the door of the Inn. Kevin and Will looked at her as they rolled past; she looked almost white. Everyone was right behind the emergency personnel and seemed to be following them out the door.

  “Guys, you can’t go with her.”

  “I can,” said Barb, and headed out the door with the E.M.Ts. Everyone else slowed down and watched as they loaded Cindy into the ambulance. The men were about to close the door when Barb grabbed it and announced that she was going with them.

  “You can’t I’m afraid.”

  “The hell I can’t, I’m a registered nurse.” She pulled herself up and sat next to Roland.

  The men knew there was no sense arguing about it, and drove off with the sirens blaring. The ambulance had pulled just off to the left of the new truck, which was still parked out front.

  “Everyone, get in the truck,” said Kevin.

  They all put on their winter coats and went. Kevin caught up with the ambulance about five minutes after he drove out of the driveway. He followed a safe distance behind. There was time to think, he could hear everyone talking about the incident but he was in his own world.

  Twenty minutes later, Cindy was going through the emergency doors of the hospital, with everyone following right behind. As doctors took over, they wheeled Cindy away to a room. Roland stayed with her, whilst the others
headed off to the waiting room.

  Will saw Barb, “Hun, let’s find you a place to wash up, shall we?”

  Barb looked down at herself. She had blood all over her arms and hands. “Oh, I guess I should,” she said, as she went off with him. Everyone had already found a seat, although Beth was pacing and looking very upset. She walked up to the wall of the waiting room.

  “GOD DAMN IT!”

  She slammed the side of her fist against the concrete wall and a small shower of sparks blasted out from around her fist, then flittered away into nothing.

  Kevin saw it. He looked left then right; Judy was still calming April down to his left, Alex was looking at Beth with a strange look on his face.

  “Did you see that Alex?”

  “I sure did, what the hell was that?”

  “I think our little Beth just showed us something we didn’t know about her.”

  “But, where the hell would she have gotten that?”

  Kevin thought for a few seconds, “Well, what I was given, it seemed to enhance the strong points of who I was. I was strong from all the building I’d always done, and I could always charm myself into a contract if I needed to. When I gave some of my power to each of you, there may have been something in it that did the very same thing to all of you.”

  Alex looked at Kevin, “But sparks? What could that mean?”

  “Alex, we are going to have to find that out. In fact, we are going to have to find out exactly what happened to all of us, you included my friend.”

  Alex sat in silence now as he worried about Cindy, and wondered what he might be able to do, even though he didn’t know it yet.

  Three hours later, a doctor came into the waiting room, “I can let you see her, but you can’t stay long. I want you all to be quiet too, not a lot of gabbing in her room.”

  Everyone stood up and began following the doctor; they were leaving the emergency wing and heading to the regular patient wing.

  Kevin asked the doctor, “What’s the prognosis?”

  “I’ll let you all know as soon as we get there.”

  Once inside the room, everyone gathered around Cindy. She had tubes and wires coming out from everywhere. She also had a tube in her mouth and a large bandage around her head.

  “She’s in a coma right now, we’re assisting her breathing but it’s only as a precaution. She could probably breathe on her own. We did a scan and she broke a few ribs as far as we can see, other than that, no other bones seem to be broken, which is good.” Everyone gave out a collective sigh. “However, her brain has swollen because of the impact to her head, and I’m afraid we have to take the babies now. Both are showing a heartbeat and lung expansion and contraction, but it’s very slow, far below normal.”

  Judy asked, “Is she far enough along for it, for them to survive?”

  “I honestly can’t say. They’re very small babies to begin with, for her being so far along. Roland here says the fifth of February, correct?”

  Roland only shook his head. He didn’t look away from Cindy and kept holding her hand.

  “So with all of these factors combined, I just wouldn’t hold out too much hope. I’m so sorry for you all, I really am. I always hate this part of my job. A team will be here in about ten minutes to prep her for surgery. I’ll have them shoo you out when they get in.” The doctor left them to be with Cindy.

  Everyone just stood and looked at Cindy in silence. All of them had tears in their eyes; Roland was just holding her hand and saying something that never made it past his moving lips.

  Judy looked around at everyone, then down at Cindy, “Honey, she’s supposed to have these two babies isn’t she?”

  “Yeah, that was the idea.”

  Judy moved over to the side of Cindy and started to gently pat and slide her hand across Cindy’s head, over and over in a very loving way. Kevin just stood at the foot of the bed, watching her.

  “Guys, I think I know what ‘mother’s milk’ means now,” she said. Judy leaned over Cindy and pulled the tube from her throat.

  Will and Barb were startled and started to protest in panic.

  Kevin blocked their advancement with his arm, “Shhh….I think we’re about to see something amazing.”

  Judy leaned over Cindy and opened her mouth. She settled her own mouth over Cindy’s and began to breathe into Cindy.

  A blue and white glow began to form around their mouths as Judy breathed. The glow began to get brighter and soon they could actually see the outline of Cindy’s Throat through her blue glowing skin. Judy kept breathing into her. The glow seemed to steady off at a certain level but sustains the same light. One minute later, Judy slowly released Cindy and leaned back. In a surprisingly cheerful, happy way, Judy turned to Kevin with a smile on her face.

  “There, that should do it!”

  She walked over to Kevin and leaned on his side as she grasped his hand.

  Kevin bent over to Judy’s ear, “Um, honey, what did you do?”

  “Oh, it just came to me what ‘mothers milk’ meant; her and her babies were damaged so I fixed it!”

  Kevin looked at her; she was her everyday happy bubbly self as she said it, like, ‘No big deal, la de da’.

  “Huh.” What else could he say?

  Will and Barb were in a small state of shock as they stood in place, they had no clue as to what had just happened. Barb started to raise one hand, finger pointed out as if she was about to make an important statement, when Will pulled her arm back down.

  “No honey, I think we’re out of our field here.”

  Cindy’s eyes started to flutter a bit, and then they began to open. Then she looked around.

  “Hi guys, why are you all in my bedroom?”

  The blast of cheers could be heard throughout the entire wing of the hospital. The surgical prep team was already about thirty feet from the room when they heard it; the doctor was over at the nursing station at the time. The gurney was left and the prep team and doctor ran to Cindy’s room. As they opened the door the doctor slipped past them only to see Cindy sitting up and drinking from a cup.

  “HI doc, come to check up on me?”

  “Check…up…on…you?”

  “I’m sorry if my friends were too loud, I’ve asked them to keep it quiet.”

  The doctor pushed past Beth and Alex to Cindy. He already had his stethoscope moving all around her.

  “How do you feel?”

  “Great, I feel great, why?”

  “Good question, let’s find out why shall we? Does your head hurt?”

  “Amm…nope!”

  “What about your chest, any pain there?”

  “Nope!”

  He listened to her belly over the womb; he could hear two very distinct heartbeats.

  “Time for some tests kiddo.” He turned to the team at the door, “Get her to M.R.I. right now if it’s available. I want an Ultrasound as soon as that’s done.”

  “Right,” said the woman in front. The doctor ushered everyone out into a waiting room that was close to Cindy’s room.

  In the waiting room, no one seemed to want to say anything about what they had just witnessed, not even Will and Barb. Alex and Beth sat next to each other as did Kevin and Judy. For some strange reason, ‘rag mags’ seemed to be the popular choice to occupy their minds.

  Two hours later, the door to the waiting room opened and the doctor came in, closing the door behind him. He then leaned on the door as if to keep things private.

  “We just finished all the testing we’re able to do at this facility and there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with Cindy or her babies. She doesn’t even need the bandage on her head anymore because it would seem that the very long, very deep cut that she had, well, seems to be missing. I don’t know what went on in that room: half of me wants to know, the other half does not, but something very strange happened. What it comes down to is this, I’m keeping Cindy here overnight just in case, but I’m guessing she can be taken home in the morning, any ques
tions?”

  Everyone shook their heads.

  “Right then, moving on,” the doctor clapped his hands together. “Roland, if I can take you for a few minutes? The rest of you might as well head out to your cars. I’ll only need Roland for a minute, and then I’ll send him off to you, okay?”

  Everyone stood up together and were nodding their heads in unison. The doctor noticed this and began to wonder if he was dealing with a group of androids. They all moved past the doctor and down the hall towards the exit. The doctor told Roland that he might as well go home because they’d given Cindy a sedative and she was going to sleep most of the night;

  “I think she’ll be ok, don’t worry, we’ll keep a close eye on her.”

  Everyone was standing near the exit door when Roland came running up to catch them.

  “Ready when you guys are.” He pushed through the door.

  With Roland and Barb added in, even the super cab was a tight fit, but they managed. Kevin drove them off to the Inn.

  As they arrived back, they all poured out into the drop-off area.

  “Will, just before this all happened I was about to ask you if I could occupy another garage for this. Have you got a spare one?”

  “Well, Judy was supposed to have one, but she doesn’t have a car. Let me run in and grab you a door opener.”

  “Sounds good Will.” Kevin got out so he could meet him half way upon his return.

  Everyone else walked past Kevin, including Judy, and headed inside. “Huh,” said Kevin. “My baby’s growing up I guess.” When Kevin returned he found everyone except Barb and Will in the living room. “Folks, we need to have a meeting, very soon. Let’s say, tomorrow morning?”

  “I’ll have to check my work schedule,” said Beth.

  “Oh me too,” said April, and they both ran upstairs. They were careful to avoid Cindy’s blood that was still on the marble steps. Will came in the main entrance with a mop and bucket, Barb followed behind him and headed to the sofa where Cindy had been lying. She picked up the blanket Cindy had been lying on;