I clicked off the turn indicator. “One stop before home,” I said.
“Are we still going to watch a movie?” Marmi asked. “I had Myrtle pumped off for Ghost. Draws more tears than Jerry Maguire.”
“I think you mean pumped up,” I said. “We’ll get to the movie, don’t worry.”
“I think she’s going to see the doctor,” Myrtle said.
I smiled. The light turned green just as I approached the intersection. Relieved because I knew it to be a long light on red, I accelerated. “Good sign,” I said.
“What is a good—” Myrtle started to say.
“Oh Sophie!” shouted Marmi. “Look out!”
I looked. The headlights of a car were heading straight for me. The driver was running his red light.
I remembered thinking that Marmi’s warning had come too late.
Too late.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Spinning. I was spinning and spinning. People were shouting and I heard sirens.
My eyes opened to fog.
“Sophie!” someone hollered. “Sophie! Stay with me.” The voice sounded far away.
“Shane?” I asked. But he didn’t answer.
“Oh my God, where are they?” he said, sounding even farther away than before.
Then he was clearer to me and the fog was receding.
“Hello, Sophie,” Marmi said.
The ground I stood on felt uneasy, almost like there wasn’t any ground at all. “Do you see me?” he asked.
“Yeah. What happened? I feel so strange.”
“As if you have a bad case of influenza?”
“Yeah.”
Sounds around me grew louder and my gaze fell to a figure on the ground.
My body.
“Marmi, am I...”
“I’m afraid so, my friend.”
“That’s Shane,” I said.
“Yes. He’s most desperate. He was the first one here.”
I watched Shane move out of the way for another man in a uniform.
“Are they trying to save me?”
“I believe so. Do you see a light, Sophie?”
“There are lots of lights. From the cars.”
“No. A brighter light. A warm and comfortable light.”
“No.”
“That is hopeful,” he said.
The man hovered over my body while I watched helplessly, feeling disconnected from Marmi’s world or mine.
“I don’t like this feeling, Marmi.”
A fog settled around me again.
Then blackness.
I found myself hiking a trail I’d hiked many times with Cal. The trail along Ridge Falls Park. Only I was alone this time. No Cal, no Marmaduke. Just me. At first, the hike was nearly effortless and I gazed upon endless fields of wildflowers in bloom. Blues and pinks, yellows and purples dotted the landscape, and I sighed at the stunning glory of the moment. And then I remembered it was fall. There shouldn’t have been wildflowers blooming in fall. But I quickly dismissed the thought because I didn’t care. Their beauty made me happy anyway.
But soon the hike became difficult and more treacherous. Each step felt like my feet weighed a hundred pounds. And I grew upset because ahead was a lookout over the falls. I wanted to make it to the lookout, to gaze upon the falls and the rushing water and the blue sky as it hung over the majesty.
I stopped moving. I was never going to make it. I was simply too tired to walk another inch. Snowflakes began to fall and I hugged myself for warmth. The air was so cold.
I huddled against a tree, feeling more and more despair as the world darkened around me again.
Voices in the darkness stirred me. I opened my eyes and through a blur saw two people talking. I was in a bed and felt warmer, but now worried about the blinking lights all around and the constant beep, beep, beep.
Darkness surrounded me again until I felt a familiar warmth on my hand. I opened my eyes to see Grampy sitting beside my bed, holding my hand. He had his head bowed in prayer.
I tried to talk, but I couldn’t. I needed to know where I was. Where was Cal?
Then I remembered being out of my body and talking to Marmaduke.
“Marmi?” I said in my thoughts, “am I alive?”
“You are,” I heard him say.
“Why can’t I see you?”
“I do not know.”
“Where’s Cal?”
“Shane went to find him,” he said.
I drifted into darkness again, too weak to stay awake.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Upon waking again, I heard Amy’s voice. “Come on, sweetie,” she said. “Be strong. I know you can make it. You need to be here for my wedding. I can’t do it without you.”
“Amy?” I croaked.
“Yes, sweetie!” Her eyes brightened and she smiled. “She’s talking!” she said.
A doctor quickly stood between Amy and me. I felt his fingers on my wrist and he shined a light into my eyes.
“Sophie?” he said. “Do you hear me?”
I tried to nod, but couldn’t move my head. I tried to say yes, but think I only gurgled.
The doctor left and Amy squeezed my hand. “It’s going to be okay. I’m going to make sure they take the best care of you. I’ll stay all night if I have to.”
Myrtle appeared beside Amy. “They found her man,” she said. “He’s runnin’ down the hallway right now.”
“Hello?”
That was Cal’s voice. But I couldn’t see him and couldn’t move to try to find him.
“Hello? Is this the right room?”
A moment later, he stood above me, his face ashen. “Oh my God, Sophie,” he said, taking my hand in his.
Marmaduke appeared at my other side. He directed his anger at Cal. “She was traveling to see you when the catastrophe occurred.”
Cal tightened his grip on my hand. “You were?” he asked me.
I tried to tell him that it was okay though, and all that mattered was that he was here now, but I still couldn’t form words.
“Marmi,” I thought, “can you talk for me?”
“Why yes, I think I can,” he said. “Ol chap,” he said to Cal, “for the record, she is far too good for you.”
“I know she is. Tell her that I know she’s too good for me,” said Cal.
“She can hear, you imbecile,” Marmi said.
“Be nice,” I told Marmi.
“But Sophie, he is an imbecile. Only a fool would consider leaving a woman of such beauty and gentleness of character.”
“Leave her?” Cal asked. “You thought I was going to leave her?”
“She believed that was the purpose of your visit this morning, yes.”
“I was going to ask her to marry me.”
“You must be joking,” Marmi sniped. “With bagels and a soda drink? That isn’t how you approach a proposal.”
“I was nervous. The last marriage went badly.”
“What about last evening?”
“What about it?”
“She drove by your house and that woman was there. You had wine.”
“No!” Cal protested. He found my eyes and pleaded with me. “Sophie, you have to believe me. She was there to see my mother. I poured the wine and left. I admit, I’ve been confused lately. My parents separating stirred up the doubts I’d been having about relationships and commitment. Divorce does that to a person. The doubts, they’re big. And all of the other stuff with Myrtle and Shane. It shook me up. But then there was Rachel in my house and I realized that wasn’t how it was supposed to be. You belonged in my house with me. All the doubt, all of my second guessing, it vanished. I knew right then I wanted to be married to you. I s
hopped all night for the perfect ring to propose with.”
Marmi’s tone softened. “You bought a ring?”
“Well, no. Because I never found the perfect ring. That’s why I brought the bagels. You know, because they’re rings, and I had this whole funny thing planned where we joked about rings and I’d ask her to be my wife.”
With a strange sensation pressing on my side, I tried to get a word in myself. “Marmi, stop a minute.”
“An absurd excuse of a plan,” Marmaduke huffed. “Bagels.”
“I think it’s kind of cute,” Myrtle sighed.
A stabbing pain tore through my side. “Marmi, it hurts.”
“She says you hurt her.”
I was feeling overcome by weakness. “No, I hurt. My side. It hurts.”
“Oh dear,” Marmi said. “She says her side hurts. I think she’s in pain. What are those beeping noises?” Marmi sounded like he was in a panic.
“She’s crashing!” Amy said, pressing a button near the head of my bed. “Cal, they’ll probably make you leave. Stand in the corner, stay out of the way. You might be able to stay.”
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Her vitals dropped off the charts.”
I could hear them, but couldn’t see them. The fog had returned. Then I was standing beside my body watching a crew of people descend upon me like locusts on a wheat field.
“Sophie?” Cal said. “No! Sophie, no!”
“Cal?”
He was looking at me, not my body on the bed.
“Hey there sugar,” Myrtle said. “Take it easy.”
“They’re doing what they can, Sophie,” said Marmi.
A soft but brilliant light opened up above my head. It was warm and I saw Grammy there. “Marmaduke, I see the light you talked about.”
“No!” shouted Cal. “No!”
“Get that man out of here,” someone said.
Two nurses tried to guide Cal out of the room but he fought them. “No, don’t make me leave. Sophie, stay with me,” he pleaded.
“I’m sorry,” I told him. “I don’t know what to do.” The pull from the light was strong and my urge to move toward it overwhelmed me.
“Tell her that you complete her,” Myrtle told Cal.
“Yes, yes!” said Marmi. “That’s the way. You complete her.”
“What?”
“Good lord bagel man, don’t question us, just say it.”
“She completes me,” Cal said.
“No!” Marmaduke shouted. “To her. Tell her.”
“I said to get that man out of here!” someone said again.
Two male nurses rushed into the room and forcibly tugged Cal out as he cried, “No! No!”
He was gone and I was too weak to fight anymore.
“Is this goodbye, Sophie?” Marmaduke asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe.”
“You’re fading. I can barely see you now.”
“I’m sorry, Marmi.”
The light consumed me now, and the image of the room was almost a memory.
“It’s true! Don’t leave me, Sophie, it’s true!” Cal’s words seemed to tug me back. I saw his face, dim and small, far off in the distance. The light surrounding me began to recede.
“It’s true!” he shouted, his eyes pleading with mine. “It’s true, you do complete me. I don’t care how corny it sounds or that it came from a stupid movie. It’s true. I can’t imagine my life without you. You and your crazy ghosts and witches and warlocks. You complete me.”
“I still say there were never any warlocks,” Marmaduke interjected.
The light faded away entirely, its pull withdrawn. I remained outside of my body, but felt some strength now. “I think I can do this,” I told Cal.
“We have a pulse,” someone said.
“Stay with me,” Cal said, his eyes locked on mine.
“I’ll think about it,” I said smiling.
“You’re supposed to say that I had you at hello.”
“You had me at the bagels.”
“Get her stable,” a doctor said, “then get her down to surgery.”
Darkness surrounded me again, then I dreamed I was hiking on the trail. Only this time I wasn’t alone.
This time Cal was holding my hand.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Cal stayed by my side the next day while I recovered from surgery. I didn’t remember much of that day except he held my hand a lot. Besides the ruptured spleen, I had suffered a broken arm and two cracked ribs. Thankfully it was my left arm. The cast and sling were annoying, but at least I was alive.
I grew stronger each day, taking short walks around my room and once down the hall.
On Halloween, Ron and Dory stopped by with a basket so large that it hid Ron from view until he set it down. “We can’t stay long,” Dory apologized. “We’re hosting a Halloween party tonight.”
“That sounds like fun,” I said.
“I’m not convinced myself,” Dory snipped, “but Ronald insisted. Claims it is a good way to say thank you to our clients. Personally, I just think it’s another way for him to explore his new obsession.”
“Dory,” Ron pleaded, “it’s not an obsession.”
“Ghosts,” Dory said, ignoring him as she usually did. “Ghosts. We’ve watched every ghost movie ever made. He’s decorated our office with nothing but ghosts. He subscribed to a video streaming service, and every available moment he can find, he plays another episode of Milwaukee Medium. And guess what costume he has chosen for this evening?”
“It’s a long shot, but I’ll go with ghost for twenty.”
Ron rolled his eyes at her, which for Ron was a pretty gutsy move. “I’ve found you glued to more than one Milwaukee Medium episode. You think I don’t notice, but I do.”
She crossed her arms and explained herself to me. “It’s like watching an accident scene unfold on the other side of a freeway. You can’t tear your eyes away. I don’t know how that woman’s husband puts up with her.”
Suppressing a laugh was excruciating. I shook my head. “You have to wonder, don’t you?”
“When do you get out of this place?” Ron asked me.
I shifted in my bed. “Not soon enough. The doctor says tomorrow, probably.”
Later that day, the doctor changed her mind and approved my release.
“So I can take her home?” Cal asked.
“That you can,” the doctor said, signing my chart. “If you promise to take good care of her.”
“I’ve already moved some of my stuff to her apartment,” he said.
“Really?” I asked.
“I thought that was easier than moving the animals and upsetting their routine.”
“You’re so sweet.”
“I don’t want you going to back to work for another week, though,” the doctor added.
I cringed. “How are you going to manage the office?” I asked Cal.
“Just fine,” he said. “I hired two temps. My mom and dad.”
“Are they back together?”
He smiled. “As of last night.”
“You’re sure they can run the office together?”
“It’s a week. What harm can they do?”
I slept much better in my own bed without nurses coming in all night long to take my blood pressure. And having Cal in bed next to me increased my comfort level a hundredfold.
He made me eggs and toast early the next morning before he went to work. We sat in bed together eating and chatting.
“So,” he said, “I’ve been thinking.”
“These eggs are delicious, by the way,” I said.
“I put scallio
ns and garlic in them. Just a bit of garlic.”
“Yum. So what were you thinking? Sorry I interrupted you there.”
“I was thinking I’d be willing to revisit the idea of allowing Marmaduke and Myrtle to scare off Rachel. A little. Or maybe a lot.”
“You don’t have to convince me. Heck, I’ll scare her if you want. I thought you’d worked things out with her.”
“Yeah, well, she’s back to her old tricks.”
An I-told-you-so struggled to leap from my tongue, but I fought it back. “Her desire to help wasn’t sincere?”
“I’m not sure there is anything sincere about her except her sincere desire to do whatever serves her own needs and her own pocketbook.”
“What did she do?”
“Asked my parents to loan her fifteen thousand dollars.”
“Holy wad of dough. Are they doing it?”
“They already wrote the check. They felt indebted. Literally.”
“Did she say why she needed that kind of money?”
“For a down payment on a condo. But yesterday, the day after they gave her the check, my mother got a call from a friend who works for a local plastic surgeon.”
“Uh oh.”
“Big uh oh. Rachel had just scheduled herself for breast augmentation which runs roughly fifteen grand.”
“All that work ingratiating herself with your mom, getting back on your good side. All for a set of bigger boobs. She’s gutsy, I’ll give her that. So you want them to scare her into giving it back.” I chewed on my toast. “I wonder how they’d do that? I mean, the scaring is easy, but how do they specifically get her to return the loaned money?”
Marmaduke and Myrtle appeared at the foot of the bed. “Leave that to us,” Marmi said, wearing a devilish grin.
Some Like it Haunted (A Sophie Rhodes Ghostly Romane Book 2) Page 13
