by J. Naomi Ay
"Nice. For your girlfriend?"
"Nah. I don't have a girlfriend. It's for you."
"Thanks." Her face was red either from blushing or from consuming so many sulfites in the beer. "How'd you know I was into yoga?"
"Lucky guess." I stood up and threw a few bucks on the counter. "Don't drink too much tonight, Gina. I'll see you around."
As I walked out the door, Bill the bartender was helping her lock the clasp around her wrist.
It was late, pitch black outside, except for a sliver of the Rozarian moon among the billions of stars. I stood in the atrium of the deserted mall, fingering the angel charm that was still in my pocket.
I didn't give that to Gina. For some reason, I just felt I should keep it. Maybe I'd give it that girl on the Discovery, or if she wouldn't accept it, I'd bring it back to Earth for Grandpa Lou.
He must have heard my thoughts all the way over on Earth because as I was standing there, contemplating whether to just stay up all night and catch my flight or head back to the base for a couple hours of sleep, my cell rang.
"Jerry?"
"Hi Lou."
"Why do you never call me Grandpa anymore? Am I not still your grandfather who suffered on your behalf so that you could be a doctor and fly around in space? Why do you never call me, spaceboy? Are you so busy that you forget if I am dead or alive? Next time you think of it, who knows, I might be dead and then, it will be too late."
"I'm sorry, Grandpa." I held the cell away from my ear as this guilt tirade would probably go on for another twenty minutes. It was then that I noticed something underneath one of the atrium's benches. A man's foot was sticking out. "Sorry, Lou, gotta run."
Snapping the cell shut, I hurried over. "Hey, buddy?"
Kneeling down and peering under the bench, I reached in my pocket for the MDaSD which I always carried. I knocked the angel charm out too. It fell on the ground next to his face and the little blue globe thing lit up as if it had been struck by a match. For a half second I stared dumbfounded until the MDaSD started beeping. It told me the guy's heart was barely beating, and his blood pressure was almost nonexistent. His temperature was below ninety and brain activity was a tiny sine wave. He was alive but just barely. In fact, it was as if he in a hypothermic state, or perhaps, a drug induced coma.
"Hold on, friend," I told him and jumped to my feet. He needed hospitalization and fast. Where was that mall cop when I needed him? "Hey!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. "Help! We need help over here!"
After a minute or two, the mall cop waddled over, clutching a bag from the All Night Donut Shop.
"He a friend of yours?" The cop asked, peering down at the guy.
"No, but he needs medical assistance now. Can you call an ambulance, please?"
"Alright, but I'm going to have to give you a ticket for loitering after hours."
"Me?"
"Well, the both of you, you and your friend."
"He's not my friend."
There was no point in arguing. I knelt by the guy under the bench and talked to him as there wasn't anything else I could do. I didn't have my kit to treat him, and furthermore, it was better he stayed cold until we got to the hospital.
While I waited another seven and half minutes for the paramedics and ambulance to arrive, I found myself telling this guy everything. Starting with my childhood in Kevin's shadow, I described Grandpa Lou, my reasons for joining Spaceforce, my love for the girl on the Discovery, and finally, I ended with this quest on behalf of dead Dgery Wadmon. The guy didn't say a word, of course, but it felt good to get it all off my chest.
"So you see," I concluded. "I am and have always been a total schmuck."
"No, you're not." It was Dr. Gina. She knelt down beside me, the bracelet sparkling on her wrist. "You saved me the other night. You're saving this guy now, Dgery."
"Actually, it's Jerry. You would have done the same in my place.”
"No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't have bothered to save me or this bum." A few tears dribbled out of Dr. Gina's sad eyes. "You're a hero."
"No, I'm not. I'm just a space doctor doing my job."
****
The next day, I returned to the Discovery after the guy was transported to the hospital with Dr. Gina and the paramedics. I was surprised how much I missed the ship and especially the sickbay.
"I'm so glad you're back, Jerry Waldman!" Caroline cried as soon as I walked in. She was sitting on a gurney painting her toenails bright pink.
The girl, the one who consumed my every waking and sleeping thought, was sitting on a wheeled chair, lazily swinging her legs back and forth.
"Are you ill?" I asked her, my face already heating up.
"No, she's not," Caroline replied. "She's just waiting for me to get finished so we can go get some food."
I almost asked if I could come, but then realized what a schmucky thing that would be do. Instead, I headed toward my office to start reading my mail when I remembered what I had in my pocket.
"Hey," I said to the girl. "This is for you." Pulling out the angel charm, I dropped it in her hand. "It's the Archangel…"
"I know who it is," she replied, turning it over, her eyes narrowing as she studied it. "It's very pretty, but I couldn’t possibly keep it." She tried to hand it back.
"It's just a plastic replica," I insisted. "It's not really valuable. He's the warrior angel and in charge of all the others. He reminds me of you, in a way."
"No, it's not fake." She pointed at a tiny inscription on the back. "This is white gold. It says 24k. The stone is probably a blue diamond."
"It can't be." Pulling out my MDaSD, I ran it over the charm. Sure enough, it came back as solid gold. With a blue diamond, it was worth several thousand dollars. "Wow."
“Please, Jerry.” She tried to give it to me again.
"No. I mean it. I want you to have it. No strings attached. It's just because we're friends. Okay?"
She looked at Caroline, who raised her eyebrows and shrugged. Then, she looked back at me and smiled.
"Okay, Jerry," she said and kissed me on the cheek. "Friends. Good friends forever."
She held the charm tightly in her hand, and later, she wore it on a chain around her neck. That made me feel good.
That girl went on to become captain of this starship, getting herself into all sorts of scrapes along the way. She always managed to get out of them and come back to the ship whole, where I was always nervously waiting until she did.
For the longest time, I thought it was that angel charm watching over her, keeping her safe. That was until I found out who really did.
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