The Lumberjack

by Erik Martin Willén

  “I called 911 and they’re sending the paramedics,” he said. “Now, where about did you say those boys were, and what did they look like?”

  Christina was still very confused and just said, “In their late teens or early twenties, one white and the other black.” She made a sloppy gesture with her arms towards the river.

  “Wait here and I’ll get you something to drink, because I sure need something to calm my own nerves. Girl, you almost caused another accident like the one the other day, when that woman jumped into the road and got herself killed, causing a huge accident with a lotta people hurt. Domino effect, you know? You have to be extra careful with all the mad drivers on the road nowadays. Lucky, I saw you in time.”

  She sat down by the side of the road and hugged the cat, noticing for the first time that the man had turned on his hazard lights and placed a warning triangle on the road. He returned with a camping canteen; he held it out to her, but Christina just gave it a suspicious glare. Suddenly she heard a helicopter nearby; she looked up, and saw the man taking a sip from the canteen. Again he held it in front of her. She took it with her left hand, still holding onto the sleeping kitten. She drank some, and it tasted like green tea. Almost instantly, she felt a bit stronger, and so she drank some more. He had to stop her, and with mild force, recovered his canteen.

  “Trust me, you don’t want to drink too much of it, miss. It has coca leaves in it.”

  She looked at him. frightened.

  “Don’t worry, it won’t be detectable, and you won’t become a drug addict. They’re very small coca flakes. Makes you feel better, right?”

  She smiled effortlessly and nodded. Whatever she had just drank had helped.

  “Did you know that in Central and South America, they use these leaves to measure distances?”

  She was too tired to answer the nice man, and only shook her head.

  The sound of the helicopter increased to a roar, and it suddenly landed on the road beyond the stranger’s truck. Another truck was parked on the side of the road behind her, and an old couple stepped out, wondering what was happening. Soon several more vehicles were there, but Christina didn’t care. She didn’t know how long she’d been on the road, because suddenly she felt very drowsy.

  Someone gave her a nudge, and she woke up looking into the eyes of a man with a large white helmet who wore a pair of mirrored sunglasses. “Ma’am, you all right?”

  Christina didn’t understand what was happening. The man kneeling there wore a typical pilot’s outfit with a life vest around his neck.

  “Ma’am, can you tell us whereabouts the bear attacked you?”

  Someone else said, “Crap, she’s passed out.”

  The man who had helped her took another sip from his canteen while a police officer took down his information. He glanced at the three people who carried a rescue litter with the young woman strapped in to the waiting helicopter down the road. When they passed him and the police officer, he thought, She looks even prettier without that cowboy hat.

  Oh, well. He had bigger fish to fry. There were two young men just dying to meet him.

  She’s waking up, better get the doctor,” one nurse said to another as they prepared the hospital bed.

  Christina woke up slowly, her vision a blur. There was a very annoying beeping sound in the room. It smelled clean; overly clean, in fact, like alcohol and antiseptic. Another fragrance fought for dominance: she saw several flower bouquets with nice arrangements, and there were some small envelopes and get-well cards attached. No balloons, and with that thought she smiled thankfully. She had something stuck in her nose, and when she turned her head, it was still stuck. She moved her eyes sideways and noticed her bandaged hands. She felt uncomfortable, and her head was spinning, making her feel nauseous.

  A moment later, someone peeled back her eyelid and looked at her eye with a bright light, mumbling something to a nurse, who took notes. The doctor then checked on her heartbeat, and made her lean forward and cough, finishing up with checking her throat. Then a cheerful voice greeted Christina: “Hi there. My name is Daniela, and I’ll be your doctor for the day.”

  Christina smiled and whispered back, “Hi, my name is Christina, and I’ll be your patient for the day.”

  “Humor, that’s good. How are you feeling?”

  “Like a mashed potato.”

  “Well, Ms. Potato, you’ll be glad to know that you’ve been very fortunate. You have several lacerations and we had to do some stitching, especially over your eye, but fear not; I’m excellent with a thread and needle, and once it’s healed it will barely be visible. You’re bruised up pretty badly, but with some rest and medication, you should be as good as new in about two weeks.”

  Christina woke up abruptly. “Two weeks here at the hospital?”

  “No, no, not that long, but we do have some important things to discuss.”

  Christina looked over her body for the first time, and noticed that her head, hands, arms, feet, and chest had been wrapped up. “Why didn’t you just wrap me up like a mummy?”

  “It can be done,” Daniela said drily. “There are quite a few people here to see you. Should I let them in once I’m finished here, or do you want to rest?”

  “Any of them reporters?”

  “No. They know better.”

  “Oh. By the way, what time is it?”

  “Three o’clock in the afternoon.”

  “Good, then I’ll only been here for a few hours.”

  Daniela observed her patient thoroughly. “Christina, it’s Monday afternoon. You’ve been asleep for thirty hours.”

  “But, but…”

  “Your body has taken some severe blows, and it needed to rest. You were completely unconscious when you got here. You’re very fortunate; and you should also be very proud, because your body overall is in very good condition. Back to one of my first questions; what do you remember? I need to determine if you have amnesia. The MRI didn’t show any major damage to your brain, but you do have a minor concussion. Your neck was bruised up pretty badly, and I’ll leave your neck brace on until you leave. I’m afraid you’ll have to keep all the bandages on, and I would prefer you stayed at least two more days for observation.”

  Christina thought back for a moment, and then she said, “I went for a jog and found a nice pool…went swimming, and…” She had to think some more, and then she smiled up and continued, “There were bear cubs playing with my clothes. Cute little things. I think they fought over the candy bar I brought with me. I went up and started to pet them.”

  Daniella’s eyes went wide. “You did WHAT?”

  An innocent Christina answered, “Petted them. They were so cute.”

  Daniella was about to lecture her patient about common sense when spending time in the woods, but she wasn’t there for that; she bit her tongue instead. “Please continue.”

  “The mother bear attacked me all of a sudden. I barely escaped, and that’s how I ended up in the river.”

  “Explains why you were naked…some pilots thought you must have dived naked from Frank’s and Claire’s house, because they claim they saw you there naked earlier…but the idea of diving from that distance is absurd. You wouldn’t be able to reach the water anyway.”

  Christina continued her story, telling Daniela about the boys and what they had done to her, and how she finally managed to reach the shoreline. And then Christina almost shouted, “The kittens! The fuckers murdered the kittens, and…! Wait, there was one alive, where is it!?”

  “Okay, you seem to be all right in the memory department, but you need to calm down,” Daniela said sternly.

  “But what about the kitten?”

  “I don’t know about any kitten, but relax. I’ll find out, but only if you promise to relax.”

  Daniella never liked using reflexive psychology on her patients, but she knew it worked most of the time. She then went outside and closed the door behind her. Christina could barely hear her warning the people outside about
something.

  When Dr. Daniela returned, the first visitor entered. He shut the door firmly behind him, keeping whoever was coming up from the rear outside. It was an old man wearing a very expensive suit: Mr. Thomas Billing. Her lawyer. Before he shut the door, he turned in the doorway and snapped something to someone Christina couldn’t see, although she caught a glimpse of a uniform. She rolled her eyes at the bobbing balloons he brought with him; definitely didn’t match his armor.

  “Oh my dear, dear Christina, look at you,” he said gloomily. “How are you feeling?”

  He was almost like a father or grandfather to her, having taken her under his wings after his only daughter had died from Lupus, SLE at a young age. Anna and Christina had been best friends, but that ended when the disease took her. Tammy had introduced them. The three had been inseparable until death stepped in.

  Despite his authoritarian armor, Thomas was one of the sweetest people Christina knew, and she respected him like a parent. However, sometimes he could be a bit of a Mr. Hyde when it came to his work. She knew that when he had raised his voice to the people outside, it had been his paternal instinct speaking, and not the attorney.

  “I feel like a mummy,” she moaned.

  “And I’m afraid you look like one, dear. But don’t you worry about a thing. I brought my jet, and we’ll have you back in L.A. soon, and have some real experts take care of you.”

  Christina noticed Dr. Daniella look up sharply from her paperwork.

  “Dear Tom, thanks a million for taking the time to fly all the way out here and offer, but I’ll stay here. I trust my new physician completely.”

  He smiled. “A second opinion never hurts.” He turned to Daniela. “I respectfully apologize for my poor choice of words. It was never my intention to question your professionalism…it’s just that this one,” he nodded to Christina, “is like a daughter to me.”

  Daniella smiled at him. “I’ll leave the two of you alone for a while.”

  “I see you’re wearing your armor,” she said when they were alone. “A Savile Row suit with tie and all. Long time since I saw you wear one of those.”

  “I have been in the Big Apple doing big business.”

  “Another billion?” she asked wryly.

  “Two, actually. Are you sure I can’t convince you to come back? There have been an awful lot of bad things happening around here lately.”

  “Hey, you’re the one who recommended this place to me.”

  “Too true.”

  “Besides, I’ve decided I want to move here, and I want to buy the place.”

  Tom sat down next to her and brushed some stray locks of hair from her face. “Yes, I suspected you would fall in love with this place. The house anyway.”

  “I’ll probably have to sell my place in L.A., but it will be worth it.”

  He looked at her, looking hurt. “Nonsense! I’ll help you rent it out. It might not be on the beach, but since it’s only two blocks away from one of the world’s more popular beaches it won’t be a problem finding tenants. Never hurts to earn some extra money. And besides, your backlist has been selling well on DVD and BluRay, and you’re getting some tidy royalties lately.”

  She knew he wanted her to have an anchor near him, so she let it go. She didn’t want to hurt him, as he was all alone without Anna. Christina knew very well that if it wasn’t for her and Tammy, this man would have no life but his work. It was Tom who had set up Tammy with her new job; not that Tammy wasn’t able to do it herself, it was just something he would typically do.

  “Like I said…”

  “I’ll keep it, Tom, don’t worry. You’ll never get rid of me—or Tammy, for that matter.”

  “Tammy? That little hellion! I’ll never forget when you guys and Anna…” He trailed off.

  Christina placed her bandaged left hand on his. “Hey. Come on.”

  He didn’t answer; instead, he took a deep breath, swallowing his tears.

  “There’s a crowd of people outside who want to see you. I didn’t ask you what happened, because I figured you would only want to say it once to everyone, but…did you do anything that might result in questioning in regards to the law?” Mr. Hyde was back.

  “If being naïve and stupid is criminal, then yes, guilty as charged.”

  He never left her side; instead he tapped on something on his wrist, and Christina knew very well that it was some type of radio link to his personal security. The door opened, and in came an avalanche of people. Behind them stood Claire Hancock, waving her hand, but someone shut the door in her face.

  Two Highway Patrol officers charged across the room, followed by a park ranger, a soldier, and that rude person who had slammed the door in Claire’s face. He was a tall, slender black man wearing a police uniform. Instantly Christina noticed his eyes: clear, intelligent, sad, alert; but there was something very dark about them, and it had nothing to do with his complexion. His eyes reflected experience, a lot of it, and perhaps not the best. For a moment, she thought his eyes were dead. His bluish-black skin, which made him seem more African than African-American, only made his dark stare even more intense. Although he kept to himself in the back of the crowd, he was the one who brought a sense of authority to the room.

  Wait—there was one more person in the room, and Christina smiled at herself, because she should have known why she had never noticed him entering the room. It was the legendary and mysterious Mr. Smith, the man in charge of Thomas Billing’s security. Holding on to his old umbrella -something he always carried with him. He was a very old, odd, and small person; Anna had thought he was creepy and never liked him, while Tammy thought the old bugger needed to “get some,” as she put it. He was the type of person no one ever noticed in a crowd, and at the same time, if you were in a room with him for more than five minutes, you would feel unease. Christina knew nothing about him and had never asked; it had always seemed a touchy subject. Mr. Smith—or whatever his real name was—never smiled or looked sad. His facial expression was always perfectly neutral. During all the years Christina had known Tom, she could count the words she had heard Mr. Smith utter on the fingers of one hand.

  A distinguished older man, wearing what seemed to be a Highway Patrol uniform with patches indicating that he held a high rank, gave her a friendly smile and, in an equally friendly tone, asked Christina to recount what had happened.

  She thought back over all the events so that she would get everything in proper order, and then she more or less repeated what she had told Dr. Daniela, but with a few more in-depth details. When she finished, the officer turned to the park ranger, a young woman. “Could it be our bear?”

  “No, I doubt it…wait a moment.”

  The young woman took a map from a side pocket on her pants and started unfolding it. The soldier, an officer with the rank of Major, intervened, and brought up a thin but sturdy-looking computer tablet, which looked like it had been made for use under rough conditions. “May I…?”

  Before Christina could answer, he held the tablet in front of her. “This is your home, and this is where they found you, on this road.” He pointed at the locations, and it took Christina a minute before she could identify the locations.

  “Wow. I must have gone a long way down the river.”

  “You’re lucky you’re alive,” someone said.

  She recognized the small natural pool on the satellite image. The soldier allowed for her to zoom in and point it out. The ranger leaned over and observed. “No, impossible. That can’t be the bear we’re hunting, not with two cubs and all. I would, respectfully, be grateful if you would inform the hunting parties that’s not our bear. The idiots have already killed two black bears for nothing.”

  The park ranger was very upset, and had no trouble hiding it as she scolded the others in the room. The officers and the soldier quickly related the information to their various people on their smartphones.

  Christina almost froze when, suddenly, the black police officer addressed her in a deep,
dark voice. “Miss Dawn, my name is Malik Washington. I’m with the Sheriff’s Department. Would you recognize the two men who attacked you if you saw them again, perhaps in mugshots?”

  “Yes, most definitely. I’ve never seen such malice in one person before, let alone two.”

  “I’m somewhat new in these parts, ma’am, but I’ll relate what you said to the sheriff.”

  “Wait, has anyone seen the kitten?”

  Everyone looked around the room and then back at Christina, shaking their heads.

  “There was a tiny kitten, the only one still alive. I held onto him all the way to the road…” Christina’s eyes teared up.

  The Major made a call and walked towards a corner in the room, almost colliding with Mr. Smith, who glided silently out of the way. A moment later, he returned with a frown on his face. “It was turned over to an animal shelter, ma’am. I’m afraid it’s too young to survive without its mother, and there’s no mother cat to wet-nurse it. They say it’s going to be euthanized.”

  Having received this information, Christina tried to get out of her bed, but the stupid torture device that kept her neck in place wouldn’t let her. Immediately, people in the room tried to stop her from getting up. Christina cursed them roundly, very upset. Thomas looked at Mr. Smith, who raised his left wrist to his mouth and said something quietly. He then nodded his head towards Thomas, who laid his hand on Christina’s arm.

  “One of my people is on his way to see if we can find your kitten.” He looked at Christina, and then turned his head to Mr. Smith, who just stood there.

  With that Christina relaxed. She was stuck in the damned bed anyway.

  Someone in the room suddenly burst out to Mr. Smith, “Who are you, and where did you come from?”

  Silence. Tom and Christina smiled at each other.

  The uniformed party left the room, but not without someone mumbling, “Creepy little bastard,” before leaving.