A nervous call came down to a reservation agent. She spoke quickly and waved someone over – a man wearing a hotel nametag on the breast of his suit. The female agent hung up then picked up the receiver again and spoke anxiously to another hotel employee.
“Immediately.” Was all Enaya could make out the woman saying. She saw the woman roll her eyes.
The man waited next to her and they spoke in hushed tones covering their mouths. They seemed to try and break the tension with quiet nervous laughter. The man seemed to think of something and went into the office behind the counter. He resurfaced with a leather bound notebook. As he flipped through it, the woman looked on.
When the phone rang again they both jumped. She answered it then handed it over to the man. The man while still on the line signaled to the woman to make another call.
Enaya was used to the noise of the city – the early morning garbage trucks, traffic buzzing outside humming like electricity and, of course, the sound of sirens wailing in the distance. Today’s siren began like a mosquito in your ear. It grew slow and with a rhythm she’d become accustom to. As it neared its sound became more frantic as if the mere closeness of it meant some unspoken doom was lurking by. When she saw the lights flashing down the road at the intersection she expected to see it streak by the window and out of sight to somewhere else. But, when it slowed in front of the hotel, she knew.
As the ambulance wheels bumped over the lip of the parking lot, the man in the car pulled out and nearly backed into the row of cars behind him. But the ambulance pulling up in front of the lobby distracted her.
She watched as the EMTs open the back of the ambulance and pull out a gurney. She watched the hotel employees aiding them – telling them the floor number. The male agent whispered something to one of the emergency people and they headed to a service elevator. Then, they were gone. The agents tried to collect their composure. They looked around the lobby at the people visiting or waiting or just plain watching and smiled at each trying to quell the worry they were seeing in their guests eyes.
“Everything’s okay.” The man said and pressing his hands down as if it was a room full of dogs not people. Enaya looked at some of the people looking at the others between them, she knew it wasn’t okay. Someone was either sick, injured, or worse. The busy hotel eased and people stopped talking hoping to hear something, anything of what might have happened. The female agent picked up a remote controller and increased the TV’s volume. It was a signal for everyone to go back to what they were doing. The professionals were there. They would handle things now.
Enaya needed to take a more proactive stance. She knew the employees wouldn’t tell her anything so she pulled out her cell phone and dialed Euly’s cell. Enaya only got her message to leave her information, which she did. Her cell didn’t switch over quickly like one that is turned off or already in use. It rang five times before switching to the answering service. Euly’s phone was on.
After a few minutes, Enaya got up and went over to sit in a thick chair by the lobby phone and dialed her sister’s room but again she didn’t get an answer. When the room’s phone switched over to the hotel’s operator, the female agent at the counter picked up. But, Enaya hung up before she said anything. She looked over to see if the agent had seen it was her but she hadn’t. At the same time, the service elevator made a sharp ping and the doors opened. There was a body on the gurney, a woman, with oxygen strapped over her face. Enaya noticed an IV in her arm. They worked fast. They rolled the gurney through the lobby fast and out through the doors. The manager came from behind the counter and followed them. He talked momentarily to one of the EMTs. Heads nodded in agreement while the ambulance doors remained open waiting for the EMTs to get in.
For Enaya, it was involuntary. She stood when the manager walked in his quick slapping steps away from the counter and toward the door. It was as if someone else were telling her what to do – to follow him and watch. That’s when she looked at the woman lying on the gurney and although it was shadowy inside the mobile hospital room, she could recognize her sister anywhere.
“Oh my God. Euly!”
The man turned to the door behind him. He and the EMT put out their arms to hold her back.
“That’s my sister.”
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
“Moon, what do I owe the pleasure?” Belle’s, her voice filled with raspy effort. The edginess of quiet anger brimmed each word. Still, Belle didn’t try to hide her tone.
“What the hell are you trying to pull?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Please. Look, you sent your daughter on a wild goose chase. Why is it so difficult for you to be truthful with them? If my Micaiah was alive today…”
“Don’t get all holier than thou with me, Moon. Even though you may think it, you’re not perfect.”
“I’m not going down memory lane with you today, Belle. I don’t have time. I’m calling to tell you that you’ve put your daughter into such a state that she broke into my house and went rummaging through my personal things. Is that what you’d intended? These girls are all you have, all you’ll ever have, and you treat them like toys. Is this the memory you want to leave them with?”
“Get off my ass, Moon. You always acted as though you were better than I was. One thing you’ve got to remember is that Ray left you for me. Don’t you forget. He tired of you.”
The silence thickened.
Belle remembered the events much the same way Moon did but neither could sort out what had transpired more than fifty years before. It had become an amalgam of different stories, his, hers, theirs. It had been told and retold so many times no one was sure of the facts any longer. It had seemed Belle’s breathing stopped, something she couldn’t afford, as she waited for a retort.
When Moon spoke the words flowed through the line with a pain that was palpable. “Well, maybe that’s so. You need to talk to your daughter. Enough said.” The skirmish ended with a click like that of a book being closed. Her ear cupped the phone like a child’s to a seashell.
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
“Are you all right, Mom?” Geoff recognized Belle’s agitated state and worried for her lungs to hold out.
Belle wiped her face with the back of her hand trying to recover. “You’re back.” Her words whispered with jagged syllables, she looked around trying to locate the phone and to set the receiver back onto it.
Geoff stood in the doorway.
“I’ll get it. You okay?” He walked over to her and took the phone and set it down for her.
“Fine. It’s nothing.”
“Have you heard from Euly? She hasn’t called me in two days. I was wondering if you’d heard anything from her.”
“No.” She wasn’t about to reveal any of what Moon had told her.
“I’m starting to worry. I’ve called her cell but there’s no answer.”
“I’m sure she’s fine. You know how she gets.”
“Yeah, but I don’t like it.”
“You married a writer, Geoff. They’re an odd bunch.”
“You can say that again.”
“If she calls me I’ll let you know. Likewise, honey, if she calls you first, let me know. Deal?”
“Deal. So, how are you today?”
“I’ve been better. Today it’s my heart.”
Artis came in, grabbed Belle’s wrist, found a pulse and looked at her watch. She counted to herself, made a mental note and patted Belle’s hand. She smiled. On the computerized chart she keyed in the information and reviewed at a tape that had printed out on one of the monitors.
“You feelin’ okay, honey? You spiked a little.”
“It was nothing. I just felt a little anxious.”
“Okay. You let me know next time you start feeling a little anxious. We can help with that, you know. It’s a medical center.” She smiled with her red-painted lips and soft round eyes. “Okay. I’ll leave you two alone.” She winked at Geoff.
�
��Anxious?”
“It’s nothing.”
He knew Belle, if she closed the subject on something you didn’t dare bring it up again.
“You need anything, Belle? I can run out and get whatever you want.”
“It would be nice if you would get my drawing pad out of my closet there, dear. It’s up on the second shelf.”
“Sure thing.”
When he opened her closet, a wave of Belle’s scent wafted out and it stopped him. He stood unmoving for too long. His throat caught and his eyes burned.
“The second shelf, dear. Don’t you see it?”
“Yep. Right there.” As he reached up he wiped his eye on his shirt sleeve. He couldn’t let her see. He coughed once. “This one, right?” He held it up over his head without turning to her. “Anything else?”
“That should be it. My pencils are here in my drawer.”
He closed the closet and Belle’s scent was enveloped in the antiseptic stark odor of the hospice.
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
She wanted it.
He knew she wanted it.
She had egged him on like she did so many years before. He felt foolish to have fallen for her again.
Clive fumed as he stormed out of her hotel room. He pressed the elevator buttons in a rapid-fire motion as if he were knocking on a door. When the doors opened a Hispanic maid no more than twenty years old with a cart of cleaning supplies tried to push out. They nearly collided.
He rolled his eyes and motioned with his arm a little too hasty for her to go first. She said sorry, sorry in broken English and rushed to get out of his way. He pressed the buttons inside with the same rapid-fire action and when the door closed he heaved out a sigh but the elevator stopped at the fourth floor. He barked out in anger and slammed a fist onto the wall before the doors had a chance to open. When they did, three younger men wearing swim trunks and t-shirts who were talking and smiling, got on.
They talked about the evening before and about the girls at the bar. They stressed the word “bar” and, for Clive, he understood it to mean, an exotic dance bar. When the elevator stopped again on the second floor Clive became undone.
“Dammit!” He didn’t care there were other people inside the elevator.
The men stiffened and became quiet. He rubbed his head and neck.
“Hurry the hell up.” He pressed an older couple entering the elevator. A lead silence hung in the air as they all watched for the doors to close. One of the young men looked at another one and nudged him but the other guy shook his head at him as if to say, don’t say anything. When the doors opened Clive pushed between them before any had a chance to get out of his way.
“Nice.” The younger guy taunted. It was the one who’d been nudged by the other.
Clive’s gait slowed but then he decided to ignore him. He didn’t care. The guy was the least of his worries. He stomped hard against the tile as he walked until finally making it out the hotel’s doors.
The warm air hit him like an oven. It refreshed him.
He pulled his keys out of his pocket when he approached his 1984 Camaro. He had trouble getting his key into the lock. He was still feeling the booze. When he made it inside, he flipped over the engine. The sudden blast from the air conditioner blew out a parched dust into the air that made him breathe in a quick breath and cough.
He reached over to the glove compartment, opened it and pulled out a flask. He unscrewed the cap and took a gulp. Metal against metal made a familiar scraping noise and his mouth watered. He sat for a second against the hot leather of his chair and took a drink, then another.
As the air from the vents turned cool he nursed the flask once more before setting his head back onto the head rest. He screwed on the cap to the flask and dropped his arms into his lap.
He replayed what had happened with Euly – the slut. He felt used but she’d gotten the information she so desperately needed. He started to laugh and then faded into oblivion.
It was the siren woke him. With the flask still balanced between his legs and the car still running, he blurred awake. A string of drool snapped when he sat upright. He wiped his mouth and took one more slug of liquor then put the car into reverse and backed out.
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
“I’ll tell her, Geoff. She’ll call you when she can.” Enaya slipped her cell phone back into her purse. She dropped the cigarette and smashed it out with her toe. The pavement where she stood was scattered with cigarette butts from others who had stood right there, like Enaya, possibly calling family.
It was getting close to dinner time. She looked high above the hospital wall to the sky but only saw a smattering of blue through a haze of smog.
She knew her sister would smell remnants of cigarette on her but she didn’t really care. She had good reason to smoke today.
The hospital’s entrance was surrounded with thick oversized concrete block. The block etched in cartoonish figures reminiscent of Kokopelli dancers with flutes some heads in the air some pointed downward. Enaya blew out the last remnants, puffs of white, evidence of the cigarette. Jimmy despised her smoking. She’d taken after her father and mother. Some shit just can’t be undone.
Nurses were still milling around Euly when she walked back into her room. They caught each other’s eyes, her sister’s with a look somewhere between fear and embarrassment.
The accidental overdose of oxycodone mistaken for aspirin, felt inadvertently intentional to Enaya. Looking at her sister there, in a hospital gown, with fluids draining into her arm, made her eyes burn. She tipped her head to the side and jutted out her bottom lip. Tears filled Enaya's eyes slowly.
Euly’s shoulders moved up then down and she sighed. Tears rushing out, brimming up and over her bottom lids.
“We’ll be back in a few minutes to check on her.” One of the nurses, the one in-charge, warned Enaya.
Enaya made a movement with her head that she understood and moved further into the heart of the room. The others finished their business and walked behind Enaya to leave them alone but left the door open. Euly tipped her head in a way that meant her sister was to do something.
“The door.”
Enaya closed it behind her then walked over to the bed. Standing, at first, Enaya grabbed her hand and leaned down to kiss her cheek.
“You had a cigarette.”
“Hush.”
Euly wanted to explain for a second time but began to cry. Enaya grabbed the box of generic tissue available on every table in every hospital room and handed it to her.
“It’s okay. Don’t get upset again.” She sat down. “Look you’ve had quite a day, huh. Want some water?”
"I think I've had enough!” She chuckled nervously.
But, she took the water and drank it in one go, gulping loudly. When she finished, she breathed in and out in shallow gasps.
“I couldn’t move, breathe. It was terrifying.”
Her face contorted and her chin began to quiver. “You’re okay. You’re okay, now. Don’t think about it all right? You shouldn’t get excited again.
Have they given you anything? For your nerves?” She shook her head 'no' and rubbed her arm.
“Oh, Enaya. I’m such a fool.” She gulped in a pocket of air and held it so she wouldn’t start crying again and instead moaned. The humming of it resonated against her closed lips.
“Hey. Settle down. Just breathe. And, don’t say that. I’m the only one allowed to call you a fool.” Enaya smiled trying to take her mind off whatever was troubling her.
She shook her head quickly in agreement and tried to smile. “Does Geoff know?” She choked out the words.
“That you’re in the hospital?” Euly nodded.
“Well, yes! He’s worried. He said you didn’t call him yesterday or today.”
“Oh, shit.” She turned her head from Enaya and brought fingertips to her mouth.
Enaya reached over, tapping her hands lightly. “Don’t. Your fingernails look like hell as it is.”
>
Euly dropped them from her lips and turned her head away.
Enaya opened her bag and raised an emery board. “Ta da!”
Euly turned to see and smiled. Enaya grabbed her left hand. “Hold still.” It was a sweet and gentle order. The filing relaxed Euly.
“I don’t know anything anymore, you know?”
“Ah, the great unknown. What do we really know, Eu? If we’re lucky we might, at some point, feel like we know ourselves but I’m telling you, even that’s sketchy.” Her sister continued to file and finished with her pinky nail. She patted her hand and made a gesture, asking for the other one. Enaya enjoyed playing the older sister role.
The residual effect of the drugs, softened Euly's face. "Tired?"
"Yeah."
"I'm not going anywhere. Why don't you rest?"
"How boring."
"Darling. You're nothing like boring." Enaya chuckled. "Get some sleep. We're in this one together."
Enaya continued to file her sister's hands. And, as Euly drifted off, Enaya tears flowed freely.
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
When she woke, Enaya was still there, as promised, sitting next to the bed and reading a book. Enaya hadn't noticed Euly awaken.
The sky had turned into violet. Through the window, Euly could see the sun bouncing off the tip of a distant office building. It yellowed the walls and sparked off its windows.
“What time is it?” Her words startled Enaya away from reading.
“You’re awake. Uh, it’s close to seven p.m. How do you feel?”
“Sleepy.”
“Yeah, you crashed pretty fast.”
The Last Maharajan (Romantic Thriller/Women's Fiction) Page 10
