Remember This Day

by Mairsile Leabhair

  Aidan wrapped her arm around Vicky and lifted her chin, so she could lean in to those ruby red lips and kissed them tenderly. “You did good, baby, real good.”

  “Do you think it cured my PTSD? I mean, I looked into his evil eyes and didn’t have a reaction.”

  “I don’t know, kid. I don’t know how it works. We can ask the Doc when we get back from Ireland if you want.”

  “If we ever make it to Ireland, you mean.”

  Aidan laughed, “Hey, I’m the pessimist in this marriage, no fair stealing my line.”

  *

  “This is ZNN,” the anchorman said, “and apparently you’re watching the capture of an escaped convict. We speculate that the tornado damaged the city jail and this man escaped. This exclusive video is streaming live from the epicenter of the city’s field hospital surgery tent. We’re going to break for station identification and some important messages from our sponsors, and we’ll be right back.”

  *

  Levon got the message that he had two minutes, forty‒five seconds before the studio returned live to him, so he set down the camera and stretched out his arm, trying to pump some blood back into it. He looked around to see what else was going on, and saw that people were still running to rescue survivors caught in cars, and stores, and collapsed buildings. Levon wondered how the city could come back from such devastation. His thoughts were interrupted by what was happening right there in front of him.

  “Good God, is that him? Is that the man who raped you, Vicky?” Joyce asked incredulously.

  Vicky nodded her head, “Who did you think you were fighting?”

  “I thought it was just some nutcase trying to get on TV.” Joyce looked from Vicky down to Harold, “Well fuck that,” she declared angrily, and stomped over to the tethered prisoner. She reared back her foot and kicked Harold hard in the stomach, and he screamed out in pain. Aidan applauded, and Vicky, who was shocked at first, put her hand over her mouth and suppressed a smile. Levon grabbed up his camera and got back on his headset, yelling frantically for the studio to cut back to him. And just as the camera began the live feed again, Jerry ran up with the police and pointed at Harold.

  “There’s your escaped prisoner. Take him away, fellas.” As the police picked Harold up off the ground, Jerry walked over to Vicky and asked, “Are you okay, Scrappy?”

  Vicky nodded with a smile, but Joyce said, “Not only is she all right, she kicked his ass!”

  After Harold was led off, several reporters ran to the scene and tried to get someone to comment on camera, but none of the group was willing to speak for the record. So Joyce took the initiative and told the reporters that, “these patients needed her, so get the fuck out of the way”. She waved at the police to move the reporters out of the tent and they gave up after that. Even Levon was booted out, but he didn’t mind, he was ready to see what else was going on.

  After everyone had cleared out of the tent and the team went back to work, Joyce asked Vicky how she knew that was Harold under the mask. Vicky explained that in her nightmares, all she could see were those eyes, Harold’s angry, beady eyes. And with the mask on his face, her focus naturally went to that person’s eyes because that’s all that was visible. But what Vicky didn’t voice out loud, was how badly she wanted Harold to go away for good. She was beginning to believe he would never leave her alone. It was then that a germ of an idea began to grow. She had conquered her fear when it came to Harold Cassidy. This idea would be a good alternative to the next logical step. Except that Aidan would never go for it. Still, she decided that she would talk it over with her later, when they could be alone.

  *

  Ruth closed her eyes while Alice snipped the cord on both ends.

  “Are you all right, Tameka?” Alice asked her as she helped her to stand. She walked her onto the blanket beside the sofa, and reminded her to squat when she feels a contraction coming on.

  Tameka nodded her head just before another contraction hit.

  “Push, Tameka. Push!” Alice demanded.

  Tameka pushed with all her strength, screaming loud enough to be heard on the second floor.

  While Alice, wearing rubber gloves, held the cord and encouraged her to push, Ruth bathed the baby boy and dressed him in a diaper and shirt. Kate had returned to the front door when she saw more people walking in.

  “One more, Tameka. Just one more.”

  “No, I’m too tired,” she snapped in retort.

  Alice was undaunted, and continued to sway the reluctant mother, “Tameka, the sooner you expel the placenta, the sooner you can lie down. With the next contraction I want you to push like you’ve never pushed before.”

  “Like you were stuck in the boy’s bathroom and can’t get out,” Ruth offered.

  Alice looked at her incredulously, “Ruth, what the hell are you talking about?”

  “Well, if you were stuck in a nasty, smelly, pee covered floor in a boy’s bathroom, wouldn’t you push your way out of there as fast as you could?”

  Tameka laughed just as another contraction hit, and her laughter turned into screams. This time when Alice demanded that she push, she did, and finally the placenta slid out into Alice’s waiting hands.

  Ruth thought to herself, Okay that is really gross!

  “Ruth, help Tameka lie down again, and give her something to eat, and some juice. I’ll find out how to dispose of this.” Alice put the placenta in the plastic bag and covered it with a towel. When she stepped out from behind the screen, she saw the business woman who had helped move the furniture earlier, and asked her if she would mind staying with the girl for just a minute, while she disposed of the bag in her hand. The woman seemed happy to help, and walked behind the screen.

  Alice stepped to the front desk and used the courteous phone on the counter, “Becky, this is Alice, what do I do with the placenta?”

  “Take it up to NICU, they’ll take care of it for you. Is your patient all right?”

  My patient? I like the sound of that. “Yes, she’s fine, and we’re getting some food for her right now.”

  “Good. As soon as she’s eaten, get her to breast feed the baby, I’m sure he’s pretty hungry by now too.”

  “Of course. Thanks for all your help, Becky. I think we’ll be fine from here on out.”

  “I’m sure you will be too, Alice. You were extremely helpful today, thank you.”

  A steady stream of people stumbled through St. Frances doors, as Ruth and Kate returned to their duty of taking their names and showing them to the lobby. Finally, after a few hours, the inflow of stragglers dissipated enough that Ruth noticed how much her feet were beginning to hurt. She sat down on the bench in the alcove of the front entrance, took her shoes off, and began rubbing her feet. As she groaned in pleasure at the relief her feet felt by the massage, she noticed that Kate was watching with her usual sensitivity to sexual prowess, Ruth decided to send out some blunt signals that could not be misinterpreted. She slowly, deliberately massaged each toe, moaning as she rubbed the arch of her foot, tossing her head back as she worked her hands up to her ankle and the calf of her leg. By the time she was done, Kate was fidgeting, shifting her hips and rubbing her forehead. Ruth was amazed at her restraint, and dismayed by her steadfastness. Okay, time to play hardball.

  Seeing that no one was around, Ruth unzipped her jeans and began to slide them off her hips, showing white cotton panties underneath.

  “Oh my God, Ruth, what are you doing?”

  “I’m going to take you, right here in front of everyone, Kate, because apparently that’s the only way I can get your attention.”

  “All right! Okay, you have my attention; now put your pants back on before someone sees you.”

  Ruth pulled her jeans back up and zipped them, relieved that Kate didn’t call her bluff. She took Kate’s elbow and led her outside, where the fresh air washed away her fatigue, and except for a few sirens blaring in the distance, it was quiet and still.

  “Kate, I am giving you back
the key to your cage.”

  “Honey, there hasn’t been a cage built that I need a key for.” Kate said.

  “What about the cage you put yourself in? My shrink friend thinks that you feel trapped by me because you think I’m in love with you. I do love you, Kate, you’ve been a wonderful friend to me. But I’m not in love with you.” Ruth saw a pretty young woman, walking up the sidewalk, wearing a tank top and hip boots. If only she had a whip, too. She turned back to Kate and said, “You are free to see whomever you want, whenever you want. Like this woman walking towards us.” Ruth called out to the woman, but Kate pulled her away.

  “Oh kitten, you’re incorrigible.” Kate meowed.

  “Don’t you see, Kate? I just want to be your friend. I’m not trying to change you into something you’re not, what fun would that be?”

  “I don’t…” Kate looked down, not sure what to say.

  Ruth tucked a finger under Kate’s chin and lifted her head up. “Come on, Kitty Kat Kate, let’s go check out that hot tart wearing the hip boots.”

  Kate looked into Ruth’s playful eyes and laughed. Together they walked arm in arm back inside the hospital.

  *

  As dusk turned to night, and the flood lights illuminated the grisly area, the team from St. Frances worked side by side with their competitor’s, taking care of the dazed and injured victims. Rescue teams worked tirelessly to dig out the last few people still trapped in the buildings, while hazmat teams painstakingly cleaned the area of any hazardous waste materials. Construction workers came together and worked feverishly to clear the blockage that had cordon off access to the area.

  Finally, after hours of non‒stop, back-to-back surgery, Vicky and Joyce were able to take a break thanks to an influx of fresh surgical teams brought in by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, as it was called.

  Vicky’s first thought was to find Aidan. After the adrenaline had stopped pumping, she felt empty inside, devoid of energy, and desperately needing to be held in order to replenish her spirit. A spirit completely depleted from too much destruction and death. She had not seen Aidan in hours, and remembered that she was supposed to be on a plane to Ireland at that moment, snuggled close in her wife’s arms.

  After Jerry had the police take Harold away, he and Aidan went back to helping the victims, which seemed like it was a never ending job.

  Aidan’s eye throbbed in pain each time she bent over, and the blood rushed into it. She leaned against the building she had just helped the rescue team search, and rested her head against the wall. I miss you, Vicky, she thought, even though it had only been an hour since she made a point of peaking in the tent to make sure Vicky was all right. It assuaged the immediate protective need, but did nothing for the urges she’d had since she said I do. In fact, now that she could stop working long enough to think about it, the sight of Vicky only encouraged the urges. We need to be on our honeymoon!

  Vicky found Aidan over by a five story building, where a man with rescue on the back of his jacket, spray painted a big red X on the side of the building, indicating that it had been searched and found empty. The team moved on to the next building, leaving Aidan and Vicky alone, which Aidan was glad for.

  They held each other for a long while, Vicky leaning against Aidan, with Aidan’s long arms wrapped around her waist, both looking out at the devastation. Vicky reassured her lover that she was fine, both mentally and physically. Harold will never hurt her again, she proclaimed, and Aidan believed her, sighing with relief. Then for a while, they just stood in silence, each absorbing the closeness of the other, and each lost in their own thoughts of the devastation they saw before them.

  “How will the city ever come back from this?” Aidan wondered out loud.

  “It will and it will be bigger and better than before, I know it will.” Vicky assured her.

  Aidan squeezed her tight, “Your lips to God’s ears, kid.”

  “Do you hear that?” Vicky cocked her head towards the building to the side of them.

  “No, what is it?”

  “Oh my God! Aidan, I think there’s a baby crying in there!”

  “Are you sure? I don’t hear anything.”

  Vicky rushed around the corner and entered through the side door. She bounded down the stairs with Aidan on her heels, trying to get her to stop, because she knew that the building had been marked for destruction. As Vicky entered the basement parking lot, she heard a cry again and rushed over to the corner furthest from the stairs.

  “Aidan, over here, hurry!” But just as she reached the corner of the back wall, a kitten crawled out of a hole in the concrete and meowed at her.

  “Oh thank God,” Vicky said greatly relieved, “it’s just a kitten.”

  “It’s just a kitten?” Aidan asked disbelievingly.

  Both women laughed as the kitten rubbed on Aidan’s ankle, asking for attention. Suddenly a loud noise, like a clap of thunder, reverbed against the walls and Aidan scooped up the kitten and flew at Vicky, propelling them both into the corner away from the falling rubble. But the wall kept coming down, and all the newlyweds could do was huddle in the furthest corner and pray that was enough to protect them. Choking from the dust and debris, Aidan and Vicky, buried their heads in each other’s shoulders and braced for the worst.

  Chapter 10

  There is something inherently frightening about the dark. Most would say it’s the fear of the unknown. Not being able to see what, or who, is in the room with you. Others would say it’s because the darkness is so isolating and oppressive, it’s depressing. Add to that being trapped in a small space where you can’t stand up and all you have to breathe is dirt and dust, and the claustrophobic conditions can quickly become over bearing.

  “Are you all right?” Aidan choked. She pulled out her cell phone and used the flashlight app to illuminate the area.

  “I’m fine, you?” Vicky stammered.

  “I’m okay, but I think we’ve got a new problem,” Aidan said as she handed Vicky the kitten.

  Vicky felt a sudden trepidation when she realized they were trapped. The ceiling had fallen in, stopped only by a concrete block that stood approximately four feet high, holding up a slab of cement that sheltered them from falling debris, but also kept them from being able to stand up. Aidan crawled over to the blocked entrance which was now completely covered by bricks and rubble. She shined the light over the rubble looking for a way out, but found none. Examining every inch of the crawl space, she finally brought her light down to illuminate Vicky holding the kitten. Oh kid, we are so screwed, Aidan thought, but she said, “Don’t worry, kid, we’ll get out of this.”

  Aidan handed Vicky the light to hold, while she turned back to the rubble, removing it as fast as she could. But as soon as she removed one brick, two more would fall down in its place. That didn’t deter her; she kept removing the rubble because her fear was pushing her to do it. Fear that they would run out of air, fear that no one would find them, and fear that they would die in there. Pure, unadulterated fear.

  “Aidan! Aidan stop!” Vicky choked as more rubble began falling in, this time hitting Aidan in the shoulder. She wrenched back in pain, and momentarily defeated, crawled over to Vicky.

  Checking her cellphone, Aidan noticed that she still didn’t have any reception. Shit! She pulled out her walkie‒talkie and clicked on it several times but there was no chatter on the other end. There’s a big fucking destruction sign on the side of this building, and no one fucking knows we’re in here! “Well I think we’re trapped in here pretty tight, but the good news is they’ll find us any minute now,” Aidan said positively, “We just need to wait for a little while, that’s all.”

  But Vicky wasn’t convinced, “Aidan, don’t humor me, I know we’re trapped and we’ll run out of air soon. What I want to know is what are we going to do about it?”

  Aidan leaned back and put her arm around her wife and said, “Honestly, baby, I don’t know, I think all we can do is wait to be rescue.�
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  “I’m so sorry, Aidan. If I hadn’t of come after this kitten we wouldn’t have gotten trapped in here.”

  “You thought it was a baby crying, of course you had to come. Besides, you would have gone after him even if you knew it was a cat beforehand. That’s one of the things I love about you.”

  “You’re probably right,” Vicky forced a smile, “So, how do you feel about adopting this little guy?” Vicky placed the kitten on Aidan’s lap and it wobbled, unsure what to do.

  “You know I had a kitten once that looked a lot like this one, only my kitten was a girl,” Aidan said, as she brought the kitten up to her nose and Eskimo kissed him. “And this little guy has a flea collar on, so somebody out there is looking for him.”

  “I didn’t know you even like cats, Aidan?” There’s so much I missed. They hadn’t had time to get to know much about each other as adults. As children, they knew what each other was going to say even before they said it. Vicky found herself hoping that now that they’re married, everything would fall back into sync, as it had been then.

  “It was when I ran with that Irish gang in Chicago, when I was a teenager. There was a stray kitten stuck up in a tree and I got her down, but there was no one to give her to, so I just took her home with me. I named her Ginnie, the Ring Tail Terror, because she had gray and black rings on her tail and her claws were painfully sharp. God, I loved that cat. She’d wait for me at the door when I came home, and she’d snuggle with me when I slept. She made me laugh when she played with the milk top rings, and she even warned me when someone was nearby. She filled the loneliness…,” Aidan’s eyes welled up, “you know?”

  “Oh, sweetheart,” Vicky said as she laced her arm around Aidan’s arm, marveling at how her lover lived a life so completely foreign to her and yet, Aidan’s life evolved into the same loving, caring, kind person she knew as a child, “what happened to the kitten?”