The Heart of It All (HeartSick Series Book 1)

by Weston Mitchel

  They didn’t need any cool words or phrases to be urged to run. The bat hit the floor smacking the pavement in the same cracking sound it had made when crashing into his arm. The three of them were on one the local state championship football team but as Brian watched them sprint down the alley you would have sworn they all ran track.

  When telling the stories to their friends in the locker room that fall they all made it sound like they whooped his ass for ten minutes before the punk pulled a gun on them. Lying, as boys do in locker rooms, saying they knew they weren’t in any trouble, that they knew he was too pussy to pull the trigger as piss ran down his legs.

  “But hey you never know,” one would chime in like it was his line in the play, as another would say “So we left him crying in a puddle of his own blood and piss, shivering like a lil pansy.”

  What the boys didn’t know, was just how close one of them came to a bullet in the face. When Brian had spun, bringing the gun around and up, pointing the barrel right into the face of batboy, who was the one that actually did pee his pants, Brian had pulled the trigger.

  The safety, however, had been on. During the struggle he never had time to think of it or switch it off, and by the time he realized his mistake the trio was already halfway down the alley.

  Brian double checked that the safety was still on now as he laid the pistol at the head of the cheap, stiff bed of room 37 at Motel 3. As he threw the pillow on top of it, his pay as you go phone lit up and cried out the chorus from AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long, Ashley’s ringtone.

  “Hey sexy,” Brian said one second after answering.

  “Brian?” Ashley said in a hurried, panic voice.

  “Yeah?”

  “I think my mom did something stupid.”

  The Not So Good Doctor

  Dr. Catherine Greer, formerly Catherine Hawthorne, and Catherine Rowan before that, had most assuredly lost her way. If you would have told her at her graduation ceremony, or hell even her twenty year reunion, that she would be committing several acts of felonious nature in order to save the grand daughter she ditched while still in her dying daughter’s womb she would have called you the crazy one.

  To Dr. Greer she was simply doing what needed to be done in order to cure what has come to be her reason for living. She would neither blink twice or flinch once at whatever she needed to do or whichever person needed to be run over to see this come to fruition.

  Even now as she threw a blanket over Austin, still in the wheelchair, in order to cover the leather restraints that wrapped around the wrists and ankles of her sedated captive, she acted like this was a daily occurrence. Acting like this also helped her disguise of just another Doctor pushing a patient out and down the ramp to an already running, and waiting van at the end of the ramp.

  The van had an automated lift built into the side to accommodate the patients who were wheelchair bound and had no one to bring them. This van and a volunteer were sent to pick them up and bring them to their appointment.

  Since there were no appointments tonight, or over the rest of the holiday weekend, no one would miss it until Monday morning came around, and Catherine had planned on having it back way before then. Hurriedly but calmly anchoring the wheelchair into position, she slid the side door closed and then got behind the wheel.

  A couple weeks ago, when Catherine was starting to ready her plans, thinking she had way more time than she did, Catherine purchased a combination mechanic’s shop and gas station that had been abandoned for nearly a decade on the southwest side of Austin in a rundown neighborhood. Catherine figured she could use it as a place to get whatever it is she needed done then have it demolished, doing the neighborhood a favor all the while getting rid of the evidence.

  The work area had two big bay doors, one of them still worked, after a gallon and a half of WD-40 sprayed on it, which would allow her to pull straight in, unload her human shaped blood bag and never be seen once while doing it.

  Catherine found that her plan wasn’t as fool proof as she first thought it was when she pulled up into the lot in front of the working door and realized she would have to get out to open it.

  It’s fine, it’s my property after all. Why cant I check in on it from time to time?

  She ran to the door, pushed it open as high as she possibly could without taking more time than needed and hopped back in the van, tires squealing for half a second as she punched the gas. When she got back out and lowered the door, the Godzilla growl it made as it slid on the dented track reminded her she was not cut out for a life of stealth.

  Another benefit of this property, was the hole in the ground in the workshop. It had been designed like a standard oil change place with the cutout being the width of a normal wingspan so mechanics could easily work on cars with out needing to be lifted off the ground. This shop however, had a cutout that was no ordinary width and length behind the work area, as attested to by the soiled mattress, the huge red metal tool chest on rollers and about 200 square feet of space underneath the first floor.

  The tool chest had probably at one time in the past been full of all sorts of mechanic’s wares but those had been stolen a long time ago. The heft of the cart itself made it an all but impossible, and not worthwhile, affair to lift it up the narrow stairs just for a few bucks of scrap metal.

  Catherine felt the wannabe thieves pain as she jerkily let gravity do it’s job with Austin in the Wheelchair down each step. The stairs themselves were just wide enough for the metal disks on the side of the wheels made for grabbing and rolling to scrape down the sides of the wall. Past the stairs and shallow part for working there was wider set of stairs down to the open area.

  It took Catherine five more trips up and down the stairs to gather all the equipment from the van. Each trip down as she placed a box here or piece of equipment there she would talk to the sleeping Austin, reassuring him he wouldn’t feel a thing, or how it was all for the best really, or how what he was doing now would not only save Mia but possibly the world, not to mention making her the owner of the most important drug in the world.

  Catherine had been doing the math in her head for days, but now that she was actually putting her foolish plan in motion she wasn’t certain of her mind’s ability, especially now under stress. As much as she wanted to she knew that she couldn’t just tap him like a keg and drain the boy of all that was valuable about his pathetic life.

  The body cold only withstand so much blood loss before it shut down completely, and then she would be up shit creek with out a pint. Although a normal body has around 10 or so pints of blood running through it any given time, it doesn’t take much blood loss to have fatal effects.

  Losing 15% or your blood volume, roughly one and a half pints, is the most you could lose and hope to not feel the effects, which is why around a single pint is the norm when donating. At 40% blood loss however, somewhere between 3-4 pints for most people, is widely considered the maximum amount of loss and still able to survive without sudden and immediate intervention. Any more than this and the blood pressure drops so low that your heart isn’t physically capable of pushing blood through your body anymore.

  So Catherine would have to play it safe, at first, to keep the money machine pumping for as long as possible without letting it go on long enough for her to be caught though.

  She worked on Austin, getting him hooked up to the retrofitted dialysis machine. Instead of withdrawing blood, cleaning it of the waste and returning it, this machine just drew blood and collected.

  It was automated so she could choose which setting to allow for faster or slower draining. Catherine was certain she had until the end of the weekend, mostly thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday, before she needed to worry about herself or Austin being looked for in any sort of capacity. She also knew that Mia was laying in a hospital struggling for each next breath according to Ashley even now as she finished hooking Austin up to the machine.

  Catherine also knew from her research that all was needed to heal Mia
was a pint of this special blood, but if she wanted to make sure Mia would never have to worry about her health ever again she would need two.

  Dr. Greer was still amazed at the events that had to happen in such a way for Mr. Kyle here to accidentally receive two pints from this illusive, constantly traveling Rex Ford. Mr Ford was careful and contemplated in his donations of blood, never donating in the same place more than once.

  For two pints of Rex Ford’s blood to end up in that boonie, backwater Luckwell Hospital was damn near a miracle in itself.

  For Austin to end up with both of these pints was another miracle stacked on top of the first one.

  Mr. Ford had indeed stopped to make a donation at a Luckwell blood drive on his way through Texas. 6 months before that however he made a donation in an Amarillo Red Cross. Normally Mr. Ford’s plan would have succeeded, but as fate is fond of saying, it only takes once. And that once is all fate needed to pass Mr. Ford’s ability into Austin’s bloodstream.

  That same month that Austin had his accident that required him to have so many blood transfusions, the one and only Luckwell General ambulance’s engine threw a rod and went kaput. The superintendent of the hospital called all of the other local area hospital’s in a 150 mile radius begging to borrow an ambulance while theirs got serviced. Of course none were available, that would have been too easy.

  So this Superintendent HillyBilly, called up his second cousin in, that’s right you guessed it, Amarillo. He owned one of those fleets of ambulances that charged the patient three times as much as one of the county or city hospital jobs and roamed the city like a cab looking for a fare.

  The ambulance he sent down to good old Luckwell was more fully stocked with every medicine a paramedic could possibly need than any ambulance would ever have in Luckwell. It was also outfitted with a fridge full of PRBCs in case of a situation where the patient needed a transfusion before arrival at the hospital. Of course you would have to take a second mortgage on your mobile home to afford, but hey you were still breathing right?

  Dr. Greer smiled as she thought about the whole chain of events that led to her here now. Then she set the machine to draw about a pint and a half per hour. She needed to go gather a few more supplies to make sure she was able to draw out as much as possible while keeping his heart pumping for as long as possible as well. She figured she could be back in two hours, giving her the two pints needed for Mia and well on the way to a third pint for herself. Once she got the fourth pint, two for Mia and two to transfuse into her own system, then she could slow it down. Maybe cut back the flow a bit and worry about the rest of it later.

  If Catherine’s two pint theory was right however, after Mia and herself received the transfusion they would no longer need Austin’s blood. They could produce it on their own once it took root in their circulatory system.

  The second groan from Godzilla as she slid the bay door back down it’s rusted grooves when she left was loud enough to echo through the stairwell, causing Austin to twinge at the sound.

  The Name Game

  Ashley saw Mia’s eyes gloss over just moments before her body went slack and hit the floor. At first, she couldn’t move, she just sat frozen in panic not knowing what to do. All she could think to do was start screaming for help like a lunatic.

  There had only been two workers in the cafeteria that day, both of them had gone to the back after serving Mia and Ashley. Ashley and Mia had been the only students to show up for food in the last thirty minutes, so they went to the back to bitch some more about why they were even working today.

  Since they were in the back it took them a few seconds to comprehend what they were hearing through the vinyl and plastic swinging door that separated the serving area from the actual kitchen, where all the cooking took place. Once they realized what they heard was someone screaming for help, and not an injured cat stuck somewhere in the vents again, they both took off in the direction of the noise.

  They came upon Ashley still shrieking, her hands shaking as she smoothed the hair of the unconscious girl on the floor. The older of the two workers took action while the other stood in shock not knowing what to do much like the girl crying next to her friend on the floor. He told the younger one to call 911, knowing he needed to appoint things for others to do or they would just sit and watch.

  Ashley was more than happy to be pushed aside as he went to work on chest compressions while the other guy called 911. She felt so stupid after the ambulance came and the medics began working on Mia. It took her that long before she snapped out of the daze she was in and became active in the situation. She should have called 911 first, the ambulance would have gotten there that much faster, but all she did was sit, yell, and cry.

  Ashley had still been upset with herself as she told the Paramedic they were sisters and demanded to be allowed to ride with them. She wasn’t about to be forbidden access this time around. Not only would her mother be furious, but she herself hated being left out of the loop and could monitor Mia’s situation a lot easier from her bedside than in a room on the complete other side of the hospital.

  Her plan had ended up working so far. The nurses and doctors were all different from the first time Mia had been admitted. Ashley guessed even they took holidays off every now and again, making the b team take over while the A team stuffed their faces and shopping carts. Ms. B team head nurse believed they were sisters, and as such kept her apprised of everything that was taking place.

  According to her and the B team doctor, Mia didn’t seem to stand much of a chance coming out of this stay as easily as the last, if at all. It seemed surreal that all of these years were coming down to this shitty Black Friday in south Texas.

  Black being the keyword.

  The doctor even told Ashley that “it would behoove you to start making preparations, ma’am.”

  Behoove? Who the fuck says behoove when telling someone that their sister, or aunt, was about to die? Fuckin behoove.

  After giving more thought to what Dr. B Team Fuckin Behoove had told her, she started seeing the upside of Mia’s passing. This made her feel guilty and optimistic at the same time. If Mia was no longer in the picture, then maybe her mother would finally see Ashley for what she was.

  Her daughter. Not just some tool to be used so she could feel better about the shitty decision she made before I was even conceived much less born.

  Ashley started thinking of the possibilities of a life without Mia. No matter what happened, maybe she could tell her mom to go screw herself one way or the other and live her own life for a change.

  Hell maybe I can even get my name back.

  The nurse came in and almost caught her smiling while staring at Mia, who was still unconscious, her life draining away, machines doing the heavy lifting of keeping her alive.

  Ashley decided to keep the future where it belonged, until then she was going to be here for Mia, the way she deserved.

  None of this is her fault, shit she doesn’t even know about most of it. So until then Meems, I’ll be right here by your side.

  Mia’s bedside was right where Ashley was after hanging up with Brian. Brian told her he was on his way up to the hospital after not being able to understand much of what Ashley was telling him. He must have thought she was crazy with all the rambling she had been doing, trying to get everything out all in one breath.

  Brian also said he would get a hold of Austin, he needed to be there too he said. Ashley had a sinking feeling however that Brian wasn’t going to be able to get in contact with Austin. She wasn’t sure what her mother had meant when she told Ashley to leave Austin up to her, but the way the words came out didn’t give Ashley much hope that it was anything good.

  Ashley herself barely believed the things she had done over the last 6 years all for her mother’s attention and praise. Of course it didn’t matter what Ashley did, whether it was exactly what her mom wanted or not, it was all about Mia for her. So much so that Catherine actually made her daughter change her name.
<
br />   Catherine herself had changed her own name, twice in fact, so she didn’t see it as that big of a deal for her daughter to do so as well. Although Catherine had only changed her last name when she got married and once again after she left. After making the decision to be a part of Mia’s life from the shadows she used her grandmother’s maiden name of Greer so she wouldn’t be found out when enrolling her daughter for classes or when her name showed up on lists of parents.

  She knew Richard had never known what her grandmother’s last name was before she married at the age of 16. Hell, Catherine herself had to look it up.

  Ashley’s mom still didn’t see what all the fuss was about, after all she was letting her pick her new name wasn’t she? “What girl got to do that? Not even princesses got to do that,” Catherine would tell her as she brushed her daughter’s hair. Playing the role of loving mother only when she needed something from her daughter.

  The name Kasey had been too close to Kassie for Catherine to feel comfortable letting her daughter make contact. She thought having a name so similar to a girl’s dead mother would be a major detractor.

  Kasey Greer had always been envious of a certain girl at her school for as long as she could remember, before being moved to Mia’s school. Ashley Avalon had been the pretty, smart, popular girl going all the way back to kindergarten and she played the role well.

  To Kasey it wasn’t just the fact that she was the popular girl, or that she had good grades, or was pretty, and thin. It had more to do with her parents more than anything. Both of them showed up at every single program, every parent teacher conference, even volunteering for chaperon duty on every field trip. Her parent’s oozed out love for her.

  Sure, Ashley seemed to be embarrassed by it, but Kasey had grown up wondering what that must feel like, having someone care about you like that. Kasey had imagined countless dinners with Ashley’s parents, having them ask her about her day, remarking how wonderful her grades were, maybe even showing pictures of their little princess to their friends at work.