by Rae B. Lake
“I’m sorry, I did knock, the door was open, so I walked in. I haven’t moved from this spot.” She tried to justify her actions, but it just infuriated me more.
“I don’t care if the damn house was crumbling down around me, wait until I invite you the fuck in. Damn idiots, everyone in this forsaken town.”
I watched as the spark of anger flared in her eyes, and she took an aggressive step to me, “Listen, asshole, I’ve already apologized and admitted I was in the wrong. But I will not stand here and let you bad mouth the people in this town or me because you have a permanent stick up your…” She stopped screaming at me suddenly, “What’s wrong?”
“What?” I shook my head in confusion.
“What’s the matter? Something’s wrong.” She lifted herself up on her tiptoes and put her hand on my forehead. “Holy shit! You’re burning up.”
I touched right above my eyebrows, and my skin was slick with sweat, I felt like a furnace.
She quickly picked up my arm, and just the movement of the air against my arm was enough to have my knees buckling from agony. “Ahh!”
“Oh my God, how long have you had this bandage on? Carson, we need to get you to the hospital now.”
“What, no. I am fine. I’m fine.”
“The hell you are! We have to get this bandage off and this fever down.”
“Frances, I’m not going anywhere.” I glared at her for a second.
“Carson, the pain will get worse, and you can lose your hand. Are you going to be a stubborn dumbass, or are you going to come with me and get this treated?”
It shouldn’t have even been an issue. If she was ready to forget everything I’d said moments ago to get me to the hospital, then I knew I should just go, but there was a nagging voice in my head holding me back. Where there were hospitals, there were forms, where there were forms, there was a trail. And if there’s a trail, my father would surely find me, and I would be out on my ass with no money, no home, and no choice but to grovel for forgiveness. Forgiveness, I knew he wouldn’t give.
I let out a long sigh suddenly feeling as though I could sleep for years, “I can’t go to the hospital. I can’t.”
“Why? Are you scared or something.”
“No, I don’t want people to know I’m here.”
“Are you a murderer like the townfolks say?”
“No. I’ve never killed anyone, and I’m not in the mafia, nor a cannibal. I don’t know where the heart of the ocean is, none of it.”
“Really? I’m only here for the heart of the ocean. I guess I have no use for you after all.” She gave me a tentative smile and reached for my uninjured arm.
“You are hilarious, comedic gold.” I let my eyes close and tried to distract myself from the pain.
“Come on, let me at least take you to the urgent care. My father may be able to help, as well.”
“Don’t tell me. Jake Huffman is a doctor too?” I asked as I slowly walked with her out the door.
“Yeah, it’s sort of a family business. The three of us are practitioners.”
“Good for you all, sincerely, I mean that.”
She nodded once and then helped me into her compact car. I laid my head against the headrest and drifted into a state of semi-consciousness.
“What do you mean he can’t go to the hospital? Baby, is this something illegal? He needs medical attention.” A man said.
“Dad, I know, I don’t know why exactly he doesn’t want to go. All I know is he doesn’t want the paper trail.” I heard Frances speaking.
“So, I’m assuming that means we aren’t being paid for services rendered either?”
“Dad, I did this. I can’t charge him. Hell, I’ll pay for it myself before I let him pay.”
“No way,” I spoke, but it came out garbled and strained. My throat felt like it had been rubbed raw, but surprisingly, I wasn’t in a lot of pain. “I will get you the money.”
“Oh, look who’s awake.” Frances walked up to the side of the hard bed I was lying on. I raised my hand and could see the bandage was off, and my hand was angry red and swollen. I touched it slightly with my other hand; it wasn’t hot anymore.
“What is this?” I asked her, looking at the IV connected to my arm.
“That’s fluids. We also gave you some antibiotics to combat the infection. Are you feeling better than you were this morning?”
I moved my hand back and forth, even though it did hurt when the skin stretched, the pulsating throb was no longer there. “Yes, much better.”
I looked over to her father, who was standing in the back of the room with his hands crossed over his chest, “Look, I’m not a criminal or anything like that. I am just trying to lay low from a few people in my family.”
“If it is nothing illegal, why would they care where you are?”
“Because I refuse to be what they want me to be. My father is a tyrant of a man, and he would not approve of where I’m living or even the present company I am in.” I tried to soften the blow as much as I could without coming off as elitist or arrogant.
“He doesn’t like doctors?” The man asked, slightly confused.
I let out a sigh and looked to Frances for the briefest of seconds. I hoped she wouldn’t take too much offense to what I was about to say, “He doesn’t like poor people or people who work with poor people. This town is deemed below his standards, and if he or one of his social circle discovered someone with his last name were seen living here, it would feel like social homicide to him. He won’t allow me to do it.”
“Ah, I see.” He nods his head but looks away from me. Even Frances backs up slightly.
“I know how that sounds.”
“I don’t think you do,” Frances says as she puts a hand up and fiddles with the IV bag still attached to me.
“Do you feel the same as your father?”
I turned my head to see Marj, standing in the doorway. “No. Not at all. I just wanted to do something with my life that helped people other than me. He doesn’t understand, and there’s nothing I can do to force him to understand. I’ve tried.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about. We will take good care of you.” Marj smiled at me then looked at both her husband and her daughter before she turned to walk out of the room.
“What does that mean?” I asked Frances.
“It means your secret is safe with us.” She gave me a wink and went back to what she was doing. Her father patted her once on the back before coming over to me and shaking my hand. He chuckled as he walked out of the room.
It looked like Marjorie Huffman was the one calling the shots in this family unit, and I was just given the ok.
Chapter Eight
I stayed with them at the urgent care overnight. The next day Frances released me home with strict instructions to continue all my antibiotics, pain medications and to change my bandages often.
When I arrived back home, I saw that my door was still open. I needed to stop doing that. No wonder people could walk right in. Even with my hand still aching, I was itching to do something productive. After being laid up for a few days, I didn’t want to stay in the house any longer.
I took the bandage off my hand and let it breathe, the skin still sensitive but not as red as it was yesterday. I navigated down the small path that led to the small private beach; the path was completely covered in weeds and fallen branches. I was sure no one had been this way in a while. The route was almost impassible. I walked slowly and cradled my vulnerable hand to my chest. It wasn’t particularly smart of me to go walking back here, especially with only one good hand, but the physical exertion lifted my spirits.
I safely made it to the minuscule beach and could see that it needed a good cleaning. Bottles and papers were scattered all over the place, but the view was breathtaking. The surf was coming in quickly, but the tide wasn’t high enough to be concerned about getting caught by waves. I could keep busy with cleaning up the beach, and it would be my activity for the day. I went back
up the path to the house and grabbed a few garbage bags and some gloves for my hand, then came back down and got to work.
“What nasty bastards.” I picked up another bottle and put it in the bag. The sun had already begun dipping down on the horizon, but it was still really hot, and I was losing steam fast. I stood up and wiped the sweat off my brow, and winced in pain. My hand was starting to throb again. I pulled out the medication Frances had given me and popped both the antibiotics and the pain medication into my mouth, washing them down with a swig from my bottled water.
I stopped drinking, and my eyes zeroed in on the horizon.
“No fucking way. What the hell is that?” I dropped the bottle to the ground and focused on the small bobbing object in the water. I know I just took some strong pain medication, but I don’t think it’s possible to hallucinate this bad, this fast. I quickly wiped my eyes and looked again. The bobbing object was still there. It’s not until the object disappeared under the water for a second and then popped back up with a cry that I knew it was precisely what I thought it was. There was a little girl in the sound.
“Hold on!” I yelled and took off in her direction. I kicked off my shoes and dove into the water. I was an expert swimmer and had years of training and even competed a little while in high school, but this current was brutal. I had no idea how the little girl was staying up. “I’m coming! Hold on!” I screamed at her.
She screamed again, and she vanished under the water as a wave slammed over her head. I dove under looking for her, but I didn’t see her. I rushed back up to the surface to see if she’d come up, but she wasn’t there either.
“No, no, no! Hey, where are you!” I screamed, hoping maybe the current just swept her further away.
No answer.
I dove back under, and after a quick sweep with my eyes, I saw her slowly sinking to the bottom. I swam as fast as I could and grabbed her under her arms. My heart was pumping at breakneck speeds as I swam with her limp body back to shore. It seemed to take forever to get there probably because I knew as I held her close to my body; she wasn’t breathing.
I rushed out of the surf and placed her limp body down on the dirty sand. “Come on, kid, breathe,” I spoke quickly as I got into position to start CPR. I performed a few quick mouth to mouth breaths before I started the chest compressions.
After the first thirty compressions, I bent down to listen for breath sounds, but I didn’t hear any. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Panic coursed through my body at the thought of this little girl dying. I moved back to her face and gave two more big breaths, “Help!” I screamed as I moved over to do chest compressions. Logically I knew it was useless for me to be looking for help, this was a private beach, and even if someone were on the other side of the cliff face and could hear me, they’d never get to her in time. I pushed hard, and an ominous sound stopped me just as I made it to the tenth compression. The crack of bone, oh God, I was breaking her ribs. “Oh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry. So sorry, just breathe, come on.” I resumed the chest compressions doing my best not to press so deep.
I moved back over her mouth and gave her two more breaths. There was a slight gagging sound when I moved to the chest compressions. “Yes, that’s right, baby. Come on.” I turned her on her side and slapped her back a few times, trying to get her to cough the water up. I nearly cried when she started spluttering and throwing up all the water she’d swallowed.
She whimpered, and her little eyes fluttered back closed. I could hear her breathing, but I could also hear the gurgling sound from the water that she still had in her lungs, she wasn’t out of the woods yet.
I had no phone, and there were no neighbors, I had to figure out a way to get this girl to the doctor.
“Hold on. You’re going to be ok. I got you; you’re going to be fine.” I scooped her small body off the ground and cradled her against my chest. I wrapped my arms around her, trying to get some heat into her body. I ran with everything I had, back up the dangerous path. Instead of going back toward my house, I ran to town. Every so often, glancing down to make sure she was still breathing. Her face was still dusky pale white, but her lips weren’t blue anymore.
Walking into town would normally take me between fifteen to twenty minutes, but I knew that this little girl's life was in my hands, so I ran in a full out sprint. There was nothing else I could do for her, but get her to someone I knew would help. Frances.
I didn’t slow down until I made it a few steps from the entrance of urgent care. I should have known something was up. There were too many people out on the street, a police car, and people were standing in front of the stores.
“Oh my god, he has her.” I heard someone say behind me. I didn’t have time to address it. I had to get her inside.
“Move!” I shouted at the people standing at the front of the door. Did they not see me carrying this girl?
Everyone jumped and got out of the way. “What did he do to her.”
“Poor Abi!”
“I knew he was trouble…”
My ears were hearing all the whispering behind me, but I couldn’t stop. “Frances!” I yelled as I entered the small but packed, urgent care center.
“Oh my god! Abi! What did you do? What did you do!” A woman screamed at me as she tried to rip the little girl out of my grasp. “Oh God, why are her clothes ripped? She’s bleeding! Oh, God!” The woman became more and more frantic, her voice reaching a deafening pitch. She must be the mother.
“She needs to see the doctor,” I say, trying to keep my calm voice, but I can feel the tension in the air. I just walked into an angry mob, and I’m who they are all after.
“You monster! What did you do?” Someone screamed from the other side of the room.
“Let us through! Out of the way now!” Frances and her father pushed through the crowd and took the girl from my arms. I watched them lay her out on a table in the main room, and I could see how bad she looked.
“Abi, baby, mommy’s here!”
A man walked up to me, his eyes rimmed red, he grabbed me by my shirt, and I grabbed his wrist to keep him from moving in any closer. “I should fucking kill you for touching her! What did you do?” he yelled in my face.
“Nothing!” I tried to speak, but the uproar around me drowned my voice.
They called me every name in the book from murderer to a pedophile. I couldn’t believe it. I knew the people in this town feared me and had their ideas of where I came from, but I would have never thought their opinion of me was so low. They thought I was someone sick enough to hurt this baby.
“Her rib is cracked,” Jake spoke as he continued to examine the girl through all the commotion.
I knew it was, I’d heard it crack, but Jake’s comment just caused the crowd to become more irate. I didn’t see the man swing, but I sure felt the punch as it connected with my jaw. I saw red, grabbed his arm, and pushed him hard against the wall.
“I didn’t do anything to her!’ I screamed at him. I grabbed his shirt and flung him away from me. He went tumbling down to the floor but popped back up in less than a second. The man was out for blood. Everyone was. I moved to place my back against the wall; the last thing I wanted was to be fully surrounded. I looked to the side and could see the man and the woman who’d snuck into my house. He wasn’t screaming along with the rest of the people. He was simply holding on to his woman and watching me with intense eyes.
I put my hands up in a surrendering position. I didn’t want to be seen as a threat, but with tensions running so high, just being who I was would be enough to be considered hostile.
“You bastard! You goddamn bastard!” The woman I assumed was the child's mother continued to scream at me.
I shook my head, waiting for someone to give me a chance to talk. I managed to catch Frances’ eye. I could see the fear and confusion on her face. Even though we’d only met a few times, she was probably the only person in the whole town who knew anything about me.
‘I didn’t’ I mouthed to her and hop
ed she would be able to see this was all a massive misunderstanding.
Her eyes raked over my body for a second before zeroing in on my injured hand. She turned to look at the girl on the table then back at my hand. “Your hand is bleeding.” She said loudly. Loud enough that her father looked up from what he was doing. Her words didn’t stop anyone else, though, they were still verbally chewing me out. The man I’d tossed to the floor was trying to console the mother of the little girl and inching closer to me. It was obvious he wanted another crack at me.
A loud whistle echoed across the room and shut everyone up. Marjorie Hoffman stood in front of the reception desk. “Either all of you shut up, or you can get the hell out of my office!” She turned her eyes to me. “Carson, what happened?”
Finally.
I took a deep breath to steady myself. My adrenaline was running a mile a minute, but I didn’t want my voice to crack, and have no one believe me.
“She was in the sound at the back of my property. I was cleaning up, and I saw her out there. She was under for a while. I did CPR, and I brought her here. That was all I did.”
“Bull! Why the hell would she be in the sound behind your house? She doesn’t even know where it is!” The mother said.
“I think she must have fallen in further up the coast, and the current carried her down to my side.”
“It makes sense. There have been current advisories for the past three days.” The man who offered to buy my house spoke up, drawing quite a few eyes off of me.
“Callan, do you think she could’ve made it to the other end of town just from the current?” The man who punched me asked.
“Absolutely, if my calculations are correct based on the numbers they gave this morning, it would take her about fourteen minutes to get from one end of the town to the other floating in the water.”
“The cracked rib fits with CPR,” Jake said, just as the little girl coughed hard and called for her mother.
“Baby, did you go in the water?” The woman who’d just been screaming at me asked the little girl in a soothing tone.
