Phoenix and the Dark Star

by Gerald Pruett

  “Okay, that explains the tension between Dad and Grandpa Seth,” Winona replied. “So what had caused the tension between Dad and Uncle Clint?”

  “Your Uncle Clint had never taken those stories that magic ran through his veins seriously either; however, he had never blamed those stories for your aunt’s death as your dad had done,” Dakota said. “So each time your dad and grandpa would… disagree on sharing those stories with you, Matt and Adam, your Uncle Clint took your grandfather’s side. Your dad never liked that.”

  Winona gave an understanding grin before asking, “Speaking of Adam, where is he?”

  “He’s still working,” Dakota said as Shayne was returning to the room. A doctor was following Shayne in. “He hasn’t been told yet that you were nearly electrocuted.”

  “He might’ve heard though,” Shayne volunteered. “The news of a female lifeguard being struck by lightning is all over the news.”

  “Super,” Winona said sarcastically.

  “Anyway, Dr. Franklin has the results of Winona’s first test,” Shayne said.

  Dr. Franklin stepped up to the bed before saying, “The test results were excellent. In a few minutes a nurse will be by to take you to another exam room for more tests. These tests are routine with your type of injury and I’m optimistic that the test results from the pending tests will confirm that you are in good health.”

  “So once the test results confirm that I’m in good health, I can leave?” Winona asked.

  “Sometimes test results don’t tell us everything, so regardless to what the test results might be, we would like to keep you overnight—just to error on the side of caution,” Dr. Franklin said.

  “Okay,” Winona agreed unenthusiastically. As an afterthought, Winona turned towards her mom. “Oh, uh, I was only wearing my swimsuit when I was brought in. So I’ll need some clothes.”

  “I’ll bring you some tomorrow,” Dakota told her.

  Winona just nodded in agreement, and before anything else could be said, a nurse—while pushing an empty wheelchair—knocked on the doorframe.

  When everyone looked towards the nurse, Dr. Franklin gestured for the nurse to proceed while telling Winona, “Your ride’s here now. “

  As the nurse was pushing the wheelchair closer to Winona, Dakota said, “Your dad, Matt and I will be in the waiting room.”

  “Okay,” Winona agreed.

  As Shayne, Dakota, Matthew and Dr. Franklin were leaving the room, Winona was getting out of bed while carefully assuring that her hospital gown had remained close in the back.

  As Winona was in motion to sit into the wheelchair, she heard Adam’s concern voice in the hallway. “Mom. Dad. I just heard about Winnie. How is she?”

  A slight grin came across Winona’s face as she heard her mom telling her twenty-one-year-old brother, “Winnie’s fine. She just has to have a few routine tests done and remain here overnight for precaution.”

  As the nurse began pushing Winona towards the door, Winona heard Adam saying in a relieved tone, “That’s good news.”

  Adam saw Winona being pushed into the hallway, and before he could say anything, Winona grinned while saying, “I heard you out here, Adam, being all concern for my safety. It’s nice to know you care.”

  Adam grinned while saying, “You might’ve been an annoying-tagalong-little sister, but of course I care.”

  “Younger sister, you mean,” Winona playfully corrected. “I’m three inches taller than you.”

  Adam just smirked.

  “Okay, well, the nurse wants to run tests on her,” Dakota interjected before gesturing down the hall. “So everyone who’s not having any tests done, go to the waiting room.”

  “See you all soon,” Winona told her family with a wave.

  The others returned the wave, and as the nurse pushed Winona’s wheelchair forward, Shayne, Dakota, Matthew and Adam continued towards the waiting area.

  Before reaching the waiting area, Dakota pulled out her cell phone from her purse while saying, “I had better give Travis a call before Travis hears that his girlfriend was struck by lightning from someone else and thinks the worse.”

  “Didn’t Travis and his dad leave yesterday for Alaska, to check out the University of Alaska?” Adam questioned.

  Dakota nodded before making her phone call; however, after a few rings, the call went into voicemail. “Travis, this is Winnie’s mom. I need to speak with you, so it’s important that you call me. Bye.”

  “You should text him,” Matthew suggested.

  “Telling him that his girlfriend was nearly electrocuted, but that she is all right is something he shouldn’t find out in a text message,” Dakota countered.

  “Well, I meant, you should text him and tell him to call you,” Matthew clarified.

  “It wouldn’t hurt I guess,” Dakota said before beginning her text.

  During the passing hours, Winona endured test after test, with results that showed that she was just as healthy as she seemed. Once the last test had ended she was placed in a room with another patient—a young Iraqi woman who knew very little English.

  Eric (Winona’s fellow lifeguard), Dale (the pool manager) and Maryann (Winona’s good friend) showed up just before visiting hours could end. When the visiting hours did end, everyone said his or her ‘goodbyes’ to Winona before heading towards the exit.

  Once Winona found herself alone with a person who couldn’t understand her, she turned over on her side, closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

  Winona was asleep for a short time before she began dreaming of her Aunt Ruth.

  The setting of Winona’s dream was just after dusk, and her Aunt Ruth—while carrying books and folders—was leaving a large building. As Ruth was walking towards another large building a sound had caught her attention. As Ruth investigated the sound, a blur of a figure went past her.

  “Hello,” Ruth announced as she attempted to follow the blur with her head or swinging herself around. The blur went past Ruth several times from different directions and each time Ruth would attempt to follow it with her head or swinging herself around. “Ha-ha. Very funny, but it’s time to end this joke.”

  A man with black eyes had suddenly appeared in front of Ruth’s face by only inches before saying, “When it comes to mealtime, I’m very serious.”

  Ruth backed up a step and screamed, but before another second could pass, the man sunk his long fangs into Ruth’s neck and drank her blood eagerly.

  Winona shot upright into a sitting position from her disturbing dream and vigorously looked around. When she rested her eyes on the Iraqi woman—who was looking through her as if she was in a hypnotic trance—the Iraqi woman said in the Mikasuki language, “Magic is real, Winnie, and you must find those parchments. Tonight!”

  Winona shot the woman a shock look while uttering in the Mikasuki language, “Excuse me!”

  The woman had snapped out of her trance and stared confusingly into Winona’s eyes while asking in the Iraqi Arabic language, “What?”

  In the Mikasuki language, Winona requested, “Speak to me in Mikasuki again.”

  The woman shrugged in a confused manner while saying in the Iraqi Arabic language, “I don’t understand you.”

  Winona stared confusingly at the woman for a moment. Then suddenly, Winona—while slightly startling the woman from her abrupt movement—turned towards the phone, picked it up and dialed it.

  The phone rang three times before being answered.

  “Maryann, it’s me—Winnie,” she began. “I need a ride.”

  “They’re discharging you?” Maryann quickly asked.

  “No, but I have to do something that can’t wait,” Winona insisted. “And I’ll need some clothes.”

  “What do you have to do?” Maryann asked.

  “There’s something on the reservation that I have to get,” Winona shared.

  “Whoa! I can’t go to the reservation tonight,” Maryann insisted. “In fact, I’m supposed to be meeting someone in an
hour.”

  “Fine,” Winona said. “Come get me and take me to my car.”

  “How are you going to get out of the hospital?” Maryann asked.

  “Let me worry about that,” Winona said. “Just come and get me.”

  “Fine,” Maryann said. “I’ll be there in ten minutes. Where should I wait for you?”

  “Just circle the lot until you see me.”

  “Or until the hospital’s police sees me,” Maryann retorted.

  “I’ll try to be quick.”

  “Okay,” Maryann skeptically said. “Bye.”

  “Bye,” Winona said before hanging up.

  Winona glanced over at the woman across from her and saw that she was just lying there with her eyes closed. She then took a breath and eased herself from the bed. Once she was out of the bed, she took the bag that contained her swimsuit from beneath the bed.

  The bag made a slight ruffling sound, but when she looked towards the woman next to her, the woman didn’t appear to have heard.

  Winona then, as quietly as she could, went to the bathroom. Once she had gently shut the door behind her, she took off the hospital gown, put on her swimsuit and then put the hospital gown back on over her swimsuit.

  Winona left the bathroom as quietly as she could, walked out into the hallway and looked around. The elevators and the stairs were in the direction of the nurse’s station, and there was currently one nurse there.

  Winona searched her thoughts for a moment for an idea to get past the nurse. After a thought had come to her, she went in the opposite direction of the nurse’s station and entered the next room over.

  The patient there was awake, and when he turned to look, she said, “Oh, I’m sorry. I was thinking that this was my room.”

  “Do you need assistance to find your room?” he asked.

  “No, that won’t be necessary,” Winona assured him. “Get well soon.”

  “Thanks,” the man said. “You too.”

  “Thanks,” Winona said before leaving his room.

  Winona then went further down to the next room. The patient in that room was sleeping, and when Winona saw that he was, she tiptoed over to the patient, took hold of the nurse-call-button and pressed it. She then quickly moved to the door and stood where she would be behind it once it was open.

  When the door opened and the nurse moved past Winona, Winona moved as quickly as she could to get into the hall without being seen.

  After getting into the hall, she wasn’t sure if she was seen, so she sprinted to the stairs, opened the door and entered the stairwell.

  As she made her way towards the bottom, she tried to hear if someone was behind her.

  She made it to the first floor without being followed, and as she was moving towards the exit, she saw that the exit was being monitored by the security staff.

  Chapter Nine

  As Winona stood while staring at the security officers and pondering what to do, she didn’t see or hear Evan—one of her fellow high school graduates—coming up behind her. Evan was two inches shorter than her and was dressed in janitorial clothes.

  Winona was only drawn to his presence when he uttered, “Winnie!”

  Winona jerked around and when she saw who it was, she uttered, “Evan! What are you doing here?”

  “Working,” he replied simply before looking in the direction where Winona had been looking.

  “You’re only eighteen,” Winona pointed out. “What kind of job can you have in a hospital at eighteen?”

  “Janitorial,” Evan said. “I get the pleasure of cleaning up puke.”

  “Lovely,” Winona sarcastically said.

  “So why are you here, while looking like a potential escaped mental patient?”

  Winona slightly laughed before saying, “That’s not too far from the truth.”

  “What do you mean?” Evan asked.

  “Evan, the hospital staff is keeping me overnight for observation; however, I need to go somewhere… tonight,” Winona began. “So I need help to get past those guards.”

  “Are you seriously planning on leaving this hospital without being discharge?” Evan quickly demanded to know.

  “If this thing I have to do wasn’t very important, I wouldn’t be down here while looking like a potential escaped mental patient.”

  Evan gave Winona an incredulous look before asking, “You’re not under observation for smallpox or another possible disease that could kill hundreds, are you?”

  “I’m not here for anything like that,” Winona assured him. “I was struck by lightning earlier today and…”

  “That was you?” Evan interrupted.

  “It was,” Winona said with a slight grin. “Although I’m fine. The doctor said so himself. He just wants me to remain here overnight as a precaution, and normally I would do what the doctor wants, but this…”

  “This is very important,” Evan finished for her. “Yeah, you said that already.”

  “So any suggestion on how to get past the guards?” Winona asked.

  “You know, if someone finds out that I had helped you to get out of here, I can be fired,” Evan pointed out. Winona was about to respond as Evan continued with, “Certainly I’ll help you.”

  “You have no problems with helping me while knowing that helping me can get you fired?” Winona quickly questioned.

  “It’s my dad’s idea for me to work here,” Evan began. “I don’t even want the job, so getting fired would be an answered prayer.”

  “Great!” Winona sarcastically uttered. “I’m a mental patient who’s trying to escape, and you want to commit a career suicide. Aren’t we the lovely couple?” Evan slightly and frustratingly snorted. “What?”

  “Nothing,” Evan lied with a tell.

  “I can see that there’s something,” Winona pointed out. “What is it?”

  Evan slightly hesitated before finding the courage to say, “I like you, Winnie, and I had always have.” Winona took a breath in an anticipation to deal with Evan’s longing. “In fact, the day when Travis had asked you to that sophomore dance, I had planned to ask you. But I didn’t because I found out that you had accepted his invitation.” Evan then shook his head in disgust. “Then you two became a couple.”

  “Okay, this is definitely a topic that needs discussing, but at the moment I would like to table it until when I’m not trying to get past hospital security.”

  “Right,” Evan agreed. “Follow me.”

  When Evan turned and dashed away, Winona followed.

  Evan led Winona to the janitorial staff’s locker room and up to his locker. Winona curiously watched as Evan opened it and pulled out gray sweatpants and a gray short-sleeve T-shirt.

  When Evan held them out for Winona to take, he told her, “Put these on.”

  While refusing to even take the clothes, she retorted, “I’m not putting on your smelly sweats.”

  Evan stuck the clothes to his nose while saying, “They don’t… well, actually they smell like fabric softener.” When Winona gave him a skeptical look, he continued with, “I took them out of the dryer before coming to work. I haven’t even worn them since they’ve been washed.”

  Without saying a word, Winona held out her hand for the clothes, and after Evan handed them over, Winona smelled them.

  “Fine, I’ll wear them,” Winona told him as she reached behind her back to untie the hospital gown. Winona then saw the anticipation in Evan’s eyes that she was going to change in front of him. “Don’t get all excited. I had put on my swimsuit before leaving my room.”

  “What?” Evan uttered while trying to sound innocent.

  “I saw the look in your eyes when you thought that I was going to get naked in front of you,” Winona informed as she was taking off the hospital gown.

  “There was no look in my eyes,” Evan insisted.

  “Evan, you had just confessed that you currently have feelings for me,” Winona pointed out as she dropped the hospital gown onto the floor. “Which we will dis
cuss at a future time. And now you want me to believe that you weren’t secretly hoping that I was going to be naked in front of you? Those two statements don’t belong together.”

  “Fine, for a moment, I was hoping that you felt comfortable enough to be naked in front of me,” Evan confessed.

  “In a skinny-dipping environment among a group of swimmers or if I was on a nude beach, I would be, but for one-on-one situations like this, you would have to be my boyfriend or a hardcore gay man,” Winona said as she was putting on the sweatpants.

  Winona then saw that Evan had made a gesture that he was holding back his response. He then looked down at the bottom of his locker towards his tennis shoes. As he went to pick them up, he told her, “My shoes might fit you too.”

  “I’ll try them,” Winona said before putting on the T-shirt.

  After Winona had pulled her long hair out from beneath the shirt, she held out her hand—the hand with the hospital ID bracelet around her wrist—while saying, “Okay, let me try the shoes.”

  Evan grabbed her wrist near the ID bracelet while saying, “We have to find something to cut that bracelet off.”

  “I’ll worry about it after I try on your shoes,” Winona said.

  “Okay,” Evan replied while letting go of her wrist and holding out the shoes for her to take.

  After taking the shoes, Winona bent down to put them on. Once the first shoe was on she said, “They’re a little wide, but they’ll work.”

  “Good,” Evan said before stepping away.

  “Where are you going?” Winona asked as she went to put on the other shoe.

  “I’m going to look for something that will cut that bracelet off of your wrist,” Evan said as he continued to step away.