by Cee Bowerman
“Well, fuck.” I groaned, wondering how I was going to get my hands out of the ropes and run away without bleeding to death first. I glanced over at Nellie and was happy to see that she was still unconscious.
No, she was dead. There was no way she could have survived that home run hit Ronnie had made with the lamp. I giggled to myself at that analogy, imagining the crowd going wild as Ronnie swung the lamp. I shook my head, wondering what in the hell was wrong with me that I was laughing about such a morbid picture.
As I stared down at Nellie, I realized that the hunting knife she had been holding was still in her hand, down beside her hip. I just needed to get my hand out of these fucking ropes and then I would have a weapon to use against Ronnie when he came back.
I wiggled my hands more, ignoring the burn in my wrists. I giggled to myself when I imagined a nurse asking me to rate my pain. ‘Well, that cut on my leg is a 437.5. My wrists are at about a 31 and my head is running right at a 72. What do I win?’
I felt my hands start to warm, and it was easier to move them. I kept twisting, gritting my teeth through the pain, especially when I realized that the warmth I was feeling was from my own blood. It was dripping down my hands and making a plopping sound as it hit the rug.
Finally, with one last tug, my hands were free. I almost screamed when I moved them in front of me, the ache in my shoulders rivaling the pain in my leg for a few seconds.
A few seconds I didn’t have. I took a deep breath and leaned down from the chair to get the knife that was still in Nellie’s hand. When my fingers touched hers, I realized that her hand was still warm. Maybe she wasn’t dead after all?
I grabbed the knife and then took another breath as I sat up. Before I could think about it, I bent over, crushing my breasts onto the tops of my thighs, so I could cut the rope around my ankles. I sawed through it easily with the sharp knife and then I tried to stand. I took a few steps to the door, wincing in pain every time I tried to put weight on my right leg. I looked down to see that my blood was soaking my jeans down the front of the leg, even going down into my sock and the tongue of my running shoe.
I need to tie something around it. Put pressure on it. I looked around the room and saw the dresser. I hopped over to it and pulled one of the drawers open. Inside were t-shirts and sweatpants. Nothing that would work for me. I pulled open the one below it and found men’s socks and underwear. I started to push the door in when I thought better of it and grabbed a pair of socks. I pulled the pair open, fumbling with the knife in one hand, and realized that these were old school tube socks.
Perfect for tying around my leg and putting pressure on my wound. I quickly pulled a few more pairs of socks out of the drawer and tied each one as tightly as I could around my leg. It started to feel better, once I had the pressure on the length of the cut. At least I thought it did. At this point all my pain was running together.
I limped over to the bedroom door and listened for Ronnie. I glanced back at the little window and weighed my options. I didn’t think I could climb up onto the nightstand to get out of the window, and if Ronnie really was outside digging a fucking hole, he would hear me anyway. I might as well brave it and go out the front door.
I held the knife tightly in my hand and slowly opened the bedroom door. The other doors in the hallway were open, and I looked into them as I passed. Two more bedrooms and a bathroom. No Ronnie.
I came to the mouth of the hallway and looked around the living room. It was an open floor plan, and I could see every corner of the room. Still no Ronnie. I glanced around quickly, looking for a phone, and saw Nellie’s purse on the kitchen table. I limped across the room as fast as I could, praying that she had her cell phone in her purse, and not in her bra where she usually stashed it.
Danger or not, I drew the line at digging around in a dead woman’s tits. Gross.
I found the phone and flipped it open. It was off. I held down the power button, hoping it would turn on, but nothing happened. It had to be dead.
I jumped when I heard a noise from behind me. I had a vision of my wicked stepmother, zombified, coming after me. Then, when I heard him muttering, I realized that it was Ronnie I was hearing as he walked along the back of the house.
With more energy than I realized I had, I threw the front door open and ran outside, looking left and right for a place to hide before Ronnie came around the house. It was so dark now, that I couldn’t see anything, so I turned right, praying that Ronnie was still coming around the house from the other direction. I leaned up against the edge of the house and held my breath as I heard footsteps on the porch and then a shout as he ran into the house.
I took that as my cue, and took off into the trees beside the house, running as fast as I could with the knife held down at my side. I could hear Ronnie yelling behind me, but I didn’t pause. I couldn’t slow down, not that I was going very fast in the first place, with my leg bundled up the way it was.
I felt my heart pumping in my chest, my head, and my leg. The pain almost unbearable as I listened to my breath saw in and out. I tripped on a branch and fell, stifling a scream as I landed on my hip and heard a loud pop.
“Lena!” I heard Ronnie yell from a distance away. Then a few seconds later he called out happily, “Lena, I’m going to find you!”
I pushed up on my arms, and the pain in my leg and hip were so bad that before I could control it I was throwing up in the grass between my hands. Once I had that under control, I looked around. There was a thick bush to my side. It was longer than my body, and about waist high. If I could just get under it, I could hide from Ronnie. And, if he did find me, I could swipe at him with the knife until he went away again.
I rolled over twice before I had to stop and catch my breath. At the last minute, I remembered my puke, and used my hand to throw some of the leaves and dirt over it, hopefully covering it up in case he came by with a flashlight. I took a deep breath and rolled again, this time feeling every tiny little branch and thorn on the bottom of the bush. I rolled one more time and my hip hit the stump of the bush, shooting pain all over my body. Once again, the lights went out.
15.
“As long as you guys don’t fucking cheat me, I won’t beat the shit out of you.”
Royal’s rules of Monopoly
FINN
“She’s still unconscious, and we’ll be doing a scan to check on the severity of her concussion. The doctor is in there with her now, cleaning the wound in her leg and repairing it. The Orthopedist is going to have x-rays done to see if there was any damage when the hip was dislocated and then popped back in. She has a broken nose and lacerations to her face, arms and chest. We may have to cut her hair because it’s knotted up and there are twigs and leaves in it.”
“Don’t cut her hair!” I snapped at the nurse before she could continue. “I’m sorry. No, please don’t cut her hair. I’ll get the knots out. Her Dad loved her hair, and he passed away a while back. Her hair reminds her of him.”
The nurse nodded at me.
“I’ll let you take care of her hair then. As soon as she’s released to a room, I’ll come and get you. You’re her husband, correct?”
I hesitated, not sure what to say.
The nurse slowly nodded her head as she said, “You’re her husband.”
“Yeah. Yes. I’m her husband.”
“Okay then, that’s settled. There won’t be any problem with you staying overnight in her room. The rest of the visitors will have to stick to normal visiting hours.” The nurse looked behind me, and I knew she saw my brothers and our friends. “She’s going to be fine, Mr. Conner.”
“Did he… I mean, it doesn’t matter as long as she’s okay, but I was just wondering if he …” I didn’t even want to utter the words.
“She wasn’t sexually assaulted, Mr. Conner. But there will be lasting effects. We will recommend some therapists that you can let her talk to.”
I nodded my head, relieved that she hadn’t had to endure that pain.
Once the nurse walked away, I turned to the group of people behind me. I took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. I could see relief on all of their faces, and I felt it myself. It wasn’t complete though, and it wouldn’t be until I heard Lena’s voice again.
~*~
“Mr. Conner?” A voice called from the front of the waiting room. Me and my brothers stood up, and the nurse’s eyes got wide for a second before she composed herself. “Milena’s family?”
I nodded as we all walked toward the nurse. I glanced over to see that Lily was holding Chess’s hand, and her eyes were red-rimmed from crying. It struck me all of the sudden that the man who had taken Lena was Lily’s relative. Her cousin, I think he would be.
I had a brief flash of fear when I thought of Shirley and Ralph home alone with my children, but it went away as quickly as it had come. Ralph had worked with the police to give them information to find Lena, and Shirley had been distraught while Lena was missing. One family member shouldn’t cloud my thoughts of the people who had been so good to us.
“Is she awake?” I asked as we all got closer to the nurse.
She shook her head. I saw a man walk in behind her, and when I looked at the name badge, I saw that he was a neurologist. I recognized him from the day my family had been in the accident. He was the one to update me on their condition.
“Your wife has a severe concussion. We’re monitoring her for brain swelling, and we are keeping her sedated so that she can heal. We need her to stay still so that her body can repair itself, and we can decrease the risk of more swelling.” I tried to take a deep breath, and felt it catch in my chest. My mind flashed to the conversation I had with a doctor in this same hospital about my sister Greer, and her brain swelling after the accident. And then, right after that, this same doctor had told me about Bellamy, and how the machines were keeping her alive. My mind started to whirl into all the things that could go wrong like they had with my sisters. I felt a hand on my shoulder and realized that the doctor was closer to me now, his face just inches from mine. “I remember you, Mr. Conner, and it’s not the same as it was the first time I spoke to you. It’s not the same at all.”
I nodded my head and hitched in a breath; my chest so tight that I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
“You remember our sisters?” Royal asked the doctor.
“I do. I’m sorry for your loss, but word around the hospital is that you have some beautiful babies to love on now.”
“We do.” I croaked. “Lena loves them. She’s been teaching us how to take care of them, she’s raising them with us.”
“Let’s give her just a little time to get better and then she can go back to doing that.”
“Can I see her?”
“I’ll take you back.” The doctor turned to lead me back to Lena, and I saw the nurse stare after him in confusion.
I followed the doctor back into the maze of hallways, and finally we came to Lena. She was covered in scratches and bandages; her face was so bruised and swollen that I thought that even if she had been awake she wouldn’t be able to open her eyes.
The monitors beeped, and I glanced up to read the numbers on them. I had learned what the different readings meant during the few days that Greer survived, and then the months that Bellamy was hooked up to machines.
“Lena, baby. I don’t know if you can hear me,” I leaned closer to her and touched a spot on her chin without scratches or bruises, “but I want you to know that you’re safe, and I’m here waiting for you. We’re all here waiting for you, sweetheart.”
I turned around and pulled a chair closer to the edge of her bed and touched her fingers with mine. There were bandages covering the upper half of her hands, and they went well past her wrists up her arms. I heard shoes squeak on the tile and looked up to see the nurse that had spoken to us all in the waiting room.
“What happened to her wrists?” I asked her.
“She was tied up with rope and injured herself as she tried to get out of it. We removed as many rope fibers as we could find. There were just a few places that needed a stitch or two, but the rest is chafed and raw.” The nurse turned away and pushed a few buttons on the machine holding Lena’s IV bags. “There are cuts and scrapes all over her, it looks like she got tangled up in a bush. They are almost all superficial and will heal up in just a few days.”
“What about her leg?”
“There are three layers of stitches in there. It looks like she was cut with a very sharp knife, almost all the way to the bone.” The nurse turned to Lena and adjusted her pillow, and then brushed her hair away from her face. “One of the other nurses said that you were going to take care of her hair?”
“Yes. Can one of my brothers and our friend Lily come back here to help me with that? I know it’s against protocol, but Lily can help me with her hair, and I need my brother to help me communicate with Lily. Lily’s deaf, but she and my brother have developed some sort of system to talk to each other since we don’t know sign language yet.”
The nurse glanced down the hall and then stared at me for a second.
“I’m going to let you go get two people at a time until they’ve all had a chance to see her. Tell them all to make it quick and then go home and get some rest so they can relieve you here tomorrow. I’ll let your brother and the girl come back and stay so y’all can take care of her hair while she’s sleeping.”
“Thank you.” I stood up and stared down at Lena, wanting so much to kiss her, but afraid I would hurt her somehow. I leaned down and gently touched my lips to hers before I moved to leave the room.
“I’m glad that your sister’s children are thriving, Mr. Conner. When things calm down and Ms. Conner gets better, I know that other nurses and I would love to see some pictures if you have them.”
“Thank you. I’ll do one better and bring the babies up to visit in the next few days.” I smiled at her and then turned around and went to get my family.
✽✽✽
Lena had been unconscious for four days now, and I was beside myself with worry. The doctor said that there was no reason for her to be unconscious, and to trust that she would wake up when her body had healed enough.
All I could think was that she was so still, just like Greer and Bellamy both had been.
“Let’s finish our game.” Royal said as he walked into the room. “I know Chess is a cheating fucker, so I’m going to count the fucking money.”
“I told you I’m not playing fucking Monopoly with you anymore, Roy. You’re already all worked up, and you’ll get us kicked out of the hospital. Then what are we going to do?” I leaned back in the chair beside Lena’s bed and stared at my brother.
His temper was legendary, and so was his competitive nature.
“I’ll be fine.” Royal lied, as he eyed the board games that were stacked over on the window. “As long as you guys don’t fucking cheat me, I won’t beat the shit out of you.”
“There’s a reason Mom banned us from playing that game.”
“Yeah, because you and Chess are greedy fuckers, and you steal all our money.”
“No, because every time we tried to play it one of us ended up in the Emergency Room.”
“Cheaters and little pussies. All of you.” Royal grumbled as he walked over to stare out the window. “Her Stepmom is out of ICU.”
“Damn.” I grumbled.
“I walked past her room. She’s unconscious, and her head is wrapped in a bandage, but they have her foot chained to the bed. There’s a cop at her door.”
“Good. Stupid bitch.”
“I’m glad she didn’t die.”
“Really?” I tilted my head to look up at him. “She had Lena fucking kidnapped, Royal.”
“She’s going to go to prison, Finn. Her life is going to suck for a long, long time. Death is too quick.”
“True.” I let out a sigh. “Are Chess and Lily bringing the babies up?”
“Yep, and another bag for you. After they visit a while, I’ll ta
ke them home for the night.”
“It’s been four days now, Royal. What if she doesn’t wake up?”
“She will, Finn. This isn’t like Bellamy. We have to keep reminding each other of that. She’s not Bellamy.”
“I’ll know that for sure when she wakes up and smiles at me.”
✽✽✽
“Lily, I know you can’t hear me, but you understand everything I’m saying. Stop fucking bugging me about the food.”
Lily glared at me while she held the sandwich in front of my face.
“She doesn’t give up, Finn, you just have to give in.”
Lily and I glared at each other for a minute. Finally, she raised one eyebrow and moved the sandwich closer to my mouth. I snatched it out of her hand and tore a bite off with my teeth, growling at her the entire time.
Lily threw her head back and laughed. Chess and I were both shocked to hear the sound come out of her mouth. When she saw the looks on our faces, she realized what she had done. She put her hand over her mouth and rushed out of the room. Chess followed close on her heels.
“Did Lily just laugh?” Lena whispered from the bed beside me.
I jumped up and leaned over her in the bed.
“Hey, sweetheart.” I whispered. “You’re awake.”
“Duh.” Lena chuckled and then winced. After a few seconds, she whispered, “Everything hurts so bad.”
I reached across her body and pushed the button for the nurse.
“God, Lena. I’m so fuckin glad you’re awake. You’ve been asleep for four days.”
“No shit?”
“Yeah, baby. No shit.”
The nurse hurried into the room, and I stood up to get out of her way. Lena’s hand lifted, and she grabbed my hand before I could get too far away.
“Let her check you out. I’m not going anywhere.” I whispered as I took her hand in mine. “It’s all going to be okay, sweetheart.”
