Hope Is Love

by Hubbard, Sylvia

  “No,” Jaelen said.

  “You’re making things worse. Just because you’re bored over your family being out of town, you can’t come here and be a devil’s advocate. You are in no way helping Ethan.”

  “And you are? You think he should be helping this bastard.” Suddenly those cold cruel eyes glared over at Jona. “That bitch is listening to our conversations, you know that. And I think she’s reading our fucking lips.”

  Jona pretended a lobby area just adjacent to them was interesting so her eyes wouldn’t make a sharp look away.

  “No, she couldn’t be,” Nicole said. “She just wants to leave.”

  “Then let her and let’s get the hell up out of here. Do you know how damn hard it is to get reservations at Gaston’s?” Jaelen pouted.

  “You go and I’ll stay here with him and call you later. Ethan has no intentions of leaving his brother’s side, despite what he did to his first wife.”

  Jaelen shot Jona another suspicious look briefly before nodding and leaving.

  Jona met Nicole’s eyes, but Nicole made no attempt to come over there. After Jona and James arrived at the hospital, he reluctantly let them take Jona into another room. Even though this Nicole had stayed with her, they didn’t speak. The nurse checked out Jona all over again and then Nicole asked the nurse if they could please draw some blood and do a regular physical. After about an hour of being poked and prodded, Jona was allowed to get dressed and get back to James’ room.

  By this time, he was looking miserable, but brightened up when she came in the room. Nicole offered to take her coat and even the nurse looked at Nicole like she was crazy.

  “No thanks,” Jona said keeping the coat even closer as she walked in the room fully with James.

  Looking at him now in a little of the new light since learning he was some wealthy builder, Jona felt a little intimidated despite the fact he was sitting on the edge of the bed in a hospital gown and hospital issued shoes. Someone had groomed him from the five o’clock shadow he’d started to develop, his bandages were clean and someone had even groomed his hair. Now his blackness was much shorter and with him being scrubbed and cleaned, his hair seemed shinier. To break the tension, she tried levity, “Can I call you James now?” she asked him.

  “No,” he growled very disgruntled. “I told that man who keeps saying he’s my brother to leave me alone.” He looked over at Nicole. “You can go join him.”

  Nicole left the room giving them time alone.

  “Are you okay?” James asked.

  “They did a physical. Other than that, I’m okay. I don’t feel comfortable.”

  “I know. I can feel it,” he said and then a look of guilt crossed his features before that disappeared. “I’m sorry for dragging you into this new life of unfamiliars, Hope. Everything feels right, but it doesn’t feel like me.”

  “He definitely looks like your brother, except you’re a little bigger. What did the doctor say?”

  “They’re still running tests all over again and I just want to go home.”

  “Home? What home would you go to?”

  “Certainly not where we came from. My brother wouldn’t let me live like that. It’s odd, the more I couldn’t remember, the more frustrated he became. It was as if he wanted to be mad at me, but he desperately wanted me to know why he should be mad at me.”

  She shrugged. “Maybe he just cares.”

  “Speaking of family, Hope. You said you had no family at all.”

  “I don’t.”

  He frowned as if he knew something more. “Are you sure or you just never looked?”

  “It doesn’t matter. If I did, it wouldn’t matter. I’ve lived on the streets all my life and I know my parents are dead and they didn’t have any other children. That’s all I need to know.”

  “You don’t want to know if there may be cousins, or aunts, uncles out there for you?”

  “For me? For me? When my parents died the way they did and no one came to their death beds, then I knew I was alone.” She felt even more on edge talking about her family in a place she felt uncomfortable about. “Let’s just focus on you right now and what name we can call you.”

  “I don’t know yet.” He shrugged and then thought for a second. “I guess eventually I’ll have to accept my name is James since that brother of mine has produced pictures of me with him and even a birth certificate.”

  The nurse from the other night came in and looked at both of them with that same distasteful look. “Mr. Black, your brother ask if he can return to go over some family things…” She looked at Jona. “He wants to speak to you alone.”

  Jona knew that meant they wanted her to leave.

  “He can’t speak to me with Hope here?” James asked.

  “He says he prefers to speak with you alone about some matters that he feels no one else should know about. Plus we’ll be taking you for more tests afterwards.”

  “I’ll stay outside,” Jona assured him. “I’ll keep my promise and not leave.”

  James looked as if he didn’t trust her for just a moment, but then relaxed and nodded.

  She was about to walk away, but James suddenly pulled her into his large arms, curved her body into his and then kissed her hard and passionate as if he really wasn’t going to see her again.

  When he released her, she had to hold him for a second to help with her equilibrium being thrown off.

  The nurse gave her an envious glare and then followed her out of the room. Jona found the nearest chair by James’ door and sat down. Even when she was offered something to drink or some clothes to change into, Jona refused. His family stood about twenty feet away from her obviously repulsed by the smell of Jona, but she didn’t care and the distance served as a way to keep herself distant from them all together. They didn’t talk to her and she didn’t talk to them.

  Yet an hour after Jaelen left, two detectives from the precinct came to her and asked if she would come with them into another room. They had initially spoken quietly to the doctor, the nurse, Nicole and Ethan, before coming over to Jona.

  Jona looked over at Nicole and Ethan to see if she could gauge why they needed her to go into the room, but Nicole only looked worried and Ethan only looked angry.

  Why was he angry? She saved his brother’s life and now they were turning hers upside down for it. This wasn’t fair to her.

  She followed them because they looked as if they really didn’t want to touch her. Sitting in a chair at the table after being offered, Jona assessed that these two black officers had most likely been on the force for a long time. Their casual nature and laid back courtesy treatment pretty much showed they were trying to use psychological kindness in order to get her to relax.

  Jona was on their game already and didn’t trust them even more.

  “So your name is?” the lead officer asked. She knew he was the lead one because he asked the most questions while the other one wrote down everything. Plus he was older and he had this wise look in his pitch black eyes, but he wasn’t topping over forty. There was this natural sarcastic smirk about him and when she looked at his badge and read S. Heart, she had a feeling she should really not trust him.

  “Jona,” was all she said.

  The man looked down at a folder he had in front of him that he’d taken out of his coat. His obsidian eyes looked back at her with a little annoyance as he said, “Ma’am, my name is Sheriff Heart. It’s my birth name my mother bequeathed me with the day I was born. Now this guy over here is Tobias Avery. He’ll be moving to homicide again in a few days just as I will and they threw this attempted murder case at us to just get on our nerves. We’re not happy to be here since we fully planned to find some young cuties to cozy up to and get our grove on, but we aren't and we don’t like games.” He leaned over the table showing the real darkness about him. “Now, give me your birth name, answer my questions and fucking around.”

  That was a mouthful, Jona noted, and she knew what they wanted to hear, but she really
didn’t want to give. Yet, she wasn’t going to cause trouble. If they kept her long enough they’d eventually take the coat from her and then see the pawn ticket. Dammit, why didn’t she throw it away?!

  She wanted to snatch that folder from in front of him and see what exactly he knew about her. Could it be more than she knew about herself? “My birth name is Hope Pane Crump, but people call me Jona.”

  “After Jonah Crump. He’s your father, right?”

  She nodded.

  Tobias stopped taking notes and looked at her suspiciously. “You’re Jonah Crump’s daughter and you’re living on the street? Are you mental?”

  “I’m not crazy and when my father decided to stay on the streets, he made the decision for me as well. I’m out there because if I tried to go where he came from they’d eat me up like a goldfish in an ocean of sharks. He told me all about them and there’s nothing to go to, except the streets.”

  “And your mother? Was she mental?” Tobias asked.

  “Leave my mother out of this,” Jona sneered. “If you have nothing else to ask me, am I free to go?”

  “No,” Sheriff said flatly. “Keep your ass glued to that chair until I say differently.”

  Jona huffed her own annoyance.

  “What happened when you found him?”

  “I told the officers-“

  “Tell me. I like to see a man’s eyes when he lies,” Sheriff said.

  “I don’t lie. I didn’t lie to anyone. I was seeking warmth near the dumpsters in the alley and this car pulls up. Him and this woman gets out talking about buying someone over and waiting for them to pick up the drop."

  "What drop?" Tobias asked.

  "The money drop," she said obviously. "There aren't that many drops a man like that could make."

  "Continue Ms. Pane," Sheriff urged.

  "They got back in the car, because it was cold and then this large vehicle drives up. It stops behind them and then a guy got out and came to the driver's side window. James recognized him and then the gun went off."

  Sheriff frowned even more. "How did you know he recognize him? You were looking?"

  "No, I was still behind the dumpster, but there's nothing wrong with my ears. I heard James speak to him as if he knew him." She fidgeted in her chair. "But he didn't say his name."

  "Since your ears were working so well, was the sound of the gun a deep sound or a pop?" Tobias asked.

  Jona thought about her answer for a moment and then answered, "It was a pop."

  Sheriff frowned. "Are you sure?"

  "I'm positive. What does that mean?"

  "It could have been a light gun. Maybe a .22 or so," Sheriff answered. "What happened then?"

  "A lot of movement... Wait...I remember something else," she said as her memory really began to back track what happened the day she met James Black.

  Chapter 10

  Jona's mind rewound the night she met James so fast, but so clearly. She remembered the woman's name and she remembered how the woman was screaming at the shooter, but the shooter had never spoken. "James called her Chelsea. When they were out the car initially, he called her Chelsea."

  Sheriff opened the folder and looked through several pages. She didn't think his frown could get much harder, but he managed to surprise her. For a man who looked so hard and a name like Sheriff, she expected him to have some type of Stetson on, with boyish good looks. Sheriff just looked hard and always upset.

  "There's no Chelsea in my file."

  "Does your files record his whole life?" she asked sarcastically.

  "Pretty much," he shot back. "You think you could expunge on this conversation you suddenly remember?"

  She jumped up hearing a word she didn't know and wishing James was there to interpret for her, but she wouldn't dare show her incompetence to this cop. Yet, just from his tone of voice, she knew they both were suspecting she hurt James. No matter what she said, they'd only believe what they wanted to believe. It was all her word against anyone else's. Even if they found this Chelsea, she had statue, legitimacy and she was relevant, but Jona was only a homeless stinky person who no one could care about.

  "What does it matter?! I have nothing else to say." she sneered.

  "You're impeding upon a crime. We could take you downtown until you're willing to tell us what we want," Tobias threatened.

  "What does it matter?! You're not believing anything I say!" she accused.

  "Just sit down and answer the questions, Ms. Pane," Sheriff ordered.

  "Will it matter?" Jona looked down at Sheriff, who met her gaze with a glare that clearly told her that she was wasting their time. She'd been on the street too long to know when people looked at her as if she were nothing better than tissue on the bottom of their shoe. Stubbornly she crossed her arms over her chest, she asked, "Are you charging me with a crime or not?!"

  Sheriff looked back at Tobias before looking her over. He stared especially hard at the coat and then twitched his nose. "You're free to go. There's no evidence of anything and if you had shot him, I certainly would have found the gun around that junkie place of yours or when we searched your clothes while you were getting a physical."

  She narrowed her eyes at him. "You touched my things without my permission?"

  Sheriff stood up, towering above her at over six feet looking as if he wanted to wring her neck, but she suspected he always looked like he wanted to wring everyone's neck.

  "It seems that you should be used to losing your permission."

  She didn't know what made her do the action that followed after that sentence Sheriff Heart snarled, but once she had, her whole body wanted to double over and throw up.

  Yes she did raise her hand and yes, she did slap Sheriff Heart as hard as she could and she was arrested immediately for assaulting an officer.

  What else could go wrong on this horrible, horrible day?!

  * * *

  The cell was cold at the Central District, but this imprisonment wasn't the first time she was arrested for something. Assaulting an officer was a new charge on her record, yet vagrancy and loitering were just minor compared to others, but they still treated her all the same as before. They let her keep her coat and didn't dare check it fully. The newspapers inside carefully hid the slim pencil box and since there wasn't anything dangerous inside, there really wasn't much to pick up.

  The hooker who was in the same cell as Jona sat all the way on the other side of the cell with her nose covered, glaring at Jona as if she wanted to kill her.

  Jona had to say at least she'd never been picked up for prostitution, but that wasn't to say the other things on her criminal record made it any easier to digest.

  She wondered briefly if her father had random thoughts when they first took him in. She also wondered did he worry about her at all?

  These were questions she knew would never be answered even though they passed through her thoughts all the time.

  "Pane!" a guard called.

  She was just getting almost comfortable on the cold cement type bed although she knew her back was going to be killing her by the time she got out of there.

  Standing up, she saw the guard take a whiff of her coat by mistake and look quite sick from the smell.

  "Follow me," the guard ordered. "At a distance."

  She was led into a room with a chair and a window. On the other side of the window were Nicole and Ethan.

  It had been twelve hours since her arrest. Her internal body clock told her so and she was really surprised that they had come for her. Although she looked past them to see if she could see James, but there was no one else in the room with them, except Detective Tobias Avery. She made sure she shot a look of contempt his way and then even at Ethan before she watched Nicole pick up a phone.

  “I’m sorry,” Nicole said before anything. “I need you to understand that I’m sorry if you felt that I was a part of any of this. All I know about James is that he hurt my husband a long time ago and I guess knowing James liked you and everyth
ing else, made me feel some animosity toward you. For this I do apologize for the way if I have treated you wrong. I love my husband, but sometimes, his friends and his anger can cloud his judgment.” She shot Ethan an angry look.

  Jona was very interested in how they met and how they seemed to have this unconscious way of speaking to each other. Married couples always intrigued her, because she wondered how could someone want to be around someone for long periods of time when they weren't family. On top of that, this was a mix couple, so she was very interested in knowing how they got along.

  As if it would happen to you? Ha! That's a lie.

  "Are you going to use my reward money to get me out of here?" Jona snapped impatiently, not really caring about an apology.

  "You want a reward for hurting my brother?!" Ethan asked incredulously. "What did you do to him?"

  Jona defended herself fiercely. "I didn't hurt him. I saved him and it was the worst mistake of my life!"

  "Ethan, please!" Nicole begged. "We didn't come down here to argue with her." She looked at Jona. “Please accept my sincere apology, Hope.”

  “Don’t call me that,” Jona snapped. “I don’t like that name much. Just call me Jona.”

  “I was only calling you what James was calling you, but it's fine I will call you what you want,” Nicole promised. “But do you accept my apology?”

  Jona nodded reluctantly just wishing they could hurry up and post bail for her.

  Nicole continued, “And I know that my husband would say the same thing if he really understood you, but obviously for some strange reason James understands you.”

  “She not James’ type,” Ethan grumbled. "He's not in his right mind, Nicole."

  “Whether she is or not, you need her help with James, Ethan," Nicole pleaded.

  “Where is James?” Jona asked.

  The husband and wife looked at each other seriously.

  Nicole handed him the phone, but Ethan shook his head. She answered, “He’s run away, Jona. James found out you weren't at the hospital anymore and he became very upset before we explained anything to him. He kicked everyone out of the room and then disappeared out of the hospital. We've looked everywhere and we can't find him."