“Why are we going back in?”
“The shadow thing is out there waiting for us.”
“It is just a shadow, a little scary, but it’s not bad. Nathan, my hand is numb, and I can’t move it. I’m scared.”
“Good, I’m glad you’re scared, but be scared of Mr. Shadowman out there. It makes the doll seem like a Boy Scout trying to earn a merit badge.” I scanned the room. Nothing I could use for a weapon. “Isabella, the shadow thing is jonesing to kill me. If I give myself to it, maybe you can get away while it has its dinner.”
“No. If you die, who’s going to play Don Quixote?”
I began laughing because of the absurdity of it. “Your hand is about to fall off, and you are worried about the show?”
“Nathan, ‘the play’s the thing.’”
“You show people have your priorities screwed up. Okay, I won’t sacrifice myself. I didn’t like plan A anyway.” Think, we need a plan. “Isabella, do you have a flashlight?”
“Yes, why?”
“I might be able to fend it off. It doesn’t like the light.” She motioned to her purse. Rummaging around in it, I was amazed how much crap was in it. This is like a freaking Bag-of-Holding. Found it. It’s a little penlight. Normally, I would take the time to snark at this puny light, but this isn’t funny.
I heard the slight buzz of the emergency light’s battery starting its recharge cycle. Right there above the door was a big beautiful emergency light. If I can cut the power to it, it will turn on. Maybe all of them throughout the building will turn on. They have batteries that will keep them going for hours. It will be more than enough time to escape. Hope springs and time runs out. There was a growing puddle of blood under Isabella.
Wasting no time, I moved the second chair under the emergency light, I stood on it to get a look at the light. It has two big floodlights connected to a steel box, and it is attached to the wall. The access panel was sealed by a couple of Phillips head screws. My heart sank. I didn’t have a tool to open it. Wait a minute. I saw a nail care kit in Isabella’s purse. Rummaging around again, I found the kit. Opening it up, I found the nail file. “Yes!” It was metal. Working carefully with my improvised tool, I managed to open the access panel on the emergency lights. The guts of the light were as I thought, a mess of wires, and I had no idea how it all worked. I started studying it.
“Nathan, I need to lay down. Can you help me to the cot?” I climbed down and helped Isabella. There was an awful lot of blood on the floor. The make-shift bandage was soaking, and the bleeding had increased. If I tied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, she would lose the hand for sure. Maybe if I slow the bleeding, it will buy her hand some time. Grabbing the skirt from her costume, I ripped a strip of cloth from it and wrapped the strip around her arm. I tied it off, but not so tight it completely cut off the blood flow. It slowed enough to be steady drops as opposed to a stream. “Nathan, am I going to lose my hand?”
“I would worry more about your life if I can’t make this emergency light work.” No time to waste no time at all. I stood on the chair and faced the lights. No time! With all my strength, I pulled at the light, trying to break it free. Nothing. If only I had a crowbar. Holding the light with my hands, I brought my legs up one on each side of the door. Creeping my legs up one at a time, I got them to where I felt I had the most leverage and strength.
I needed to amp myself up. I pulled a memory up. It was the memory of pulling the door off the car where baby Sarah was trapped. I can hear her again.
I kept working the wrench, hoping to get lucky. I could feel the heat of the fire now. A scream of agony filled the air. “Oh, God! Sarah, where are you, Sarah? Mommy’s here.” The mother kept her cooing. Sarah’s crying subsided somewhat. The flames were growing. It wouldn’t be long before both mother and baby would be beyond rescue. Still no sirens in the distance. My calm evaporated.
I screamed to the world, “No! Not again! Help me!” As if by magic, a dozen sets of hands started helping me pull at the door. Where did they come from? I didn’t care as long as they helped. You could hear the metal protest as it bent and finally popped. With our combined strength, the door flew a score of feet away. I reached in and pulled the baby, seat and all, from the car.
With time I gained an insight into what exactly happened. I had summoned a host of ghosts to wrench the car door free, but I won’t call any ghost with Mr. Squidman out there. I won’t be a party to destroying innocent ghosts, even if it would save my life. I won’t. This feat of strength should be far easier the ripping a car door from a wreck.
Straining and pulling, but the light was not budging. Again, I threw my meager strength against the emergency light. My arm started to burn, and my legs began to shake. “Come on, you, break!” First, I heard a groan and a pop. With a great ripping sound, it came away from the wall, and I found myself on the floor with the lights in my hands, bits of drywall and dust covering my body, and something poking me in the back. I hurt all over.
In the fall, one of the lights broke, but the other one was whole and shining. Trying to stand up with all my strained muscles, was not an easy task. After a few moments of cursing and groaning, I made it to my feet. Moving gingerly to Isabella, I saw she was getting pale, almost chalky. “Isabella. Get up, we have to move. I don’t know how long this light will last.”
“Oh… a… Nathan… Let me rest a few minutes.”
“No, pretty and naked lady. Rise and shine!”
Looking at me with a fog clouding her eyes, “You rise, you shine.”
“The Great Race, cute. No! We are gone now!” Without ceremony or by her leave, I started pulling her off the cot. She was trying to help, so I gave her credit. We started making some progress, but we needed to move faster. “I must say you have a mighty fine body under your brain.”
“Huh? What? Is that something to say to a woman right now or any other time?”
“Well, isn’t that all there is to a woman? That and making babies. Say, you have wide hips on you to birth a baby or three. Say, when we are done, can you make me a sandwich?”
“How dare you talk that way to me. I’ve a mind to…”
“Getting a little heated? Is your blood starting to boil? Good! Stay mad. Anger can give you strength.” Together we hobbled to the back door with the light blazing a trail in front of us. The shadow form of Mr. Squidman following us all the way. The light did manage to keep him at bay, but I could sense the anger flowing from him. The darkness around him grew with each wave of hatred I felt, but the light kept him at bay. Every time we came to a light switch, I turned it on. The backstage was bright by the time we reached the back door. As we walked out into the glooming of the evening, I took one quick glance behind us and saw the menace in a distant shadow. It looked pissed.
The ghost cab was waiting for us. Tony was holding open the cab’s door. I put Isabella in the backseat, both Tony and I rushed to our places in the cab. “To the hospital, Bub?”
“With all alacrity!”
“Huh? I don’t know where alacrity is.”
“Alacrity. You know haste, speed, quickly. Go!” We arrived at the hospital in short order. I ran through the emergency room doors and grabbed a wheelchair. Running all the way back. Somehow, I managed to load Isabella into the chair and wheeled her into the emergency room. Screaming as I took her to the front desk, “We need help. NOW!”
“Hold your horses,” The nurse at the front desk said. I took Isabella’s hand a put it on the desk. A smear of blood strained the admittance forms. The nurse gasped and looked up at Isabella. “Oh, my God. Bring her this way!” Following the nurse, we raced to a treatment room.
Standing in a corner, I observed everything happening all around Isabella. I heard a familiar voice. Dr. Gastil was giving orders. Even if I had a normal memory, I would never forget the sound of his voice. The arrogant dick.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Crossmatch and type her blood and hang a unit of O-negative. I can’t take her hand until she stabilize
s,” Dr. Gastil said. Little has changed in his appearance from the last time I saw this man. I fired him from my wife’s case after he called my son “a fetus.” He is in his mid to late fifties with grey streaks through his black hair. There are a few more streaks of grey in his thinning hair. He is a shorter man, perhaps five-foot-six or seven. His aura of command is still about him. He is a man accustomed to giving orders and having them obeyed without question.
“Doctor, we are out of O-negative. The blood bank is sending a resupply, but the courier is late.”
While his voice has cool detachment to it, Dr. Gastil fooled no one, “Find me some blood. Send someone to meet the courier. I don’t care what you do. Get me some blood. I refuse to lose her.”
From my corner, “Fighting to save a life looks good on you, Doc. If you need a donor, I have an armful of O-negative for you right here.” Dr. Gastil spun and looked at me.
A flash of recognition touched his face. “You’re O-negative?”
“All my life. I even test negative for CMV.” When I first gave blood, the nurse who tested it told me I have special blood. I am O-negative, which makes me a universal donor, but I also test negative for CMV or the Cytomegalovirus. Fancy talk for “We can use your blood in burn victims and natal patients.” I handed Dr. Gastil my blood donor card, he examined it.
Dr. Gastil wasted no time. “Hook him up. Make a culture of her infection. I want to know what I am dealing with. Call surgery to hold a room for me. I’m taking her hand as soon as she is stable.”
“No! You are not taking my hand.” Isabella screamed at the doctor.
Dr. Gastil walked to Isabella’s bedside. “Listen to me, Ms.…”
While getting stuck in the arm, I said, “Her name is Isabella,” you dick. I would have exclaimed the last part to his face, but I’m trying to be a proper gentleman, I am.
“Listen to me, Isabella. Your hand is dead. If we don’t amputate it, you will die.”
Isabella sat up a bit and faced the doctor and shouted, “I do not consent.”
Dr. Gastil replied in a cold voice, “Okay, little girl, let me tell you what is going to happen. First, I will give you a sedative for the pain. Next, you will lose consciousness. You will no longer be able to refuse treatment. I will take your hand off. Next, I will try to stop the infection from spreading and killing you.” The doctor motioned to a nurse. She handed him a syringe, and he started to administer the drug.
“You heard the woman. You can’t take her hand.” Dr. Gastil continued to pump the drug into her IV tube. “Wait. It is not a normal infection! Give her body a chance to fight it.”
“You are a hypocrite, Mr. Embers. Oh, I remember you. You fired me for not trying to save a fetus doomed to die anyway. Now, you argue with me when I am trying to save a woman’s life by amputating her dead hand. What is it about you and useless tissue, Mr. Embers?”
“What happened to ‘My body. My choice’ doctor?”
“I’m not here to discuss ethics with a layman. So, sit back and keep pumping lifeblood into Ms….”
“It’s Isabella, you sanctimonious blowhard.” One nurse gasped, and another gave a quick giggle. A phone in the treatment room rang.
“Dr. Gastil, you lost the operating room to a car accident victim,” the giggly nurse stated. Dr. Gastil moved out of the room at a fast pace, saying something unintelligible to himself. The nurse who answered the phone removed the drain from my arm. She gave me the usual instructions about taking it easy and getting something to eat and drink.
Scooting my chair closer to Isabella, I spoke, “I need to return home. It’s getting late. You’ll be okay. Dr. Gastil is an ass, but he is a talented doctor. I had researched him after the incident with my wife. If it comes down to it, let him remove your hand. It’s only a piece of you, not the whole of you.”
Isabella lifted up her healthy hand, and I took it, “Thank you, Nathan. I was in too deep with that cursed doll. And thank you for not taking advantage of the doll’s offer. I wasn’t in control.”
“I know you weren’t, but I’ll admit temptation crossed my mind.”
“No, Nathan, you don’t understand. I’m gay. Even the thought of being intimate with a man turns my stomach. I was screaming inside my mind while the doll offered you my body.”
“The horror of what happened to you was all the worse then.”
“Nathan, I’m scared. I don’t want to lose my hand, and I don’t want to die.”
“Then, don’t die. Will your body to heal itself!” I squeezed Isabella’s hand. “Your color is coming back, and they don’t have a place to do the surgery, at least for a few hours. Miracles do happen. My wife is living proof. Doctors gave up on her, but she lives still.”
“It will take a miracle for me to perform at the grand opening.”
“Isabella, are you skilled enough without the doll helping you?”
At last, she admitted, “No.”
“I think your acknowledgment of the truth is a good sign. Maybe musicals aren’t your thing. Dramas could be your cup of tea. Lord knows being in a theater troop is drama enough.” She smiled at my jest. I must be going.” I gave her hand a squeeze and kissed her on her cheek.
“Nathan, thank you again. If ever you need someone to be on your side, call me, and I’ll be there.” James Taylor’s song “You’ve Got A Friend” started playing in my head. You just call out my name… Isabella yawned and closed her eyes. I sat there with her as the music played in my mind.
When the song finished, I said, “I’ll check on you later.” A smile crossed her face. I headed for the cafeteria for some orange juice as per nurse’s orders. As I went to pay for my drink, I noticed the cafeteria’s cashier familiar face. “Karma, as I live and breathe. You look most fetching in your hairnet.”
The expression on Karma’s face betrayed her lack of enthusiasm over her present disguise. The truth is, if the lunch lady in high school looked like her, the lunchroom would have run out of food every day from pubescent boys trying to sneak a second look into her eyes.
“Again, Nathan, you did me proud.”
“You always turn up at the strangest times. Do you have me bugged through my phone?”
“Something like that,” she answered while she finished ringing me up. “Cash or Debit?”
“A man risks his life battling the forces of evil, and you make him pay for a stinking orange juice?”
“I have to keep the drawer balanced.” I handed her the cash. I don’t like using debit. Too much info floating around out there in cyberspace. Information is power. Walking away grousing over not getting a reward for my work, Karma called out, “Don’t dally. You have more work to do.”
“Do you mind if I get a good night’s sleep first?” Turning to face her to emphasize my point, Karma had been replaced by another woman in the cashier’s position. This lady looked the part. Trying not to contemplate what happened, I carried on.
As I walked out front, I about choked on the orange juice. It was a bit over-sweet. Yuck! Just as I reached the curb and thought about calling a cab, Tony and the ghostmobile arrived. “Home, James, and take the road by the park. I would like to see some green.”
“You got it, Nate, but the name is Tony, not James.”
“Sorry, Tony, I was going for laughs.”
“Try harder next time,” Tony announced in a deadpan.
We made it home, after driving by the park as I had asked. “I’m not complaining, but why are you acting as my personal chauffeur?”
“Well, one reason, Nate, is it’s a bit boring in the afterlife with nothing to do but drive around the city with no one in the backseat.” Tony turned around in his seat and faced me. “Driving you and talking with you makes me feel a little alive again.”
“Tony, I don’t know what to say other than you, and your cab has been a great help to me. I wish there was some way to pay you back for all the free rides. If you want to move on, I can help you.”
“Thanks for the offer, but I am
enjoying myself with driving injured ghosts to your home and driving your lady friend to the hospital. How’s she doing by the way, and the other ghost fella?”
“It is sketchy. She may lose her hand.” I paused for a respectable moment and cast my eyes down. “We lost Lar.”
“Sorry to hear, but I thought he was already dead.”
“It’s a little complicated.”
“You can tell me about it next time. It’s past dinnertime, and I’m sure you’re hungry.”
I replied, “That I am,” as I exited the ghostmobile. The house was quiet. I called out, “To the house. Everybody, I’m home.” There was no immediate answer. No Moiraine running up yelling ‘Daddy’s home. Daddy’s home.’ After a moment, Charlene came into the living room.
“I’m glad you’re home. I was beginning to get worried.”
“Where is Moiraine?”
“She is spending the night with my father.”
“On a school night, what’s wrong?” This is a rare occasion. Char never lets Mo do anything which might keep her from getting enough rest on a school night.
“Nothing’s wrong. I wanted to talk to you alone. How was your day?”
“Eventful, I would say.”
“Nothing else, just eventful. You left with the block of salt. What did you say? You were going to imprison a cursed doll in it.”
“That was the plan, and everything went as well as can be expected.”
“Nathan, I am having issues with your galivanting off fighting these supernatural entities. I hope this won’t become a habit, but it doesn’t matter right now. I want to talk to you, but first, you should eat something. Go sit at the table. I have your dinner simmering on the stove.”
Her last statement threw me a bit. Char’s position on dinnertime has always been if you are not here on time, you can fix yourself something. Charlene brought me a big bowl of beef stew and some crusty bread. The stew smelled heavenly. Greedily, I took a couple of bites. The stew tasted even better than it smelled. Tomorrow, after the stew had time for the flavors to meld, it will taste even better.
The Calling Page 22
