Oakwood Island

by Cormier, Angella; Arseneault, Pierre C;

  * * *

  The stretch of road where the two cars had collided head on was now blocked off to all traffic. Rain poured down, hard and furious on the emergency responders who were on the scene, which was drenched in rainwater, blood and broken glass. The bodies of one young woman and her five-year-old daughter were now being carried into the coroner’s van, their final destination being the morgue.

  The driver of the other crashed vehicle was already en route to the hospital in the Oakwood ambulance. He was hanging onto life with nothing but the rising pressure that his bloodied body spurted through his veins in uneven amounts. The life was draining out of him fast, and so the ambulance pressed on, its sirens screaming out into the dark, drenched night. When it reached the hospital, nurses rushed to help transport the badly broken body into an operating room for the doctor to perform emergency surgery on the man’s bleeding internal organs.

  The air filled with a burst of adrenaline as nurses and Doctor Edwards cut off the man’s shirt and pants. The doctor then sliced a long slit down his abdomen, pulling apart the layers of skin, revealing the damaged organs that the impact had crushed in a flash of a moment. The doctor worked fast, locating the sources of the bleeding and repairing the damage as best he could with steady hands.

  Forty-five minutes after being admitted, Patrick Finnegan’s life was now more than a slight possibility. When the doctor returned from the operating room after having washed and changed, he walked over to the emergency reception area to collect the paperwork he would need to complete following the surgery. As he stood near the desk, his attention turned to a man that was holding his teenage son by the shoulders, tears streaming down his face, he sobbed words more than he spoke them. From what the doctor could make out, he was breaking the news of someone’s passing.

  The emergency nurse sighed and whispered. “I can’t imagine how hard it must be to lose a spouse but also a child...it’s so sad.”

  The doctor looked back at the grieving pair now, both crying and hugging each other. “It must have happened while I was in surgery with the crash victim in room 2A,” replied the doctor. Nurse Tina lifted her head to face the doctor and with a frown she said, “That guy you were just working on is the one that killed that man’s wife and daughter. He’s the local drunk, didn’t ya know? Just got his license back yesterday and already he’s killed two people. It makes me sick!” The nurse turned her attention to the buzzing phone.

  The doctor hadn’t felt this sort of quick rise in the need to kill, not ever. It had been over a month since he’d helped George out of his misery. Now it was different. He felt he had the responsibility to take care of this poor excuse of a man. Thinking how he had just saved his life, stabilizing his very existence, when the same soul had just taken two others, so much more worthy of living, in his eyes.

  He walked down the corridor and straight through to the recovery rooms where Patrick was still unconscious from the heavy pain killers that had been administered. He removed the tubing that ran from the drunk’s nose and let it fall down on the side of the hospital bed. He prepared a syringe and injected the man with a heavy dose of morphine to ensure he wouldn’t awaken during the transportation. He wheeled the bed through the ICU doors near the emergency area on the first floor. The bed squealed, like a wounded animal that knew death was fast approaching but had no ability to relieve itself from its morbid destiny.

  The distance was fairly short, from the ICU room to the secondary emergency entrance, where the ambulance was now parked. Doctor Edwards pushed the bed with a steady and firm grip, not bothering to look around to see if any eyes were watching his bold and careless move. The doors opened and a brief wisp of cool night air fanned his damp forehead, the adrenaline of what was soon to come enthralled the doctor. He opened the back ambulance doors and with some effort and a strong will he managed to drag the patient from the bed and onto the floor of the ambulance.

  The dressings the nurses had applied over the wounds he’d just patched up were now beginning to ooze blood. The movement had no doubt ruptured some of the stitches, but the doctor had no intention of repairing those. His mind embraced the thoughts of ripping them open again, with his bare hands, feeling the slippery blood-soaked skin on his own fingers as he would pull apart the folds of skin that he’d just sewn together.

  A surge of excitement washed over him as he closed the doors of the ambulance and made his way into the driver seat. He kept the sirens and lights turned off. Attention was the last thing he needed at this moment. He took the back way out of the parking lot, where less people would see the vehicle leaving. Without looking back, he drove off towards the cottage, where his next life removing surgery would take place.

  * * *

  That same night, Harriett had been putting away some supplies in storage when she heard the ambulance doors closing shut near the secondary emergency entrance. This area of the hospital was usually very light in traffic, especially at this time of night. She decided she best go and take a look.

  She made her way out of the small supplies room where she had been unpacking boxes. She peered outside of the frame of the door, and began making her way down the short hallway that led into the dim entrance. Straight ahead were two large automatic doors with the words EMERGENCY written in big bold letters on each one. She could make out the silhouette of a man standing next to the ambulance, getting something out of his coat pocket. She felt knots in her stomach as she recognized Doctor Edwards standing there, pulling a set of keys from his pocket.

  She stepped over to the side windows, making sure not to set off the doors which would also turn on the overhead lights above the entrance. She didn’t want to call attention to herself, especially now she knew that it was her lover that was climbing into the emergency vehicle. She heard the ambulance’s engine come alive and quickly pull away from the hospital and into the darkness of the night. As it got to the end of the parkway and turned to the left, she noticed even the headlights weren’t on, a sure sign that something was terribly wrong, but what she couldn’t tell.

  “Where is he going at this time of night?” Harriett whispered to herself. She still held a sealed box of latex gloves under her left arm, her right hand rubbing her forehead in small circular motions as a light headache was starting to develop. She was also flush with warmth, small beads of sweat formed along her hairline and at the base of her neck. She watched on as the ambulance disappeared from view, heading down towards Ocean’s Edge Road.

  * * *

  The next afternoon, the nurses and a few visitors at the hospital could hear the loud yelling that was coming from Doctor Edwards’ office. Harriett and Richard were having a very loud discussion, though most of the yelling was coming from Richard. The nurses, hungry for gossip, strained to make out what was being said. All they could hear was a muffled argument. When the door swung open, they saw the doctor holding it, a stern and discontent look on his face, while Harriett meekly stepped out, her head hung down in shame as she walked down the hall, past the nurses’ station and into the employee lounge and rest area. The tears started flowing as soon as she stepped past Richard and started down the hallway.

  * * *

  Every evening there was an after-hours clinic service at the hospital. Gina Bartlet, also known as “Easy Gina”, had walked in as soon as six o’clock rolled around and asked for a clinic appointment. She was the first on the list and so within fifteen minutes, she was sitting on the edge of a bed in one of the large hospital rooms. The room held two beds, divided by a curtain. The second bed wasn’t used for the clinic unless it became necessary, which usually was never the case. Her long bottled-blond hair was tied in a ponytail, her black eyeliner as heavy as the mood Doctor Edwards carried with him as he entered the room.

  He stood a few feet away from Gina, crossed his arms on his chest and without so much as a glance at her, he asked: “What seems to be the problem today Miss Bartlett?”


  As nervous as Gina was, she managed to explain that she was a few weeks pregnant and she couldn’t keep the baby. She wanted to know if there were any procedures that were available to her to terminate the pregnancy at the hospital. The doctor became red in the face in a matter of seconds.

  “You’re a slut, Gina. Why should I bother helping you? You’re just gonna keep getting pregnant, aren’t you? I know you will, because you’re a whore, Gina. The hospital doesn’t help whores!”

  Gina grasped at the golden cross she wore on a chain and began crying as the doctor turned his back to her. He needed to collect himself, as he was still reeling off the emotional charge that he’d had a few hours before that stemmed from the argument he’d had with Harriett. His eyes became focused and a slight grin formed at the corners of his mouth as the wheels started to turn in his mind. He turned to face Gina and put a hand on her shoulder and with a softer tone of voice he comforted her.

  “I might have been harsh on you, Gina. I’m sorry. You have to understand that it’s against hospital policy to even discuss abortion with a patient. I could get in big trouble over this....but if you really want this done I can help you out, but we do it my way. How about you come over to my cottage tomorrow night and I’ll help you out?” Dr. Edwards looked down suppressing a smile, “But nobody can know about it.”

  Gina smiled a weak smile, her cheeks still damp from tears that had poured down her face just moments before.

  “Thank you so much, Dr. Edwards...Thank you,” she said before she rushed out of the room before he would change his mind.

  As the pair exited the hospital room, the bed on the other side of the privacy curtain creaked and a pair of feet touched down on the floor. Harriett pulled aside the curtain and glanced out in the room before she made her way out into the hallway as well. Her heartbeat was fast and pounding. She had been changing the bedding on the other bed when she’d heard the doctor and Gina enter the room. She was still nervous around the doctor and even afraid of him a little now. She had decided against stepping out into view, and instead she had sat quietly on the bed, holding her breath for most of the discussion.

  She wasn’t about to confront him about his choice to help Gina with the abortion either as she was already on thin ice with him. She was shocked he’d offered to terminate the pregnancy illegally, but she knew she had better keep the information to herself, especially with the state of things as they were now. She slipped out of the room unnoticed and walked on down the hall to the nurses station where the nurses on duty were discussing the recent disappearances of patients from the hospital. George had wandered off to end his suffering. The nurses were sure of this but what had happened to the drunk that killed two innocent people was still a mystery.

  * * *

  The pod lights felt warm on Gina’s exposed legs and thighs. The cold counter-top where the doctor had instructed her to lay upon was uncomfortable and held a strong odour of bleach. The chemical had flooded her nostrils the moment she had walked into the cabin. She had been nervous when the doctor opened the door for her, his eyes held a gaze she had never seen before. Part of him had seemed excited, his smile wide as she climbed onto the counter.

  Now, as she watched him prepare for the procedure, she felt her heart beating faster in her chest. Her mouth dry, she forcefully drew saliva to moisten it. Her blonde haired mane pooled around her head, providing little to no cushioning on the hard counter.

  The doctor turned towards her and with a smile said, “I’m sorry for the discomfort, Gina. I wish I could make it more comfortable for you. We need to make due with what we have though, and this is the most sterile and sturdy spot for you in this place.”

  Gina fiddled with her golden cross as she tried to smile back but could feel her lower lip morphing into a quivering frown, as much as she tried to force a grin to replace it. Terrified, she only managed to mutter a weak reply. “Ok, Doc.”

  The doctor reached over to the nearby dining room table where he had set out a tray, lined with a white cloth. On the cloth were several surgical instruments that made Gina uneasy. He picked up a syringe and poked it into Gina’s right arm. “This will help you relax.”

  Only a few moments later, Gina felt her limbs become heavy against the counter-top. He picked up the long scalpel and brought it to Gina’s face. He slid the instrument down her cheek, piercing a long thin sliver of a line until droplets of blood formed and began flowing down the side of her pale face. She tried to scream but only a small groan was made as the sedative was now in full effect. The doctor moved down to her abdomen and began to work his way through to her uterus.

  “Everything will be just fine, Gina. Just fine...”

  Her killer’s smile was the last thing she ever saw.

  * * *

  The young man that stood at the bulletin board in the hospital cafeteria was carrying a stack of posters. He drew one from the pile and stapled it onto the board. The missing person poster showed a woman of about thirty-five years, long blonde hair, and very dark brown eyes. The words “MISSING: GINA BARTLET” were written in big bold letters across the top portion of the poster. The man held a sorrowful gaze as he pushed the final staple into the poster, fastening it onto the board.

  Across the room, Harriett sat watching the man, her stomach in knots as she thought about Gina. Only three days had passed since she’d overheard Gina and Richard from her hiding spot behind the curtain. She felt an uneasiness settling into the pit of her stomach just as Richard stepped out of the elevator and began walking in her direction. She waved him over to her table. His face seemed tired, like he hadn’t been sleeping for days. He stood over her, his sunken eyes peering down into hers without the slightest bit of emotion in them. His voice sounded flat and annoyed when he spoke to her. “What is it, Harriett?”

  She sat up a bit in the orange plastic chair, so uncomfortable for her these days. She looked up at him again and asked him the question that she would regret asking for the weeks following this moment. “Have you seen Gina since she came to the clinic earlier this week?”

  The reaction that followed caused such a scene that everyone stopped and stared at the pair.

  “Why are you questioning me, Harriett? Don’t you know I see close to a hundred patients in the run of my shift here? I don’t keep track of all of their whereabouts once they leave the examination room! You know for a nurse you ask a lot of questions about my patients. You should learn to mind your own damn business!”

  Harriett shifted uneasily in her chair, her small feet tucking in under the plastic of her seat, her eyes down on the table in front of her. She could feel all the eyes in the room watching her. Her face felt warm and she felt her heartbeat rising. When the doctor noticed he’d drawn attention to himself, he quickly brushed off the front of his lab coat and went along down the cafeteria and into the hallway that led out to the emergency area. He walked with a brisk pace, never once looking back at his lover, as she tried to take deep breaths while holding in a flood of warm tears. When he was no longer in view, she got up from her seat and quickly ran outside, her tears flowing heavy on her cheeks.

  * * *

  Later that evening, near the end of her shift, Harriett walked down to the doctor’s office and knocked twice on his door. When there was no reply, she turned the knob slowly and pushed the door open. The office was dark except for a desk lamp that always remained on. She left the door ajar a few inches, and went over to the large desk, eyeing it with a wide and hesitant glare.

  She saw a framed picture of Peggy Sue on his desk. She wondered how long it would take him to replace this photo with one of her, now that their future was about to change. The doctor had been very irritable with her these past few weeks and so she knew she needed to put off talking to him about their future together for a while longer. She had grown afraid of Richard, especially after his outburst that afternoon in the cafeteria. She figured the affair would
no longer need to be hidden from the public eye, especially now since Peggy Sue had run off to Vegas to be with Ted.

  She took the picture of a smiling and leggy Peggy Sue and placed it face down on the desk. A slight hint for him to find, she thought to herself. She knew she wouldn’t be able to muster up enough courage to tell him face to face what she saw for them both in the future months and years. This was why she had decided to write him a letter explaining everything. She knew he kept some stationery in his desk somewhere, and so she started going through the many drawers of his massive mahogany desk.

  Fishing out the spare key she knew he kept under the desk, she used it to unlock and pull open the top drawer and picked up a pen from the pile that was neatly stacked in a holder. In the second drawer she shuffled around a few file folders and found a note pad of lined paper. As she pulled it out, her fingertips touched something cold and small. She lifted the notepad out of the drawer and held the files up to see what the object was. In the few seconds her mind processed what it was she was looking at, her eyes grew wide with surprise as she realized to whom this golden cross belonged. She remembered seeing it just a few days earlier on the end of a chain around Gina’s neck.

  She picked up the cross, her fingers minding the delicate details of the etched edges of the religious token. The woman known as “Easy Gina” had worn the pendant between her bosoms as a reminder to herself and to others that her worth was not measurable by earthly bounds. Harriett got a chill as her eyes fell upon other items in the desk drawer that seemed to be holding more than just some notepads and file folders.

  A confused look spread across Harriett’s face as she passed her fingers over items that she recognized easily. There was Peggy Sue’s wedding ring and a pair of diamond earrings she always wore. This made sense to Harriett. She assumed the doctor was holding onto them, but keeping them out of the house so as to not have the constant reminder of his wife’s sudden departure with her lover.