by C. J. Carson
“Well, Allie?”
“George, that silly young girl, with her head in the clouds and the crazy imagination, is gone. Just like her lovable and imaginative grandfather, she didn’t have a grip on the harsh realities of life. I think that small girl got lost when he passed away.”
“Well, I think you might just want to look for her. Maybe she had a better grip on the realities of life than you think.”
“No, she’s gone, George. Out of necessity, we all need to let go of childish things, eventually, and move on. I am afraid childish behavior does not serve me well in the business world.”
“I’m just saying—”
Rather rudely, I interrupted him; I couldn’t go there. “Thanks, George, but you’re all I really need from my past. After all, you keep me well-nourished with great salads and sandwiches when I barely have time to eat. More importantly, you make me laugh when I need it the most. What else could a girl possibly ask for? I really have to run; I think it is going to be another late night with my one true love, my laptop.” Giving him a peck on the cheek and passing him a twenty-dollar bill, I moved toward the door. “Keep the change. I’ll see you again soon!”
I looked over my shoulder to see George’s face as I left, and it looked more than a little concerned. There was no time for that discussion, so I kept moving and left the café. Thinking back on it now, my grandfather’s passing was the first fork in the road of my life. Without him to help me choose what seemed to be the scary path, I chose the path I thought was right, the one I knew I could travel without him.
Chapter 2
THE STREETS WERE SILENT AND DARK as I pulled up to the front of the office building at ten fifty-five and parked. Leaving my car, I approached the building and unlocked the front door. Entering the lobby, I proceeded down the dark hallways, lit only by random floor lighting. Getting to my office suite, I opened the door, walked through my assistant’s adjoining office, and into my office. At my desk, I flipped on the desk lamp. I took my dinner out of the brown sack and placed it on the side desk. Once I settled in with my dinner and laptop, I began writing my summary for tomorrow morning’s meeting.
I took the first bite of my sandwich. Oh, yes, this is home to me, I thought, as memories of visits to George’s little shop and those precious moments, sitting across from my grandfather, in our favorite booth, drawing on the back of a paper placemat, eating French fries, and drinking chocolate milk came flooding back to me. In my mind’s eye, I saw his soft approving smile. I remembered the way he could make me giggle. Sometimes, he would say the most profound things to me, knowing I would only understand what he meant when I was grown and had experienced life with all its trials and tribulations.
Not long before my grandfather’s passing, he looked deep into my eyes and said, “Someday, I will be one with the earth again, but I will be all around you in the breeze, watching and guiding you with the eagles and our ancestors. I know, at this young age, these words are lost in translation, my little bird, but I am conversing with your spirit and it will teach you this in time. The key to your spirit is locked in your heart where your gifts reside.”
The buzzing of my cell phone pulled me back to reality. I picked it up and read a text from a number I didn’t recognize.
How are you?
Needing to get to work, I ignored it.
A few seconds later, it buzzed again.
I said, how are you?
Getting annoyed, I blurted, “What the hell?”
It buzzed again.
I said how are you, bitch? You look a little tired to me.
Then, it rang.
Annoyed, I answered it. “Who is this?”
There was no answer, but heavy, angry breathing. Then, silence.
As I got up from my desk to move to the office door, I heard the breathing again, but it was not just coming from the phone. It echoed from my assistant’s adjoining office.
In a split second, panic like I’d never known lodged in my throat. I dropped the phone and, as I ran out of my office, someone grabbed me from behind, pulling me back into the room, pinning me up against the back of the closed office door.
His fiery breath at my back made the hair on my nape rise, sending a chill coursing through me. “You need to answer me when I address you, bitch!”
My struggling to break free only fueled his anger as he spun me around and pinned my hands to the wall above my head. The small desk light haloed around him, outlining his large muscular frame. He wore all-black and a grotesque face mask. The adrenalin was coursing through my veins and all my senses were heightening. His fiery breath reeked of garlic, his clothes smelled of laundry detergent and, as he leaned into me to speak, I smelled the faint scent of cologne or aftershave.
“You think you are so above everyone, Ms. Callahan!”
He lifted me off the floor like a small rag doll, propelling me across my desk, where I landed face first, cracking my head on the desk phone. As if out of instinct, I struggled to grasp something, anything on my desk to use as a weapon. I grabbed a heavy glass paperweight my grandfather had given me with President Truman’s face embossed in the center. Blood dripped from my forehead, filling my eyes as I clinched it in my fist. When he flipped me over on my back, I summoned the strength to smash the side of his face with such force, sending him crashing to the floor.
I stumbled to the window to see if I could summon someone from the street. As I raised my hand to pound on the pane, my assailant spun me around to face his rage. His rough, chaffed hands gripped my wrists. The power from his third blow sent me crashing through the large office window. As I broke through the glass, I heard my grandfather’s voice in my head: I’ve got you, my little bird. I suddenly felt as though someone or something was cradling me, and as if in slow motion, I plummeted a story and a half to the pavement.
The next thing I remember was hearing voices as if they were off in the distance.
“Help, somebody, call the police! Call an ambulance!”
I faded in and out, my body twisted like a pretzel on the pavement, yet I felt no pain.
I heard the EMTs intermittently as I struggled to remain aware of what was going on.
“She is in and out of consciousness.”
“Check her vitals”
“Heart rate is a bit high, one hundred ten, and BP is one-forty over ninety.”
“Please, get back! Give us some room! In three, lift…” and I was out again.
The tension of the blood pressure cuff kept bringing me around.
“BP is one-forty over ninety, heart rate is one-fifteen.”
Within minutes, a crowd of pedestrians, news media, and police officers converged on the scene.
“Isn’t that Allie Callahan? Who attacked her? Have the police got any leads?”
As my gurney moved toward the ambulance, I heard, “Excuse me, but could I just get a second with the girl?” I would learn later that voice belonged to Detective Payne.
“No, I’m sorry, sir. She isn’t able to talk right now.”
“Look, we’re losing valuable time. I need to see if she can tell me anything about her attacker.”
“She is barely conscious, sir. If you don’t let us do our job, she may never be able to talk with you. Please, sir, you can meet us at the hospital.”
I faded again until the EMTs lifted me into the ambulance.
“Check her vitals again.”
“Vitals are dropping, sir. Heart rate is sixty and BP is eighty over sixty. I’m afraid she is going into shock. There is extensive bruising in her abdominal area, she is likely bleeding internally.”
“All right then, let’s get her hooked up to the monitor and start transmitting her vitals to the ER. Run a line, we are going to need to push saline.”
‘Done and done. Let’s get rolling!”
As the ambulance moved, a strange floating sensation came over me. I somehow hovered over the street. I observed Payne and other officers on the scene. A young officer reported, “Payn
e, we’ve cleared the building.”
Payne shot back, “What about the back entrance?”
“We’re on it now, sir. It seems the back door to the parking garage was barricaded. Looks like our suspect jammed it with a crowbar, so our officers had to go back out the front door.”
“Stay on it. I am heading to the hospital.”
Later I learned that when Payne arrived at the emergency room, he asked the doctor if he could speak with me. He was reluctant, but ultimately agreed to let him talk to me for just a few minutes before I went to surgery.
Promising to be brief, Payne stepped behind the curtain around my bed with the doctor, but soon realized I was too sedated to have a logical conversation and opted to wait until morning.
As they left my bedside, I tried to call them back, but the words just wouldn’t come. Again, I felt that strange sensation of floating and hovered over them in the hallway. It felt so serene, almost peaceful. I heard their entire conversation.
“Hey, Payne, something is a little off with this one. When she first arrived, she was in and out of consciousness. She kept asking about an officer who was on the scene. The man she described… well, from the description, I thought it was you.
“She kept talking about seeing you apprehend her attacker. Something about you being stabbed this evening, trying to catch the guy. I know she was disoriented, but she seemed so concerned and convinced. Were any officers on the scene injured?”
“I wish I could say we got close enough to the suspect to apprehend him, but he was gone from the scene. There was, however, an officer who received a superficial knife wound during a chase earlier this evening. He was trying to capture someone who was caught up in a bar fight a few blocks away from her office. A totally unrelated issue.”
Chapter 3
HOURS WENT BY, THOUGH I COULDN’T be clear how many. I awoke from a dream where I was reliving my attack. Panic swelled in every cell of my body. Disoriented and completely confused; where was I? What had happened to me? Soft lambskin wraps restrained my wrists, with an IV in the back of my hand. My body hurt all over and my left eye was swollen shut.
A gentle hand touched mine. I opened my eyes to a small girl, wearing a hospital gown, gazing at me through the bed rails. The warmth of her smile gave me a sense of calmness. That’s when I realized I was in the hospital.
A matronly nurse with a heavy Southern accent stole my attention from the little girl.
“It’s okay, child, you’re in the hospital. There has been an accident. Please try to stay calm. Let me take off these wrist restraints. I’m so sorry we had to put them on, but you were thrashing so much during the night we thought you might hurt yourself or pull out your IV.”
The feeling of desperation overwhelmed me. “Where am I? What’s happening?”
She caressed my face, bringing my gaze to her. “My name is Laura and you’re safe. You’re going to be okay. You had an accident, so to speak, and you’re in the hospital.
“The hospital? What kind of accident?”
“Look, honey, try to stay calm. You had a rough night. Doctor Kennedy will be in shortly to see you.”
My throat felt raw and I could hardly speak. “Where is the little girl?”
“What little girl?”
I pointed to the side of my bed where the child had been standing less than a minute before. “She was right there!”
“Honey, I didn’t see any child. The children’s ward is on another floor.”
“But she was right there a minute ago!”
“Try to remain calm, Ms. Callahan. I’ll tell you what, maybe one of the children wandered up here by mistake. I’ll check with them downstairs. Sometimes, they get a little adventurous, you know, and do a little exploring.”
The subject quickly changed as a tall silver-haired doctor entered the room, approached my bed, and leaned over the rail.
“Hello, Ms. Callahan, my name is Doctor Kennedy. You gave us quite a scare.”
Salty tears welled in my eyes as I strained with my raspy voice to whisper, “Why am I here?”
As he leaned in closer, he took my hand. “What do you remember?”
The flood gates opened. Tears streamed from my eyes uncontrollably. I tried to lift my head from the pillow, but it was pounding. “I don’t know.”
Doctor Kennedy’s voice was soothing as he rested his hand on my shoulder. “Try to relax. There is plenty of time for us to sort this all out, but I know you want to know why you are here. Try to think. What is the last thing you remember?”
In utter confusion, I felt like someone had abducted me from my life and dropped me in this hospital without my knowledge.
I took a moment to think. “I know I picked up something for dinner and went to the office to work late, but the rest of it is a blur.”
He leaned over to examine me. “Ms. Callahan, you were attacked in your office last night. You were found outside your office building on the sidewalk in pretty rough condition.”
As the phone on the table next to my bed rang, I jumped and covered my ears.
“It’s okay, Ms. Callahan. Laura, could you get some Ativan for her? She needs to relax.”
“No, it was that phone, it’s so loud, everything seems so loud.”
“What do you mean loud?”
“I don’t know. Everyone seems to be so loud when they talk. Every noise seems to be magnified.”
With a small penlight, he examined my eyes as I flinched, closing them. “Sometimes, after an accident or trauma, things seem more intense. We are going to run a few tests today. Allie, let’s take this one day at a time.”
Panic set in. “What do you mean, ‘one day at a time’? When can I go home? I have an important meeting this morning and a contract signing.”
“You sustained some serious injuries and had surgery last night to stop some internal bleeding. You’re too weak. Believe me, if you try to get up and leave here now, your legs will go right out from under you. You need to slow down. You can’t go anywhere for at least a few days. Let’s get through these few tests and then I can give you a better idea of when you can go home.”
“But, doctor?”
“No ‘but’s’ about it!”
Laura, the nurse, came back into the room. “Here, Ms. Callahan, this will help you relax.”
Unable to fight the effects of the Ativan, it didn’t take long at all for me to succumb.
A few hours later, the smell of chocolate stirred me from sleep.
“Hi, honey, I’ve brought you a hot chocolate with extra whipped cream and drizzled caramel, just the way you like it!”
It was my mother with her best antidote, one that always made me feel better. As she bent down to kiss my forehead, a tear fell from her face.
“I am so sorry, honey. Who would do such a thing?”
“I don’t know, Mom. I really don’t remember much; I wish I could. The doctor said I will be here for at least a few days, but—”
She stroked the side of my face. “Honey, you can’t even open your eye and you’re really banged up! You need to take the time to heal. Perhaps I can go to your house and bring you some comfortable pajamas and things for you while you’re here. Your brother is on his way home and he can stay on top of things at the office.”
“Mom, he is supposed to be on a much-needed vacation!”
“He is only coming home two days early, and he is really worried about you.”
Giving in, I conceded. “Okay, okay. I guess I’m outnumbered. I will try to stay still long enough to get better.”
Chapter 4
IT SEEMED EACH DAY SOMEONE DIFFERENT stopped by to see me. The room was full of beautiful flowers and too much chocolate. My mom, George, Josh, the sensei from my class, and of course, Claudia Buchanan, my very closest friend, visited. My brother, Mark, called twice a day. I’m sure he was just checking to make sure I hadn’t escaped from my hospital bed.
Detective Payne came by to fill out a formal report. Unfortunately, I co
uld not remember many details. I promised I would let him know if I could remember anything else at all.
It had been a week since my attack and I was going stir crazy! However, another part of me was beyond sore and still just plain exhausted. After brushing my teeth, I was coming out of the bathroom when I heard a familiar voice. It was Claudia.
“Hey, girl, you sure are looking much better, but I bet it will be a while before you lose that shiner. I’ve come to break you out of here. Has the doctor sprung you yet?”
“Am I glad to see you! So, the term is, has the doctor discharged you yet, not has he sprung you yet?”
“All right, so did he discharge you yet?”
“He has run some blood work and has promised that if the rest of my tests come back okay, I am out of here today. I should know shortly.”
“Great, I’m sure you are more than a little tired of being in that bed. I’m surprised they’ve been able to keep you here this whole time.”
Doctor Kennedy entered the room. “That was no easy task, you know. So, Allie, are you ready to go straight home, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars? That is what we discussed, right?”
I winced and meekly answered in a questioning tone, “Yes, right after I check in with work?”
“Oh no, work is out of the question for at least a couple of weeks, and I don’t want you to overdo it when you do go back.”
“How about part-time?”
Claudia quickly interrupted our volley. “You may as well concede to a compromise, doc. She drives a hard bargain and is definitely the most stubborn woman I have ever known, and I have known her all my life!”
Trying to find some middle ground, he suggested, “Why don’t you try a few hours a week and see how that goes?” With a huge grin, he turned to Claudia. “So, are you driving the escape vehicle today?”
She laughed out loud. “I couldn’t have put it better myself.”
“Please, don’t encourage her, Doctor Kennedy!”
Without skipping a beat, Claudia swung her purse over her shoulder. “Okay, girl, let’s blow this hoodsie stand! I’ll have you home in no time. I have strict orders from your bro to take you straight home, no buts about it. In fact, he told me to remind you that he didn’t come home early from his vacation for nothing. In no uncertain terms are you to do anything except get well because you owe him a couple of vacation days as soon as you’re better.”
