Carol's Image (2 page)

“Sir, sir…can you hear me?”

A voice. I hear a voice.
Struggling to come out of the darkness, Tom painfully opened his eyes, a blurry vision of an angel leaning over him filled his sight. Yellow gold hair, waving all about, framing porcelain skin with faintly pink tinged cheeks. Sky blue eyes, rosy mouth, perfect features. Everything else appeared fuzzy. But her face was clear.
I’ve died. Is this what angels look like?
“Angel? Are you an angel?” he asked, his voice slurring in confusion.

He felt the angel holding his hand, gently rubbing her other hand over his brow. He heard her soft voice, pulling him back from the darkness. “Stay with me. Keep your eyes on me. I’ll help you.”

Oh yeah, angel. I’ll stay with you. Forever.

The shrill sound of a siren encroached on his angel’s voice, and he wanted to rail against the intrusion. Slowly the blackness began to take over again, but he forced his eyes open one more time, searching for her face. Yeah, she was still there. Smiling down at him. Ethereal, beautiful, glowing. He knew she had to be an angel. There was no other explanation.

*

Tom’s eyes opened slowly again, this time to harsh lights. Jerking his head to the right, he felt a flash of pain. Squinting his eyes, he willed the pain to lesson.

“What the hell you doin’, getting hit by a car goin’ into a fuckin’ grocery store?”

Tom reopened his eyes, recognizing the voice of his childhood friend and partner, Jake Campbell. “Where is she?” he croaked out.

Jake’s eyebrow raised in confusion. “Who?”

“The angel. She was there,” Tom answered back, rubbing his hand over his face, trying to bring the room into focus.

“What the hell is he talkin’ about?” Rob MacDonald asked as he walked into the ER room. Rob and Jake were Tom’s oldest friends. Having grown up on the same street, the three of them became best friends in preschool. They played high school football, then college football, then all three moved back to their hometown to settle as adults. Tom and Jake were detectives with the Fairfield police department and Rob with the Fairfield fire department.

Smirking, Jake said, “He’s asking for an angel.”

Rob couldn’t help but join in the harassment. “Well hell, Tom, if you find an angel, be sure to share her with us.”

Struggling to sit up, Tom glared at his friends. “I’m telling you, she was there. I saw her. Jesus, I thought I’d died, and all I could think about was how great it was to be greeted by her.” Wincing, he rubbed his head, feeling the knot on the back.

A nurse walked into the room, stopping short when she saw the three men in the small room, taking up all of the space. All three were over six feet tall, muscular, well built, and handsome. Seeing the immediate interest of the dark haired one with the panty-melting smile, she flashed her wedding ring as she walked over to Tom still in the bed. “The doctor says you have a concussion from hitting your head on the pavement. Other than that you are fine. You will need someone to drive you home, and I have your discharge information for you here.”

While Tom dealt with the nurse, Jake and Rob walked outside of the room to confer. Rob leaned up against the wall, looked over at Jake and asked, “What the hell happened?”

“According to bystanders, he was just walking across the parking lot and an elderly woman stepped on the gas instead of the brake. The car wasn’t goin’ fast, but it knocked him down and he slammed his head on the concrete.”

“What about the angel he was talkin’ about?” Rob asked.

Jake answered, “He must have been dreaming about his last fuck… or his dream fuck. Who the hell knows?” He laughed momentarily, then sobered. “But I gotta confess, he looked so serious when he was askin’ where she was, like she should’ve been right there.”

The nurse walked out of the room with Tom and he went to stand between his two friends. She looked at the wall of masculinity standing before her, feeling dwarfed. “Gentlemen, I trust you will see to your friend,” she said with efficiency.

Rob, smiling as he turned on his charm, answered, “Yeah, I’m a paramedic.”

Looking up, she smiled. “Keep your charm, mister,” waving her wedding ring in his face again as she walked away.

Jake laughed, knowing that Rob would bang anything, anywhere. “That reputation is gonna kick your ass one day.” Turning to Tom, he said, “Let’s go, angel hunter. Gotta get you home.”

Rob jogged off to get the car as Jake walked slower with Tom. Halfway down the hall Tom stopped, turning toward his friend. “Jake, no shit man, she was there. I don’t know if she was real or not, but she was there. And if she was real, I’m gonna find her.” With that, the two friends walked out of the hospital.

*

Carol walked down the hall of the ER, her shift just starting, and looked at the back of the men leaving the hospital.
Wow, this must be the day for hunks to be out in numbers.
Smiling to herself, she thought of the gorgeous man she assisted at the grocery store this afternoon. She noticed him as he was walking across the parking lot.
Who wouldn’t have noticed him?
Tall, blond, gorgeous. He looked like a…Nordic god… or maybe a Viking standing on the bow of his ship.
God, I read too many romance novels.
He was just a man. Well…maybe the most handsome man she had ever laid eyes on, but just a man.

Seeing the car lurch toward him she screamed for him to look out, but it was too late. After seeing him hit his head on the pavement, she ran over to assist. He was unconscious, and while another bystander called 911, she tried to keep him awake. Holding his hand and rubbing his brow, she felt an electric current running through her. Something she hadn’t felt in a long time. Well, maybe never.

What was it he asked?
Are you my angel?
Smiling to herself, Carol knew she could have stared into his blue eyes all afternoon, but as soon as the fire truck and ambulance arrived she quickly moved back. The tall, dark-haired fireman seemed to know the victim and immediately went to work on him, ascertaining his injuries. Knowing he was in good hands, Carol had slipped away into the store. Now back at in the ER, she shook her head to clear her musings.

Hearing fast footsteps behind her, she barely had time to turn around before being grabbed from behind. “Hey beautiful,” her friend Jon exclaimed.

Laughing, she pushed him off. “Jon, stop trying to scare me. Remember where we are. The last time you came up and scared me, Dr. Maklin was by the desk and threatened to report us.”

“Oh, that troll has no idea how to have fun,” Jon stated just as Sofia came up.

“Did you all see the three hunks in Bay 7? The ones that just left?” Sofia asked, lowering her voice so that no one else could overhear. “All three, over six feet tall, muscular, one blond, one light brown, one black haired. Oh. My. God. If it hadn’t been for my wedding ring reminding me how much I love my husband, I might have jumped all three!”

Jon, never one to miss out on a great piece of male eye candy, just moaned. “Damn, I missed them. I was stuck in Bay 3 with an old lady swearing she was having a heart attack because she hit some man with her car.”

Carol’s eyes grew wide. “Was she having a heart attack?” She had been so wrapped up in helping the man on the ground, she never thought of the driver of the car.

“Oh hell, no. She was just having a panic attack. But that means I missed the hunks,” he complained.

Carol playfully punched him in the arm as she walked away. “Maybe next time you’ll get lucky,” she called over her shoulder.

“What about you, sweetheart? When are you going to get lucky?” Jon called out after her.

Turning back around to face her friends, she continued to walk backward, she just smiled and shrugged her shoulders. Giving a little wave, she headed back down the hall.

Jon and Sofia looked at each other, both sighing at the same time. Jon spoke softly, “When I first met her, I thought that she just needed to get laid. Now I know, she just needs to be loved.”

Giving his arm a squeeze before walking away, Sofia agreed, “Never has one so sweet needed to have someone love her just for her. One day though, that handsome prince will come.”

*

Several evenings later Tom, Jake, and Rob met at Smokey’s, the local bar. Walking in the three men caught the eyes of every woman there. Bill and Wendy Evans, the bar’s owners and longtime friends with the handsome trio, looked over and waved.

Wendy, a knockout blonde, came over to their table bringing their beers. “Hey boys, how’s everyone doin’ tonight?”

“Just water for me tonight, Wendy,” Tom said ruefully. “Still under the doctor’s orders.”

“Oh, that’s right. Bill said he heard you were hit by a car. Are you all right, honey?”

Before Tom could answer, Rob said, “Nah, he wasn’t hit by a car. Some low flying angel swooped in and knocked him on his ass.”

Jake chuckled over his beer while Tom glared at his friend. “Fuck you, man.”

A few more of their friends came in, from both the police and fire department.

Rob continued his taunting, “I was there, bro. I didn’t see any blonde angel.”

“I saw her,” stated Chuck, one of the paramedics. Shoveling Smokey’s famous chicken wings into his mouth, he was oblivious to the group’s reaction.

The men looked over at him in stunned silence. Finally realizing that the table had grown quiet, he blushed under the immediate scrutiny of the others. “She was… th…there,” he stammered. “With Tom.”

“Who was there?” Rob asked. “I didn’t see anyone.”

“You were focused on Tom. But there was a girl there… holding his hand when we first came up. She was real pretty. Blonde, tiny. Looked kinda’ like pictures of little fairies angels. I thought maybe you knew her until she disappeared.”

Tom, leaned in closer to Chuck, piercing him with his look. “Where. Did. She. Go?”

Chuck, nervous from the intense glare from Tom, could only shrug. “I don’t know, man. She just…disappeared.”

“She couldn’t have just disappeared,” Jake growled. “If you saw her, she was real.”

“I don’t know where she went. She wasn’t there when we loaded Tom into the ambulance.”

“Fuck,” Tom exclaimed. “I knew she was real. You dickheads tried to convince me I dreamed that shit up.”

Jake, always the voice of reason of the three, stated the obvious. “Tom, if she’s real then that means you can find her. Someone at the store must have noticed her.”

Rob, jumping into the conversation, added, “You’ve got the witness names. One of them must have noticed the girl.”

Jake agreeing, turned to Tom, lifting his beer in a salute. “Tomorrow, you can start your angel hunt.”

That night Tom dreamed once again of being visited by this girl. Leaning over him, her blonde tresses falling like a curtain around him, she placed a gentle kiss on his lips. Waking the next morning with a raging hard on, he headed to the shower to take care of himself. Picturing her image in front of him as he jerked off, he knew he had to find her. No other woman would do. No other woman had ever filled his mind as she did.

*