London Harmony: Squid Hugs (9 page)

I grabbed the handle and gave it an experimental crank and nothing happened.  I said, “You were misinformed, it doesn't do anything.”

She sounded like she was an instructor, teaching a lesson to a dense student as she droned out, “There should be a large button.  That's the deadman's switch.  It uncouples the crank in case of, well in case the operator drops dead...  so the elevator doesn't come crashing down.  You have to hold it in as you crank.  The button runs on the emergency battery.”

I exchanged crooked smiles with Jen, then I shrugged and pushed the button in, I heard a clank in the drum then pulled on the crank with all my strength, to my surprise, it only took a moderate effort and the elevator moved up a few inches.

I cocked an eyebrow at a surprised looking Jen,  She chuckled as I let go of the controls and she called down, “Just how do you know all of this J-Dub?”

It was my turn to chuckle as I explained, “Because she's June, duh.  I stopped asking a long time ago how she knows things or gets things done.”

I took a deep breath and smiled at her and asked, “Going down?”  Then I held the button and started cranking the other way.  The elevator started moving smoothly but slowly down.

Jen laid a hand on my arm and shook her head and whispered, “Not yet.”

I stopped and she smiled sadly and showed me my face in her compact.  Ewww!  Great running mascara Batman!  I looked awful.  Like an extra on the set of the Crow, or Bladerunner.

She helped clean me up and I reapplied.  I put my arms to my side and cocked my hip in a silly pinup pose.  She chuckled and said, “Better.”

I nodded a thanks then went about developing my biceps as I hand cranked the elevator to the ground floor.  When we stopped, I called out, “Ding!”

Then June said from the other side, “Now past the cage you'll see a little metal scissor bar across the door.  There should be a foot press at the base of the bar.  Push that down to release the doors.”

I looked down, and sure enough, I saw it.  I pushed my toe through the cage and pressed it down with a little effort.  There was a click and the doors opened an inch, then Vanessa shoved the doors open and stood there holding them as she said, “Hi.”  We shook our heads at her as we smiled hugely then opened the cage and stepped out under Van's arms.

Our three rescuers looked into the elevator before Vanessa let the door close.  I handed out hugz like candy, then I grinned sheepishly and explained, “Apparently the elevator is on the same circuit as the sound room.  The workers flipped that breaker before they left tonight.”

Then I paused and looked accusingly at June as I asked, “Wait, how did you know we were stuck in there?”

J-Dub just put on her cocky, self-assured look, which always made me grin, and she answered with, “We didn't.  A couple hours after closing time, the security firm called me to tell me that the alarm system hadn't been armed tonight.  They asked if we wanted it armed remotely.  I couldn't imagine Jen ever not arming the alarm before she left.  That would be like Wile E. Coyote forgetting the phone number to the Acme corporation.”

She wiggled her eyebrows at the apt comparison then continued, “So we called her.  No answer.  Then we called you.  No answer.  So I told Nessie we should check it out.”

Eliza rolled her eyes. “What Miss Hotshot here isn't saying is that she called me in a panic on their way here.  She was spouting off nonsense about accidents and kidnappings and something about platypus tunneling machines.”

June pointed at her and narrowed her eyes. “Hey now, I was worried about them, lady.”

Liza batted at her finger like a cat.

She gave Liza one last playful warning look and said like she hadn't been interrupted, “So when we got here, we heard your voices murmuring.  Then it was quiet until we got back to the elevator, and when it didn't come when we pushed the call button, we realized you must be stuck in there.”

Eliza was grinning like a loon now and she said, “Well since there is neither blood and gore, nor ransom notes, I gotta bet back over tho the club before things get into full swing.”

I collected my hug toll then the other two led us through the building to the door.  Jen armed the system and we exited the building and walked to the cars.

I looked back at the building and the now crowded parking lot and the long line wrapping around the building.  It never ceased to amaze me, the draw that Walker's has.  And the old time look and feel made you think you were stepping back in time to the roaring twenties.

We hugged our rescuers, and June whispered into my ear as we hugged, “Your eyes are positively puffy and red, you've been crying.  Do we need to talk?”

I smiled and whispered back before I let go, “No, everything is fine.”  I nodded to reinforce it.

We watched them go and then I drove my well-dressed accomplice home.  She hesitated as she got out of the car and said in a soft voice, “We need to talk Zil.  Soon.”

I nodded, dreading the conversation about the almost kiss.  About emotions being heightened in the elevator and she didn't know what she was doing.  I waited until she got into her apartment before I drove off... alone.

I awoke from a fitful sleep by the Nightmare Before Christmas theme playing incessantly, my cellphone's ringtone.  I was beyond exhausted as I looked blearily at the glowing green numbers on my bedside clock.  It was three in the morning.  What do the Brits say?  Bloody Hell.  The music stopped as I was reaching for the cell.  Then it buzzed and quacked in my hand, now an incoming text message?

I sat up and yawned then looked at the screen.  I blinked, talking about my parent's must have sent up a cosmic flare or something, it was from Isaac.  I shook my head to fully awaken, then I froze as I read the text.  I could feel the blood draining from my face as I got a little dizzy.  It read, “Esmeralda in hospital.  Emergency surgery.  Call home.”

I heard a little girl somewhere on my head squeaking out a frightened, “Mom?”

I quickly pulled up my voicemail and listened to Isaac's message.  Mom had a ruptured appendix and it was looking grim.  I was dialing him immediately.

He answered with a strained, “Baby doll?”

I rushed as I said, “Is she going to be ok?  Is there news?”

He said in that deep bass rumble of his, “They just took her in, I don't know but I heard one nurse saying something about complications.”

Please God, not again.

I whispered, “Ok dad, I'll be right there.  I'm on my way... home.”  I hung up in shock and realized I was hyperventilating.  I forced myself to calm down as I quickly pulled up London Harmony's travel agent on my iPad.  There was a flight to D.C. heading out in just over three hours.  Then I can fly to Denver from there.  I booked a flight and dressed, then headed to the door with nothing but my purse and my passport.

I was on the phone to Jen, I hadn't even realized I was calling her before I got a sleepy and concerned sounding, “Zil?”

I said quickly, “I have to go away for a bit.  I don't know when I'll be back.  I'll call later.  Goodbye, Jen.”  I hung up and then added into space, “I love you.”

Then I was calling June.

She answered with all the pep in the world, “Barney's Roadkill Grill.  You kill 'em, we grill 'em.  How can I help you?”

I took a deep breath and then tried to keep a level voice.  “Hi June, I need...  I need to take some time off.  It's mom... she's in surgery... appendix burst... I don't know when I...”

She cut me off with all the compassion and surety I have grown to love about my pseudo-sister,  “Go home Zil, be with your parents.  We can handle things here, I got this shit.”

I nodded into the air, my eyes blurring.  “I love you, I'll call when I know something.”

She said without hesitation, “Love you too, lady.  Talk to you soon.”

I nodded and then turned my phone off and concentrated on driving and focusing on the road, instead of letting the panic win.

I don't really remember much about the trip from London to D.C. only that it took about a hundred times longer than I remembered.  Maybe I was just too worried about my mom.  First thing I did when we landed was to call Isaac.  He told me she was out of surgery and in ICU for a twenty-four-hour hold, for observation.

I told him I would be in Denver in less than five hours and would see him at the hospital.  I hung up and went through customs.  The man at the counter looked at my passport then cocked an eyebrow as he whistled lightly and said, “Welcome home Miss. Marx.  You've been away for quite some time.”

I nodded and sort of tuned him out as he asked all the usual questions while I answered on autopilot.  I had just eleven minutes to make my connecting flight.

When I stepped across the line, into U.S. Territory again for the first time in the better part of a decade, I paused for a second to contemplate that.  I had been a terrible daughter.  I hurried down the concourse and just barely made my connecting flight.  I sat in my spendy first class seat; it was the only seat available when I booked it; then willed the plane to go faster when we took off.  Not like it mattered, I didn't really spend much, never went on vacation, and June had made me a very wealthy woman.

I slept on the flight so it seemed to take no time at all before we were wheels down in Denver.  I could feel it when I stepped outside of the airport and inhaled deeply.  My body recognized the thin air of the Mile High City.  The airport hadn't changed much at all.

I hailed a cab and minutes later we were pulling up to the hospital entrance at Denver Health, just across Cherry Creek in the Capitol Hill district.  It was just a stone's throw from my family home.  I paid the cabbie, made my way in, and found my way to the Intensive Care ward.

Then one of the few times my look backfired on me reared its head, when I told the woman at the desk, who was eyeing me with a disapproving look, “I'm here to see a patient, Esmeralda Slader, she was admitted yesterday.”

She pointed at a sign.  That said, “Intensive Care.  No visitors.  Immediate family only.”

I nodded. “I'm her daughter.”

She narrowed her eyes, looked at some clipboard, then said, “I'll need to see some valid photo identification.”

I pulled out my U.K. Driver's license and showed her and she examined it with an eagle eye then looked at the clipboard.  Then she handed it back to me and asked, “You married?”

I shook my head in exasperation, what kind of dumbass question was that?

Then she said, “Different last names Miss Marx?”  Like she had caught me in a lie.

I exhaled loudly and said in frustration, “I'm a product of her first marriage if you really must know.”  I was on the verge of tears, and not thinking clearly in my frustration.  It was obvious this woman was going to do whatever it took to stop me from going back to see mother.

I was about to say something I'd regret later, when a large looming figure started coming down the hall in his long characteristic strides.  Just like the superhero I have always seen him as, Isaac came stepping up to me and bent to engulf me in a tight bear hug as he kissed the top of my head and said in a voice full of emotion, “Baby doll.”

I just held onto him and whispered into his chest, “Daddy.”

When he released me, he motioned his head back to the hall and I shook my head and said, “She won't let me back to see mom.”

He turned to the woman and said in his deep, calm manner, “This is Esmeralda's little girl.  Why can't she come back?”

I noted that his shoulder length black locks now had some silver mixed in but the big man still had all his muscle.

The nurse was obviously smitten with Isaac as she smiled and offered hastily, “Oh, I'm so sorry Mr. Slader, of course, she can go back.”

Then just like that, he was guiding me down the hall with one of his giant bear paws on my back.

He led me into a room and pulled back a curtain to reveal a woman who looked just like I would in seventeen years.  She had honey blonde hair and dark eyes that mirrored mine.  She looked so frail and sickly just then in her hospital gown, all hooked up to monitors and an IV.  Nothing like the vital and energetic woman I knew her to be.

I squeaked out, “Mommy?” And she turned.  Her exhausted look transformed into a bright smile that was like a beacon of warmth.  There she was, the woman I knew.

She held out a hand and grabbed the air in desperation, “Zil?!  Come here baby.”

I ran to her side and Isaac just stood by the door, giving us this moment.  I hugged her carefully and she kissed my forehead and stroked my hair.  She smirked at me and said, “You look good.”

I smirked back and retorted, “And you look like you're laid up in a hospital.  What happened?”

She chuckled and Isaac joined us, sliding a chair into the back of my legs so I sat, still holding mom's hand.  She shrugged a little and I could see the tired weariness sort of sliding off of her as she shared, “I'm not really sure.  One moment I was hanging up some plants on the porch, the next minute I was waking up on this bed with all these tubes and machines hooked up to me.  Your dad can tell you more than I can.

I looked around at the devices, there were two that looked like heart monitors and some other devices with squiggly lines on the monitors.  I didn't know what half of it was.  We both looked at Isaac. He gave a rumbling chuckle as he moved over to the other side of the bed and grabbed mom's other hand between his.

He explained, “We were doing some yard work and your mother screamed and doubled over on the porch.  By the time I got there, she had passed out from the pain.  There were no warning signs, she had no pain before that, but they said she had a ruptured... no what was the term?  Perforated?  Yeah, a perforated appendix.”

He was as calm as a mountain like always, then he added with a little smirk, “They were already prepping for surgery when the ambulance arrived here.  But they ran into another complication when they typed her blood.  They had to do things a little differently because of the baby.”

The... what?  I sat there, not breathing for a moment as my mind caught up.  I glanced at the two heart monitors again, one heartbeat was going much faster.  Mother was...

Isaac supplied, “Pregnant.  The blood test showed she was pregnant.  Once they finished the surgery they wanted her to stay a minimum of twenty-four hours to make sure the baby is ok.  Your mother should recover in a couple weeks since everything went well.”

I realized that a smile was slowly growing on my face.  I whispered,  “I'm going to be... a... a...”

Mom smiled and squeezed my hand and supplied, “A big sister again.  They said I'm about eleven weeks along.  I thought I was just hitting menopause when I was late and thought my weight gain was associated.”

Then Isaac looked rattled as he mumbled in realization, “Good lord, were going to be in our mid-sixties when the child graduates high school.”

Mom and I both chuckled at the big man and I looked at my mom then the heart monitors again.  I asked, “Boy or girl?”

She gave her husband a warm smile, he must have already asked.  Hey, like father like daughter.  She said, “They won't be able to tell with any surety for at least another week.  They've scheduled an ultrasound.  The docs want to keep a close eye on Eggbert in there since I'm at an 'advanced' age.  At least, I'm advanced in something.”  She gave a cheesy grin that was a mirror of my own.

I almost giggled.  I was going to be a big sister again.  Then like Isaac, I did the math.  Holy schemoley, I'd be forty eight when the kid graduated.  Older sister indeed.  Then I sobered and laid my head on her shoulder and whispered, “I'm so sorry I wasn't here.  I should have been.  I was so scared that I was going to lose you like...”  I stopped talking and she nodded and squeezed my hand again.

She said in that motherly tone that was full of warmth, “I know baby.  But you are here now.  That is all that counts.”