Authors: Maris Black
I slump back into the chair, letting my arms dangle to the side, and groan at the ceiling. “Why does everything have to be so complicated?”
“Hey, I don’t see any problem with it, and I don’t think most people around here would. Some of your admirers may, but they’ll be fine after they get over the shock of knowing they’ll never get a chance at you. They’ll pack their mothers’ wedding dresses away in the attic, take in a few stray cats…”
“Come on, this is serious, Julie. I don’t know what to do.”
She spins her chair to face me directly. “Are you happy, Ben? This isn’t just some phase that’s going to pass in a week, is it? I mean, you seem different to me.”
“I’m happy,” I admit. “Honestly I’ve never felt this way before, so ridiculous and irrational, and yet I can’t stop myself. It’s like I’ve been living underground all this time, and now I’ve just come up for air for the first time.”
“Then you’ve got to go with it. Don’t worry about what people will think. I’ll support you all the way. You’re not going to be able to hide it anyway, I’ve already told you that. And how could anyone blame either you or Corey? Both of you have the best-looking boyfriend in town.”
“You’re too sweet, Julie. And more importantly, a damn fine nurse. Have I told you lately how much I appreciate you?”
“Actually, never. And you owe me. You’ve got to help me find a really hot guy… and he’d better be straight. I’m still mad at you for recruiting that fireman into the boy’s club.”
“Whoa.” I hold my hands up in defense. “I did not recruit him. He’s a veteran. I’m the one who got recruited.”
She crosses her arms and pokes out her bottom lip. “Alright. But you still owe me.”
Julie has managed to make me feel so calm during one of the most confusing times of my life, and I do appreciate her— more than I can possibly tell her with words. I lean over and plant a big, noisy kiss on her cheek.
“Well, well… are we looking for a repeat of the pool house incident?” Corey comes in like a whirlwind, followed by Mike, who leans against the back wall and folds his arms across his massive chest like he’s Corey’s new bodyguard or something.
Corey’s tone is light, but there’s a hardness in his eyes that lets me know that he’s not entirely happy with what he’s just walked in on.
“Not a chance, Corey,” Julie smiles and gestures toward me. “He’s all yours.”
“Can I get
my
kiss, then?” Not waiting for an answer, he leans brazenly across the desk and stakes his claim with a kiss that leaves no doubt in anyone’s mind as to who belongs to whom. His tongue presses in, exploring my mouth quickly but thoroughly, and I think he’s going to take my lips with him as he pulls away. I want more, so much more, but this is not the time or place for that, so I take a deep breath and clear my lust-fogged head.
“Oh, I think your man’s got a jealous streak, Ben.” Julie smiles at Corey.
“A mile wide,” he assures her.
Mike’s brows shoot up in obvious surprise. Then he smirks and shakes his head at me as he walks back out into the foyer and stares out the window with his hands on his hips.
Hmmm… Thought you had a chance, did you Mike?
I’m glad he knows the truth now. I don’t know what I’d do if he made a pass at Corey, and judging from his reaction to our kiss, it was only a matter of time before that happened.
Corey’s got a smug, satisfied look on his face, and I must admit it sends a thrill skittering through me to know that he’s so territorial over me.
“Gotta go on a run, babe.” He rests his elbows on the desk counter in front of me and leans in close. “Nothing bad, just a simple fall, so it shouldn’t take long. Think you can keep your lips off the nurses while I’m gone?” He flashes one of those world-class flirtatious looks he’s honed to an art, and I melt.
Julie laughs. “You two are hilarious.”
Corey casts a mock glare in her direction. “I’m watching you, girlie. One false move, and you’re history.” He turns on his heel and follows Mike out to the ambulance.
“He’s great, Ben. I think you should just relax and be yourself. Not worry about what the town will think.”
“I know. I just… More than anything, I wish my mom was here. I wonder how she would feel about all of this. It would be so much easier if I could just ask her.”
Julie considers my words for a moment, fidgeting unconsciously with the stethoscope slung around her neck. “What was your mom like, Ben?”
A big smile steals across my face. “She was very alive. Compassionate, thoughtful, a little nutty.” I laugh as a stream of disjointed memories of her flows through my head. “She liked to sit in the rain sometimes— in a rocking chair of all things. And there was this big hill out back of our house that she loved to roll down. She’d drag me out there and we’d lie down at the top of it with our arms crossed over our chests. When she said go, we’d see who could get to the bottom first. She always beat me, because she was much better at staying straight. I never could get the hang of it, and I’d end up rolling sideways across the hill instead of down it. I don’t know how in the world she stayed straight.”
Julie laughs, and it looks like she’s entertaining some memories of her own behind her soft brown eyes. “I know what you mean. Your body just turns for some reason. I always welted up and itched like crazy, because I’m allergic to grass, so I didn’t get much hill-rolling practice. I just had to watch my brothers have all the fun.”
“Oh, you have brothers?”
“Three big ones. Caleb, Jake and Shane.”
“Learn something new every day, I guess. Why don’t I know these brothers of yours?”
“Duh. Let’s think about this.” Julie slaps the desk with her palm and stares at me with an incredulous look on her face. “They haven’t needed medical attention from you, Dr. Hardy. That’s the only time you see anyone. If you haven’t noticed, you’re kind of antisocial.”
“I am not! Look, you and I are talking.”
“Yeah, after a year. Don’t try to deny it, mister. In fact, I think Corey has been really good for you, considering you would barely speak to anyone at all before he came along.”
I shake my head. “I don’t get it. I’m here all the time. I speak. I date.”
Julie snorts. “You mean your bi-annual relationship? Ben, everyone knows you only date twice a year, and you never date anyone for more than three months.”
I open my mouth to speak and snap it shut again.
Jesus, am I that transparent?
“Admit it,” she says.
“I dated Sheree Alexander for four months.”
She fixes me with a stern look that says she’s not buying what I’m trying to sell.
“Okay, okay. I’m predictable. And antisocial.”
“Very good, doctor. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery.”
The desk phone beeps once, and Julie answers, holding up a finger to shush me. “Alright, I’ll send him back.” She returns the receiver to its cradle. “Mr. Baker is asking for you on the floor, Dr. Hardy.”
I’m already getting up to go before she’s even finished with her sentence.
*****
After ordering and interpreting another blood gas on Mr. Baker, I give him a breathing treatment. Then I sit down to do my charting at the nurses’ station. Everyone is out on rounds except the desk nurse, so it’s quiet. Too quiet, in fact, because the lack of sound makes my thoughts run wild, and I don’t want to think right now. I’m agitated as hell, ready for this night to end so I can go home and get things sorted out with Corey.
I’ve decided he’s not going back to that infernal motel.
Again.
I’m ashamed that I was going to let him do it. Possum means well, but he’s wrong about this. Whatever mess Corey may have gotten himself into, we’ll work it out together.
By the time I get back to the ER, it’s almost six o’clock. It’s that time of the morning when everyone is looking frayed around the edges, but you can see a glint of excitement behind the eyes at the prospect of being free soon. Most people will never learn what it’s like to work a twelve-hour shift. And in a hospital as small and short-handed as this one, twelve-hour shifts often turn into eighteen, sometimes even twenty-four hour shifts during flu season or disasters.
“Dr. Hardy.” Julie approaches me with a concerned expression when I enter the empty emergency room. “I’m getting really worried. Corey and Mike aren’t back yet from that call.”
“What? Have they reported anything on the radio?”
She shakes her head. “You think they might just be grabbing a coffee or something? Maybe the call turned out to be a false alarm.”
She’s grasping at straws, and I find myself grasping a little, too. Hoping maybe that’s what it is. “Corey does have a fascination with sweet tea. Maybe they stopped at the Huddle House.”
I normally hate talking on the radio, but this time I grab the microphone without a second thought. “EMS, this is Blackwood Community Hospital. Are you there?”
Nothing but static.
“EMS, are you there?”
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this, Ben.” Julie is pacing the floor behind me, chewing on the head of a ball point pen. “They would have at least said something by now. It’s been a really long time.”
I grab my phone from my pocket, silently chastising myself for not thinking of it first. So far, I’ve got two numbers on my favorites: Corey’s and the hospital. I hit Corey’s button, and it goes straight to voice mail.
“I just wasn’t paying attention,” Julie says. “To be honest, I forgot they went out.”
“Don’t kick yourself about it. I forgot, too.”
“Oh gosh, they didn’t even say where they were going, did they?”
“No, but I know where they write it down. I’ve seen their log book on the desk in the ambulance shack.”
I make it out to the empty building in no time. The log book is on the desk, and I skim to the last entry.
5 Friendship Road
With the book tucked under my arm, I return to the ER, calling Possum on my cell on the way. “Hey, buddy, we might have a problem. Someone called EMS over two hours ago to come out for a fall, and they haven’t come back. They also aren’t answering the radio. Julie and I both have a bad feeling.”
“Is your friend out there?”
“Yeah, he is. And there’s one more thing. The address of the call… It’s out at 5 Friendship Road, down from where you and I used to go fishing. I haven’t been back out there since that farming company filled in the pond. Does anybody still even live out there?”
Possum barks a command to someone on the other end of the line. “We’re on our way, Ben. That was old man Warner’s place, and it’s been abandoned since he died.”
“More than a year,” I mutter, trying to put the pieces together in my mind. “None of this makes any sense. Why would anyone be out there in the middle of the night?”
“Up to no good is all I can think. I’ll keep you posted on your cell.”
When I slip my phone back into my pocket, my hand is shaking, and I don’t even know why. Everything must be fine. There’s no reason to be freaking out. They’re just a little late. Maybe they just can’t get a radio signal way out there.
I try the radio several more times while I’m waiting for Possum to reach the old farmhouse. I also check my phone repeatedly, paranoid that my ringer isn’t working or the power has died.
Finally, the radio buzzes to life, and Mike’s voice comes across. He doesn’t sound quite like himself. His voice is weak, and he’s slightly out of breath.
“Dr. Hardy…”
I knock over the wastepaper basket trying to get to the radio, sending balls of paper and latex gloves sliding across the floor. “Mike, where are you?”
“On my way back, Dr. Hardy. I’m almost to the hospital. I need you to meet me out at the ambulance, if you don’t mind.”
“Uh, sure, Mike.”
Odd request. Something’s definitely up.
Julie looks confused and more than a little worried as I leave the ER, making my way out to the ambulance parking space by the shack.
When Mike pulls in, the ambulance lights are dark, and there’s no siren. He parks the vehicle carefully and climbs from the driver’s seat, his movements oddly slow and stiff. When I get a good look at his face, my stomach bottoms out.
“Mike, what the hell is wrong?”
His expression is one of pure horror, eyes wide and deranged, lips trembling. He stumbles meekly toward me and offers me a crumpled sheet of paper.
“Where’s Corey?”
He shakes the paper at me, and a whimper escapes his throat. “I’m sorry, Ben. I should have known better, but they…” He chokes on the words, struggles to continue. “They tased me from behind. I heard them coming, but I didn’t react fast enough.”
With my head spinning, I take the note from him and force myself to look at it.
Dr. Hardy,
I recovered my property from your pool house. $100,000 and my favorite Santiago Gonzalez croc bag. Only one problem… Where is the other half?? I want my money. Call me on my cell and I’ll tell you where to meet me. Involve the police, and I’ll do really bad things to your boyfriend. Worse than I’ve already done.
There’s no signature, but a phone number is scribbled at the bottom of the note.