Silent Whisper (22 page)

“I’ll get a map for you,” he offered.

“I appreciate that, Walter. Oh, I haven’t driven my car since Parrish was born. Would you mind checking my tires?”

“Sure thing. When was the last time you had an oil and filter change?”

“A what?”

“Never mind,” he smiled, “I’ll take it in to Shorty’s to have it looked at before you leave.”

“Thanks, again,” I said, feeling totally inept, but Walter kind of liked taking care of his ladies. “I guess I’ll go and break the news to Lana.”

He nodded; his face grim. He knew, just like I knew—that she wasn’t going to be happy about this.

I hated having to start a road trip at eleven o’clock at night, but I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to stop for potty breaks and coffee breaks along the way and make it through the front door of Gilmer Sunday morning by eight o’clock sharp. I was getting a motel room tomorrow to get rested up before my return.

I’d pumped some breast milk into bottles before I left, plus Lana had formula to use with it. I’d lost my baby weight, and was wearing my pre-pregnancy size clothing once again.

I’d just finished feeding Parrish. I tucked her in, giving her a kiss on her cheek and telling her I’d see her day after tomorrow. I was just finishing getting dressed when Lana popped into my room.

“Well,” I said, twirling around for her. “How do I look?”

“You look great, hun. You always do. Now you’ll pull over and sleep if you get too tired, right?”

“Stop worrying,” I said, “I took a nap today with Parrish. I’ll be fine. Besides my adrenaline is pumped up big time.”

“I’ll bet,” she replied, still in a funk. “I just wish you weren’t going alone that’s all.”

“Well I need you to take care of Parrish. I don’t think Walter could handle her that long without one of us around.”

“I know, I know.”

She followed me downstairs. “Do you have everything?”

“Yep,” I replied, “Map, purse with photo I.D., Triple-A card. I’m good.”

Walter came in from outside. “I pulled your car out, Karlie. It’s running.”

“Thanks,” I said, giving him a hug. “I appreciate your getting it road-worthy for me.”

I turned and gave Lana a hug and a kiss on her cheek. “I’ll be fine. I’ll call you guys when I get there, okay? Stop worrying.”

She nodded, still not convinced.

“Do I smell coffee?” I asked, trying to get Lana’s attention away from the fact that I was leaving.

“I brewed a fresh pot. Do you want a thermos for the road?” Walter asked.

“Sure. That way I won’t have to make coffee stops. Just potty stops,” I joked.

“I have your thermos right here,” he said as he poured the hot coffee into it and then twisted the cap into place. “There you go,” he said. “Now drive carefully and take your time because you have plenty of it.”

“I will, I will. You guys stop with the worrying, please.”

I got situated in my car, seat belt on, radio cranked and started out on my road trip to see Dominic under the blanket of stars that laced the May sky.

I’d driven over three hours on the interstate when I saw my exit. The next hundred miles or so was Route 19, a two-lane highway that was windy and hilly by the looks of the map I’d gone over.

I stopped at the exit in Beckley, West Virginia to take a potty break and get some night air. I was starting to feel a little sleepy, so I poured some coffee from the thermos into an insulated cup.

Back on the road, I turned the volume up on the radio, and sipped my coffee while singing along. I was only thirty minutes into the drive on Route 19 when I felt like I had sand in my eyes. They were so fucking heavy I could hardly keep them open. I blinked rapidly, trying to drive the sleepiness out but it was no use. I had sixty-five more miles of this shit before I hit interstate again.

Fuck.

There were no turn-offs in between here and the interstate either. This totally reminded me of the area around Chester. Hilly, curvy and as black as onyx. I was in some friggin’ national forest and gorge by the signs I had passed a few minutes back.

I was on a downward curve now having climbed to an altitude that had made my ears pop. I rode the brakes, as the downhill side of this mountain seemed to curve like a coiled up snake.

Whoa! Slow down there Karlie.

I giggled to myself at the conversation going on between me and me in my head. Finally I reached the bottom only to find that I was going back up a steep incline once again.

Round and round she goes. Where she stops, nobody knows.

I laughed out loud this time at the rhyme I remembered from…somewhere.

Finally at the top.

I was on the downhill path again of this roller-coaster ride known as Route 19.

Wheeee…. This tickles my tummy!

My car was swerving all over the place and it finally occurred to me that something was not right. I could hear my tires squealing against the pavement at every hairpin turn.

I lowered my window, hoping the night air would sober me up, but fuck, I hadn’t even been drinking. I planted my foot on the brakes, pumping them harder because it seemed as if the car wasn’t slowing down…at all.

My brain fog cleared a bit as the cool air hit my face. What the hell was going on? I couldn’t possibly be so tired that nothing made sense and my reflexes had turned to jelly.

My mind raced to think back into the moments right before I’d left the house.

Walter…had taken my car to Shorty’s for a tune-up or whatever before this long trip…

And then it was Walter again…pouring freshly brewed coffee into a thermos for me to take when I mentioned the coffee. But he already had my thermos out and waiting…? And since when did he brew a pot of coffee at eleven o’clock at night?

No! It’s just not possible. Not Walter—he cares about me. He loves Parrish.

Then his words of the other day came floating back to my befuddled mind, flashing off and on like a bright neon sign:
“There’s not much I
wouldn’t do for my Lana.”

And in that second the realization hit me as to just how much Walter loved his Lana—and just how far he was willing to go for her.

Suddenly, headlights flashed in my face, blinding me as I approached yet another deadly curve. The blast from a semi-truck’s air horn reverberated in my ears, as I fought to swerve out of his way, over-correcting and skimming the side of the guardrail on my right.

My foot was furiously pumping brakes that had been rendered useless. A slow leak of brake fluid no doubt.

God! Please help me!

The car continued to gain speed as the downhill momentum increased. Somewhere I heard the sound of a woman screaming, at the same time that I heard the sound of crumpling metal and steel as my blue Nissan careened through the guardrail on the left side of the road, and bounced over and over again down the slope of the tree-covered hillside, finally coming to rest on its top.

Then there was blackness.

And quiet.

December 14, 2014

“I saw her eyes flutter. Twice. I think she’s waking up, Jean.”

Ryan?

“See, she is! Hey, baby. Welcome back.”

I felt a warm flush envelop my body as if every single nerve ending, every bit of muscle, every pore on my skin had been electrified and was generating heat. But the heat was now subsiding little by little. It was seeping out of my pores, and the heaviness that it had brought with it was lifting, slowly, methodically and leaving me. I was in control once again of my body.

I opened my eyes, immediately searching for a familiar face, and I found it. He was sitting on my bed, inches from me, holding my hand in his.

“Ryan?” I croaked, my voice sounding foreign to me. “What are you doing here?”

“Hey baby,” he greeted, his lips brushing mine softly. “I’ve been waiting for you to wake up. It’s been three days.”

“Three days? Is that all?” I felt this sudden spark of—for lack of a better word—pheromone overload as I gazed into Ryan’s green eyes. “It just seems like forever since we’ve fucked,” I said in my sexy voice. “I’m so glad you’re here.” I pulled his hand to bring him in closer.

“Uh, honey,” he said with a nervous laugh, pulling back a bit. “You gave
us
quite a scare.”

Us?

Ryan moved aside so that I could see who else had been with him in what now appeared to be a hospital room by the looks, sounds and smells, not my motel room at all.

Oops.

It was my mother. Her look of concern was visible by the crease marks in her forehead. She took my hand into hers, gently rubbing my fingers with hers.

“Thank God, Parrish,” she said, releasing a heavy sigh.

“Lana.”

“What?”

“You—you’re
Lana
…from my dream.”

I watched her expression morph from relief to fear in a nanosecond, and then it settled on concerned.

“Darling, do you remember your car accident? You went off the road, through an iron fence and ended up in a cemetery. It was three days ago. You suffered a head trauma. Do you remember
any
of it?”

I continued to watch her. She was my mom. I knew that. But she was also Lana. But who the hell was Lana?

“Don’t you recognize me?” she pressed.

I nodded. “Yes, but what happened to Karlie?”

“Oh my God—Ryan, go get one of the nurses or a doctor. She’s not making any sense.”

Ryan quickly left the room, but I knew that I was making sense. At least I
thought
that I was.

“I had a weird, weird dream, Mom.”

She visibly relaxed when I addressed her as my mother. “I mean it felt almost like a Wizard of Oz type of thing, only much darker,” I said, and then shivered. The warmth I had been feeling for days was gone now.

“Well don’t you worry, sweetheart. You were in a coma so I’m sure things like that happen when you’re comatose. Just put it all out of your mind, okay?”

I nodded, giving her a weak smile.

Ryan returned to the room with a nurse in tow. She checked my pulse, my blood pressure, my temperature, my pupil dilation, my ears, my reflexes, and my lymph nodes. I was about to ask whether she had a pap smear planned when she finally stopped and looked at me with a smile.

“She’s just a little fuzzy from being out of it for a few days. She’ll be back to normal in no time. Welcome back, Ms. Locke. Are you in any pain at the moment?”

“Just horny—I mean
hungry
,” I replied, quickly, feeling a flush spread across my cheeks. Ryan cleared his throat, shifting a bit uncomfortably. This was definitely out of character for me.

How hard had I whacked my head?

“I’ll see that a tray is brought up. Your doctor will be here in a little while. He’ll be pleased with your progress,” she said, giving me a wink.

I was released the following day to Ryan’s care and ordered to take it easy with no work assignments for the next two weeks. My mom had fussed over me, trying to convince me to come and stay with her in Richmond to recuperate.

“Mom, I’m feeling a lot better than I did yesterday. Things were just foggy, that’s all. I’ll be fine. I just hope I can get another shoot.”

“Oh
you
,” she said, t’sking me, “You’ll get another shoot and if you don’t, who cares? You need to go on more shoots with Ryan and do what it is you really have a passion for, like you’re always telling me.”

“I know, Mom,” I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “You’re right. And don’t worry, I promise I’ll let Ryan fuss over me just like you do, okay?”

She gave me a hug, kissing my cheek. “I’ll hold you to that,” she warned. “I love you, Parrish.”

“Love you too, Mom. Hey, how are you and Jerry doing? Is it getting serious?” I teased.

“We’re just friends, Parrish. I
keep
telling you that.”

“Uh huh,” I said, winking. “Friends with benefits. Why else does he take you on those fishing trips with him?”

I actually think I saw my mother blush. “Gotta go catch my plane, darling,” she said. “Take care of her Ryan.”

On the way back to the hotel, Ryan continued to eye me warily as if he thought I was some fragile thing to be handled gently. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay, babe?” he asked, glancing over at me.

“Uh huh,” I replied, using my sexy voice again. “Almost perfect…well, except for one thing.”

“Which is?”

“I’ll feel one hundred percent once you’ve buried yourself balls deep into my pussy.”

Jeezo Pete. Where did
that
come from?

“Okay, who are you and what’ve you done with Parrish?” he joked, but he continued to eye me with suspicion, as if it weren’t entirely a joke.

I was definitely acting out of character—not that I was a prude or anything like that, but clearly I had some uber hormonal activity going on.

“Maybe the head trauma cut loose some pent-up hormones,” I replied, giving him a wink.

Once we arrived at my hotel room, the same one I’d been staying at during the photo shoot for Mountain-Step Ski Wear, I was all over Ryan, despite his protests.