“No, don’t leave me.”
Kate moved back to her instantly. “It’s okay, Jay, I’m not going
anywhere; I just want to get something for you to put on. Watch me,
you’ll see, I’m right here.” She inched away slowly, making sure that the
young co-ed could still see her. She picked up her sweatshirt quickly and
returned to her side. “Here, let me help you put this on, okay?”
Jay nodded her head numbly.
Not wanting to startle or frighten her, Kate described what she was
going to do next. “Jay, I’m just going to help you get your jeans zipped
up, okay?” Getting no reaction, she reached down slowly and put her
hands on the waistband. Jay didn’t pull away, so she grasped the zipper,
pulled it up, and refastened the button. “There you go, that’s better,
huh?”
Kate was alarmed that Jay seemed to be so far away, unreachable,
really, with the exception of that one exclamation when she had let go of
her. So far, that was the only verbal indication that Jay even knew the
senior was there.
Two police officers approached, one male and one female, both
looking at Kate with a question in their eyes.
“She’s okay. I don’t think he accomplished his goal; she doesn’t
appear to have been penetrated, but they should probably check just to
be certain. She’s got significant bruising and scrapes and he tore most of
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The Price of Fame
her clothes off.” She was amazed at how calm her own voice sounded; in
actuality, she was shaken to the core.
The officers noted the oversized sweatshirt that covered Jay’s upper
body and pooled around her on the ground where she was half sitting.
Following their eyes, Kate added, “That’s mine. I just thought she should
be covered up.”
“Okay,” said the male officer. “You need to come with me so that I
can ask you some questions. Officer Dale will stay with her and question
her.” Kate didn’t like his attitude, thinking him far less compassionate in
his tone toward the young co-ed than she thought he should have been.
She sized up Officer Dale and addressed her instead. “I don’t think
she’s in any shape to be questioned right now, you’ll only traumatize her
further. I can tell you everything I saw and what happened.” Kate didn’t
want Jay to have to relive the attack over again so soon. “She needs
medical attention.”
“So do you,” Officer Dale stated flatly, nodding in the direction of
her right arm, which was dripping blood.
“I’m fine. We need to take care of her.”
“Come with me, ma’am,” the male officer said, tugging on Kate’s
good arm to get her going.
She reluctantly started to stand, but Jay grabbed her hand like a vise
before she was halfway off the ground. “Don’t go,” she whispered.
“Please don’t leave me.”
“I won’t,” Kate said, dropping back down next to her and staring up
at the officers defiantly. To them she said with finality, “I’ll answer your
questions at the hospital after she’s been taken care of. Don’t worry, I’m
not likely to forget anything I saw or did.”
“Ma’am,” the male officer started, “it’s important to get your
recollections while they’re freshest. Hers too.” He jabbed his chin in
Jay’s direction.
Kate just stared daggers at the man. “I assure you you’ll get
everything you need. Now where the hell is the ambulance?” She was
starting to get light-headed from the loss of blood and she was worried
beyond words about Jay’s emotional state.
Fortuitously, two paramedics hustled up at that moment wheeling a
stretcher. “Somebody rang for us?”
Kate looked up at the sound of the bright voice. “Jen, is that you?”
“Hey, beautiful. What’s a nice girl like you doing in a dump like
this?”
Kate was never so glad to see a friendly face in her life. Jen was a
fellow member of the ski patrol; she was also a volunteer EMT. “Jen,
this is Jamison Parker. She needs your help.”
“So do you, from the looks of it, missy. Let me take a peek.”
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Lynn Ames
“Later, Jen, I promise. Jay first. Please?”
The EMT looked intently at Kate; what she saw there galvanized her
into action. “Right.” Addressing the young co-ed, Jen said, “Hi, I’m
Jen;
I’m here to help you. Where does it hurt?”
Jay didn’t respond, but her grip on the hand she was holding
tightened imperceptibly. Kate leaned over and cooed softly in her ear,
“It’s all right, Jay, Jen’s a friend of mine. You can trust her.”
After a moment’s inaction, the EMT looked at her friend’s eyes with a
question; Kate nodded slightly. Jen squatted down in front of Jay and
reached out slowly. “I’m just going to pull your sweatshirt up and have a
little look see, okay?” This she said even as she already had her hands in
the material and was tugging gently upward. She took the stethoscope
from around her neck and the blood pressure cuff and began listening to
her patient’s chest and taking her pulse and blood pressure readings.
To her friend, who was waiting expectantly, the EMT said, “Her
heart rate’s a little elevated, which you’d expect, and her pressure’s up a
bit, too. Her pupils are non-responsive, which is indicative of deep shock.
Do I need to use a kit?” She didn’t need to be more specific. The senior
knew her friend was asking if the asshole had raped Jay and if they
needed forensic evidence that a rape kit could yield.
Kate swallowed hard, willing back the tears that the very thought of
that monster defiling the younger woman evoked. In a voice choked with
emotion, she answered, “I don’t think so, but I’d prefer it if you went
through the motions just in case. I want to make sure we nail the bastard
good.”
Jen looked at Kate oddly; she had never seen her friend so rattled, or
so fierce. Jen nodded her head, and Kate knew that she would take good
care of the woman who inexplicably meant so much to her.
“Okay, we’re going to move you to a stretcher now so that we can
take you to the hospital and check you over properly, all right? Can you
stand?”
Jay didn’t move. Kate tugged on her hand gently, starting to stand
herself and pulling the traumatized woman up along with her, never
letting go of her hand. Jen moved in, guiding her to the stretcher, putting
subtle pressure on her shoulder when the stretcher was maneuvered into
position for her to sit. As the EMT laid her patient down, Jay’s eyes
tracked fearfully around, panic etched clearly in her face. When pained
sea green eyes found reassuring deep blue ones, she relaxed slightly.
“Don’t worry, Jay, I’m coming with you.” Kate swept disheveled blonde
bangs off her forehead with gentle fingers and entwined their fingers
once again as she walked alongside the stretcher.
As they moved to the ambulance, Jen caught her friend’s gaze.
“You’ve lost a lot of blood, girlfriend; we need to do something about
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The Price of Fame
that.” As Kate opened her mouth to protest, the EMT added, “And don’t
you tell me it can wait. Frankly, your color sucks.”
“Thanks for the compliment. As soon as we’re on the road, I
promise.”
Once in the ambulance, Jen moved over to her friend and peeled back
the tattered sleeve of her t-shirt. She sucked in a sharp breath at the
depth of the wound. “Jesus. That’s gonna need a couple of layers of
stitches and a tetanus shot, to be sure, if you haven’t had one lately.”
The EMT cleaned the wound and applied a pressure bandage as a
stopgap measure until her friend could get stitched. Kate’s gaze never
wavered from Jay’s face, her thumb making gentle circles on the back of
her hand. She felt so helpless to do anything for her it made her sick to
her stomach. If only she had happened down the path a few moments
earlier! At the moment, all she could do was be there and try to help her
to feel safe.
Once at the hospital Jay was wheeled into a private area of the
emergency room where a rape counselor was waiting along with an all-female medical team. Kate filled the clinicians in as best she could as to
the events of the evening, having gone with Jay only because every time
she tried to let go of her hand, she panicked.
After examining the patient briefly, the doctor told Kate, “I’m going
to give her a sedative to help her relax a bit, and then we’ll take samples
for the lab.”
Kate looked to the rape counselor beseechingly.
“She’ll be all right.” The counselor smiled kindly at her. “It’s going
to take time and a good support network.” Kate wondered if the young
sophomore had one, thinking back to the accident on the ski slope and
her reaction to having her parents contacted. Then a name popped into
her head: Sarah. She had mentioned a friend named Sarah. Kate asked
Jay what dorm she lived in, but got no answer.
When the sedative had begun to take effect and her eyes began to
slide shut, Kate tried a different tack on a hunch.
“Jay, what’s your roommate’s name?”
“Sarah Alexander,” she slurred.
The older woman waited for her young charge to fall asleep,
reluctantly disentangling her hand. She went in search of a college
directory, looked up Sarah Alexander and headed for the phone.
Half an hour later Kate’s wound had been properly taken care of,
closed with a dozen stitches to the underlayers of skin and another dozen
sutures in the top layer. She sported a stark white bandage wrapped
around her shoulder, which was bare thanks to the fashion-ignorant
doctor who had unceremoniously cut off her sleeve.
33
Lynn Ames
She saw a harried-looking young woman come running in through
the emergency room door and approached her. “Are you Sarah
Alexander?”
“Yes, yes I am.”
“Jay’s in there.” She nodded her head in the direction of the room
just down the hall to the right. “She’s asleep right now but she could
sure use a friend.” Irrationally, Kate was envious, wishing it could be
her. “The
counselor will fill you in, she’s in the room with her.”
Sarah ran off in the direction of the room, looking back over her
shoulder and calling, “Thanks.”
Kate continued out into the emergency room waiting area, where the
three cops from the incident were sitting. She proceeded to tell them
everything she knew, getting a ride back to campus from them when they
were done. She had thought about checking back in on Jay, but decided
that the traumatized woman didn’t need her; she was in good hands with
Sarah, who no doubt knew her friend well enough to know how to
comfort her. For some reason, that thought both heartened and saddened
her.
Goodbye, Jay. Godspeed.
The footsteps stopped just in front of where she sat facing the remains of the capitol. Kate opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
My
God,
she thought,
it’s been five years and you are even more beautiful
than I remember, Jay.
“Hi,” Jay said shyly as she was captured by the intensity of that regard. It was just like the first time they had made eye contact, when she stopped to see what all the fuss was about as a crowd gathered on the hill near the tennis courts that autumn day five and a half years ago.
She had moved higher in order to be able to see over the heads of the
throng. Leaning toward the guy standing closest to her, she asked what
was going on. He explained that these were the top two players in the
division and that the winner of the match would decide the final
standings for the year. It was a four-year-old rivalry, he added, and there
was little love lost between the two. “It’s 5-3 in Red’s favor in the second
set,” the young man pointed at the redhead, “and she smells blood.”
Jay was transfixed, unable to take her eyes off the lanky woman, who,
she thought, moved with the grace and speed of a panther. She was so
agile, so strong and so very determined. She found herself holding her
breath unconsciously, willing the mystery woman to make the next shot,
and the next, and the next. Jay knew she was going to be very late to her
weekly editorial meeting for the school newspaper, but she just couldn’t
tear herself away. And then, when it had come down to the very end and
those blue eyes had looked up directly at her...
Wow.
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The Price of Fame
Kate motioned her to sit down. “Hello, Jay,” she said warmly. “You cut off your hair.”
Well, she remembers me, anyway.
“You don’t like it?” she half questioned self-consciously, aware of the absurdity of having a discussion about her hairstyle with a woman who had just been through what the anchorwoman had.
Kate, her resistance weakened, reacted without restraint, reaching out and running her long fingers through the locks in question. “No, it’s gorgeous,” she said sincerely. “It suits you.” Her palm briefly brushed Jay’s cheek.