Where Forever Lies (5 page)

“Shit,” she grumbled
into the concrete before managing to get to her feet.

“You okay?” an
older, gray haired guy asked, coming up behind her and placing his
hand on her elbow to help her steady herself.

She smiled, embarrassed and
said, “Yeah, that last step just came out of nowhere. Too
little sleep last night, I guess.” She dusted off her navy
scrubs, adjusted her purse on her shoulder, and grimaced as she felt
her cheeks reddening. God, she was such a klutz sometimes.

The old guy let out a deep
chuckle and said, “Yep, I hear you there. Have a good day.”

She smiled, “Thanks, you
too,” and followed behind him into the hospital.

The elevator door dinged and she
walked out onto the fifth floor, hit the button to be buzzed into the
psychiatric wing, and then made her way to the break room to put her
stuff away. She glanced down at her watch and saw it was only a few
more minutes until their morning meeting. She rushed to put her
things away and as she shut her locker Kyleigh’s face was
staring back at her.

“Oh, my God, Kyleigh
Helton!” she shrieked punching her lightly on the arm.

Kyleigh brown eyes lit up with
amusement and she laughed as she opened up her locker. “Sorry,
but you’re so easy to scare that I can’t help myself.”

“Thanks, Kyleigh, good
morning to you, too,” Paige said as she pulled her long hair
back into a neat ponytail, looking in her mirror to make sure no hair
was out of place, and then leaned against her locker, eyeing her
friend up and down. Kyleigh looked happy on the outside—to
people who didn’t know her—but her tense jaw, tired eyes,
and the way her eyebrows were creased together told Paige she had
something on her mind. Paige knew what that something was and every
time she saw her friend like this, it made her hate him even more.

“What?” Kyleigh
asked, staring back at her.

“You were up all night
crying, again, weren’t you?” Paige asked, already knowing
the answer to that question, it was written in Kyleigh’s
bloodshot eyes.

She sighed, the amusement in her
face gone. “Yeah, Brad’s back to being a jerk,” she
said as she hastily pushed her shoulder length chocolate colored hair
back away from her face.

“You know what I think you
should do with Brad...” Paige said as she looked into Kyleigh’s
face.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, kick
him to the curb because I can do better than him,” Kyleigh
mocked. “I know all that Paige, but you don’t know what
it’s like being with someone for so long. What if no one else
wants me? And believe it or not, there are times that he’s
really sweet and considerate,” Kyleigh said and Paige saw the
fear burning in her eyes. Kyleigh had self-confidence problems and
seemed to need a guy in her life to make her feel secure. Knowing how
her childhood was, Paige knew it stemmed from her dad leaving when
she was nine years old. Kyleigh had brought it up to her on several
occasions, wanting to try and find him, but she never acted upon it
and always made the comment that he probably wouldn’t want her
to find him anyway. Paige knew Kyleigh didn’t know how to act
or what to expect around a guy, and it had always bothered her, but
she didn’t know how to help her.

Feeling bad for upsetting her,
Paige decided not to push her, anymore. “I’m sorry. I
know it’s hard. I’m just worried about you is all.”
She gave Kyleigh a quick hug and as they pulled apart, she looked up
and saw the other staff shuffling in for their morning meeting. Paige
pulled out her tube of lip gloss and applied some to her lips as they
headed towards to table.

Kyleigh pulled in a short
breath, “I’ll be fine Paige, don’t worry. And I
swear, if you don’t stop with the lip gloss, I’m
confiscating it when you’re not looking.”

Paige glared at Kyleigh, “Oh,
no, you won’t, my lips and I need this,” she said,
holding up the tube of lip gloss in the air.

Kyleigh shook her head laughing
as they took a seat around the table, waiting for Dr. Harlow to begin
going over the patient’s reports for the night before. Paige
always took the morning reports seriously because it was important to
know how the patients had behaved the night before and what she could
expect on her shift. Working on the psych ward at the hospital was
both challenging and rewarding. There were days she didn’t
think she could endure coming back in the next day; couldn’t
bear seeing the haunted, confused, or distressed look in the
patient’s eyes. Then there were days when she saw a patient
show progress and leave the hospital to continue their recovery at
home. Those were the days that mattered to her and made her eager to
come back. Regardless, these people needed someone in their lives,
and there were times when she thought the hospital staff were the
only ones the patients felt really cared about them. It was
heartbreaking. She worked on the geriatric floor, and before she came
to Anderson hospital, she had never seen an older person with mental
problems. That was three years ago and she had learned so much since
coming here, and had seen more than she cared to remember.

Feeling eyes on her, she
casually glanced up and saw Andrew Johnson staring at her. She turned
her gaze back to Dr. Harlow, hoping Andrew’s leering eyes would
drift somewhere else, but she knew they wouldn’t. Andrew Dalton
had been trying to get her attention for a couple of months now, but
Paige wasn’t interested. After letting him know this the first
couple of times, she thought he’d get the point, but he hadn’t
and she still hadn’t changed her mind. He did give off the
creep-vibe with the way he stared at her and a few of the other
girls, but she didn’t let it worry her. She was sure he was
harmless. She forced herself to focus on what Dr. Harlow was saying;
she didn’t want to miss anything and get herself in trouble
with the patients today. The staff always had to keep themselves on
guard because you never knew what was going to happen throughout the
day.

Thirty minutes later, they all
made their way through the door to begin their shifts. Paige felt
Kyleigh fall in step beside her and she nudged her with her elbow.
“You know Andrew was staring at you again at the meeting this
morning,” Kyleigh said, her smirk growing bigger. “Maybe
you should finally give in and give the little freak a chance.”
Kyleigh was full on laughing now and Paige elbowed her hard.

“You are one sick girl. I
would rather remain single for the rest of my life,” Paige said
as she shoved her against the wall and then pulled out her hand
sanitizer. “I feel dirty just hearing you say something so
disgusting,” she said as she began to douse her hands with it.

“Oh, Paige, you
germaphobe,” Kyleigh teased.

“You know I can’t
help it. I like to feel clean. Anyway, what are you doing this
weekend?” she asked Kyleigh as they rounded the corner and
headed for the rec room.

“Hmm, I don’t know,
yet. No plans, really,” she paused, and then asked, “Why?”

“Well, I am ready for a
girl’s night out. It’s been at least two months since
I’ve done anything besides come to work and go home and be a
mom. I need to get out of the house for a night,” Paige said,
laughing. She didn’t go out much, she wasn’t the type to
run around on the weekends, anyway, but with all the grief she had
been dealing with lately, she felt a night out might do her a little
good, maybe ease some of the stress and tension that seemed to
consume her lately.

“I know a great little bar
that has an awesome dance floor. It’s out in the country and
it’s never crazy, it’ll be fun and relaxing,”
Kyleigh said, her eyes lighting up with excitement.

Paige thought it sounded
perfect. “Pick me up at seven Friday?” she asked, giving
her friend a wink.

“Only if you buy me a
drink,” Kyleigh laughed, shaking her head as she turned the
corner to go to the nurse’s station.

♥♥♥

“I said I don’t want
to take it!”

Paige rested her head in her
hands and sighed. It was always a fight to get Dolores to take her
medicine. Usually she had to bribe her. At eighty years old, Paige
figured she would be a little more understanding, but with dementia
taking over her mind, among other things, Dolores didn’t really
know what she was doing anymore. It was sad, and usually Paige had
patience with her, but with exhaustion taking its toll on her today,
it was hard.

“Dolores, I’m going
to ask you one more time. Please, take your medicine so we can go
down to the rec room and have a little fun. I’ll play checkers
with you before I leave.” Paige saw her eyes brighten and knew
she’d gotten through to her. Dolores had a soft spot for
checkers for some reason. Paige was surprised she could still play
but she knew the mind was sporadic like that. She slowly reached out
and took the two small pills from her hand and swallowed them with a
glass of water. Paige sighed, feeling relieved that it didn’t
escalate into a fit of rage like the last time Dolores refused her
medicine, and she held out her hand to lead her down to the rec room
to play a quick game of checkers before her shift ended. Dolores
slowly got up, and together, they inched their way down the hall to
the rec room.

Paige took the steps two at a
time as she headed for her car, ready to go home, relax, and put the
long day behind her. She was tired and knew she would have a long
night after picking up Kyra, going home to make dinner and then
getting Kyra down for bed. But at least she’d be home with her
daughter and not at work.

She thought about Kyleigh’s
and her plans for this Saturday and felt her spirit lighten a little.
She had been so stressed lately that getting out for even a night was
going to make a difference. She wondered about the place Kyleigh said
she knew about. She wasn’t really a country type of girl and
she hoped she wasn’t taking her line dancing. That thought
terrified her. Surely that’s not what she had in mind. Paige
was suddenly worried about their night out. She was a city girl, she
never really ventured out into the country; it just wasn’t her.
But with Kyleigh, she never knew where they’d end up.

As she was driving down the
highway, Paige saw there was a traffic jam up ahead. She slowed down
and pulled to a stop in the left hand turning lane. She groaned at
the long line of traffic in front of her. She just wanted to get
home. She cranked the music up a little louder, hoping to drown out
her worried thoughts that seemed to never go away. A glint of light
hit the lucky horseshoe that hung on her rearview mirror and she
looked up at it, watching as it swayed from side to side. She
frowned, wondering how it was moving so rapidly, considering her
windows were up, when she suddenly felt a strong urge to look behind
her, almost a pull. When she looked in the rearview mirror, her jaw
dropped and she frowned at what she saw. She could not possibly be
seeing what she thought she was. In her rearview mirror, she saw a
truck heading straight towards her with no intention of slowing down.
Driving down the highway, she figured he must be going at least sixty
miles per hour. Surely, this person was not going to hit her. As he
got closer, she frantically grasped the steering wheel and tried to
turn her car towards the median to get out of his way, but she was
too close to the car in front of her and there was no time to back up
and get out of there. Not knowing what else to do she gripped the
steering wheel with all her strength and closed her eyes, knowing she
was about to be creamed. “Oh, God, help me,” was all that
she could muster out.

Then, her vision darkened as she
felt the harsh impact of the truck slam into her. Her head went
flying forward, and she could feel herself being pushed into the
median in slow motion. She quickly opened her eyes and realized she
was heading towards the other side of the highway, into oncoming
traffic. She grabbed the steering wheel, jerked it to the center, and
slammed on the brakes as fast as she could. When she finally
plummeted to a stop, she sat there for a moment, completely dazed,
making sure she was all right as she tried to catch her breath. She
felt like she was going to hyperventilate, or be sick, and her heart
was beating so hard. Her chest ached from hitting the steering wheel
but she was pretty sure she didn’t break any ribs. She ran her
shaky hand through her tousled hair and took three slow breaths in
and out—and waited until her heart felt somewhat normal again.
When she regained her composure, she breathed, “Thank you”
to God, threw her car in park, and stepped out to see what had
happened, and make sure no one else was hurt. The impact of the crash
was so powerful that she was surprised she came out uninjured.

She saw the driver of the truck
standing over on the side of the highway jotting something down on a
piece of paper. Astonished, she saw he had a small boy with him, and
felt relieved they were both okay. The front of his truck was smashed
and had black smoke rolling out of it. The smell was terrible, and
feeling nauseous, she stopped for a moment to lean on the side of the
truck to catch her breath again. After a brief pause, the feeling
subsided and she continued to walk, careful not to step on any broken
glass.

She felt her anger creeping up
the closer she got to the careless driver, and she was ready to give
him a piece of her mind. “What were you doing? Did you not see
the line of backed up cars?” She yelled, throwing her hands up
at him furiously. She couldn’t remember the last time a
stranger had made her so angry. It was obvious he was not paying
attention, and had almost killed them all.

“I’m sorry ma’am,
but that driver who just drove away cut me off and I had no other
choice. Don’t worry though; I got his license plate number.”
He proudly held up a small piece of paper and then paused as he
looked her up and down before asking, “Are you all right?”
He took off his sunglasses to reveal dark brown, intriguing eyes that
complemented his short, dark brown hair. He looked past her to her
damaged car and then to her, and she could see the reality of the
damage he had caused hitting him in the face.