The Tribuo - 27. Part III, chapter 9

- IX -

Her name was Michelle, she was almost eighteen, and she was working at the Bean Stalk to save enough money to go to some rock concert that was taking place in two months. She had a cat whose name was Booboo, and she loved poached eggs. What else… Oh yes, her favorite color was blue, and she was absolutely-deeply-crazily-desperately in love with Johnny Depp. She kept chattering nonstop ever since she got into my car. I guess she figured that if she kept talking, then she wouldn't notice thunder as much.

At first, her mindless chatter irritated me, but then I actually found it comforting. I said something to her, I don’t even remember what it was, but then I realized that she didn’t really need me to respond to whatever she was saying, so I just listened.

I stopped on the red light and glanced around, Michelle’s chatter flowing around me like some weird blanket. Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe. There he was, standing and waiting for a bus in this blasted rain, all alone at that bus stop. To my enormous surprise, Michelle sensed that I tensed up, and stopped talking.

“What’s wrong?” she asked with a frown, and then she followed my look. “Oh, hey! It’s that guy! Eric, is that his name?”

“Yeah,” I muttered. “That’s his name…”

I squeezed the steering wheel so hard that my fingers ached. I didn’t care. Suddenly, all I could feel was white-hot hatred. All I wanted to do right now was to kill this son of a bitch.

“Mary…” Michelle muttered in a scared voice. “What are you doing?”

Huh, I guess I told her my name after all. I couldn’t remember.

“Mary,” she said again. “The light is green… That guy… Do you…”

“I… Hate… That guy,” I said through my clenched teeth and glanced at her. “You buckled up? Good…”

“Oh my God…” she muttered. “Mary, what are you doing?!”

“Don’t look,” I muttered and slammed on the gas pedal.

My car meowed at that angrily and leaped forward. I couldn't care less about the consequences. Hell, I didn’t even care that I might hurt Michelle in the process. It was worth it.

“Mary, don’t!!” Michelle screamed.

I ignored her. Thunder was clapping like a mad cymbalist by now, and Eric didn’t even hear my engine. Good thing too, because right now I had a perfect shot.

“Mary!!” Michelle screamed again, when I was flying towards him, water splashing all over my windows as if we were in a submarine. “Mary! It’s not going to bring Cole back to you!!” she screamed, and suddenly, I could see clearly again.

Oh my God, what the hell was I doing? She is right… Even if I kill him right now, it won’t change anything… Except, I will end up in prison for murder… Yes, I hated him, but did I hate him enough to actually kill him?

He finally heard my car and turned around, his face puzzled. I swerved to the left as hard as I could without even thinking that there might be someone in a parallel lane. I swerved just before I slammed into him full speed, but apparently, I didn’t swerve soon enough, because I ended up hitting him anyway.

I slammed down on the brakes, and my car helplessly span on the pavement that was flooded with rain. For several seconds I thought that I would end up killing both of us -- myself and Michelle -- when the car came to a screeching halt. I sat there, panting, my hands squeezing the steering wheel, when I realized that I just ran Eric over.

“Oh my God…” I whispered, and then I started to shake. “Oh my God…”

Michelle unbuckled her seatbelt, opened the door, and all but fell outside. I jerkily pushed the gear into 'Park' and looked into my rearview mirror. She was running towards Eric who was laying in the middle of the road. Oh, God, how hard did I hit him? He was at the bus stop… He flew into the road?!

I unbuckled myself with shaking hands, climbed out without turning off the car or even closing the door, and ran after Michelle. She was kneeling in the puddle of water next to him. She looked up at me, and I couldn’t tell if it was rain running down her face or tears.

“I think he is breathing,” she said, and my knees buckled.

I started crying so hard that I thought my head was going to split in half. Then I realized that Michelle was screaming something at me.

“W-what…?” I stuttered.

“Phone!!” she screamed. “Do you have a phone?!”

Phone… I blindly looked around. Jesus, we were the only people in sight.

“In… In… In my purse…” I managed finally. “Car…”

She nodded and ran to the car.

“Eric…” I muttered without touching him. For some strange reason, I remembered that you never touch someone who’s been injured. There was something about their back, dislocation, and something else. “Eric, please… Oh, God… Don’t die, please…”

I was still sobbing when a roar of an engine ripped the rain apart behind me, and then there was a car making a wide circle and stopping a few feet in front of Eric, headlights on a high beam. I lifted my hand, shielding my eyes. Someone was racing towards me. I blinked when I recognized Michelle.

“I figured that nobody would be able to see him laying here in this weather,” she said apologetically. “And the bus is coming soon, so…”

I shuddered. Oh my God… I didn’t even think about the bus. Michelle handed me my purse.

“Phone!” she said when I just looked at her blindly.

“It’s in there…” I said weakly and looked at Eric again. Oh, Jesus, he was turning paper-white.

Michelle dug in my purse, found the phone, and soon enough, she was all but screaming into it, giving the directions to the 911 operator. After she finished talking to them, she started screaming something at me. I couldn’t figure out why she was screaming. Was it because she was freaking out? Or because of this damn thunder? Oh, who cares…

“Eric,” I said calmly, even though I was hysterical inside. “Eric, please talk to me, please…”

“Mary…” he muttered quietly.

“Eric…” now I was sobbing hard. “Oh, God, you are alive… I am so sorry, please forgive me Eric, please… I am so sorry… Oh, God, Eric…”

He looked up at me and smiled.

“Hey, I don’t feel any pain… Maybe it’s just a scratch or a bruise…”

“Eric, don’t move… Please… Stay put until the paramedics come, okay?”

Michelle screamed something else.

“What?” I screamed back.

“What’s his phone number?”

“Whose phone number?” Okay, is everyone trying to confuse the shit out of me today?!

“Cole’s phone number! Do you have it in your phone?”

“I don’t! I deleted it when…”

“Eric…” Michelle very gently stroked his face with her fingertips. He smiled at her so brightly as if he was getting his picture taken for some weird yearbook. “Eric… Do you remember Cole’s phone number?”

“Of course,” he smiled at her.

“Can you tell me what it is?”

“Sure,” he said, and told her the number.

I looked at him and almost started sobbing again when I saw the unnatural angle of his leg. Then I looked closer and bit my lip so hard that I tasted my own blood in my mouth. Eric was lying in a puddle of blood that kept spreading from underneath him. I guess that would explain why his face was so goddamn white. Oh, Jesus… I broke his spine, he’ll be paralyzed for life, he will be…

“Cole?” suddenly I heard Michelle’s voice. “No, it’s not Mary, I am just using her phone… There's been an accident…” She looked around and told him our location. “No, not Mary… It’s Eric… Cole? Cole!!”

She shut the phone and dropped it back in my purse. She looked at me and was about to say something, when I heard the sirens.

*****

The following several hours were nightmarish. Eric was rushed to the hospital as soon as the paramedics got here. I felt completely numb. Michelle managed to find out which hospital he was taken into, after she pestered one of the cops nonstop. He finally caved in and called someone. She was also the one who was talking to everyone who tried getting to me. I was more than grateful for that, because I couldn’t squeeze out a single word.

“It was so freaky,” I heard her blabber. “All that rain and stuff… We were driving, and then the car just slid, you know? And then I thought we were gonna die or something, 'cause it wouldn’t stop… And then there was that guy, and Mary swerved, and I was, like, oh my God, you know? Seriously, it was so scary! And then it finally stopped, and then I saw that guy, and I was, like, oh my God, he’s dead or something! And then he was breathing, and I called 911, and…”

…Cole showed up an hour or so later after Michelle called him. Apparently, he got stuck somewhere in a huge water puddle, and it took him a while to get out of there. I started crying the minute I saw him. He didn’t just look wild, he looked downright insane.

“What happened?” he was screaming. “Where is he?! What happened?!”

“He is in St. Elizabeth’s,” Michelle said. She was sitting next to me the whole time after the cops finally left us alone. Well, alone for right now. Tomorrow will be another story.

I had to sign a ton of papers, and I wasn’t to leave the city under any circumstances until the entire matter was resolved. I didn’t care.

“St. Elizabeth’s…” Cole muttered and raced back to his car.

Michelle sighed and got up.

“Let’s go,” she said, and I just looked at her. “Well,” she shrugged. “Let’s go to the hospital and see what’s going on.”

That made sense. I was shaking even worse now, so Michelle sighed again, popped her bubblegum, and said that she would be driving. I didn’t mind. If she was an awful driver and if we got into a wreck, I wouldn’t even care.

…To my greatest surprise, Michelle wasn’t a bad driver. We managed to get to the hospital almost at the same time as Cole did. We caught up with him inside. He was yelling at the nurse who looked like she was about to call security. Michelle popped her bubblegum again and marched up to them. I followed her blindly.

“We need to see if Eric…” she frowned and looked at Cole. “What’s his last name?” she asked.

“Leigh,” he said.

“Yeah,” she looked at the nurse. “We need to see if Eric Leigh is okay and if we can actually… Well, see him.”

The nurse narrowed her eyes.

“And you are…”

“Family,” Michelle didn’t even flinch.

“Family,” the nurse repeated with great doubt in her voice.

“Yup.”

“And you don’t know his last name?”

Michelle grinned at that.

“He just got married,” she said. “I forgot what the last name was.”

The nurse rolled her eyes and typed something in the computer.

“Room three-oh-two,” she said finally.

“Thanks!” Michelle said brightly, and Cole and I just stared at her.

We went to the elevator and she pushed the button.

“Who are you?” Cole asked quietly.

“She works at the Bean Stalk,” I was finally able to talk without sobbing.

“Huh,” he said after Michelle popped her gum again.

“What happened, Mar?” Cole asked me when we were in the elevator, and I closed my eyes.

“Cole, I…”

“Her car is really shitty,” Michelle said indifferently. “She was spinning all over that road. It’s a miracle nobody died.”

He looked at her and wanted to say something else, but then the elevator doors slid open and he never said anything. We went to room 302 and were about to walk in, when the door opened and a very tired-looking nurse came out.

“Who are you?” she frowned at us.

“Is he okay?” Cole asked, and he sounded like he was about to lose it if she said 'no.'

“He’ll be fine,” she sighed. “Got a broken leg, a slight concussion, and four broken ribs…”

Oh my God… I didn’t break his back after all. I was about to start crying again, when the nurse said:

“I am sorry, but I can’t let you in. Not all of you.”

I looked at Cole.

“Go,” I whispered.

I didn’t have to say it twice.