Paul

I pushed out from under the barbell and slid to the end of the weight bench where I began to stretch my sore chest out. The burn from the last set was intense; it felt great.

As I waited for my heart rate to come down I thought about doing another final set. It was getting late, but I was really into my groove. It was amazing how much work you could get done so late at night.

I’d finally decided to join the twenty-four hour gym in town. It was only ten dollars a month, so I figured for that price if I even used it once or twice a week I could get my money’s worth out of it. I usually preferred working out at home, so I was surprised at how much I liked the flexibility of the gym equipment.

And when I went at eleven thirty at night no one was there. So, that was a nice added bonus.

I’d been home trying to get some sleep so I’d be rested at work the next day but my mind was restless. I kept tossing and turning trying to relax, but it just wasn’t working. I had too much energy going through me to get settled.

I kept thinking about Janice and how much of a threat she was going to be. My life was finally moving in the right direction. I was in a new town I loved, and I had a woman I loved dearly who felt the same about me. I had moved on. And I thought I left everything behind that was causing me pain.

But that pain had caught up with me.

I grabbed my jug of water and finished the last of it in one long gulp, the thoughts of doing a last set on the bench press was beginning to fade. I was alone without a spotter and if my chest gave out due to fatigue there was a chance I might trap myself under the bar. That was not a fun place to be in.

I quickly grabbed my stuff and headed out the door. This was only the second time I’d been to this gym and both times I’d come late; the place was always dead. I wondered if anyone else ever worked out at that time or how long the gym might be in business.

I’d considered starting my own gym once before, but for whatever reason my focus and passion always drifted to other things.

The night was unusually warm. I took a deep breath of the fresh fall air and smiled. It was almost so nice I’d thought about jogging to the gym, but I decided a nice, little drive might do me some good.

I was almost to my truck when I heard the noise behind me. Looking back I should have been more alert and aware of my surroundings, but I had other things on my mind. I’d been replaying the amazing night I’d spent with Debbie last night.

I’d said it. Love. I’d said that word to her…

I couldn’t believe that I’d let that actually escape my lips. It was almost like I had no control at that moment over what I was saying or doing. Suddenly, it just felt right.

And when Debbie said it back, my whole world just exploded in a wave of happiness like I’d never known before. We were both in the throes of passion at the time, but the feelings were real. There was no denying that.

I heard the noise again.

This time something awoke in me. Fear.

I turned towards the sound, but it was too late. I barely saw the club coming towards my stomach. It made contact with my skin and the breath whooshed out of my body sending pain reverberating within my ribs.

My mind was able to register that I was surrounded by three men. And they were going to hurt me badly. I knew it.

A second man came from behind me then. I felt his strong arms wrap around me pinning my arms to my sides and squeezing me tightly. The pain amplified as I struggled even harder to breathe.

“Hold him still!” The first attacker said.

I could kind of get a look at him, but it was pretty dark. The next streetlamp was about forty feet away. We were lost in the shadows. Even if someone was driving right past us they would have been hard pressed to see us.

The fear swelled up in my mind blocking out all rational thought. The only thought I had was to fight with everything I had.

I jumped up in the air and my body was quickly brought back down to the ground, my feet landing with a hard thud. Using the moment of this I bent forward and stepped back remembering some of the judo lessons I took one summer as a teenager.

The man holding my arms flew forward over my head and hit the ground. I kicked him swiftly in the face and bobbed my head down just in time to duck over and incoming blow from the club, which I could now see was a crowbar.

It went over my head creating a buzz of air whizzing right past my ear with an almost high pitched wail, almost like a mosquito hovering by your ear. I reared back and threw a hard right hand connecting with the base of his nose.

“UMPH!” The man groaned staggering back clutching his nose. I was shocked he didn’t fall down.

I was about to follow up with a few punches when a fist entered my peripheral vision for a nanosecond before connecting with my jaw.

My cheek gnashed against my teeth with a slicing sensation. I tasted blood instantly. A lot of it.

The blow was vicious and my body wanted to fall down. Somehow I willed my feet to stabilize and stay in the fight. If they got the upper hand I was a dead man. I had no idea how far they were going to take this.

None of them did I recognize, but I figured it was either Marco’s guys, or Janice. Could she have really hired some guys to pummel me?

All of these thoughts swirled in my confused head as I fought for my life. The third attacker was the biggest of all. He looked like a bodybuilder and had to be close to six foot four. He was at least two hundred and fifty pounds.

The man was a beast, but I launched into him anyway.

After landing the first punch he followed at me with a huge left. I managed to side step it and come with a hard uppercut landing directly on his chin.

I saw the lights go out in his eyes as they rolled up in his head and he slumped to the ground unconscious. I’d been lucky to hit him square in the chin and it was lights out.

Then my whole world went black.

For a split second I felt a hard, iron object colliding with the back of my head, an explosion of pain, and then nothing.

I stayed somewhat conscious for a few more seconds because I could hear voices, footsteps, rustling, and my body was being attacked.

But I did not feel much more pain.

Within seconds everything disappeared.

I awoke to bright lights through a cloudy haze and an assortment of odd sounds that I did not fully understand, but would not get out of my head. It took me a few minutes to realize I was hearing people speak, but they weren’t making sense. The words all sounded very garbled.

Meanwhile, the white lights were growing dimmer as the cloud slowly started to fade like smoke clearing out of a room.

Everything was slowly starting to come into focus.

“Paul?”

I recognized the voice. It sounded so familiar. And so scared. No… I couldn’t bear her being scared…

My head split open with pain as I tried to move it towards the voice. Wincing hard, I steadied myself and slowly glanced over, trying to keep my head still and move mostly my eyes.

Debbie’s beautiful face came into view. She was wiping a tear from her eye.

“Hey…”I groaned. My voice sounded very groggy and strange. I cleared my throat which vibrated my head causing more pain but I ignored it.

“I’m ok,” I said.

Debbie grabbed my hand and gave it a kiss.

“I know, you are going to be just fine,” Debbie said. “But I was so worried…”

I tried to smile. I wanted to put on a brave face. But I was scared too. I had no idea how bad off I was. But I could see I was in a hospital room. Debbie was beside me, but otherwise the room was empty.

Although, I heard voices out in the hallway that sounded somewhat familiar.

“What happened?” Debbie asked me.

“I got jumped,” I said.

The memory was vivid, which I took as a good sign. Maybe my brain hadn’t been turned to mush after all. But I most likely had a concussion and judging by the pain in my stomach, I may have had some broken bones. I’d never been in this much pain before.

Actually, I don’t think I’d ever even been in a hospital before. At least, not as the patient.

“I’m going to let the doctor know you are awake,” Debbie said.

She leaned over and kissed me tenderly, and brushed the back of my hand with hers lovingly before walking out of the room.

A moment later a doctor came in to see me. He was a short, older gentleman, with a round, robust face, and a much too happy demeanor. No guy who hung out with sick and injured people all day should have been that happy go lucky.

Whatever drug he was on, I hoped he prescribed some for me.

“Hey, there, Mr. Henry,” the doctor said. His voice was surprisingly deep for such a small, man.  “How are we feeling?”

“I’m alive, I think,” I said with a small smile.

The doctor chuckled.

“Yes, you are,” he said. “I’m Dr. Michaels by the way.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said.

“Likewise. Well, we did some tests while you were out and luckily you don’t have any broken bones, although I’m sure you feel that you do.”

“Yeah, I feel like I walked into a Mack truck,” I said.

“Well, you do have a slight concussion, so you do need to take it very easy for the next few days. We will keep you overnight in the hospital, just for observation to make sure there aren’t any complications, which it’s quite unlikely that there will be. Your ribs are bruised, and you have several abrasions that will be sore for several days while they heal up. Make sure you change the bandages and dressings twice a day, keep them clean and dry.”

“Anything else?” I asked. This guy had given this speech far too many times. It almost sounded like he was rattling off names out of the telephone book.

“No, just get lots of bed rest and allow yourself to heal. No exercise of any sort, not even light exercise for at least seven days. And then ease into it for a few.”

I thanked the doctor and he started to leave. Before he did he paused at the door and turned back towards me.

“Oh, there are a couple police officers here to talk with you. I believe they just want to ask some questions about what happened to you. Do you feel up to that?”

“Yeah, sure,” I said.

Debbie reached out and grabbed my hand again. I enjoyed the gesture and the comfort. And she was smiling again after hearing that I was basically ok straight from the doctor’s mouth.

The doctor left the room and a moment later two young police officers entered.

“Hello, Mr. Henry,” The shorter one said. “I’m Officer Travis and this is Officer Sanders. Is it ok if we ask you a few questions?”

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Can you tell me briefly what happened?”

I took a deep breath and recalled to them everything I could remember about the attack. I was working out, heading to my truck, three men jumped me.

“Did you get a clear look at the men? Did you recognize them? Maybe be able to identify them in a lineup?”

“It was dark,” I said. “But I might recognize them. I’m fairly certain I broke one guy’s nose.”

“Ok, that might help, actually,” Officer Travis said.

“Do you know of anyone who would want to harm you this way?” Sanders spoke up pulling out a little pad and pen.

I told them about Marco, but I also told them about Janice. She was my number one suspect.

“Ok, we will definitely check out to see if we have any evidence of her being in town,” Travis said. “And you said she threatened to do something like this?”

“No, she didn’t threaten anything specific. I guess it was more of an ominous warning than anything else.”

“Ok, and what makes you think it wasn’t this guy you work with?”

“Just a feeling I have,” I said. “And I realize that doesn’t help you much.”

“No, it’s fine,” he replied. “We might have a few suspects rounded up, we will check video camera footage in the area, at the gym, etc. and there is a good chance that the attack was caught on film. Even if it was dark we might be able to get a good visual and get a lineup together soon.”

“Wow, that would be fantastic,” Debbie said squeezing my hand slightly.

I smiled at her.

I hadn’t parked far from the gym, so it was very possible that there was video footage of these guys.

“With the technology today, almost everything you do in public is being videoed,” Sanders said.

“If you think of anything else then just give us a call,” Travis said.

I thanked them both and they left the room.

“Do you really think Janice would go this far?” Debbie asked. “I mean, you believe that she would hire guys to murder you?”

“They weren’t trying to kill me. If they were then I’d be dead.”

Debbie’s eyes teared up at the mention of my death.

“Hey, relax,” I said. “I’m fine. I’ll heal up. The cops will pick these guys up on something and it will lead back to Janice. She messed up. She finally went too far and committed a real crime. Janice screwed up.”

Debbie wiped her eyes and leaned forward pressing her forehead against my hand.

I felt like my heart was breaking. Seeing Debbie in so much emotional pain was difficult to see. I wished I could take it away and just make her happy, but she was going to have to deal with a bit of grief on her own.

I was mostly angry at Janice. She’d caused this. And even though I didn’t believe she was actually trying to kill me, who’s to say that those guys didn’t decide to up the ante and do it anyway, or even on accident. That woman was insane; she needed to be locked up with others like her where she couldn’t hurt anyone else again.

“How did you know I was here?” I asked changing the subject.

“Oh, Lara,” I replied. “She volunteers at the hospital a few nights a week. She saw them bring you in and she called me.”

“Oh,” I said. “Well, I’m very glad you are here. Where did Lara go? I’d like to thank her.”

“She stayed for a while, but I convinced her to go home. My parents were also here for a bit.”

“Wow, how long was I out?”

“You’ve been in the hospital close to three hours. It’s a miracle that your concussion isn’t far worse or that you don’t have some sort of brain damage,” Debbie said.

“Well, aren’t you a Debbie Downer today?” I teased playing on her name.

“God, I hate it when people call me that,” Debbie said with a smile. “Everyone called me that in school because I used to complain anytime I got less than an A on a test.”

I laughed softly trying not to erupt a wave of pain in my head.

“You were that annoying girl who always had her hand up for every question, weren’t you?” I asked.

Debbie smiled. “Yeah, I was. But you do love me for my brain, right?”

She bent forward and kissed me. Her lips were always so smooth, so soft, and just slightly moist. I was getting a bit excited, but my body and head were in no shape for sexual activity right then.

Although, the doctor did not forbid sexual activity, I was fairly certain that it was included in the no exercise, not even light exercise stipulations.

“Thank your family for coming,” I said. “They didn’t have to do that.”

“No, they insisted. I swear I think they want to adopt you or something. My mom has been talking about you almost constantly since dinner the other night.”

“Well, your parents are sweethearts,” I said.

I had to catch myself from saying ‘They are already starting to treat me like family.’

It was true. Her parents were already making me feel like family. But this brought up a whole other type of relationship discussion. Why had that thought popped up in my head?

Was I thinking about marriage with Debbie? Wow… was that some sort of a Freudian Slip? I sighed and closed my eyes for a moment, very relieved that I had not said that. I couldn’t have taken it back and I wasn’t sure what the hell I was actually thinking, or if I meant that at all.

But lying there thinking about us, with Debbie right there with me, I could not picture my life without her in it. I felt sad and lonely when she wasn’t with me. I wanted her around me all the time; I needed her.

But she looked tired. I was sure she’d been in the hospital all night long with me, staying right by my side. I would have done the same for her in a heartbeat.

What if Janice had sent someone to harm her? What would I have done? It was a scary thought, not just because of what might have happened to Debbie, but of what I would have done to Janice. Everybody had their breaking point, and that was mine. No one would ever do anything to hurt Debbie as long as I was around. If they did, they would suffer hell like they had never imagined possible.

“You should go home, get some rest,” I said.

“No, I’m fine. I want to stay with you,” Debbie said.

“That’s very sweet,” I replied. “But don’t you have work?”

“Don’t you?”

I laughed. “Well, hopefully someone called me out sick.”

Debbie smiled.  “Yes, I called your boss and told him. He was surprisingly very understanding. He is a nice guy.”

I laughed. “I have no idea,” I said. “But what about you? Isn’t this your busiest time and everything? I doubt your boss was as understanding.”

Debbie smiled. “It’s ok,” she said. “I’ll go in on Saturday and get some stuff done. You are more important. I love you, Paul.”

“Wow, that sounds even better every single time I hear it,” I replied. “I love you, too.”

Debbie kissed my hand and continued to hold it.

“I agree,” she said.

“Have you told Lara?” I asked.

Debbie’s brow furrowed as if I’d asked her a really strange math problem.

“Why would I tell her?”

“Because you tell her everything,” I said. “I know you do.”

Debbie blushed just then. “You’re right,” she replied. “I do tell Lara everything, but this right here I’m keeping just for us right now.”

“Ah, so you think everyone will think we are nuts to if we announce our undying love to the world?”

“Wow, that sounds like a grand gesture,” Debbie said with a laugh. “But no. I just like keeping us a bit quiet. It’s fun to keep people guessing a bit.”

“I can see that,” I said. “I can’t believe I have to stay in here until tomorrow morning. That is going to be such a long day. And no, you are not staying the whole time. That’s ridiculous.”

Debbie sighed. “It’s ok. Now, you are probably not going to be able to go to work this week. So, at least you will get a bunch of writing done, right?”

I looked at her and rolled my eyes. “Way to change the subject. And thanks for reminding me that I’ll probably get fired. I just started working there; I don’t have any sick time built up.”

Debbie frowned. “Oh, no. Your dream job as a factory worker is over.”

“I don’t appreciate the sarcasm,” I responded but I couldn’t help laughing. Debbie was so naturally funny.

I wasn’t at all worried about the job. I had a good employment record and no criminal record, plus I seemed to be pretty good at selling myself, so I was not at all worried about losing the job at the factory. Actually, I was kind of sick of it anyway. Besides none of the “friends” I’d made there had even come by to see me. I was sure that the boss had told them what happened.

Debbie and I talked for a while longer until I got very sleepy. I wasn’t sure if it was just lying in the bed unable to move much that made me tired. I don’t do idle very well. Or it could have been the concussion and the beating I’d taken and my body just needed some rest to heal, but I was suddenly unable to keep my eyes open.

I fell asleep at some point.

When I woke up Debbie was gone, but there was a text on my phone from her.

My mom finally convinced me to leave you a bit while you slept. I figured I’d go into the office to get some work done. I’ll be back later. Rest easy. I love you, babe!

I read the text twice and then turned on the TV in the corner of the room. It took a few minutes but I eventually tuned into some old Seinfeld reruns. I’d seen them all a zillion times, but it was something to take away the mind numbing agony of lying in bed not doing anything at all.

I was desperate to get up and move around, or at least do something. I swore I could feel my blood slowing down in my veins. I was not designed to sit around. The boredom was insane. I wished I’d had a good book to read at least, but I didn’t have any with me and I didn’t do eBooks. I hated technology with a blind passion. I’d always been that way. Even if it made things easier to do, there was just something that really turned me off about automation.

Debbie was always making fun of me for how backwards I was. I didn’t do social media, I had a very old phone, and I had no desire in swapping it out and paying money for a few extra features. It all just seemed so unnecessary to me.

About noon an orderly came in with a plate full of food. I’d always heard gross things about hospital food, but it was actually not bad. And I was much hungrier than I’d realized. Apparently, I had been hard asleep when the orderly had stopped by with breakfast earlier.

I wondered if that was before or after Debbie left.

As I sat there eating in silence I found myself feeling really lonely and a bit depressed. I wished Debbie had been there to share lunch with me. But she was hard at work, like I wished I was.

I felt a little down, but there was an upside that caused some warmth to invade my mind slowly. I was in love. And sometimes being in love could make you sad when you were apart.

This was something I had never felt before and if I’d heard that I might feel this way about someone a few months ago, I would have laughed at the idea.

But now I welcomed it. I defended it.

I loved this feeling and I prayed that it never stopped.