HER

I am being recognized everywhere I go. I hadn’t realized how many people would see my segment on TV. Visitors to the library are recognising me all day, on the subway, and even the staff at the local bagel and coffee shops talk my ear off, wanting to hear about my experience and what they can do to find my “hooded hero.” The show has run clips of my plea multiple times since the original airing a few days ago.

And it isn’t just in person. Just hours after the interview on the morning show, I started getting emails and texts from strangers telling me they know who my mystery man is. But it doesn’t take too many questions to know that they don’t have the right person. I’ve even met with some who claim that they are him. But instantly I know they’re not him; they are either too tall, too short (apparently 6’3” has as many variations as there are people), too old, just too... wrong.

I don’t know much about him, but I know his voice. And if it is the only thing to go on, it’d be enough. It is the glass slipper. Only one voice will be able to elicit the right response in me. That unequivocal feeling of safety. And if I have to talk to a thousand wrong men to find the right one, I’ll happily do it.

Whether he wants to be found or not, I’m not going to give up.

“Jade!” Harriet yells at me as I return to the office from my lunch break.

“Wha?” I yell back, startled.

“Pick up the bloody phone or put it on silent for God’s sake. It’s been ringing non-stop for the last hour. I haven’t been able to get any work done all day,” she grumbles.

I grab the phone and send the call to voice mail, switching it over to vibrate for a while for both of our sanity’s sakes. “Hey! You’re the one who was all, ‘oooh, find your mystery man,’ so now I’m looking, and you’re going to have to help me.”

“Ugh, what’s in it for me?”

“First hand gossip?”

Harriet pauses and glares at me. Then turns back to her desk, a sign of surrender.

I giggle and turn my attention back to the phone. There are 32 missed calls and 6 voice mails. Yikes! No wonder Harriet is pissed. I scroll through the numbers; among the unfamiliar numbers there is a missed call from the TV station and one from my grandma. I cringe, I haven’t called to tell them about the attack, and now they’ve probably heard about it about from someone else. I decide to save that phone call for later tonight... after I’ve had some wine. I scroll to the top of the list again and notice that one number has called 11 times in the one hour I’ve been gone.

“Wow. That’s persistent,” I mumble to myself.

“What’s that?” Harriet asks.

“Oh, nothing, just that one number called 11 times.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, that’s what I said.”

“Must be urgent,” she rolls over to me on her office chair. “Call ‘em!”

“Oh, sure... so now you’re interested.” I tease her.

“Shut up.” She reaches over and presses ‘call’ on the phone.

“Hey!” I push her arm away.

“Hello?” the faint voice says through the earpiece.

“Oh! Um... yes, hello. This is Jade Sinclair. I have some missed calls from you on my phone.”

“Yes. I recognize the number. Ms. Sinclair...”

“Oh, please call me Jade.”

“As you wish. Jade, my name is Xavier.” He pauses. As if that should mean something to me. And then it strikes me.

“Xavier! You’re the man who paid for my hospital bill.” I screech into the phone.

Harriet jumps out of her chair and pushes her ear up against the phone. I swat her away in vain.

“Well, I physically paid for it, yes. But I’m not that generous,” he says. “My boss, K, is the one who paid.”

“Who is he?” I blurt out. Not caring for the small talk.

“Ms Sincl-, er Jade. I think you know the answer to that.”

“I’m sorry?”

“The answer is that, you’re never going to know. You must understand by now that my boss is not the sort of man who wants you to know who he is and has done a lot to ensure that that doesn’t happen. So, I’m just calling to ask that you respect his wish to remain anonymous. And that you stop trying to find him.”

Harriet looks at me, watching my expression. But I am prepared for this.

“Mr., um, Xavier. Please listen to me very carefully and convey my exact message to your boss. I am not a complete dunce. I noticed how he disappeared as soon as I regained consciousness but not before making sure he’d paid my hospital bill, in cash as to not leave a paper trail. So, yes, I understand that he is doing everything he can to stay hidden. But he saved my life. Have you ever had your life threatened, and in your absolute scariest moment, have someone come as if out of nowhere and save you?

“Well, actually, K...”

“Well, I have,” I cut him off so I can continue, before I lose my nerve. “And it was your boss who did it. So, no. I will not stop trying to find him. I will find him and I will look him in the eye, give him a hug, and tell him, from the absolute bottom of my heart and soul, that I appreciate what he did, and forever in my mind he will be a hero. That every moment of joy, laugher, love and life that I am blessed to experience from here on out is due to his bravery. And then I will walk away and leave him alone. I will not share his identity with anyone else, and I will not call any more attention to him. So. The faster he comes to talk to me, the sooner all this will be over for him. But I will not give up. Until I find him. So I can say two words, ‘thank you’”

I stop and let my words sink in.

Harriet smiles softly, hugs my shoulders and kisses me on the forehead as we wait for his response.

I hear him mutter something like ‘she’s just like him,’ and sigh.

“I will convey the message. And Jade? God bless you.”