Fifteen
Dave
I never liked having a wireless phone. It was just a waste of money for me. Something I didn’t want and didn’t need. Something I didn’t use much, if ever. That didn’t mean that I didn’t have one, though. Because there was always the possibility that I got stranded somewhere, and then I needed to be able to call a taxi or something.
So I had one, in spite of myself. It was too damn expensive, but it didn’t rely on cell towers. It was some kind of satellite model, which could have been a lifesaver if I were ever in the wilderness. I barely kept it charged. I had a second, to spite myself even more, because no matter how much I hated having it, I had to be able to take calls inside.
The second one rang by my bed as I laid there, too tired for words and wanting to go back to sleep. The painkillers hadn’t kicked in, not really. Not until I’d gotten back to my room. Because that was when I finally started feeling as if someone had struck a blow about my head and I could barely keep my eyes open.
I forced myself to, though, as best as I could. There was no reason that I needed to sleep the whole day away, and even less reason for me to be up all night, and there was no way that I was going to be sleeping for the next eighteen hours so that I woke with the sun.
I reached out without looking and grabbed the phone. It wasn’t fancy. The sat-phone, that was the fancy one. This one was exactly what it had to be for a phone I kept in my pocket because I needed to make sure I wouldn’t miss anything inside a building.
“Hello?”
The voice on the other side wasn’t immediately familiar, but in my exhaustion I wasn’t thinking very clearly. It started to come back to me eventually, but it took a while.
“Dave?”
I blinked and tried to think. “Uh… Laura?”
“Did I wake you up? I’m sorry.”
“I’m up,” I groused. “Just tell me what the problem is.”
“It’s about Charlie.”
“Okay?” My heart thumped in my chest. I couldn’t explain why, but the mere mention of his name had me on edge immediately. “Is he okay?”
“Uh…”
I didn’t like ‘uh.’ Uh sounds remarkably unlike ‘Yes,’ which was the only answer I wanted to hear.
“Give me a minute. I’ve got to get a cup of coffee, and then I’ll be on my way.”
“Jesus. I just, I didn’t know who to call.”
“What is the problem? Tell me that first. Once I know what’s going on, I can try to help, but I need to know first.”
“I just, Uh…” she sucked in a breath loud enough that I heard it through the phone. “I can’t find him.”
I didn’t like the sound of that, either. Of the whole thing, that was the worst thing she’d said yet. I’d been fighting to keep my eyes open barely a minute ago, but my legs swung out of bed before I could think of anything else.
“Where are you?”
I pulled open the bag that contained all my stuff. How I was going to get to her, I didn’t know. I’d run if I had to, but I wasn’t going to leave her high and dry.
“I shouldn’t have called,” she said. “You don’t even have a car, do you?”
“Doesn’t matter,” I said. I was pulling on my pants, the phone buried in the crook of my neck. “I’m on my way, okay? Just tell me where I’m going.”
“I’ll come and pick you up.”
“Tell me where you are, and I’ll start moving in your direction.”
She finally told me. She was at the elementary school. The hospital here isn’t big, as hospitals go. I should be too tired for any kind of activity, but the adrenaline is surging so hard that I am pretty sure I could run a world-record mile.
I pull the gown off and pull my shirt on. It’s got a big red splotch in the midsection where my side tore itself open on the door as it crumpled into me. I felt my ribs protesting, and the truth was that I didn’t give a shit.
I was moving before I hung up the phone. The nurses thought that they could stop me, but they thought wrong. Apparently they didn’t want to stop me nearly as much as I wanted to leave. Once it became clear that verbally telling me to stop wasn’t going to do anything, they gave up and started on the second line of defense. Presumably they were calling security to meet me on the way out. I’d like to see them try.
I sucked in a breath as the elevator doors opened. A big guy, perhaps two-fifty and standing nearly my height, met me at the elevator. He had a badge pinned to his chest that said Security on it, just like I thought.
“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to come back to your room with me.”
I shouldered past him. “I’ve got places to be.”
“I can’t advise that, sir. Not without doctor’s orders.”
I gave him a hard look. Eight years ago I’d have already started throwing punches. It turns out that I can grow up. “I’m going. I’ll be back.”
He pursed his lips, but I was already turning away. I started the long, loping strides before I had really hit the door. Within twenty seconds of making it out I was hitting the pavement hard. Within four minutes, I was breathing hard. Two minutes after that I was passing a black sedan that turned hard to make a U-turn.
In the driver’s seat, Laura looked like she was about to have a heart attack. So I slowed down, in spite of myself.