Ripple Effect

by J. Bengtsson

  “It’s time to go.”

  Everything was taking place in slow motion. I heard his words but couldn’t reply.

  “Dani,” Parker’s voice shook me out of my trance. “You’ve done enough. Let us do the rest. Go.”

  I began to cry. Yes, I’d done enough. It was time. Looking up, I saw a firefighter at the top of the ladder, holding a hand out to me. I lifted my foot onto the bottom rung and began the climb.

  19

  Dani: In the Nick of Time

  It wasn’t until RJ had been loaded into the back of an ambulance and whisked away in a swirl of lights and sirens that the weight of the trauma I’d experienced finally hit me. My heart began to race, and my blood-stained hands turned clammy. Then came the weakness and dizziness that brought me to the ground. Before I even knew what was happening, I was on my back, blinking up at the morning sun.

  Rapid, weak pulse, I heard them say. Blood pressure’s low.

  I wanted to let them know I was fine, not to worry about me, but an oxygen mask was placed over my nose and mouth before I could get the words out, and I was honestly just too exhausted to fight another battle. So, minutes after RJ was taken away, I also found myself on a stretcher in the back of an ambulance being whisked away in a swirl of lights and sirens. I closed my eyes, letting the movement of the vehicle lull me to sleep… until someone stuck a needle into my vein.

  “Ouch,” I complained, trying to draw my hand away.

  “Don’t pull it out or I’ll have to stick you again.”

  My eyes were slow to identify who’d spoken, but when they cleared, I saw Bruce, the opinionated paramedic, staring back at me.

  I lifted the oxygen mask off my face. “Hey, I know you.”

  “Oh, I know you too. You’ve made today very eventful.”

  “Really not my fault. Please blame Mother Nature.”

  “I don’t know, Dani. I feel like you’re not giving yourself enough credit.”

  I managed to form the barest of smiles. “You’re mean. You wanna be my friend?”

  “If what you did for RJ is your idea of being a good friend, then yes, I would very much like to be added to that list.”

  “Consider it done,” I replied, happy to expand my network for this big teddy bear of a man. “And I think we both know I didn’t keep RJ alive on my own. I had a little help from my friends.”

  Bruce caught my eye, knowing exactly what I was talking about.

  “That moment when I saw the bag, the crutch…” I drew in a breath to keep from crying. “We couldn’t have done it without you, without Parker. Without the supplies…”

  Placing a finger to his lips, Bruce looked around before saying, “How about we keep that part of it to ourselves?”

  My eyes rounded. Oh, shit. The last thing I wanted was for anyone to be penalized for helping us bring an end to the nightmare. I mimed zipping my mouth shut only to unzip it a second later to add, “And about that friend request. I feel obligated to disclose that I have one hundred and ten siblings.”

  “Of course you do.”

  The fact that Bruce didn’t even blink at the news told me he was getting used to my particular brand of crazy.

  I tapped the IV in my hand. “Please tell me that’s straight-up vodka going into my bloodstream.”

  He smiled, shaking his head. “Oh, so close, but no. Saline. You were showing signs of dehydration, but I haven’t ruled out shock due to infection. I mean, considering that I watched you pull a piece of glass out of your arm with dirty fingers, it’s certainly a plausible scenario.”

  “What hospital are you taking me to?”

  “The closest one.”

  “Is that where they’re taking RJ?”

  “I can’t tell you that.”

  “Can you at least tell me if he’s going to be okay?”

  “I can’t tell you that either.”

  “Seriously, Bruce. It’s me. I thought we were past these formalities.”

  He chuckled, securing the oxygen mask back over my nose and mouth. “All I can say is he’s going to the nearest hospital. And I don’t know his condition—that’s the truth. But I can tell you he wouldn’t have survived very long in the parking garage, so at least you gave him a chance.”

  A chance. Yes. I’d done my best. I’d kept him alive long enough for the experts to take over. What more could I ask of myself? Yet still, a chill skipped over my skin. What if, after everything, he didn’t make it? Or what if he survived only to go back to his world and me to mine? I drew in a series of deep breaths to calm my nerves. I’d given him a chance. And in the end, that was all that mattered.

  I unzipped my lips again to say, “We, Bruce. We gave him a chance.”

  Bruce pretended to ignore me as he checked the saline bag for flow, but when he turned back his eyes had softened. “We.”

  Smiling, I closed my fake zipper. We.

  The remainder of the building collapsed forty-five minutes after RJ was pulled from the rubble.

  I’d just arrived at the emergency room and had been hooked up to monitors when a collective gasp could be heard throughout the unit. For a split second, all activity came to a standstill. Because this was the closest hospital to the apartments, its rooms were filled with victims and their families. Some were quietly affected, while others wailed, but most just stood there looking stunned. I lay in my bed numb, unable to wrap my brain around any of it. Parker had warned me—he’d said it was swaying and about to come down—but it hadn’t been real to me then. The risk those men had taken to save our lives… I had no words.

  Forty-five minutes was all that had separated RJ and me from a certain death. Others hadn’t been so lucky. No one knew how many people had still been trapped inside when the building came down. Whether they were alive or dead at the time made no difference now. No one could have survived the collapse. All those unlucky souls who’d been waitlisted right alongside RJ were gone. As the full scope of the tragedy hit me, I let go of the stress and sadness of this unfathomable day. But, as with widescale catastrophes like these, I was far from the only one suffering, and I took solace in my sobs joining in chorus with those around me.

  Once I’d gotten my emotions back in check, I asked the earthquake victim beside me being treated for a possible wrist fracture if I could use her phone. There was no hesitation as she handed it over to me in a fog, mumbling the code to unlock it. Her zombie-like reaction told me everything I needed to know about her—she’d been one of my neighbors.

  The first person I called from the borrowed phone was my mother, who nearly collapsed at the sound of my voice. She’d seen the news and knew it was my building. Not having heard any word from me since after the quake, she’d assumed the worst. Uncharacteristic babblings of love followed. From her. From me. As I rattled off an outline of my day from hell, my mother was there for me—holding strong and keeping me sane. In true helicopter mom fashion, she immediately went to work trying to fix the problem, making lists of everything we’d need to do to get me back on my feet again.

  We. There was that word again. I liked the sound of that. So much of today had been me and making decisions I wasn’t sure were right. Going back inside the garage. Leaving RJ to die. Helping free him from his prison by picking up the knife. I blinked the nasty image from my mind. Mom was here now. She’d make everything right. I’d never been so grateful to be raised by such a capable and determined woman.

  My thoughts returned to RJ and his messy origin story. If only he’d had such support growing up. No one should ever have to worry that their death will be a benefit to others. How lonely his big, flashy life must have been if he had no one to truly trust.

  The second call I made was to Donny. Again, not my first choice, but his was still the only number I remembered. Thankfully Donny seemed to have finished his video game sometime between my last call and now, and he was more attentive to me this time around. But as I learned in the course of our conversation, his newfound focus was because he’d been scolde
d in a group chat with other members of the Lucky Swimmers Club after letting it slip that he’d received a distress call from me and had done jack shit to help. Maybe this was just his way of getting back into their good graces, but I didn’t care. The dude was now fully clothed and willing to do just about anything I asked.

  His mission was simple—inform the sibs that I was being treated for dehydration and would be released from the hospital in a few hours. He was also tasked with putting out the word that I needed a place to crash until I could secure myself new housing. My mother, of course, had insisted on me coming home, and I’d given the idea some serious thought, but my childhood home was a good two hours away, and I couldn’t be that far from RJ, not until I knew he was going to be okay.

  Just after returning the phone, I saw Parker walking toward me like some mirage. My lips began to quiver, and I opened my arms to him. I knew it was probably against some rule of the firefighter code to hug the clientele, but we were past protocol.

  His arms wrapped around me and I had another good cry on his shoulder before any words were exchanged between us. Parker’s uniform soaked up my tears, and once I’d gained control again, he let me go.

  “Better?” he asked, looking a little less prepubescent with a five-o’clock shadow dusting his jawline after what had to have been a very long shift for him, no thanks to me.

  “Better,” I confirmed. “What do you know about RJ?”

  “He’s in surgery. The paramedics were able to stabilize him on the way over. I saw RJ just before they took him back to the operating room. He was somewhat awake and moving his head around. He’s in good hands.”

  I absorbed everything he said while nodding my approval. “I never should have forced you to make that decision. On the walkie-talkie… I was just distraught. I’m sorry I put you in the position I did. I hope you aren’t going to lose your job over this.”

  “I won’t. My captain was down there too.”

  “You could’ve died.”

  Parker didn’t respond, probably because he knew I’d spoken the truth and didn’t want to make me feel worse than I already did. I grabbed his hand and squeezed my gratitude.

  Clearing his throat, he said, “I’ve got to get home. Haven’t slept in almost forty-eight hours. You’re one tough chick, Gladys. I don’t regret a thing.”

  “Neither do I. And Parker? Thank you. It doesn’t feel like a strong enough word, but it’s all I got.”

  “It’s all I need… well, that and some backstage passes.”

  I felt better after Parker’s visit. He’d taken one less worry off the roster. He’d absolved me of the guilt of putting him and his fellow firefighters in harm’s way. And with the slow drip of fluids returning my body to its normal functioning state, I could focus on the other nagging items on my list. Where would I live? Was my classroom still standing? And would I even still have a job once a snapshot of my grainy face on the store’s security camera was placed on the principal’s desk?

  But there was more. What was going to happen between RJ and me? We had, after all, exchanged some pretty heavy words in those final moments together, just before all hope was lost. I’d even uttered the big L, and meant it from the deepest depths of my soul. But what now? There was no doubt in my mind what we’d experienced together in that garage—what we’d said to each other—was real, but who was to say it wasn’t merely situational and that our connection had been forged out of desperation by a man who had no options left?

  “You’ve run dry,” a nurse said, startling me out of my thoughts as she checked the saline bag hanging to my side. “Vitals look good. How are you feeling?”

  “Better. Will I be released soon?”

  “You’re all stitched up and the blood work is back. There’s no infection. The doctor will be by in a few minutes, and as long as she doesn’t have any further concerns, you should be free to go.”

  I let out the breath I’d been holding since being informed an infection might land me in the hospital for a week, maybe two. What good would I be to RJ tethered to an IV in a hospital bed?

  “That’s a relief,” I said, and without really thinking I asked, “Have you heard any word on RJ? Is he still in surgery?”

  The woman looked up from the IV drip, her utter surprise telling me I wouldn’t be getting any insider information from her. “RJ Contreras? He’s here? At this hospital? So the rumors are true?”

  Her answer surprised me. I just figured she’d know the goings-on of her own hospital, but apparently not. And what did she mean by rumors? What exactly was circulating out there? What if my interview had unleashed something entirely unintended?

  “Oh, I… I don’t know.” I stumbled over the words. “I just thought…”

  “Wait—you’re not the girl everyone’s talking about, are you?”

  Jerking my head up, I caught her curious stare. The girl? Oh, shit. Had I become part of the save RJ campaign? That had never been the intention. I’d kept my face and identity hidden in order to keep the focus on him.

  I looked to my left. Broken wrist woman was blinking at me with wide, interested eyes. I looked to my right. More of the same. They were leaving me no doubt—the girl in RJ’s story was trending.

  “Me? No. I heard it on Twitter.”

  The nurse’s face fell in disappointment. The wrist lady looked away. In a matter of seconds, I’d gone back to the nobody I’d always been comfortable being.

  Not long after that odd encounter, the doctor came and officially discharged me—but not before word arrived from hospital staff that my mother had called and that she could not get to me due to road closures that had turned her back around on the two-hour drive. And so, I exited the emergency room minutes later utterly alone. It was a weird feeling, being on my own in this new world order. I wasn’t sure what to do or where to go. I was a wilted ghost, wandering the halls. How strange a feeling it was to move from operating on the highest level of octane the body could sustain to this, a deflated balloon with nothing left but its withered remains. And without a phone, I was even more disconnected from the world. I needed to know what was happening around me, though at the same time, I dreaded the news.

  I followed signs toward the exit, though I had no intention of leaving the hospital. The plan—my only plan—was to find the waiting room for surgery patients and settle myself down on a plastic chair until I got some word on RJ. It wasn’t like I had anywhere else to go. I was homeless, penniless, and scared out of my wits for a man I might possibly love. Until I learned his fate, I would not leave this place.

  As I turned the corner, the corridor opened up into a large brightly lit waiting room, and that was where I saw them, taking up a whole wall of the waiting room. There were at least two dozen of them.

  “There she is!” Simone called out. “Thank god.”

  My shoulders slumped and tears of relief burst from my eyes as my siblings rushed toward me. Reese got there first, her pregnant belly bumping into my stomach before her arms wrapped tightly around me. Kimber was close behind. Ross and Charlie were joined by Otis as they formed a tight circle around me. But more kept squeezing in. Tim, Simone, Conrad, Kaia. My siblings had heard the cry for help and had dropped everything to be by my side. I sobbed, not from sadness this time but from the relief of knowing I had their unconditional support, which would enable me to come out of this disaster fully intact.

  Almost as amazing as being there for me emotionally, my brothers and sisters had also planned several steps ahead so I wouldn’t have to. Having taken up a collection, they’d gathered enough money that I didn’t need to worry about how I would get through the next few weeks.

  Slipping an arm around my waist, my sister Cleo announced, “And you’ll be staying with me, sis.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Of course. We have a spare room and have de-slobbered it just for you.”

  Cleo’s baby, a six-year-old bulldog named Bubba, a drooling, farting, bad-breath machine, was giving up his nap roo
m just for me.

  “Thank you.” I hugged her tight.

  RJ’s pick for the Norman Bates of my sibling unit, Landry, stepped up and thrust a phone in my hand.

  “Here. It’s yours to keep.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked, shocked by his generosity. “This is expensive.”

  He shrugged. “My mom gets me the newest model every birthday.”

  “Oh, wow,” I said, trying not to judge him too harshly with last year’s iPhone model in my hand. Regardless of how he’d come by it, I was still unbelievably grateful to have my connection to the world restored.

  “And don’t worry, I erased anything that could get you in trouble with the law.”

  I caught Ross in the background, with those wide disbelieving eyes of his, and I knew what he was thinking. If any of Landry’s search history remained, I could one day expect a visit from the FBI. But I ignored Ross because I needed this phone, and I would risk the consequences down the road.

  “Ah, Landry. Look at you, coming in clutch,” I said, hugging his totally stiff body before letting him go. “Thank you for this.”

  He blushed, looking more uncomfortable with my affection than charmed. “I have my computer with me. When you’re ready, you can sign into your cloud and download your contacts.”

  “You’re the best. Thanks.”

  “Story time,” Otis declared, taking my hand and leading me back to a row of chairs. “Tell us exactly what happened. And don’t leave out any part where the scrumptious RJ Contreras stars.”

  And so, as my siblings gathered around, I told them the events of the day, leaving out one detail—that the final cut that had amputated RJ’s foot came from my shaky hand. I would’ve preferred not to bring up the amputation at all, believing it was RJ’s choice to reveal that information, but my siblings already knew, since word of his dramatic rescue was spreading across the globe. Yet despite not giving my brothers and sisters every gory detail, I gave them enough that there wasn’t a closed mouth in the group when I was finished.