by S. E. Amadis
“Well, there are some circumstances in which you should give water, and some in which you shouldn’t. I haven’t got that all sorted but then I’m not gonna be a nurse. So I gave you some water from a bottle that I always carry around with me. Well, you and Romeo too.”
I started up.
“Romeo. How is he?” I cried, starting to feel desperate as memory returned to me.
Lindsay laid her hand soothingly on my arm.
“Don’t worry. He’s doing great. They’ve got him in at Sick Kids but he’ll be out soon. I’m going to pick him up myself.”
I glanced around. Now that I could remember, it was clear I was in a hospital.
“How did you find me?” I said.
“You gave me the address, remember? When you called me, when you were looking for Romeo. You said you were there, at that address.”
I glared at her.
“So what the hell took you so long to come for me?”
Lindsay giggled.
“Well, I didn’t know there was anything wrong with you, at first,” she exclaimed, defensive. “It was only after you went so many days without answering your phone that I really got worried.”
“And what made you think to come to that address, of all places?”
“Well, you weren’t at any of the usual places. I even went to your office, and they told me you’d been missing for a couple of days. They assumed you were sick. Then I went to your apartment and asked the building manager to let me in. You know, normally he wouldn’t. But he knows me pretty well now and when I told him you’d disappeared he was more than happy to open the door for me—”
“Sounds like that damn building manager’s been letting in half the city lately,” I cut in, a bit annoyed.
Lindsay batted at me.
“Oh, be grateful he has. Or I might never have thought to come looking for you,” she said. “Anyways, I saw your phone in the charger and I knew something was up. You never leave home without your mobile.”
She pulled the armchair next to me and clasped my hands in hers.
“I went everywhere you usually go. I went to Calvin’s house but his neighbours hadn’t seen him in days. So then I really started to worry. I mean, like, I was just freaking out. I mean, I was climbing up the walls. So as a last resort I went to the address you’d told me. The door was open, and I thought that was strange. So I went in. And I could see there’d been a fight there. So then I got alarmed. I remembered you told me about this place and it was the last time I’d talked to you. So I got down to exploring the whole house.”
She cracked a smile at me.
“I’ll bet you’re sure glad I did. Aren’t you?”
I giggled and reached out to hug my bestie.
“Where’s Calvin?” I said. “Do you know?”
“Of course I do. I sent him down to get a coffee. Cos he was just tipping over on his feet, he was so tired. He’s not all that recovered yet, you know. I told him he oughta go home and sleep for twenty-four hours, but he refused to leave your side.”
The sigh of relief I breathed swept all the way down to my toes.
“So he’s not dead,” I murmured.
Lindsay nudged me playfully with her fist.
“Course he’s not dead. Just bleary-eyed. You’ll see, he’s just fine.”
I glanced down and noted with surprise all the many fine cuts dotting my hands and arms. Lindsay followed my gaze.
“Oh yeah, that sleaze of a nut, Bruno, really cut you up good and well, he did. But you’ll get better soon and they said you won’t have any scars. You’re lucky.”
“I’m lucky?”
Lindsay grinned.
“Yes you are!” She spoke emphatically.
“I’m all cut up, I nearly died, and you think I’m lucky?”
“Well, it’s nothing permanent. It could’ve been much worse,” she pointed out optimistically.
We stared at each other in silence.
“You know that whacko, Bruno, is dead, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I just heard the news, while I was coming to. I didn’t realize they were talking about him, though.”
“Well, they said their names.”
I nodded.
“Yeah. But I was too out of it to pay much attention.”
I looked down at the blanket.
“Who killed him?”
“They don’t know yet. Geeze, don’t you watch the news?”
We both giggled.
“Well, whoever it is, you ought to be grateful. Now that sleazeball that raped you will never go after you again.”
I shook my head.
“I’m never grateful someone is dead,” I said. “I’m sure he had many good things about him too. At any rate, regardless of what he did, I don’t think he deserved to die.”
Lindsay gaped at me in mock horror.
“You don’t think he deserved to die? Annasuya Rose Adler, I’ve never! You’re much too good. You’re a saint. Normal people like me are just crowing inside cos he’s dead.”
She laced her fingers through mine and gazed into my eyes in wonder.
“I can’t believe I’m looking at you,” she said in a breathy whisper. “Did you know, turns out the police were looking for you after all. Well, you and Romeo, both. But they didn’t even get anywhere near to finding where you were.”
I arched my eyebrows at her.
“How’s that?”
“That addle-brained teacher of Romeo’s – what’s her name?”
“Mrs. Garrison?”
“Yeah, that flakehead. Anyways she called the police, and they tried to call you. But you had your phone disconnected. And then you disappeared too. And no one could find you.”
She made a face.
“They searched your apartment. But it sure didn’t help that you didn’t have any info on Bruno in your computer or on your mobile phone – or at least, nothing like an email address or phone number or anything like that. So they never made the connection.”
“They took my phone and computer?” A wave of indignation washed over me at this unwarranted invasion of my privacy, even though I knew (or at least half believed) they meant well.
Lindsay crinkled up her nose.
“Weeell, I think they did take your computer. But I’m sure they’ll return it to you in half a sec now that you’ve turned up,” she hastened to add, clenching her fist around my arm before I could protest again. “But your phone was still there when I got there. So I guess they must’ve just made a copy of the card or something.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Well, after I found you, they talked to me about it. Only natural, right, seeing as I was the one who found you to begin with and I’m your bestie and all that. Don’t you think? And they explained all this to me.”
She patted my hand.
“But don’t you worry your li’l head ‘bout nothin’ no more. All that’s in the past. Now Bruno’s dead, all they have to do is find his killer. But that’s not got a thing to do with you.”
She giggled all of a sudden as a thought apparently occurred to her.
“Oh, and you know that... Well I’m sure you must’ve noticed a skeleton lounging around in the living-room as comfy cosy as you pleased, just like it lived there, right? Well, I mean, it did live there. Do you know who it was? Who it used to be, I mean?”
I nodded thoughtfully as the memory returned, now that she had mentioned it.
“Yes. Sandy said something about how it once was Bruno’s sister? Is that true?”
Lindsay seized my hand and cracked up, dropping her head face down on the bedsheet.
“Yeah. That guy was seriously fucked up. That same police agent, or detective or I dunno what he was. Anyways he told me just this morning that turns out that creepy crawly thing’d been dead for over fifteen years. Can you imagine living with a thing like that in the middle of your living-room for fifteen years? Phew!” She pinched her nose in mock horror.
“Did Bruno
really kill her?”
Lindsay shrugged.
“They don’t know. They’re still looking into it. Anyways, do we care? That freaky murdering rapist’s dead now.” She seized me by the collar of my flimsy hospital gown and drew her face up close to mine, shaking me. “Dead, d’you hear, Annasuya? He’s dead as a doornail now.”
There was a stirring at the door. I glanced up, and Calvin waltzed in as hale and hearty as rain.
“Linds, if you want, I’ll stay here and you can go for a cuppa,” he said. Then he saw me. His eyes just melted.
“Annasuya,” he gasped out in a daze.
We just stared at each other.
Then the next thing I knew we were both in each other’s arms, melting into each other like gumdrops on a hot summer’s day.
Lindsay grabbed her handbag and tiptoed to the door.
“I think I’ll go for that cuppa,” she whispered.
We hardly paid any attention to her.
For a long while we just held onto each other and stared into each other’s eyes. Finally, I said:
“You know, I’d been thinking about Eli. And I realized I haven’t been fair to you. I’ve idealized Eli. But it’s time I moved on now. And made a happy life next to someone else.”
Calvin coughed and fumbled about with his hands.
“You know, I’m... um... Not quite ready for that... um... that type of proposal. I mean, I realize nowadays it’s more common for the woman to—”
I batted at him.
“I was going to propose that you move in with me. Not stand under the canopy with me,” I exclaimed.
Calvin breathed an enormous sigh of relief.
“Only that?”
We grasped each other’s hands some more.
“Don’t you want to know how I got out?” Calvin asked at last.
I shook my head.
“I don’t really care. I only care that you’re here now.” I paused. “But anyways, how did you get out?”
“It was easy. When I woke up, my mind was a blank. I found myself lying all alone in some bushes. I wondered if I lived in that house. But when I went to try the door it was locked. I looked all over myself for a key, but of course I couldn’t dig up anything. So then I figured, I said to myself: geeze, you know, tough guy – I called myself tough guy cos I couldn’t remember my name. Anyways, as I was saying, I said to myself: it’s not normal to not even know your own name, big guy. Something’s up. So I figured I’d hitchhike to a hospital. So I got myself onto the road and started to hitch a ride—”
“You what?” I shrieked. “You hitchhiked? Don’t you know how dangerous that is, in this day and age? With all those depraved, perverted...”
Calvin nudged at me.
“Well, what did you expect me to do? I didn’t have any money on me. And besides which...”
He patted himself on the chest.
“You can see I’m here. Nothing happened to me.”
“Okay, okay. So you hitchhiked. But weren’t you terribly hurt? And how did you get your memory back?”
Calvin touched himself all over.
“Well, I wouldn’t exactly qualify what Bruno did to me as terribly hurt.”
He stroked one of the little wounds on my hand.
“You were much worse off than me. I just got a knock on the head.”
I patted his head consolingly.
“Is your head much better now?” I crooned. “You didn’t get a concussion or anything, did you?”
Calvin laughed heartily.
“The doctors were scared I did. But apparently, I’ve got the skull of a football player.”
We both laughed this time.
“Anyways, they did have me in for a coupla days for observation. But then I got my memory back, just like that. So I left. And I came looking for you, at Bedford Park. But of course by then, you were already gone. There was this yellow police tape all around the house. So I panicked. I hightailed it to your apartment and picked up my phone. Fortunately, Linds had already left about a thousand messages, explaining what had happened to you.”
He bent over me and we kissed. The sweetest, most nostalgic kiss I’d ever shared with anyone.
*
Life became a hundred times more delicious after I returned home. I savoured every fragrance, every aroma, the humming of bees and the chill of the wind against my skin. I started hugging trees. Lunchtime could last me a full two hours as I relished over every bite and morsel.
And I drank water. Lots of water. I became almost obsessed. I never left home anymore without a good-sized bottle of mineral goodness in my handbag. Even needed to buy a larger handbag, almost a tote, in order to fit these litre-and-a-half affairs into it.
From the moment I woke up, I was incapable of letting Romeo out of my sight. I almost snatched him out of his school and had him transferred somewhere else as a result of Mrs. Garrison’s negligent behaviour. But the principal convinced me to change my mind. And Mrs. Garrison herself was so contrite, tripping over herself to try and make up for her folly, that in the end I relented. In fact, I believed that from now on Mrs. Garrison would take better care of Romeo than anyone else.
Calvin packed his bags and moved in with me. My apartment was small, but his bachelor pad – a mere studio – was minuscule. There was no question which of the two apartments was more suitable for two adults with a child.
The day he moved in, he hooked his arm around my shoulders and rubbed me with affection.
“Now we’re together and I seem to be doing well, we can start looking for a bigger place,” he said.
I nodded a bit indifferently. My perspective had changed a lot. Now I didn’t sweat the small stuff anymore. And our outer circumstances and material conditions had taken second place in my list of priorities. It was more important to me now to simply spend time with the people that I loved. As much time as I could possibly fit in.
I tried to make an appointment to meet up with Lindsay for lunch at least once a week. We also went for walks around the city, hopped on streetcars and buses and just cruised around and explored and enjoyed life.
And of course, Romeo went around with me everywhere when he wasn’t at school.
The last piece of business I still had to take care of was a meeting with Geri at the temp agency. Once again, it wasn’t a requirement. But I simply felt like doing it.
Geri stared at me over her desk without a word as I sat next to her, studying me awkwardly. She had the look on her face that you see on the faces of people who attend the funerals of distant acquaintances. At last I pushed her on the arm.
“It’s okay, Geri. I’m not an eggshell, you know. I wasn’t exactly broken to pieces,” I exclaimed.
Geri grinned contritely.
“Am I that obvious?” She let out a nervous giggle. “I’m sorry, Annasuya. It’s just that I’ve never known anyone who’s gone through so much as you.”
“How do you know?” I said a bit impatiently. “When you meet people, you don’t know all the details of their lives. I’ll bet a ton of women that you see have been raped. Or are grieving for someone that they’ve lost. Or have been the victim of domestic violence. Or were abused as children. You simply can’t have any idea, just from meeting someone and chatting with them for a few minutes.”
I fanned myself with my hand.
“For all you know, maybe even Sandy went through hell when she was a little girl. Or was beaten up in one of her marriages. And that’s why she became the way she became and did the things that she did. There’s no way any of us can tell.”
Geri nodded and sighed.
“You’re absolutely right, Annasuya,” she said.
Hugh burst in on us as usual at that moment. I was starting to get used to his puppy-dog mannerisms by now.
“You were on the news, weren’t you, Annasuya?” he exclaimed, making no attempt to disguise his utter fascination.
I waved at him.
“Yeah, yeah. Now the whole country knows my stor
y,” I said in dismay.
Hugh grinned, an enormous smile baring his teeth.
“Don’t be modest. You’re a real heroine. And your son? Whoo-whee. You must be so proud of him.”
I glanced at Geri, and for some reason, we both burst out laughing.
“Yeah, I guess I’m more than just a bit of a proud mami.”
Geri plunked a pile of papers before Hugh.
“Go on, Hugh. Be a good guy and make some photocopies.” She thumbed carefully through the sheets and showed them to Hugh with exaggerated gestures. “I want three copies of each sheet. And everything neatly sorted out and stapled,” she called after him as he bore the pile away, staggering under its weight even though it really didn’t look that heavy. “That should keep him occupied for a while, so we can talk,” she explained as soon as he was out of earshot.
I giggled.
Julia dropped by to see me as well. She actually dared to try and reach out and touch my sleeve.
“It’s just that I’ve never touched someone the television shows call a hero,” she said with a chuckle.
I scowled.
“I’m not a hero. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Julia shook her head.
“Well, I am a bit sorry. We were the ones who’d sent you to Bruno to begin with.”
I made a batting motion at her.
“Don’t sweat it, Julia. You didn’t know. It was impossible to tell. No one knew what Bruno was like.” I smiled. “After all, it’s not like the agency administers a psychology test to every one of your clients, is it?”
Julia nodded thoughtfully.
“We should,” she said quietly. Then she patted me on the arm and left.
“So. What now?” Geri asked brightly after Julia disappeared.
“Well, I just need to keep working. Although obviously, not at Sandy’s company.”
Geri raised a finger.
“You know, unlikely though it seems, one good thing that has come out of all this hullaballoo is that several companies have actually emailed me offering you a position – a temp one, of course – on their staff. And at generous rates too. Isn’t it ironic?”
She grasped her mouse and began flipping through files on her computer.
“Look, Annasuya. You get to pick between all of these companies. Which one do you prefer?”