“I’m sorry,” she said again.
“Is this your bag, ma’am?” The cab driver pointed at her suitcase and Alice nodded, brushing away the tears with the sleeve of her shirt. Phillip grinned.
“Be careful, it’s pretty heavy.” Once the driver was loading her bag, he looked at Alice. “If you think you can forget about him, call me.” She turned her eyes to the ground and he sighed. “Goodbye, Alice. I hope we see each other again sometime.”
“Me too,” she said, looking back up at him. Then she got into the car, said something to the driver, and waved goodbye to Phillip out of the window. He watched her car until it was gone, then went into the hangar to get some help bringing in his plane.
Maybe I’ll see if any of my buddies want to go somewhere for a drink, he thought. A couple of drinks.
Twenty-Seven
“Miss Graesser, there’s a telephone call for you.”
“Oh?” Alice looked up from her translation to find the secretary staring at her. “Tell them I’ll be there in just a moment.” She carefully marked the page in the book she was working on and capped her pen, then got up and walked up to the front with a knot of dread in her stomach. The last time someone had called her at the office she had died.
While she had been gone they had put a second line in just for her boss, so the company line was moved from her boss’ office to the front desk. Alice didn’t get calls frequently but she much preferred the privacy she used to have when she took them.
“This is Alice Graesser,” she said cautiously, not sure what to expect. One thing was for sure, she was finished with favors.
“Hello again, Alice!” A voice she hadn’t heard for more than two weeks sent a shiver down her spine and Alice forced herself to smile so the secretary wouldn’t suspect anything.
“Nadir,” she said. “How are you?”
“Fine, just fine. The head of the anthropology department agreed to have you translate some of those papers for us, but that’s not why I called.” He sounded far too happy and the effort of smiling was making Alice’s face hurt. She hadn’t been doing much of it since she came back from India.
“You must have missed the sound of my voice,” she said, wishing he would get to the point.
“Yes, but there’s more. Right after we came back the Indian government got in touch with me about Kiran. They were shocked that he would have willingly helped Nazis set up an archaeological dig with the purpose of stealing artifacts and said they would like to send us something of a reward. I just got the checks today if you’re available to come by and pick it up.” Alice was impressed with both the generosity of the government and their acceptance of the story they’d crafted. They’d given the authorities just enough of the truth to satisfy them, but it was a little more flimsy than Alice was comfortable with and she had halfway expected someone to call and tell her they knew the truth. Not only that, she was just starting to rebuild the wall around her heart and going out to the University was the last thing she wanted to do.
“Can’t you just mail it to me? Or send a courier?”
“I’m afraid I don’t feel comfortable mailing a check of this size,” he said apologetically. “Not to mention I need to give you your fee for consulting on the dig and the papers to translate. I’d rather give them to you in person. I promise I won’t keep you too long.”
“Oh, all right.” She looked up at the clock. “I can be there about one-thirty.”
“Excellent. I look forward to seeing you again.” Nadir hung up and Alice managed to hold back her sigh until she got back to the room that had now been designated her office. She hadn’t wanted to spend her lunch opening a wound that was just starting to heal but she also didn’t want to be rude, and if he wasn’t going to mail it to her she would have to go sometime. Alice put on her coat and hat, picked up her pocketbook, then went to her boss’ office and knocked on the door.
“Come in.” Levi saw her and smiled broadly. “Good afternoon, Alice. I thought you’d already gone to lunch.”
“I’m just leaving now,” she said. “I may be a bit late coming back, I need to go out to the University to pick up something from Professor Kharyam.”
“Take as much time as you need,” Levi said. “You’ve been working awfully hard since you came back, I would have expected you to at least take a few days off.”
“I shudder to think how much more work I would have to catch up on if I took any more time off,” Alice said, hoping she wasn’t fidgeting. “Anyhow, I’ll be back a bit later. Dr. Kharyam convinced them to give us some translation work too.”
“Wonderful. We can always use more business,” Levi said. “Have a good lunch.”
“Thank you.” Alice left his office and said goodbye to the secretary on her way out, then pulled up her coat against the wind. It had only gotten colder since they’d left and she almost wished for the warmth of India.
She took a cab to the University, determined to be on time for once, and made it there early. Though she’d only been to Nadir’s office once, she remembered the way well for someone who had been dashing down the halls on her last visit. This time she took her time and instead of bursting in, knocked lightly on the door. Nadir’s voice invited her in and she opened the door to find him standing beside his desk talking to George.
Damn you and your meddling, she thought, forcing another smile onto her face. I should have known there was something he wasn’t telling me.
“Alice,” Nadir said with a smile. “You’re early.”
“I’m as surprised as you are,” she said. “I really must be getting back to the office, though. I’m working on translating some newspapers from Mexico and the Spanish is a bit different from what I’m used to.” She was completely aware that she was babbling but she was trying her best not to give George a chance to speak, afraid of what he might say. “I’m on my lunch break.”
“Then I won’t keep you,” Nadir said. He handed her two plain white envelopes and one large manila one. “There are some papers in there we’d like translated from Gujarati if you’re up to it. The anthropology department gave the okay for you to do it.”
“Of course,” Alice said, deciding that the next time she would insist on a courier, even if she had to pay for it out of her own pocket. “Thank you for everything, Nadir. I’ll send these back as soon as possible.” She turned to George and nodded for politeness’ sake. “Good day, George.” Not giving him a chance to reply, she left the office and walked briskly down the hall toward the door.
“Alice, wait!” Footsteps on the tile floor caught up to her quickly and Alice turned to see George standing behind her with his coat over his arm. Even after everything that had happened, she still ached for him. “About that dinner---”
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to hold you to it,” Alice said, tucking the white envelopes into her pocketbook. “We can just think of everything that happened as another strange shared dream.” The words burned her mouth and she turned away again before George could see it. He grabbed her arm before she could leave.
“I need to talk to you,” he began, then stopped when a pretty woman a bit younger than Alice came down the hall with a smile on her face.
“There you are, George!” Her smart, no-nonsense shoes clicked on the floor and even though she was dressed more casually than Alice, she felt old and dowdy. “Nadir said you just left.” She looked at Alice. “You must be Alice.”
“I am,” she said with the smile she was tired of forcing. Maybe I will take the afternoon off.
“Alice, this is Sylvia,” George said quietly. “My ex-wife.”
“How nice to meet you,” Alice said, offering a hand. She was nothing like Alice expected and her handshake was firm and businesslike. “You’re a teacher here?”
“Yes,” Sylvia said with a pleasant smile, and Alice’s stomach turned over. Even though she knew she never had a chance with George, for some reason meeting Sylvia made her want to cry. “We were just meeting to have lunch, t
hough.”
“Don’t let me keep you,” Alice said. “I have to get back to the office.” She held up the manila envelope. “Nadir gave me this on top of all the work that backed up when I was out of the country.”
“Of course,” Sylvia said. “Isn’t that how it always goes? Well, it was a pleasure to meet you, Alice. I hope I’ll see you again around the school.” She pulled George in the opposite direction and he left without another word to Alice, who watched him go with an aching in her chest until he was gone. Then she turned away and went to the bursar’s office.
“May I use the telephone, please?” She dialed the number from memory and waited until someone picked up. “Hello, Mr. Goldman? I’m suddenly not feeling well. Would it be all right if I took the afternoon off?”
“Of course,” Levi said. “Take tomorrow too if you like.” Alice smiled with relief.
“I appreciate the offer but I’ll be back in tomorrow morning. I’ve got so much to catch up on.” They said their goodbyes and Alice thanked the clerk and went outside to find a cab. The wind stung her eyes, giving her permission to cry a little.
When she got back home, Alice took off her hat and coat and went into her bedroom to take off her shoes. She sat on the bed and looked around the room. It was quiet and she closed her eyes, trying to remember the last kiss George had given her before he disappeared. When she opened them again her eyes fell on a hair pick laying on her nightstand. Alice picked it up and turned it around in her hand.
How did this get here? I’m sure I lost it in the lake, she thought. The smooth wood beneath her fingers reminded her of how happy she’d been when George bought it for her, sending real tears running down her face. They dripped off her chin and she didn’t bother wiping them away. Alice held the pick to her chest and gave in, crying harder than she had since the first time she’d left India. I still love him. No matter what, I’ll never stop loving him.
For a moment she considered putting the pick in her hair, but instead she went over to her jewelry box and placed it carefully in the bottom with her mother’s costume jewelry. Then she closed the lid and laid on her bed, wondering when the pain would finally go away. She had a feeling it wouldn’t be soon.
Twenty-Eight
Alice looked at her watch and started walking faster. The day she had walked into Nadir’s office almost three months earlier had been one of the few times she had been early for anything. Today her best friend Tasha’s boys’ birthday party was supposed to be starting in ten minutes and she was still at least twenty minutes away. Wishing she’d taken a cab, Alice shifted the present she was carrying into a more comfortable position and turned down a side street to take a shortcut.
The street was narrow and a gust of cold wind made her start shivering, and she couldn’t help thinking how happy she would be when spring finally arrived. She was so busy being irritated with the weather that she didn’t hear the man come up behind her.
“Hey lady,” he said, startling Alice. “Can you spare a quarter so I can get me some soup?”
“What?” Alice turned to see a man in dirty, ragged clothes with his hand out and she nodded. She’d given a lot of money to beggars in India when she was younger and the habit had carried over. In New York she didn’t get asked near as often but she still wanted to help. George had always scolded her for it, and the memory of his shaking his head at her made her eyes burn. “Yes, of course,” she said to the homeless man. She switched the present to her hip and opened her pocketbook. “Here you go,” she said, fishing out a quarter. When she went to hand it to him, she saw that he was holding a gun.
“How about you give me that whole purse instead?”
“My purse?” Instinctively, Alice pulled her pocketbook closer, then thought better of it. “All right, here.” She held it out to him and he snatched it out of her shaking hand, leaving the quarter behind in her palm.
“Gee, thanks lady,” he said, grinning. “You’re a stand-up gal.” Then, without taking his eyes off her face, he shot her.
A familiar pain tore into Alice’s stomach and she pressed her hand to it as the gunman ran down to the alley with her purse. The present she had been carrying hit the ground and the quarter fell out of her hand and bounced into the gutter, its face smeared with blood. Dizziness swept over her and she leaned forward, hoping to make it go away. It only made the spinning worse and she tried to stand up straight, knowing she needed to get to help. The heel of one shoe caught the other and she fell back onto the concrete. Blood was soaking through the front of her coat at an alarming rate and she looked at her hand as if it was a foreign object. It was worse than last time, much worse. Just moving sent a bolt of agony through her midsection, and she dropped her hand back to her stomach as she laid her head on the concrete. It was cool and the pain subsided just enough to clear her head.
No, she told herself. You will not just lay here and die. You have to get up. It took every ounce of strength in her body to fight through the pain and struggle to her feet. Blood dripped onto the ground and she held her hand against the wound as she staggered toward the street.
Footsteps came running toward her and she looked up, relieved, to see a man in a neat suit and coat coming down the street. When he saw her, he sped up and reached her just in time for her to fall into his arms. A police officer joined him a moment later and Alice managed a smile.
“Thank goodness,” she said.
“I thought I heard a gunshot,” the man in the suit said. “Are you all right?” Alice didn’t have a chance to reply before he man saw the bloody front of her coat and gasped. “We have to get you to a hospital!”
“I’ll radio the ambulance,” the officer said, running back toward the street. The man looked down at Alice.
“Are you able to walk if I help you?”
“I should be---” A burning pain shot through Alice, cutting her off in mid-sentence, and she suddenly remembered George’s words. He said gut wounds bleed a lot and are dangerous. Her knees went out from under her and the man in the suit scooped her up effortlessly. It reminded her of how George had carried her out of the cave and for a moment all she could think about was his face. George, she thought.
“The ambulance is on the way,” the officer said when she and the man in the suit emerged onto the street. A crowd of people was already gathering and Alice looked up at him.
“Bellevue,” she said, grimacing in pain. “You have to take me to Bellevue.”
“That’s on the other side of town,” the officer said. “And we still have to wait for the ambulance. You’ll die before we get there.”
“Please,” Alice said. “I have to go there. It’s extremely important.”
“I’ll take her,” a voice said, and Alice raised her head to see a cab driver pointing at his car. “Put her in here.” The officer looked as if he was going to protest but the man who had come to help her took her to the cab immediately and the cab driver helped him get her into the back seat.
“I’m sorry,” Alice said as the driver slid behind the seat and turned on the engine. “I’m getting blood all over your cab.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said, pulling out into traffic. “No complaining about my driving, though.”
If you can get me to Bellevue, I don’t care if you run every light there is, she thought, keeping pressure on her stomach in the hopes of slowing the bleeding a little.
The cab driver was true to his word and got her to Bellevue while she was still conscious. Halfway there, a dizziness that made her motion sickness look tame had overcome her and she spent the rest of the ride fighting to keep her head above water. The driver pulled up to the door where the ambulances were parked, threw his car into park, and grabbed Alice from the back seat without even turning off the engine. The movement of his running made her body hurt but the pain kept her awake so she didn’t so much as wince for fear he would slow down.
“I need some help here,” he shouted as he burst into the emergency room, getting the attenti
on of every person in the room. “This lady has been shot!”
Instantly the world around Alice was in motion. A gurney was brought over and the cab driver laid her on it gently. Alice was dismayed to see that his shirt was covered in blood and she opened her mouth to tell him that she would pay for the cleaning, but no words came out. The world started to turn gray and Alice couldn’t quite put together why it was so important to get to this hospital. A doctor leaned over her and shined a penlight in her eyes in a way that reminded her of George, and she remembered why she was at Bellevue. She’d forgotten for a moment but his face came back to her and color bloomed back into the hospital around her.
“She’s lost a lot of blood,” the emergency room doctor said, shaking his head. “We’ll have to get her into surgery immediately before she bleeds out.”
“George,” Alice managed, her voice weak enough to be a whisper. “I need you to get me George.”
“George?” The doctor frowned and for a split second Alice was afraid she had come to the wrong hospital. Surely he had said Bellevue, though. There was no other hospital in New York with a name that was even close.
“Do you mean Dr. Bennett?” A young, pretty nurse stood beside her and relief washed over Alice.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes, that’s him.”
“I think he’s in intensive care,” the nurse said. “He was going up with a patient.”
“We could definitely use him,” the doctor said. “Go find him and get him down here.” With a nod, the nurse ran off down the hall and Alice thought she must really be in bad shape for her to run like that. The doctor took Alice’s pulse. “We’ll get you back and start prepping you for surgery,” he said. “I promise you Dr. Bennett will be here as soon as possible.”
Drowned History Page 17