Love Immortal

by Linnea Hall

  “Can you sit down? Do you have some time to stay?” He was afraid that like before, she had only come by out of professional concern for his wellbeing, that upon seeing his improving condition, she would leave again to check on other patients or ready herself for her shift.

  “I’d like to, if you don’t mind.” She walked timidly into the room and sat carefully on the edge of the recliner next to his bed.

  “I was hoping that you would come by again. I know you don’t need to come up here, that I’m not part of your duties anymore.”

  “Really? You wanted to see me again?” Ugh, too eager. Maybe he just liked having someone to talk to. It seemed obvious that no one came to visit, and most nurses didn’t spend a lot of time socializing with their patients; not because they were unkind, but because they were usually very busy and responsible for many patients.

  “Yes, I really wanted to see you again.” He tried his lopsided smile again, hoping that it wasn’t too hideous. He had scrupulously avoided mirrors since arriving. He moved his good hand to the edge of the bed, palm up, an invitation.

  When his hand moved to the edge of the bed, Jewell felt a flash of hope move through her and the butterflies turned into bats. Did he want her to hold his hand? She slowly moved her hand towards his, hesitant, but eager. She gently brushed the tips of her fingers against his and was shocked at the sudden searing heat that surged through her body and turned to a smoldering burn. Collin carefully curled his fingers, pulling her hand into his.

  She was overjoyed when his hand curled around hers, holding her, unwilling to let go. His touch was warm, like hot chocolate on a winter day. It warmed her hand the warmth flowed through her, engulfing her in his touch

  They sat like this, without speaking, until Jewell had to leave for her shift. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. That it felt so normal made it that much better. Jewell didn’t want to leave, almost couldn’t leave, but she had to. He looked at her as she stood up and released his hand. “Will you come to visit again?”

  “Of course.”

  *

  At the end of her shift, Jewell couldn’t move fast enough to change. She slipped out of her scrubs, and back into the outfit she had been wearing the night before. Instead of waiting for the elevator, she ran up the stairs. She arrived on the sixth floor, breathless. She took several deep breaths as she walked towards his room. When she stood before his door this time, there was no fear, no hesitation. She pushed the door open slowly, it was still early in the morning and she didn’t want to wake him if he was sleeping.

  He was waiting, lying on his back, looking at the door. “Honeysuckle,” he said when she came to sit in the blue vinyl recliner next to his bed. He was smiling, only half of his face, but she knew that if it could, it would light up his whole face.

  “What?” It was a strange greeting, and confused her.

  “That’s what you smell like; honeysuckle. It was really strong last night when you came in, but it’s more subtle now; hidden a bit under the antiseptic soap smell.” He wrinkled his face in disgust.

  “Yeah, the antiseptic soap doesn’t smell really great does it? The honeysuckle is from my yard at home. It’s pretty much taken over and choked out anything else that had been trying to grow. My mother planted it, so my dad refuses to dig it up – though I don’t think it would hurt to trim it back a bit now and then.” She smiled, thinking of the summer that she almost gave her father a heart attack when he came home and found her pulling it up by the handful. “I like to collect it when it blooms and make potpourri with it.”

  “The smell suits you. I remember it from the last spring my uncle and I were living in South Carolina. It grew on the fences there. The fragrance when it first blossomed was overwhelming. It was almost enough to make you dizzy. It bloomed all summer, but the smell wasn’t as strong as in the spring. I would sometimes walk along the fence so I could breathe in its fragrance, it made me feel…content. I wasn’t sure why; it reminded me of something, but I never figured out what it was. Have you ever had that happen, you hear something, or smell something that you’ve experienced before, but no matter how hard you try, you just can’t remember what it was?”

  “I do, all the time. I think that’s because I have a bad memory though.” They both laughed. Then they sat silently, neither of them knowing what to say.

  Finally, Collin looked at her, “Now I know what it was. I was remembering you; I just didn’t know it yet.” His gaze moved from her face to look past her, out the window at the buildings beyond, almost as if he was suddenly shy.

  Jewell felt a single tear roll down her cheek. It was the same way she felt looking at him in the ER, they were supposed to have met before, but something kept their paths from crossing.

  Jewell couldn’t stay long. She still had to work. She brushed her hand along his arm as she left, feeling his hard muscles underneath the flesh. Where her hand touched his arm, Collin felt a ribbon of fire.

  The next morning, Jewell came to sit with Collin again. “You said you moved here from South Carolina? Did you live there a long time?” Jewell had never been outside a one hundred mile radius of her home town.

  “No. We lived there when we first came back to the states. We, my uncle and I, had been living in the UK, but before that we lived in Italy.”

  “Wow.” His life was so much more exciting than hers. “Is your uncle in the military?”

  “Well, no. Not really. We just move around a lot. I guess my uncle has a severe case of wanderlust.” He didn’t want to tell her that his uncle was running from something, for Collin’s whole life, they had been hiding from some unnamed, unseen enemy.

  “So it’s just you and your uncle then? What about your parents?”

  “Both of my parents died when I was very young. They were murdered.” He shrugged a little, as if he were trying to shrug off the pain.

  “I’m sorry. My mom died when I was ten, so I know what it’s like.”

  “Well, I never knew them, but somehow, it still hurts. I miss the parents I wish I had, if that makes sense. My uncle has been taking care of me ever since, and I love him, but somehow it’s not the same.” He paused for a minute.

  “Yeah, I guess I can see what you mean. I’ve always had my dad, and I had my mom for ten years. I really miss her though. She’s the reason I became a nurse.” She swallowed the lump that rose into her throat thinking about her mother. Even after all these years, it’s still like she died yesterday.

  Jewell reached for Collin’s hand suddenly needing the comfort. “So, you’ve lived in Italy?” Jewell asked when she felt like she could speak again without her voice breaking.

  “Yeah, overseas we lived in Italy, Romania, France and the UK. Here, we’ve lived in Montana, South Carolina, and now Louisiana. We usually stay someplace for a few years and then move.”

  “So you have a lot of family?”

  “No, not really; they’re not really my aunts and uncles. Just close friends of my uncle. He’s been travelling for several years and has met a lot of people. Everyone we stay with has known my uncle for years.”

  “So, are you staying with someone here? Your ‘family’ I mean?” She made little air quotes with her fingers when she said the word family.

  “No, it’s just us this time. We have a house a ways out of town.”

  “I guess that’s why you said you don’t get many visitors. Just your uncle, huh?”

  “I wish! I’ve been here for what, a week now? And he hasn’t stopped in once!” The irritation in his voice was obvious.

  “Well, I do know he came to see you in ICU. Carol at the desk said that he checked in on you. He’s a doctor or something?”

  “Well, it would be nice if he would acknowledge the fact that I’m stuck in this place, and come by to say hello or something! But that’s Uncle Percy. He’s never been one for a lot of emotion. Things just are what they are with him. He’ll probably send a cab to pick me up when I get released!”

  Jewell didn’t kno
w how to respond to that. It seemed strange to her that Collin’s only family wouldn’t come by for a visit. With most patients, you had to practically drag them out when visiting hours were over. She felt bad for Collin, but despite his irritation, she could hear the affection he held for his uncle in his voice. She could tell that he knew his uncle really did care about his wellbeing, even if he didn’t come to visit. She glanced at her watch. She wanted to stay all day, but she had to work the night shift and still needed to go home to get some sleep. She said goodbye and promised to stop by at the start of her next shift.

  CHAPTER 9

  Edgar tried to move into the hospital after the doctor had announced that the press conference was over. His explanation, that the victim had not actually been “clinically” dead, and therefore had not actually been “brought back to life,” did not sway Edgar in his convictions. Joey, a friend of Edgar’s and an orderly in the hospital, had told Edgar what had really happened. The man had been clinically dead, his heart had stopped beating and the doctors had called the time of death. The dead body, Edgar knew he had been dead, had been in the room for more than ten minutes after the doctors had called it. Unfortunately for Edgar, his friend had been a bit tardy in removing the body, so it didn’t go unnoticed when the body had come back to life. This upset Edgar. If the body had come back to life in the morgue, Joey would have been the only one to know about it, and could have discretely removed the now living body from the hospital. Bodies went missing from time to time.

  This person was an infidel, a defiler of the Grail. There had been other suspected infidels, but this was the first Edgar identified. Some truly were infidels; some were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Without a trial, it’s difficult to really know for sure. Just so, people disappeared all the time, and despite the crime shows on television that showed week after week how a single hair at a murder investigation could lead to the murderer, Edgar knew that most police departments were neither that sophisticated, nor capable of solving a well-executed murder.

  Immediately following the press conference the sheriff didn’t let anyone into the hospital. Edgar tried again later that afternoon to enter through the main entrance. He walked casually past the front desk and was on his way to the elevators when he was stopped by security and escorted from the hospital.

  After midnight, Edgar returned to the hospital, this time entering through the ER. He first tried to make it to the elevators, but was told he needed to check in at the desk. Edgar checked in, giving a false name and stating that he was having chest pains. He was put in a curtained off area in the emergency ward.

  When the nurse left, Edgar got out of his chair walked towards the elevators. He was just about to push one of the buttons when another security guard asked him where he was going. He told the security guard that he was confused, that he didn’t know where he was. He was escorted back to the nurses’ station and then escorted back to the where he had been before. This time when the nurse left, Edgar left the hospital.

  This, he realized, was going to be more difficult than he thought. Edgar would either need to be sick or injured to be admitted. And then, he would need to be sick enough, or injured badly enough, to warrant an overnight stay in the hospital, hopefully on the same floor as the infidel.

  Edgar started considering injuries that might be sufficient to get him admitted to the hospital. A gunshot wound, but that might raise too many questions. A knife wound, but that would be painful, he might not make the wound deep enough, and he might make it too deep or hit a major organ. Yet another consideration was being admitted to the psych ward, if the investigators thought he was suicidal.

  This was far more difficult than Edgar could imagine. He had to be admitted, but he definitely did not want to die. That was crucial to the plan. Edgar finally determined that a car accident would be the easiest way to get admitted to the hospital. Even if his injuries were minor, the hospital would surely want to keep him overnight for observation.

  Actually planning the car accident was a little more difficult. A single car crash always raised suspicions, unless there were circumstances to suggest that the driver may have lost control. Involving another vehicle in the crash was unacceptable. Edgar finally decided that spilled coffee, especially when it was hot, could definitely cause a driver to lose control.

  A few days later, Edgar drove through the McDonald’s drive-through and purchased a cup of plain black coffee, large. He drove around the corner and poured the cup of coffee into his lap, quickly accelerated, and drove his car down the embankment.

  As the car started to roll, Edgar leaned into the fall. When his car suddenly flipped onto its side, Edgar, to his horror, realized he had not fastened his seatbelt. Now that was stupid, he thought as his head smacked into the passenger side door.

  Edgar wasn’t sure if the car stopped rolling before or after he fell unconscious. He was in a lot of pain. His head was where most of the pain was focused, at the moment, but as he looked down to see his leg bent in a rather unnatural direction, the pain in his head lost precedence to the pain in his leg. He wasn’t sure how badly he was injured, there were parts of him he could not feel at all to his immense concern. When he heard the grating sound on the door above his head he looked up, trying to focus, and saw a fireman trying to pry the car door open.

  He remembered the fireman yelling into his car, trying to get his attention. Edgar tried to respond, but the world quickly swam out of focus and he lost consciousness again.

  Chapter 10

  Jewell found it difficult to concentrate on assigned tasks, and had difficulty remembering the simplest things. She was relieved that she wasn’t assigned to triage. Even though she thought her training would kick in during an emergency, she couldn’t be certain, and she didn’t want to test her theory when someone’s life was at risk.

  Jewell was in a room with a worried mother and her sick toddler taking a history. It didn’t seem serious, probably strep or a bad cold. She never told the patients what she thought, it wasn’t her place to diagnose illness, but she did reassure the mother with a kind smile, and reassuring pat to her hand.

  As Jewell walked out of the examination area, she heard a commotion as a stretcher was unloaded from an ambulance. She stood against the wall while a man was whisked past her into a room. He didn’t look good, but his injuries didn’t look too serious. He was conscious, his eyes darting between the people surrounding him. As he passed her, his eyes found hers. His stare made her uncomfortable. She tried to look away, but was unable to until a paramedic stepped in front of her, breaking the line of sight. Something about that man sent a shiver down her spine making the hairs on the back of her neck prickle.

  Jewell walked toward the nurses’ station to record her notes on the toddler she had just seen. As she walked, she looked back toward the man. Even though she couldn’t see him anymore, her stomach tightened at the thought of being in the same room with him. She hoped she wouldn’t be asked to help in his care.

  At the nurses’ station, Madelyn was sitting at one of the computers typing in notes. Maddie was always a wealth of information. She kept her ears open and never missed a detail. The problem was that she was usually anxious to share those details with anyone who would listen.

  “What do you know about the guy who just came in?” Jewell asked Maddie in the most casual tone she could muster. Jewell was still a little creeped out by that man’s stare

  Maddie grinned and her eyes lit at the opportunity to share some gossip. “Well,” she started, as if the information was so juicy it was just oozing out of her, “it was a one car MVA; the idiot spilled coffee in his lap and drove off the road. What a schmuck!”

  Jewell sighed; Maddie could be a bit judgmental as well. Jewell didn’t dislike Maddie, but sometimes, Jewell found her a bit irritating. Jewell gave her a slight nod and forced a bit of a smile in appreciation for the information.

  “They’ll probably just keep him overnight for observation because he has a co
ncussion, and then send him home in the morning. Idiot! Coffee! Can you believe it? What a moron!”

  Jewell looked at her notes as she rolled her eyes, shut her folder and stood up. She smiled, “Thanks Maddie. I’ll probably see you later.”

  “Sure Jewell, see you around.” Jewell heard Maddie giggle quietly to herself and mutter the word “idiot” under her breath as Jewell walked away.

  Jewell turned her thoughts back to Collin. She glanced at her watch and was chagrinned to see that it was only ten o’clock. Eight hours until she could see Collin again. She knew he was probably asleep and wished she could sleep away the next eight hours as well. On a positive note, there was a full moon tonight. That meant the ER would be interesting at least.

  She was right, not a dull moment from the drunk stumbling in to let everyone know he had been poisoned, to the man who had been bitten by an alligator while he was noodling; a southern tradition of catching a catfish by sticking your arm into a dark murky hole hoping to find a catfish.

  Jewell’s stomach knotted with anticipation as she watched the hands on the clock slowly creeping towards six a.m. She was tired, dead on her feet, and could barely lift her arms; it had been a busy night. But Jewell knew that Collin’s presence would melt away any physical and mental fatigue she felt. As six approached, she hoped that there wouldn’t be one last case that she would need to attend before leaving. She had finished her last case half an hour ago, and if nothing new came in, she could leave right at six. As the hands moved ever closer, she heard the screams of a siren approaching. Her heart sank. She hoped that the case wouldn’t be assigned to her. Please, please, please, she thought as an elderly woman was wheeled into the ER.

  The woman was in her eighties. She had suffered a heart attack. Her husband was by her side holding her hand as she was wheeled back to a room, whispering that he would never leave her. It made her think of Collin. Would they grow old together? Would she someday be holding Collin’s hand as one of them passed from this life to the next? Surprisingly, the thought didn’t make her sad, but instead, gave her hope that perhaps this is what her future held, a long and happy life with someone she loved. And she did love Collin; as crazy as it seemed, she knew that it was love and she would sacrifice everything to be with him.