by Jeny Heckman
“Okay, take off then. Let me know if you find anything.”
****
All kinds of debris, nets, and plastic bottles, were strewn across the beach’s surface. Frustrated with the carelessness, Finn returned to the boat in a caustic mood and discovered he’d missed two texts from Raven.
Hey, tried to call, everything ok?
Thinking about you, want to come over, get something to eat tonight?
He saw her face in his mind and wanted desperately to see it in the flesh, but knew he needed to step back a little and get some clarity.
They made it to Salt Pond and noticed a large crowd on the beach at the same time Nate’s voice crackled over the radio.
“Yeah Nate,” Finn said as he tried to get closer to the shore.
“Finn, I just got a call from Eddie Kameāloha, over at Salt Pond. He says they have a dead seal.”
“Shit.” Finn handled the throttle and maneuvered closer. “We’re looking at something going on there right now and going in for a closer look. He say what happened?”
“Blunt force trauma. I’m on my way.”
“God damn it!” Finn threw the CB. “God damn, sonofabitch!” His researchers watched as their boss strung a series of fantastic curses and threats together. “Take the fuckin’ wheel,” he barked at Jake. “And get me closer so I can get off. Then go figure your own shit out.”
Jake got as close as he could, and Finn jumped off the bow into the hip-deep water, with Holly following his lead.
Making his way up the beach, he yelled at the sightseers and locals to get back. Hearing a seal barking, Finn thought maybe Nate had gotten some bad information. Encouraged, he yelled again for everyone to get back. As the last person moved, he saw her. Alaula, lay on her side, with her skull crushed and unseeing eyes for her pup.
“Oh God!” Finn screamed. “Oh no, no, no!” He raised his arms, locking his hands behind his head and paced a couple of steps back. “Oh God!”
He sank to his knees beside her. Holly began to cry, watching Finn’s hands hover just over Alaula’s once beautiful face, not quite touching her. Kaimi barked in pain, screaming at Finn.
What has happened to her? My mother? Please, I need your hands.
Finn just blinked at him in confusion then realized something was wrong. He ran over to the youngster and saw he’d been hurt badly too. Three long rake marks extended the length of his abdomen. Frantically searching his pockets, he realized he’d left his phone in his pocket when jumping into the water and turned to the crowd.
“Fuck. Phone, phone, someone give me a God damn phone.”
Reaching Nate, he explained what had happened, and was able to set in motion the process of getting Kaimi and the remains his mother to the refuge center on Oahu.
****
Finn squatted down helplessly on the balls of his feet, looking down at Alaula’s blood in the sand. Nate could hear the tourists talking about the pictures they got and the van rolling across gravel, taking her away. He knew there were no words of comfort he could offer his friend.
“I’ve got to stay and puzzle some of this out,” he informed Holly, eyes slightly haunted. He handed her his car keys. “I’ll go back with Jake and Dawson on the boat. Can you bring Finn home?”
“Sure. What’re they going to do with her?” Holly asked, face red and puffy.
“Well, we’ll do an investigation; this isn’t the first time this has happened, and unfortunately, it won’t be the last.” Nate eyed Finn. The sun was bright in the sky, maligning the dark hue cast over him, as Finn looked down where the mother had lain. “Alaula was his first primary. He watched her birth and watched her give birth, so this one’s pretty hard.”
“Yeah.” Holly followed his gaze. “I’ll bring him back.” A couple of men stepped out of a sedan and started walking toward the beach. “Who are they?” she asked, nodding her head at them and Nate looked over.
“That’s the DLNR—Department of Land and Natural Resources. They’re going to work with NOAA on the investigation. It’s lucky they happened to be on the island—we were going to have a meeting.” He looked at Finn again and nodded at her. “Okay, go ahead and get out of here.”
****
Finn rode the way back to his place in silence, looking at the blood of both mother and pup on his clothes, mixed with sand and dirt. Understanding his need for quiet, Holly just concentrated on the road.
“Come on,” she said, after they arrived back at his place, “let’s go have a drink.”
They went upstairs and into his living room. Finn walked to his cupboard, pulling down some whiskey. He poured three fingers for each of them, quickly drank his, then poured another, before handing one to her. Cradling the second drink in his hand, he sat down on the couch.
“I’m so sorry Finn. I know how I’m feeling right now and that’s nothing to how you must feel.” She leaned down and looked up into his face.
“Thanks, Hol, and thanks for driving.”
“Of course.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek. Then thinking better of it, she slid off the couch and knelt between his legs. She placed her hands on his thighs and rubbed them up and down.
Finn looked at her with such sadness and ran a finger down the side of her cheek. She saw the moment he realized she wasn’t Raven. Draining his glass and grimacing at the spirit, he took Holly by the shoulder and moved her back so he could stand and move around her. He patted her on the top of her head once.
“Thanks again, take the day, get cleaned up.” He walked toward the counter, to pour another drink. “I’m gonna grab a shower. I’ll see ya tomorrow, Hol.”
She watched him walk away and sighed with frustration. She knew he’d been seeing Raven, but also knew his reputation from before. He was hurting; so was she. Okay, maybe she didn’t care as much as he did, but she was sad about the way the seal died. She'd been waiting for Finn to make a move for so long and felt now, she could be the right person, at the right time. Maybe she could cheer them both up.
Finding and retrieving one of his tank undershirts from a drawer, she removed her shirt and bra, before slipping it over her head. She stripped off her pants and stood in front of a mirror to see the effect. The tank was big, so the sides of her breasts were exposed. And what man didn’t like a girl in a thong? If anything, she’d be able to take his pain away for a short while. As the shower water still rained down, she was trying to decide if she should join him, when there was a knock on the door.
Holly almost let it go but knew Finn would be out soon. She wanted to get rid of whoever it was, so as not to take his attention away, now that she finally had it. Opening the door, distracted with the anticipation of what was coming, she looked straight into the concerned eyes of Raven. The singer’s eyes scanned Holly, clad only in his undershirt and thong.
“Oh,” Holly’s voice quavered, surprised. “Raven, hi?” When the woman didn’t say anything, Holly lowered her voice, “Finn’s just finishing up a shower.”
No sooner had she said it when the bathroom door opened and Finn walked out with a towel wrapped low around his hips, followed by a cloud of steam. He reached across the table to grab something, then turned and saw both women staring at him. When he saw Raven, he began to smile in relief but then noticed Holly in her state of undress and furrowed his brows in confusion. Realization seemed to dawn on him, and his eyes snapped back to Raven’s.
“Raven…” She turned and fled. “Raven!” he yelled, but when he reached the porch, she had closed her car door, turned over the engine, and backed out with tires screeching.
“Fuck. Fuck! God damn it!” He walked back into his apartment and looked exasperated at Holly. “What the fuck’re you doing?” he demanded.
“I-I thought we were heading in this direction,” she stammered, watching him walk back in, securing his towel better.
“Christ, how in the hell did I give you that impression?”
“Ah, you’ve flirted with me, and we’ve had a connection for
months, and just now you touched my hair and…” She trailed off, realizing how absurd it sounded.
“Flirting? Really? Are you kidding me? You haven’t noticed that I’m with someone right now?’ He glared at her. “This day's a clusterfuck nightmare!” He released his breath forcefully, “I’ve been nice to you and yeah we might have flirted a little but have I ever acted on it? I touched your head because it was incredibly cool of you to drive me home and drink with me when I was feeling shitty.” He raised a hand to the back of his head and gestured at her with the other emphatically. “You came on to me, and I got up and left so that you wouldn’t get the wrong impression. How does that say, let’s move on to fucking?”
“Wow, okay, whatever.” Closing the door, she peeled off his undershirt. Glimpsing bare breasts, he quickly turned around with his hands on his hips and stayed that way until she was dressed and back at the door. “Sorry Finn, I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”
As she walked out, Finn sat down on his bed, cradling his head in his hands, trying to decide what to do next. Should he run over there when Raven was strung out and hurt? Somehow try to convince her that she didn’t see what she thought she saw? He laughed out loud. That’s what every guy says when caught with a near-naked woman in his room. He resolved to let her cool down and go to her that night, to try and explain. At that moment, he didn’t have the capacity for anybody’s emotions besides his own.
Chapter 26
Raven sobbed in her car, and by the time she arrived at her house, her head had begun to throb. Unlocking the front door, she threw her keys violently against the wall and gave one loud, guttural scream. How the hell did this happen to her—again?
The phone rang and thinking it was Finn, almost decided to let it go until she saw it was from Que. That’s who she needed. She needed her best friend.
“Que,” she said, her voice quavering, “you’re just the person I needed to—” There was a primitive howl from the other end. “Que! Que!” Greasy licks of panic crawled through Raven. “Que, what’s wrong, are you hurt? Are you in trouble?” When there was no answer, she screamed as loud as she could into the phone, “Que!” It was enough, and she heard her best friend try to draw in a breath that didn’t seem to come. “That’s right, that’s right, come on sweetie. Take a, take a deep breath and tell me.”
“A-Abby collapsed.” Her best friend hiccupped.
“What? She— Where is she?”
“At the game. Sh-she just kind of went down hard.”
Raven raised a hand to her mouth so her friend wouldn’t hear her cry out. Silent tears stung her eyes and overflowed.
“Where is she, Que?”
“It’s her heart, Raven. She has something wrong with her heart. She died twice. Oh God,” Que howled.
“What do you mean? Que is she…” Raven couldn’t speak the words.
“No, they brought her back.” Que hiccupped again. “But they think she needs surgery. Rave …”
Raven’s heart sank at the tortured defeat she’d heard in her friend’s voice.
“Tell me where you are.” She wrote down the name of the hospital on a piece of paper. “Okay, I’m coming, Que. Okay, I’m coming home right now. Let me get to the airport, and I’ll call you from there.”
They hung up, and Raven ran over to the wall where she threw her keys, grabbed her purse, and fled, forgetting both the piece of paper with the hospital name or to lock her front door.
****
She landed at SeaTac airport six hours later in a plane she had chartered. A car was waiting to take her straight to the hospital, where she found Que. Raven thought she looked almost unrecognizable, as they immediately fused together, sobbing.
“What’s happening? Can I see her?” Raven pleaded in a whisper.
Que nodded, and they walked into the room. Raven swallowed hard, determined not to show fear as she approached the fragile, tiny girl. Connected to a hideous amount of tubes and machines, Abby opened tired eyes, and looked at her godmother. She tried to speak but struggled through the oxygen mask she wore.
“Shh, shh, baby, don’t talk right now.” Raven held her hand and watched as Abby squeezed out tears from panicked eyes. “Hey now,” Raven cooed. “Shh, it’s gonna be all right, baby, you’re gonna be just fine.”
Abby nodded as a petite, dark-haired woman with very large, distinct, sage-green eyes entered the room. She wore a long white coat and a stethoscope draped around her neck.
“Oh hello,” she said, smiling, showing deep dimples in a face dotted with light freckles. “You’re not Que.”
“No, I…”
“Here I am,” Que announced, standing up from a chair by Abby’s bed. “Sorry, this is my sister, Raven.” As she said it, Wyatt sprinted into the room. “And this,” Que said as he wrapped an arm protectively around her, “is my brother Wyatt.”
Raven was relieved that Que decided to make them family, in case the hospital wanted to deny them access. The doctor blinked at each of them, and Raven could see the wheels turning. Blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl. Large, dark-hair, dark-eyed, mountain man, and lovely African American queen. Sure, she seemed to reconcile, a true American family. Lilly grinned at Que and the twins, winked, then extended a hand to each.
“Hello, I’m Dr. Lilly Morgan, and I’ll be taking care of this lovely young lady today.”
“Dr. Morgan, can you explain to them what you told me?”
“Sure.” The doctor turned to the twins and started explaining the trouble. “Okay, well, so Miss Abigail was working her heart pretty hard at her basketball game. And that really sucks when you have a heart condition that you don’t know about.” She looked at her audience, then back at Abby and winked. The little girl looked relieved to see her.
“Abby has a condition called Obstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy,” she said, pronouncing each word carefully and distinctly. “It’s a mouthful, I know. Now, HCM is rare in children this age, but it does happen.” She peered at a monitor, adjusted Abby’s IV, then walked to a whiteboard on the wall. She drew a rough, lopsided heart, with a cross extending out from the center of it.
“So, what it means is, Abby has a thickening in her actual heart muscle. It’s the thickening in this part,” Lilly highlighted the center line running vertically down the middle of the drawing. “That causes a reduction in blood flow to here.” She highlighted the left ventricle. “It means the heart must work really, really hard to get the blood back out.”
“You said you were looking at some tests,” Que asked, hopeful.
“Right, well, we looked at her echocardiogram, which essentially shows the thickening of blood flow I’ve just described. The results we were waiting for, Que, indicate that her scarring is in fact, significant. It’s over twenty-five percent. It just increases her chance of more cardiac events.”
“What causes this?” Wyatt asked, one arm crossed over his rib cage, the index finger of the other pressed against his lips, studying the drawing.
“She was probably born with it.” Lilly looked at Que and shook her head. “No one’s fault; it’s just we aren’t perfect as a species. In some cases, it’s the luck of the draw as to which conditions we get. Usually, this condition doesn’t present until after puberty, but some genetic stamps can come out differently.” The doctor looked at the concerned mother. “In fact, Que, I’m recommending we do some tests on you as well, just because it does have a high genetic implication.”
“Lilly said most of the time there aren’t any symptoms, except Abby had the shortness of breath,” Que said, eyes filling again.
“Yes, but what did I say about that?” When the mother didn’t answer, Lilly looked at the twins. “Abby had shortness of breath, and Que took her to the doctor for that,” she said, leaning back to look at the girl’s mother. “This is so rare in children this age, that most doctors wouldn’t think of it. Treatment relating to asthma or allergies would’ve been the logical first step.” Lilly looked back to consider her drawing before co
ntinuing. “The thing is, her thickening and scarring are quite extensive. She went into cardiac arrest twice, and it was a little dicey.” Wyatt put an arm around both the women in his life and winked at the third.
“She’s pretty tough though.”
“Yes,” Lilly agreed, “she’s very tough. And to keep her that way, I want to take her in and remove a portion of the septum and implant an ICD, which stands for implantable cardioverter defibrillator. In this case, I think we’ll have better success with that, rather than just with medication or even an alcohol ablation.”
“Alcohol ablation?” Raven queried.
“Yes. Simply put, we put her into a tiny, controlled heart attack, killing the heart muscle responsible for the thickening, reducing its size, but…”
“We aren’t doing that,” Que said, looking at her daughter’s panic-stricken face.
“No,” confirmed Lilly, winking at Abby, “we are not doing that.”
“Can I still play basketball?” Abby asked in a high muffled voice, causing the room at large to smile.
“You know, Miss Abigail,” Lilly said, reaching for her hand, “I have a son that is exactly your age, and he loves football as much as you love basketball. I know he’d ask me the very same thing. And I’m going to tell you what I’d tell him, and that is we simply have to wait and see.” Since the immediate answer wasn’t a resounding yes, Abby’s face fell, so Lilly squeezed her hand again.
“I won’t say never, but I can’t say yes either. There are so many things that must happen before we can decide on that. There’s also a lot of time it takes to heal things up correctly, so the simple answer is we just don’t know yet. Okay?”
The doctor noticed Abby’s teddy bear next to her. She picked it up and tickled the little girl’s nose with it before laying it softly in her lap and brushing a hand over her head. A great commotion began down the hall from Abby’s room, and soon a small entourage walked past by the window. Wyatt’s head whipped around.
“Was that Derek Watson?”
“Yep, QB1 in the flesh.” Lilly grinned. “A lot of the players and celebrities make the children’s hospital their charity.”