Between Time

by Bond, Carolyn

  He looked up the hill for signs of help. In the distance he heard sirens. Then he smelled the unmistakable sickly, nose burning smell of gasoline. He darted around the back of the Jeep, Sure enough gasoline had found a way from a busted, crumpled gas tank down the side of the car in the dirt and was puddling under the engine on the passenger side. The engine was still hissing and an occasional spark snapped from the connections on the battery. He had to get the victim out immediately.

  He ran back to the driver-side door and opened it. He had no idea if the victim had back or neck injuries He figured the best way to get him out without letting him fall to the ground was to crawl under him on his hands and knees and unbuckle him so that he would slump over his back like on a donkey. Hopefully, he could then crawl out the door and ease him to the ground.

  It was all working great until Allen’s feet got caught on the steering wheel. Now they were both stuck in there and it could explode at any moment. The telephone man was able to reach around and turn the wheel just enough to release Allen’s stuck feet. With a sigh of relief, he inched out of the vehicle, careful not to tip his burden too far to one side or the other. Inch by inch in the pine-needled dirt, they moved together, as carefully as was possible. Finally free of the vehicle, the telephone man lowered his left shoulder slowly and Allen began to slide down to the ground. The telephone man reached behind with his left arm and supported Allen’s torso so he didn’t fall all at once. Then he was able to stand on his knees and carefully lay Allen on the ground. At least they were out of the vehicle, but still much to close if it blew up.

  The man picked up Allen’s feet and pulled him about 20 feet away under the shade of a pine tree. Jacob held Allen’s head straight as he was dragged. The telephone man checked and Allen was still breathing and had a pulse.

  By now the sirens were on top of the hill. Ropes were thrown over the side and rescuers started rappelling down the steep hillside. Ben noticed Protectors following the rescuers and helping the rescuers get a good footing when they jumped on the loose dirt.

  As soon as the first rescuer reached Allen and the telephone man, the Jeep exploded with crackling boom that sent hundreds of birds into flight. At the first crackling of the impending explosion, the two rescuers leapt over Allen’s body and covered their heads. Metal shrapnel flew in all directions. The carcass of the Jeep was blown completely upside down and now sat up right about five feet away from the men.

  The other rescuers on the hillside, momentarily frozen, now moved in double time. A helicopter hovered overhead and lowered an orange and black stretcher down to the ground. Four of the rescuers picked up Allen and transferred him to the stretcher which promptly hoisted him into the air and into the helicopter where two medics began their work on him.

  Within five minutes, Allen was in the Sonora Regional Medical Center ER. Nurses quickly inserted an IV, took blood samples, got vitals and created charts. The radiology department brought in an X-ray machine. The doctor poured over results and it was determined Allen had a lacerated liver, broken collar bone, whiplash, and a concussion. All in all, he was lucky. He should have been dead. He most certainly would have been if Jacob hadn’t have been there and the telephone man hadn’t saved his life and called for help.

  Allen was rushed to surgery to stop the hemorrhaging from his liver.

  ***

  In the hallway, Nancy stopped to ask the nurse a question at the nurses’ station. There was no one there and so she waited just a minute. Two young nurses came around the corner talking.

  “Yeah, the telephone guy evidently got him out just in time. Joe said as soon as they got there the Jeep blew up right beside them. He had three pieces of metal in his back from the blast.”

  “Wow! Did he just drive right off the side of the rode? How did he get down there?”

  “Joe said there were no skid marks. It look like he just drove straight off the side. What in the world was he thinking? Lucky guy to be alive. No family here either. The Jeep had Kentucky tags. The police will have to track down family.”

  Nancy’s eyes shot up, “Who? Who was it?”

  The first nurse answered, “I’m sorry, privacy laws prevent me from discussing patient information.”

  “No! No you don’t understand! Was it Allen McCracken? He’s engaged to my daughter!”

  “Would you have information about his next of kin?” the nurse asked.

  “I know their names and where they live,” Nancy said.

  “Okay, write that down and I’ll get back with you. Where will you be?”

  “My daughter Marie is in that room,” she said pointing, “Her name is Marie St. Clair.” Nancy took a sheet of paper and wrote down as much as she knew and handed it to the nurse. She was wringing her hands when she went back into Marie’s room.

  “Oh lord, Bill! I think something’s happened to Allen!”

  “What? Why do you think that?” Bill said.

  “I heard the nurses talking about a terrible accident. A Jeep that had Kentucky tags just drove off a cliff. There can’t be two Jeeps with Kentucky tags running around these hills!”

  “What did they say?” he asked with a concerned look.

  “They are calling his parents. We aren’t family so they wouldn’t let me see him. Oh, Bill! What if something happened to him? I never meant to wish him harm. I just wanted to get Marie home.” Nancy looked at her daughter in the bed, “She does care about him, and he has no family here. What if something happened to Marie and we were halfway across the country?” Bill put his arms around his wife.

  She pulled away, “And what is going on around here? People have been acting crazy. I’ve heard more fighting and yelling today than I ever have. It must be how these people act around here. We need to get Marie out of here,” she paused, “but maybe we should wait to see if Allen is okay first. This is all just too much.”

  “I agree,” Bill said and put his arms around her again. Nancy started to cry with her face buried in his shirt.

  CHAPTER 23 – AN ALLIANCE

  It was about three hours later when the nurse came into Marie’s room. Nancy was reading a book to pass the time but not really knowing what she was reading. Bill was napping on the uncomfortable couch.

  “Mrs. St. Clair?” said the nurse.

  “Oh! Yes, please come in!” Nancy started to get up.

  “It’s okay, please sit down. I want to talk to you about Allen.”

  “Oh? Bill! Bill wake up!” Nancy raised her voice a bit and said, “Bill, it’s the nurse about Allen. Wake up!”

  Bill sat up and ran a hand over his hair and face.

  The nurse began, “We have contacted Allen’s parents in Kentucky and they gave us permission to tell you about Allen. In fact, they asked if you might stand in for them with any decisions until they can get here, which won’t be until tomorrow afternoon. It was the fastest flight they could get into Sacramento and then they will have to drive up the foothills.”

  “I understand! Of course, we will. How is he?” Nancy passionately answered, her concerned tone noticeably different from earlier in the day.

  “Well, he is very lucky. Apparently his vehicle left the road over an edge, fell about 50 feet, rolled several times and landed upside-down. Luckily he had on his seatbelt.”

  “Oh my lord!” Nancy stopped breathing a minute. What if that had been Marie. She couldn’t imagine how his parents felt right now and they were so far from him.

  “Then a telephone repairman in a truck stopped for really no reason at all on the curve and looked over the side. He said it was just a hunch or a feeling. He saw the vehicle, radioed for help, crawled down a steep slope, and pulled Allen out just before the vehicle exploded.” Continued the nurse.

  “What? Good grief. The guardian angels were working overtime today.” At that, Lucinda, laughed from the corner of the room near the window.

  “Then the rescuers put Allen in a stretcher which was lowered from a helicopter and brought him here. In the ER it was d
etermined he had a lacerated liver and was taken immediately to surgery. He also has a broken collar bone, a concussion, and other minor cuts and bruises as you would expect from a car accident. After recovering from surgery, he should discharged into his private physician’s care.” The nurse waited a minute to let them process all this.

  Nancy sat very still thinking about all of this. After replaying it in her head, she let out a sigh of relief. “So he’ll be okay, then?

  “Yes, he should recover and be fine.” The nurse said. “Would you like to see him? He is awake now.”

  “Yes, yes, I would.” Nancy looked at Bill.

  “You go see him. Tell him I will see him after he rests some more. I don’t want to overload him. He must still be in shock over it all.”

  With that Nancy stood up and followed the nurse out into the hallway.

  They walked down the hallway zigzagging through medical equipment and cafeteria carts. Nancy caught glimpses of strangers in hospital beds through open doors and felt embarrassed for them for the lack of privacy. It was like peering into people’s bedrooms as they were waking up. She wondered what they were here for, how had their lives been turned upside down.

  The nurse reached a door on the right and gestured for Nancy to go in. Nancy rapped the door lightly.

  “Hello? Allen? It’s Nancy.” She waited a minute and heard a faint groan and took that as an invitation.

  The room was dim with the curtains drawn and just the back light on the wall behind the bed lit. Allen looked a wreck. He had bruised cheekbones and swelling on his head. His left arm was in a split. There was a square of gauze taped to the left side of his head where it had apparently made contact with the window that resulted in the concussion. His blond locks flopped weakly over the gauze.

  Allen looked as though he was trying to focus his eyes and his head rolled on his shoulders like he was dizzy and might be sick.

  “Can I get you anything?” Nancy hesitantly offered trying to be useful. He groaned a sound that resembled, “No.”

  Nancy sat on the chair by the bed looking at him. The white part of his left eye was completely blood colored, making it hard to actually see the brown of his eyes. “Allen, I’m so sorry you were hurt.”

  Allen tried to push himself up on the bed with just his right arm. “Things happen I guess.” He paused, coughed, and continued. “I was going down the road and the next thing I knew, there was no road. I don’t know what happened. Glad I’m alive.

  Jacob, who was standing behind Allen’s right shoulder smiled at Lucinda. Lucinda, who was watching a shadow creep along the floor and stamping it with her foot, looked up at Jacob and winked back.

  “Nancy, I want to tell you about something I have been thinking about.”

  “What is it, Allen?”

  “Well, this is going to sound crazy. I am having a hard time even saying it.” He paused and reached his right hand to the tray table for his water cup. He took a brief sip of ice water from the straw and then sat the drink back down.

  Nancy wasn’t sure what he was going to say next. She braced herself for anything.

  “Well, I had this crazy idea.” Lucinda’s eyes perked up again and looked at Jacob. Allen continued, “Marie and I had been talking about guardian angels and the afterlife and stuff like that right before she, she went in the coma.” He stammered.

  “I’ve really never given things like that a lot of thought. It sounds more like fairy tales.” Nancy’s eyebrow arched but she was listening. “But, well, I get a feeling sometimes like she is near. Sometimes, when I’m alone in the dorm. I brushed it off because, you know, she isn’t dead, so that doesn’t make sense. So,” he sighed and then continued very fast to just get it out, “I wonder sometimes if maybe her soul is-, is not with her body. Maybe she is trapped, her soul, I mean, and if she could get back in her body, she would wake up.”

  He flung his right arm to punctuate his words, but then just dropped it. “That sounds really stupid and I’m sorry. You must think I’m nuts.”

  Nancy didn’t say anything. She kept her gaze on his bruised face and thought about what he said. She couldn’t deny she had felt Marie’s spirit as well. But what he was saying didn’t make any sense. Marie wasn’t dead. How could she have left her body? But what if Allen was right? What could they do, even if he was right?

  “So how long have you been thinking about this?” she finally asked.

  He looked down at the floor ashamed he had even suggested such a crazy thought. She thinks I lost it a long time ago. He knew she already didn’t like him. This would certainly seal the deal that she thought he was also an idiot. That’s what he would think of a rational person who would suggest such a thing. He answered, “I have been thinking about it for a week or so. It’s funny, but I laughed at first and thought this is something Marie would say. She has such a great imagination.” He smiled and realized he never thought she was idiot, maybe just a little too susceptible to wild ideas.

  “I was actually headed to a lady in Soulsbyville whom I thought might have some ideas about all this when I had the accident. She and Marie had talked about souls and ghosts or something. I figured she might give me some sort of direction to prove my theory or maybe an idea. It’s just crazy hocus pocus.”

  Nancy took a deep breath and looked out the window. Unbeknownst to Allen and hesitant to show her cards, she felt inclined to help Allen. If it was true, maybe Marie needed help. She knew she could do something to help her if they could figure out what.

  Lucinda leaned down to Nancy’s ear and said in a raspy voice, “Sugar, Marie needs you. She’s in trouble. You and Bill and Allen can help her if you work together.”

  Nancy turned back to Allen and spoke before she lost courage, “I believe you. I have felt something similar. Maybe it’s a wild goose chase, but I think we need to do some research.”

  Allen smiled weakly and winced as his shoulder shifted. “Well how in the world do you research this?” His head started hurting. The doctor had told him not to think about much until his concussion healed.

  “Well, you aren’t going to be doing much for a few days, so I’ll see what I can do in the meantime. Give me the name and address of this lady you were going to see.”

  “It was a shop. A little place that sells incense and whatnots. A real hippie dive. Marie thought it was wonderful.”

  “Even better. Maybe I can get her a little whatnot to brighten her hospital room.” Nancy smiled, pleased with herself. Allen gave her the information and she wrote it down on a paper from his bedside table and folded it before slipping it in her pocket.

  Through the walls, three Shadow souls burst into the room. Allen and Nancy continued to talk about Marie and their experiences of feeling her near. Jacob and Lucinda jumped into combat and beat the intruders back, even though the Shadow fought confidently. It helped that a bubble of bright energy was surrounding Allen and Nancy. Their love for Marie strengthened an area of space around them that made it harder for the Shadows to get close to them.

  CHAPTER 24 – KOE

  Hester was trying to remember what she had learned from the tribe of nomadic Indians that she had lived with. They were an odd grouping of individuals, not technically an Indian tribe. They were more like a group of outcasts that found each other. To local farmers, they were an odd Indian tribe. They had lived around her village in Prince William, hiding and living in the hills and woods nearby. Close enough to steal things they needed during the night, but far enough that most folks had no idea who they were. The group tried to blend in with other natives around that people might see.

  There were some outcast Indians, but there were also some immigrants from Europe that were fleeing the law, some runaway slaves from the Caribbean, and other people, like Hester, that just needed to disappear. They learned to blend in and not be seen. No one noticed a few apples missing or a random chicken. They lived off the land and moved around together. They were not all together trust worthy. These were people who, for w
hatever reason, didn’t do well in regular society. They had beliefs that didn’t follow what you would normally expect.

  These beliefs, like Hester’s, were often shaped by situations around them as they grew up that were not healthy. Even though they were no longer in those situations, they looked at life through the lenses of that broken life. Often, their defense mechanisms to help them cope caused more trouble than they helped.

  Koe was a slave from Bermuda that had escaped, found a place to hide on a sailing ship bound for the New World, and happened upon the group as he was running. They nursed him back to health after he nearly collapsed. He was just 24, but his back had suffered many lashings and gaping wounds that were in various stages of healing and infection was nearly about to overtake him. He joined the little tribe about 4 years before Hester started coming around.

  Hester was in her late 30s at that time. Her home was perfectly clean, but lacking any feeling of warmth. No children scampered around. No jovial laughter. No visitors came by to sip ice tea on the porch out back. She spent most of her time alone in the house she shared with Leonard. Captain Leonard Pope was often out fighting Indians. He was gone for long periods of time. Hester watched the world from her windows and her garden. She noticed little things because she had nothing else to occupy her. She had never been taught the finer arts of needlepoint or crochet.

  So, one day, when she noticed some of her carrots had been pulled up, she knew it wasn’t rabbits. She knew how the rabbits worked. She would see bits of leaves here or there and just one carrot pulled up at a time. She might lose one carrot a week, but not five or six. This was something else.

  So Hester set out to watch her garden at night. She would nap during the day so she could sit up and watch by the light of the moon through her second story window. She was rewarded for her patience after just three nights. She watched a boy about 10 years old creep down the path and scamper behind a lilac bush. After a minute of stillness, when she assumed he must be watching to see if anyone was around, he crept out and went straight for the row of carrots near the well.