by Paul Preston
“Stop crying now, honey, I’m sure everything will be alright.”
“No it’s not. He’s dying. He’s going to die tonight. He’s probably already dead, isn’t he? Isn’t he!”
The guard made another call on his cell.
“Luman, what’s your ETA? OK… Ms. Mauricio, they just pulled up in front. Come with me,” he said, helping to her feet.
Cogworthy and Luman were deathly silent in the front seat, staring straight ahead as the limo cut in and out of traffic on the freeway at a very high speed. They pulled up in front of the hospital and Bella Lisa jumped out, ran to the elevator and took it up to the intensive care unit. A nurse was sitting behind a glass partition and Bella Lisa ran over to her.
“Excuse me; I’m here to see Mr. Phillipe Williamson.”
“I’m sorry, Miss. Visiting hours are from 9AM-6PM. You’re welcome to come back tomorrow morning.”
“It’s an emergency, please. You have to let me in to see him.”
“Are you his next of kin?”
“I’m… I’m his daughter.”
“Do you have some identification?”
“I left it all at home when I heard he was sick. I just rushed here.”
“Well, I’m sorry, without proper identification—”
“Is there a doctor I could talk to?”
“Not presently Miss.”
“Can you tell me what’s wrong with him? Is he still alive? Has he died?”
“I’m sorry, but due to rules of a patient’s confidentiality—”
“What room is he in?”
Bella Lisa grabbed the handle of the door next to the nurse’s station and pulled.
“The entrance of the ICU is locked. Come back in the morning,” the nurse said in a firm voice and walked away from the window.
Bella Lisa stood alone in the center of the waiting room in the bright florescent light. She paced the room for a few minutes, looking through the small steel-meshed window of the locked door leading into the unit. She bought a cup of coffee from a vending machine, drank half in three gulps and threw the rest out. She saw a hallway to the right of the waiting room and thought she might be able discover an alternative entrance into the unit. She saw another door with a steel-meshed window and quietly tugged on the handle. It was locked as well. She walked down the hallway and used the restroom. She saw another door at the end of the cul-de-sac. She walked toward it and went into a dark and shadowy room. It looked like some kind of stark hospital chapel with a few pews and a simple cross on the wall. She leaned her back against the door, exhaled and rubbed her eyes and temple with the palms of her hands.
“Miss Mauricio? Is that you?”
Bella Lisa looked up, thinking she imagined the voice, not having had much sleep in the last few nights. From one of the darkened chapel pews a figure stood up and walked toward her.
“Mr. Firmin? Andre?”
Firmin appeared from the shadows with a look of despair in his eyes. They embraced.
“I’m so glad you’re here, Ms. Mauricio.”
“So am I, Andre.”
They both seemed to weary to stand, so they sat together in a pew.
“You know, Ms. Mauricio, Phillipe is my best friend. My only friend really. He saved my life. He found me 10 years ago passed out from alcohol poisoning on the curb, literally in front of the A and E Club. He took me into his own home and helped me dry out. I never could understand why he showed such interest in helping a smelly old worthless bum on the street like me. He nursed me back to health, gave me a security job at the club, eventually promoting me to manager. He’s made me a rich man and I’ve never touched a drop of alcohol since the day I met him…”
“What happened to him, Andre?”
“After you left he fell apart. He’s had a history of mental illness, schizophrenia. Besides his physician and myself, you are the only other person who now knows. Just as he once saved my life, I’ve done my best to help him, but as I’m sure you know, Phillipe is a stubborn man. Years ago I talked him into having his physician prescribe medication to treat his mental illness. When he’s on his meds, he’s fine, but over the years he’s tried to cope with his condition without the meds. Perhaps he recently stopped taking them.”
Bella Lisa pictured the empty pill bottles she saw in his bathroom cabinet.
I should’ve looked at the labels.
“Did he mention anything to you about a beast?” Firmin asked.
“Yes. Tell me, Andre. What happened to him?”
“It’s the beast. He fought as best he could. Early Thursday morning Mrs. Potcia found him on your bed. The mattress was soaked in blood.”
Bella Lisa gasped and put her hand over her mouth.
“He had shattered a mirror in a room in the West Wing and used the broken glass to cut an artery on his pelvis.”
“Oh my God.”
“He very nearly bled to death by the time Maria found him. When the paramedics arrived, he barely had a pulse. They were able to stabilize him, but over the last day and a half his condition deteriorated, no one seems to know why. They intubated him, are giving him nutrients, but it’s like he’s withering away. His blood pressure is very low, he has a weak pulse, no one quite knows why. It’s like he’s just giving up. Maybe seeing you again will get him to fight to stay alive…”
Bella Lisa turned to Firmin and held his hands.
“Monday night Mr. Williamson opened up to me about a traumatic thing that happened to him in a foster home when he was only thirteen. When we went to bed, we were as close as ever. In the middle of the night he wasn’t in bed and I found him in this room at the end of a corridor in the West Wing, cutting the skin on the back of his leg. He kept talking about a beast within him, that it wanted a blood sacrifice. To prove to him there was no beast, I offered myself to be cut, but he couldn’t do it. I tried to get him to come back to bed with me, but it was like he wanted to be alone. I should’ve stayed with him. All this is probably my fault,” Bella said, covering her face in her hands.
“No, Ms. Mauricio, it’s not your fault. Don’t blame yourself. I’ve never seen him happier than when he was with you. Whatever this trauma is inside him, this chemical imbalance, this beast… due to his deep feelings for you he was able to protect you, but not himself. I believe he was trying to cut this beast or whatever it is, out of himself.”
“Andre, I’ve got to see him.”
“He’s been unconscious since the paramedics found him. I have to warn you, he doesn’t look the same. Tomorrow morning—”
“No, now. I’ve got to see him now. Mr. Firmin, please, do something. I’ve got to get in there to see him.”
“Perhaps I could call his personal physician. Perhaps he could give you permission—”
“Good. Do it.”
Firmin got out his cell phone.
“I’m sorry if I’ve awakened you, Doctor. Yes, it’s Andre Firmin, Mr. Williamson’s assistant. A very close female companion is here. I think it would really help if Mr. Williamson could see…No, I don’t think it can wait until visiting hours… No they are not yet married… Please, Doctor. She feels that since his heart rate is so low, he might not make it through the night. She wants to spend a few private moments with him while he’s still alive… Could you? Thank you, Doctor. Yes. I’ll wait for your call.”
Firmin ended the call and Bella Lisa kissed him on the cheek.
“Thank you, Andre.”
“Now all we can do is wait. Cross your fingers Ms. Mauricio.”
They held hands silently, waiting in the chapel for the call.
An hour later, Bella Lisa and Firmin stood outside of Williamson’s private hospital room. The on-call doctor in a white coat came out and spoke to them in a whisper.
“OK, Ms. Mauricio. This is highly irregular. I can give you five or six minutes, but no more. I’ll have a nurse come for you when it’s time. Do not touch his body or the equipment attached to him. You can go in now.”
The doctor
left to check on the other patients in the ward.
“Andre, could you please stand outside the door. Don’t let anyone in until the nurse comes.”
“Certainly, Ms. Mauricio.”
Bella Lisa took a deep breath and went in. Bouquets of flowers with get well notes on them were spread throughout the dark room, which made her feel guilty for being away from him when he needed her the most. She wanted to cry when she saw him. Williamson looked much different than the man she had left just a few days ago. He had lost a great deal of weight. There was a grey pallor to his skin and his once healthy muscled body now looked like a skeleton with skin hanging off of it. He looked like he’d aged 20 years in 3 days, with silver hairs coming out in the stubble on his chin and face.
As she approached the bed she heard the heart rate monitor intermittently beat. It seemed like it was beating so slowly and quietly. She hid her tears and spoke.
“Mr. Williamson? Can you hear me? It’s me, Bella Lisa. I’m here. My dad’s going to be OK thanks to you. He’s getting better at the clinic. Thank you for paying for it. He’s alive because of you and I’ll never forget the kindness you’ve shown him… and me…I’m so sorry you got sick. I know it’s my fault and I’m going to hate myself for the rest of my life. Why didn’t you trust me, Mr. Williamson? Why couldn’t you wait for me to come back to you? It’s so silly. I left my damn cell phone charger at the condo and my battery died. I was helping my father the whole time at the clinic and I couldn’t leave to get a replacement charger. I didn’t know your private number, it was in the cell phone. I called your job and left several messages for you, I suppose you never got them. I didn’t have access to email. When I felt I could leave my father, I took a cab to your club and luckily Andre told them about me and I got here as soon as I could. I wanted you to know I haven’t forgotten about you. I hope it’s not too late.”
Bella Lisa kneeled beside his bed and held his cold bluish hand.
“You’re hand’s so cold, Mr. Williamson. Can you hear me?”
Bella Lisa carefully moved a sheet to the side and could see a stitched wound covered loosely by gauze running across his pelvis. Below the wound his shaft was resting peacefully. Careful not to touch the incision, she rested her cheek on his inner thigh. Tears slid out of her eyes and ran down her face as she felt the softness of his skin. It was comforting to her to be close to him again and she nuzzled her cheek against his tranquil flaccid shaft.
“Please wake up, Mr. Williamson,” she whispered, her lips an inch away from the tip of his penis.
Sitting up and looking into his eyes, Bella Lisa placed a small folded square of paper between his stiffening clenched fingers and placed the palm of her hand around his shaft and held it there, gently squeezing him.
“Don’t leave me. Come back to me.”
Williamson’s eyes opened and blinked twice, shut and opened.
“Mr. Williamson… Phillipe… You’re back…”
The corners of Williamson’s mouth curled into a contented smile and his eyes slowly closed. The heart monitoring machine stopped beeping and Bella Lisa saw a straight line across the screen.
“No, don’t go…not yet… I never told you… I don’t care about the beast… I love you, Phillipe… I love you…Phillipe!”
Bella Lisa embraced his wound, tears falling directly on the incision, dripping into the gauze, the pressure causing blood to seep out. The doctor and a nurse rushed in and pulled Bella Lisa away from him, the side of her face covered with Williamson’s blood.
“What is wrong with you? Let him go!”
“Phillipe! No!”
“Nurse, get this woman out of here. And bring me the crash cart.”
“I never got to say goodbye, please,” Bella Lisa cried as a nurse dragged her out of the room.
A moment later the nurse wheeled in the crash cart and as the doctor prepared to restart his heart, he heard the machine start beeping again, slowly at first, then picking up a stronger pace.
“What the..,” the doctor whispered.
He immediately checked his vital signs.
“That’s the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen. That’s not physically possible…,” the doctor said to himself.
He took the stethoscope out from his ears.
“Well, Mr. Williamson, I guess you’ve decided to come back to us…Jenny, page the internal medicine resident on call to come stitch this incision back up. Also, remove the crash cart, we won’t need it. Page me if anything changes.”
The doctor found Bella Lisa and Firmin huddled closely together in a dark corner of the chapel, their heads bowed. He turned on the overhead lights and they looked up at him, squinting.
“I don’t know what you did to him in there, Miss, but our patient has come back to us.”
“He has!”
Bella Lisa immediately ran over to the doctor and embraced him, kissing him several times on the cheek. Firmin followed, smiling.
“Oh thank you, Doctor. Thank you, thank you!”
“I wish I could take credit for it, but I didn’t do anything. He just came back to life suddenly. Maybe the heart monitoring machine was malfunctioning? I’ll get one of the tech guys to check on it. Anyway, his heart rate has gone almost back to normal. I’ve never seen anything like it before. He’s resting comfortably. In an hour or two, if his vital signs remain stabilized and he shows signs of breathing on his own, I may be able to remove the intubation tube. Come back at 9AM and you’ll be able to see him. I am almost positive he is out of danger now.”
“Oh that’s the best news,” Bella Lisa said, wiping tears from her eyes.
“Yes, Doctor, we can’t thank you enough,” Firmin said, shaking the physician’s hand.
Bella Lisa asked Cogworthy to drive her back to the condo so she could get cleaned up and find something prettier to wear. Mrs. Potcia had completely cleaned her bedroom. Bella Lisa was very relieved she did not have to see the bloody sheets. Bella Lisa took a long hot shower and shampooed her hair. It felt nice after not bathing since Monday. She used the oil from Thailand and anointed her body in the special places. She blow dried and styled her hair, applied some makeup and felt herself come back to life.
She rifled through the clothes in her closet and put on a pair of sexy stockings and high heeled shoes. She still couldn’t find any undergarments or bras but in the very back of the closet she found the sexy cocktail dress he had hidden away for her. It was a loose fitting red silk dress which buttoned up the front with thin shoulder straps that showed off her cleavage and clung to the curves of her hips. It reminded her of the dress she wore the night they met at the theater four years ago. Finally, she put on her pearls, her diamond collar and her sporty diamond watch with the white band she loved. Before she forgot, she grabbed her cell phone charger and put it in her purse. She looked at herself in the mirror and felt she looked very good for hardly sleeping in the past three days.
In the reflection of the mirror, she saw the four naked stems of the roses in the vase, the petals withered on the bed table. In that moment, she knew. Bella Lisa remembered back to the first summer after her freshman year at Stanford. She came home with her current boyfriend to find a single red rose with thorns lying at her doorstep. Although he had never done anything romantic, he said the rose was a surprise from him and she made love to him for the first and last time that night. The next summer, around the same period in August, she got back late from her job and found another rose at her doorstep. There was no note attached to it. She wasn’t dating anyone at the time. Thinking it was a mistake, she kicked it aside and it was gone the next morning. On her third and final summer in Stanford, Bella Lisa walked home from work late one August night and felt someone’s eyes watching her. There was no one the street, but above her she saw through the window of a French restaurant a shrouded figure sipping a cognac and staring down at her. As soon as she noticed him, the figure slipped away. She kept walking and found another rose at her doorstep, again without a note. Like an
abandoned child left at her doorstep she took it in and placed it in a tall glass of water on the windowsill. The next morning its petals opened in full bloom. She remembered touching the tip of the thorn and feeling it prick her skin. She sucked the droplet of blood out of her finger. She smiled, now that she knew who it was that gave her the roses three summers in a row on the fourteenth day each August. She took the stems out of the vase, dumped the water out and took the vase with her into the waiting limo.
Chapter Eight
Day Seven – Friday
The next morning Bella Lisa found Mr. Williamson sitting up in bed and drinking out of a straw, briskly engaged in a conversation on his cell phone. He was following the movement of the stock market on his laptop computer placed next to him on the bed, studying a series of charts he had designed. His voice sounded ragged and hoarse. He looked a little better though. His color had returned and he had shaved, though his skin still clung to the bones of his cheeks.
He smiled when he saw her and held a finger up while he talked. Bella Lisa put the vase of a dozen roses on a table and opened the blinds to let the sun in. She sat on a chair next to his bed, listening in on his conversation.
“Yeah, I know that guy. I’ve dealt with him before. I’m sure by now he heard I was in the hospital, so he’s trying to low-ball us. Even in this shit market that property is worth at least $500,000 to $750,000 more. Make him a counter-offer, 12.5 mill, tell him the owner is in no rush to sell, let him sit on that for the weekend. If he calls let me know, but don’t return his calls. Call me on my cell if any other offers come in. Yeah, I was clinically dead a few hours ago; I think I have to take the weekend off. Listen, I’m getting another call. Make the counter-offer. Yeah, bye. Williamson here. Yes, Che. Hi... Yeah, thanks for asking. I’m OK. Yeah, I was dead a few hours ago. If I had to choose, I’d rather be alive than dead, I guess.”
Williamson smiled and winked at Bella Lisa.
“I think my text was clear… I know it’s still going up. I know they just announced positive earnings. Sell all 200,000 shares we own. We’re cashing out. It’s never going to be higher than it is right now. The executives of the company are dumping their shares, something is up, I don’t know what, but I’m not willing to pay to find out. No, I’m out until Monday, possibly Tuesday. It’s time to fly solo, Che. You’re in charge, don’t run the ship into the ground, call me anytime, say hi to your Mom, yeah, tell her I’m just fine. Yeah, bye.”