Reader in the Park

by Rachel Maldonado

  Holly nodded. “Sure thing. I can do that. I'll send her right in as soon as she gets here.”

  Anna waited patiently for Nikki. She knew that this time for sure she had to come back to her room. She had to deliver her her clothes otherwise she couldn't leave the hospital. After about an hour, Dr. Bateman finally walked into Anna's room.

  “Good afternoon. I come bearing gifts.” Nikki handed Anna a bag of clothes.

  “Thank you. I'm sorry if it was meant to be a surprise. The discharge nurse, Holly, was in here and already told me you'd be coming in with some clothes for me.”

  Nikki smiled warmly. “No, it wasn't a surprise. I asked her to tell you that I'd be back with some clothes. I very well can't have you leaving the hospital bare ass now, can I?”

  Anna laughed. “I don't know about bare ass. But I thought for sure that I was going to have to walk out of here wearing those white hospital underwear and a fashionable hospital gown.” She stressed the word fashionable to imply her added sarcasm. She began to pull out a couple of pairs of jeans, some panties, a few t-shirts, a pair of no lace slip-on sneakers and a package of white ankle socks.

  “Fashionable, huh? I've heard patients call those gowns lots of things and fashionable wasn't one of them,” replied Nikki chuckling. “You wanted to see me?”

  “Yeah, I mean, yes.” Anna paused for a moment as she gathered her thoughts and her courage. “I wanted to apologize for earlier. I didn't mean to disobey your orders to be on a liquid diet. I was just really hungry, and I honestly felt like my body was ready to eat solids.”

  “It's okay, Anna. No need to apologize. I spoke with Dr. Rhodes who's a doctor of internal medicine about you and your remarkable recovery, and she was pretty confident that you'd be back on solid foods just as quickly as you got up from your bed to walk. Everyone here thinks you're a miracle.”

  Anna raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Wow, really? A miracle? Me? No one's ever said that about me. I'm not even remotely religious.”

  “From what I heard from the EMT First Responders, your car was completely totaled. You were lucky to be alive, and now you're up and around with ease. I'm not a religious person myself, but around here you were the talk of the hospital.”

  “That explains why everyone ran in here when I woke up.” Anna grinned.

  “Exactly. They were eager to see you. They had to see for themselves that it was true. You'd awakened and were speaking and doing well.”

  Anna cleared her throat nervously. “There's something else I wanted to ask you.”

  “I'm listening.”

  “Well, seeing as how we're supposed to go on a date to have a picnic, I wanted to make sure to ask you for your number and your address. If we're still on for that, that is.”

  Nikki smiled brightly. She had a fire in her eyes that warmed Anna's heart every time she looked at her. “Of course we are. I meant what I said. I'd love to go out with you.”

  “Great. And you're sure you're not mad at me?”

  “I'm absolutely sure. I'll expect a phone call from you in the near future about that date. Here's my card. It has my cellphone number on it as well as my office number.”

  “In the near future as in tonight?” asked Anna with a smirk as she took the card from Nikki.

  “I work tonight and have to perform a surgery early tomorrow morning, but how about tomorrow night?”

  Anna suddenly felt tongue tied with anxiety. “Okay, sounds good. It's a date. Errr, I mean a phone call or a text...um, or a chat? I'll contact you in some way, for sure, how's that?” She felt flustered and her face suddenly felt warm. She knew she was blushing with embarrassment as she fumbled for her words.

  Nikki smiled broadly with a smile that would stretch clear across two states if it could. “We'll be in touch, sweetie. Looking forward to it. I have to get back to work. Talk again real soon and not under patient doctor circumstances.”

  Anna gulped down hard as Nikki winked at her before she walked out the door to return to her rounds. She didn't have time to respond. She felt at a loss for words. The nervousness she had felt initially had returned now that she was under the realization that she would really be going out on a date with Dr. Nicole Bateman. It wasn't just a loss for words though. Nikki had, just like she had done so many times in her dreams, taken her breath away.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Anna was relieved to finally get home after knowing she was in the hospital for so many months. Many people had made donations in her name, and Dr. Bateman had given her the donations in an envelope filled with close to a thousand dollars. She used forty dollars of that money for a cab ride home because the police department impounded her blue sedan and all of her belongings. She had no clue where her wallet was or her checkbook.

  The first thing that Anna did when she arrived at home was tuck her envelope of cash into a safe place on her desk, then take a shower and change into her nightgown. She breathed a sigh of relief that the power and water was still on. Good Samaritans had been nice enough to turn on her utilities when they heard about her awakening and release from the hospital.

  For Anna, it was Heaven to finally be out of that damn hospital gown with the snap closure sleeves and two tiny strings that are meant to hold the gown closed. She turned down the air conditioner to a cold 66 degrees, turned down her covers, and climbed into bed for the night. She was eager to begin her day the following morning knowing that she needed to figure out what bills needed to be paid, if her neighbors had picked up her mail, and what she was going to use for transportation. She also needed to see if she still had a job waiting for her. It was going to be a busy day before she was able to finally relax again in her bed, and she was eager to get the day started. It was all she could think about as she drifted off to sleep, her busy day—and Nikki, of course. She couldn't wait to talk to Nikki outside of the hospital setting.

  That night, to her surprise, she began to have her nightmare about driving on a winding road down the side of a hill. She was anxious and eager to get down the hill and just as she was near the last stretch of road, her vehicle went careening off the side of the cliff and into the tops of the trees below. She awoke in her bed in a cold sweat panting with fear. This time she knew it was more than just a dream. She was having suppressed memories coming to her through her dreams about the traumatic accident she'd had. She was glad that she couldn't remember the actual incident while she was awake, but she was plagued with frequent nightmares while she was in a coma and now that she was out of the hospital, she knew without any doubt that her nightmares were going to continue. Tonight was proof of it.

  In her dream this night, however, she found herself searching in the seat and glove compartment. She was searching through some paperwork. What was she looking for so frantically? And was that the reason why she lost control of her car? She needed to find the car. She had to search it. What was in it? Her mind was trying to tell her something. She was shuffling through things and desperately panicked that she couldn't find it, but she couldn't for the life of her remember what it was she was searching for. She had to get to that car as soon as she took care of things around the house. She had far too many other things to deal with first. For now it was sleep. Sleep was the first thing on her list. That was the last thing she thought about as she drifted off into a slumber.

  Chapter Twenty

  The following morning Anna checked in with her boss to make sure she still had a job, and he assured her that she did. She came to find out that her accident had been on the news and in all the papers. She really was the story that had shocked her town, and the miracle that had survived such a horrendous accident for whom so many people had prayed for, sent flowers, get well soon cards, and money. She was even more of a miracle more recently for having awakened from her coma, and although a few journalists and camera men had shown up at the hospital, Anna had refused to do any interviews.

  Anna's boss had seen all of the news broadcasts when the accident happened six months prior an
d decided early on to hold her job for her. He'd be a heartless fool to let her go from her job, since not only would it be unkind, but the he would be in the public eye as a cold-hearted villain that took the job away from a woman that was near death and in the hospital. It would be bad publicity, and he might lose business. Anna heard all the rumors about why he hadn't fired her from coworkers that had phoned her to express their jubilation at her recovery, but she was relieved nonetheless to still have a job. It didn't matter the reason why she wasn't let go as long as she was still employed. She was a good employee and knew she was an asset to the company. She'd brought in many wealthy clients and now that she was out of the hospital, she intended to get right back to bringing in more business to make both herself and the company she worked for more revenue.

  After picking up her mail from the neighbor, Mrs. Langley, she took a cab to the nearest car dealership and bought herself a 2018 Jeep Wrangler in canary yellow. Getting a vehicle was one of her priorities. She wasn't always allowed to use the company car, and she was going to need a personal vehicle to get around town to see Nikki when they started dating. For now, she couldn't stop thinking about Nikki, but she knew that she had so many things to do around the house before she could have company. She cleaned house, tended to her yard, thanked her neighbor across the street, Mr. Sinclair, for watering her grass and plants and mowing her lawn, bought groceries, and cleaned out her refrigerator from foods that had expired. She even began to wash some laundry that had been piled by the laundry room door from months prior.

  “Too bad my neighbors didn't have a key to my wash my clothes and clean house,” she said aloud to herself and chuckled. But she really was grateful for all they had done, and was surprised the community had come together to raise some money for her.

  Along with not being able to stop thinking about Nikki, Anna could also not stop thinking about her accident. There were so many unanswered questions. Where was she going? Why was she in a hurry? Why did her brakes fail? Why couldn't she remember the details of what transpired that day leading up to the accident, and more importantly, the accident itself? And she still had that burning question of what was she searching for in her dream? Was she searching for something in reality that had caused her to crash? She didn't know and was eager to find out. Getting to that car was hopefully going to be a piece of the puzzle that was missing. Now all she needed to do was find the time to get to the police impound lot to search it before the car was either destroyed or sold at an auction. It was a priority that kept getting bumped down from its list with other priorities. Her next priority was getting to know Nikki better.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Later that night, Anna began pacing in her living room. She stared nervously at her cellphone that lay on the coffee table. Occasionally, she glanced upward at the grandfather clock that seemed to be ticking louder and louder. It was the only sound that broke the silence of the room as the night progressed.

  After about half an hour of pacing, she finally sat down and took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. She felt as if she'd dug a trench in front of the living room set from all of her nervous walking to and fro. She pushed the power button on her phone to illuminate her screen. She stared at it nervously wanting to call Nikki. The time on the phone read seven o' clock in the evening. She took another deep breath, then dialed the number on Nikki's business card.

  To her surprise, Nikki answered on the second ring.

  “Hello?”

  “Hello? Nikki? It's Anna.”

  “Good evening. I didn't think I was going to hear from you.”

  “Oh. I'm sorry.” Anna frowned. “Should I not have called?”

  Nikki laughed. “No, I didn't mean that you shouldn't have called. I just meant that it was getting late into the evening, and I wasn't sure you'd call.”

  “I wasn't exactly sure what time you'd be home, or if you were in surgery or something.” Anna felt her anxiety beginning to grow. “I guess it's sort of late to go out for supper?”

  “I just finished eating some leftover meatloaf, actually. But how about lunch? Say maybe tomorrow? I'm off tomorrow.”

  Anna felt her anxiety dissipate. The excitement in her voice was audible as she nearly jumped out of her seat. “Really!?” She cleared her throat, then tried to relax to sound more natural. “I mean, really? That's great. I'd love to have lunch. Maybe we can have a picnic in the park. I'll pack a lunch.”

  Nikki, picking up on Anna's nervous jitters, giggled. “Do you have a pen, so I can give you my address?”

  “Yeah, just a sec.” Anna fumbled around her end table, digging around through some magazines, then accidentally knocked over a pen holder. The pens and pen holder fell with a crash onto the floor. About half a dozen pens fell in all different directions.

  “Are you okay?” inquired Nikki wondering about all the commotion on the other end of the line.

  “Wha--? Um, yeah. I'm okay,” responded Anna as she leaned from her sitting position to grab a pen from the floor, then picked up the first magazine that was on the stack to write on. “I was just trying to get a pen and made a mess. Go ahead with the address. I'm ready.”

  “It's 6766 Mountain Ridge Crossing. You can't miss it. I'm not exactly on a mountain. It's a steep hill, but it's the only property for a few miles. You'll know it when you see it.”

  “A hill?” asked Anna gulping down hard as she recalled her recurring nightmares that surely had to be suppressed recollections of the car accident that put her in a coma.

  Nikki gasped. “Oh. I can see how that would be a problem. Would you like to just meet at the park? I can leave my car there while we take yours or vice versa?”

  Anna let out of sigh of relief. “Yeah, it might take me a while to start driving on hills. I've never been one to be afraid of heights or anything, so it's not that. It's just...you know...the accident and all...”

  Anna's voice trailed off as Nikki interrupted. “It's okay, Anna. I get it. I completely understand.”

  Anna grinned. “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For understanding. The park I want to go to is a few miles from here, so you'll have to drive out in my direction. The address to the park is 1330 Honey Dew Drive. When you see the sign that stretches across the street bearing the name Honey Dew Park, then you've reached your destination.”

  Nikki giggled. “Honey Dew? Are you sure this is a real park? It's not a farm that sells melons?”

  Anna laughed. “I'm positive. What's a matter? You've never heard the story of the Honey-do list?”

  “No, what is it?”

  “It's only one of the most tragic local love stories of our time.”

  “Well, I've got time. Tell me.”

  “Okay, well twenty some odd years ago there was an elderly couple named Sam & Jan Martindale. The story goes that every single day Jan would leave Sam a honey-do list. It's basically a list of what you want your honey to do that day whether it's to take out the garbage, get groceries, mow the lawn, daily chores, if you will...”

  “Uh huh,” said Nikki, acknowledging that she was following along. “Is this a long story? I better sit down.”

  Anna cleared her throat. “It sort of is. As it was told to me, at the end of every daily list Jan always asked Sam to meet her at the park to go walking around the track that surrounded the lake. It's said they did this nearly every single day since the day they had married. It was how they got their exercise. They didn't have fancy gyms and all back then, see?”

  “Mm hmm,” was all Nikki said in response as Anna continued. She took a seat in an armchair by her bed and crossed her legs.

  “Okay well, anyhow, one early morning in the Spring Jan was the one who found a honey-do list from Sam. She found it odd because she never received one. It was always she who left the lists for Sam to do. It said 'Go to the fridge, take out the lunch bags, take them with you, get the keys, and go to the car. There you will find a surprise.”

  “That's sweet.”
/>
  “Yes, but it's not the end of the story.”

  “Oh. Then what happens?”

  “Well, Jan goes to the car to find a single rose on the dashboard with another honey-do list attached. It read 'Love me forever as I love you. Meet me in the park. I'm waiting for you. Happy Anniversary.'”

  “It sounds like a lovely story. I'm waiting for the tragic part. Good thing I'm already sitting down.”

  Anna continued with her story. “Okay, so Jan gets in the car and goes to the neighborhood park. She goes to her usual picnic table where she and Sam had sat every single day for so many years, but when she arrives she finds that there is an ambulance there, and Sam is barely holding on. The EMT's are giving oxygen, but Sam's weak and on the ground nearly ready to cross into the next world.”

  Nikki gasped. Tears filled her eyes and began to stream down her cheeks.

  “Then what happened?” she asked as she wept.

  “Jan runs over to Sam as fast as she can. Sam's calling her name, but it's barely audible. It's almost a whisper. 'Jan...Jan...Janice, my sweet, beautiful Janice. Where are you?”

  “'Here! Here I am!' she shouts as she pushes her way through. When she finally gets close enough to hear what Sam has to say, Sam whispers, 'I have loved you with every single breath, with every beat of my heart, and for every minute of every day since the moment I laid eyes on you. I will love you always, my Honey-do.”

  Nikki began to sob. “Is that the end of the story?”

  Anna shook her head. “No. There's more to the story. Sam died clutching a small jewelry box. Inside was a necklace with a heart pendant. The heart pendant was inscribed with those exact words, 'I will love you always, my Honey-do.' From my understanding, it's what they called one another. And as it turns out, they had invested a few thousand dollars that grew into millions over time.

  When Janice Martindale finally passed away a few years after Sam, she left all of her money to the City Parks and Recreations to beautify the park and change the name to Honey-Dew Park. I guess she wanted to keep the spelling and it's meaning of Honey-do to herself, but word travels fast, and it soon became a local legend. I'm surprised you've never heard it.”