Lily's Mirage (Hell Yeah! )

by Sable Hunter

  “Simple. I need to know where Blade is at this very moment.”

  “He’s partying in New York. Don’t you keep up with his social media posts like everyone else?”

  Breck Kenner snorted and leaned forward almost menacingly. “Don’t bullshit me, Hollywood. I spoke to him a little over twenty-four hours ago as he was leaving South Carolina. I know all about his tourist problem in Texas. He was heading to Chicago to meet me at the police station to possibly identify his little girl’s killer. He didn’t show up and I can’t reach him by phone. If this woman walks, she’ll change identities again and we might never get our hands on her. I know you plant fake stories about his whereabouts to keep the fans off his scent. So, where is he?”

  Alexander shrugged. “I don’t know, he’s not answering my calls either.”

  “He said he said some type of emergency that he had to get to as soon as he took care of the police business. Any ideas?”

  “Not a clue. Believe it or not, Blade doesn’t keep me abreast of his every move, especially since he’s made up his mind to retire. I know he was staying at a friend’s house on some small barrier island off the South Carolina coast, but that’s all the information I have.”

  “Well, don’t you think we need to look for him? I can’t pretend to know everything about the man, but I do know that bringing his child’s murderer to justice is his number one priority. He wouldn’t not show up for this, not if he was able to get there.”

  “Well, you’re a detective, find him.” Alexander spouted off, then shook his head in remorse. “You’re right, he wouldn’t blow this off. I’ll call Isaiah Renaud and see if he knows anything. If we don’t hear from him soon, maybe you can retrace his steps.”

  “Tell me more about this guy?” Glory bathed Lily’s forehead with a wet washcloth. After seeing her friend’s condition, T-Rex and baby Alice had returned to Loreauville, leaving Glory to stay in New Orleans for a few days.

  Lily smiled weakly. “He’s wonderful, his name is Blade Jensen.”

  Glory’s forehead wrinkled in thought. “That name sounds familiar.” Her mouth fell open. “You don’t mean Jake Dominic, do you?”

  “Yea, I think that was his character’s name. I met him on St. Philip’s. We…fell in love.”

  “How wonderful.” Glory took in Lily’s yearning smile. “I’m thrilled for you. No one deserves happiness more than you. If everyone knew how hard you worked behind the scenes with Grief Share, Lily Bastien would be a household name.”

  “I’ve never wanted notoriety.”

  “I know.” Glory stroked her hair. “You never have. I remember when we were at Our Lady of the Lake together. I didn’t recognize you as Princess and you never told me, not until that nurse asked you to sign an autographed picture for her little girl.”

  “Well, all my hair was gone, so I didn’t look like myself. They’d shaved it off for the surgery.”

  “I didn’t have any hair either.” Glory laughed. “I’d lost mine with the chemo. We were two bald-headed birds, weren’t we?”

  “Yea.” Lily squeezed Glory’s hand. “I didn’t think my hair would ever grow back.”

  “It’s beautiful now.” Glory brushed a strand back from Lily’s forehead. “Will you have to have it shaved for this trial?”

  “No, I think they would just shave a spot big enough to do the procedure.” She trembled a little at the weight of the decision resting upon her. “Something’s wrong, Glory.”

  “What’s wrong? Do you need me to call a doctor?” Glory sprang up, ready to find the phone.

  “No, that’s not what I mean.” She sat up, covering her eyes. Even the indirect sunlight coming through the windows gave her pain. “When I left St. Philip’s, Blade was supposed to be right behind me. He was adamant. He was frantic. He wouldn’t have changed his mind, he loves me.”

  “Well, can’t we call him?” Glory looked for Lily’s phone.

  “I know it sounds silly, but I don’t have his number. There was no cell service on the island and when we went off it, we were together. At the last minute, he got my number but in the confusion, I didn’t get his.”

  “Understandable, but upsetting.” Lily didn’t know what to do. “Could T and I go look for him?”

  “There’s no need.” Flora’s voice came from the freight entrance in the alleyway. “I saw your closed sign, so I drove to the side and let myself in.”

  “What do you mean? Is he here? Did you see him outside?” Lily stood up, anxious to get to the front entrance.

  “No, he’s not here. He’s in New York.” She sat down at the shop’s computer and got on the internet. “Come see. I found his Facebook page. It’s full of photographs of him taking in the town. This one was posted this morning and these were posted during the time you were at St. Philip’s. I don’t know who you were with, if anyone…” Flora faced Lily with a pitying look one her face. “But Blade Jensen wasn’t there with you.”

  “Impossible.” Lily rose and came to see what Flora had found. Her heart almost stopped when she saw the recently posted photographs of Blade and another woman dining at a restaurant and attending a Broadway show. “He was with me. We were together. We made love…” she said, her voice breaking. “I don’t understand.”

  “Oh, lovey, you’ve done this before. Seen things.” She looked to Glory for support. “Lily is always seeing visions here in the gallery.”

  “I doubt that.” Glory defended her. “Lily is saner than you and I put together. I’ve never met anyone more grounded.”

  “I didn’t say she was crazy, Glory Bee. Lily’s not well, her brain is ensnared in the tentacles of a deadly tumor. This is one of the side-effects of its unfortunate invasion.”

  Lily moaned at her sister’s somewhat grotesque description. “I have not experienced any hallucinations. I saw what I saw and I don’t care if you believe me or not. Charlotte Belmont does visit this place and Blade Jensen was with me on the island!” Her voice rose, but so did the pain behind her eyes. Lily swayed and Glory helped her to sit. She was grateful, for she had no desire to see any more of the photos her sister was pulling up on social media.

  “I know you think you did, I know you believe it.” Flora came to her, helping Lily to lie down on a couch. “You probably saw a photo of him on a tabloid in the airport.” She pointed to the painting. “Even this relic probably contributed to your fantasy.”

  “No, no, that’s not the way it was at all,” Lily protested weakly. “We were together. He cooked for me. We went sightseeing together. We made plans.”

  “Do you have even a shred of proof? A picture? Anything?” Flora kept pushing and Lily felt like she would collapse beneath the onslaught.

  “I took pictures of him on a new camera he bought. He even purchased a painting for me.”

  “Where are those things?” Flora asked gently.

  “He has them, he was bringing them.” Lily crumpled. “Oh, God, I just don’t know. You could ask the lady at the art gallery or Seba from the ferry or Bliss’s brother, they could tell you.”

  “You’re getting worse,” Flora insisted. “Glory, can’t you see she’s getting worse? I’m going to call Jay. We’ve got to do something, she can’t continue to put this off.”

  Lily began to cry. “I don’t know what to do.”

  Glory looked at Flora. “I think you’d better call Dr. Kimmel.”

  “No, I want to wait. I want…” Lily pressed her lips together. What was the use? Blade wasn’t coming. He hadn’t called. She still couldn’t wrap her head around Flora’s insistence that Blade and everything they’d done together had all been a dream, a hallucination. If she closed her eyes, she could still feel his kiss and the touch of his hands on her body. How could she have imagined something so detailed?

  But even if Flora was wrong, the fact that Blade wasn’t here was proof that nothing they’d shared had been real. He didn’t love her. He didn’t want to be with her.

  I can make anyone believe most anythin
g, if I try.

  Lily groaned as she remembered his words. Maybe their time together was just a role he played.

  Abraham was right, their time together had been a mirage.

  Shutting her eyes, she submitted to her sister’s will. “All right, I’ll go.”

  In no time, Jay arrived and gave her a cursory examination. “I’ll call Dr. Fields and make the arrangements. He’ll tell us the specifics of where to go and what to do.”

  As her sister and best friend scurried around, even going to the cottage to pack an overnight bag, she remained on the couch in the gallery, covered with a light afghan. She wanted to remain near the door, just in case. With every minute that passed, she questioned her decision. Was she doing the right thing? Did it really matter? Even if this procedure failed, the outcome would really be no different without it. At least this way, she was making her sister happy. Flora wouldn’t be able to forgive herself if she didn’t do everything humanly possible to try and help.

  Shivers of dread made her tremble as Dr. Kimmel’s voice droned in the background, speaking to whomever he needed to in order for the procedure to take place. When he finished the call, Lily’s voice rose in near panic. “Will they knock me out? What if I don’t wake up?”

  Dr. Kimmel came to her. “You’ll only be put to sleep long enough for the catheter to be inserted. The drip will last for seven hours and you’ll be alert for most of that time.”

  He didn’t give her any assurances about not waking up, he couldn’t. “I see.”

  Flora and Glory returned with her bag in hand. “We’re ready to go when you are.”

  “Where am I going?” Lily asked, realizing the time was at hand.

  “A doctor from Duke is flying in and will meet us at Oschner Medical Center on Jefferson. By the time you get checked in and the preliminaries taken care of, he’ll be there.”

  Dr. Kimmel’s calm, matter-of-fact voice didn’t do a lot to alleviate Lily’s fears. “Will someone tell Bliss before we go?”

  “I’ll do it,” Glory said and took off next door to relay the message.

  “Glory, wait!” Lily called her back. “Please ask her to call her brother and get him to check on Blade. I’m so afraid something happened to him.”

  Even though Flora looked doubtful, she didn’t try to stop Glory from doing what Lily asked.

  When Lily made it to her feet, she found most of the dizziness and nausea had passed. “I’m feeling better…maybe…”

  “Oh, no.” Flora took her by the arm. “Don’t even try to talk yourself out of this. You’re going to the hospital and you’re going to have this operation and you’re going to live, dammit!”

  Lily couldn’t help but smile at her sister’s outburst. “All right. Let’s go, but I have a fair warning for you, Flora. You’d better hope I live, because if I don’t…I’m coming back to haunt you.”

  Flora laughed too, but she looked around the gallery with just a hint of unease. “I’m sure you’ll try.”

  10

  “I’ll be waiting. Don’t worry, everything’s going to be okay,” Flora told Lily as she was wheeled away to the operating room. “You’re just going in to have the catheter inserted in your brain, then they’ll bring you back down here for the medicine to drip in from an IV.”

  “I know, I heard,” Lily said with slightly slurred speech. The medicine the nurse had given her was already beginning to work, calming her down, easing her fears. Lily’s eyes were getting too heavy to hold open. The last thing she could focus on was the sea green walls the gurney was passing by as they carried her down what seemed to be an endless hallway. “Blade,” she whispered, “I miss you. Even if I dreamed the whole thing, I love you.”

  These were the last coherent thoughts that Lily’s mind produced before the shadows fell.

  …In a much smaller hospital on Saint Helena Island, Blade Jensen’s eyes sprung open. God, he hurt. “Where the hell am I?” He tried to get out of bed, but the pain in his ribs and his head put a quick stop to his ambition. “For God sakes, what happened to me?”

  “Easy, easy, settle down.” A pretty brunette nurse managed to put a hand on his chest to keep him from flailing out of the hospital bed. “You were in a car accident, Sir. You’ve been unconscious for several days.”

  “Why does my chest feel like it’s on fire?” he rasped, blinking and trying to clear his head.

  “You’ve got a punctured lung and two broken ribs. You need to be still.”

  “Several days! Son-of-a-bitch!” Paying her no mind, he continued trying to rise, throwing one leg off the bed. “I’ve got to get out of here. I’ve got to get to Lily!”

  “No!” The nurse did her best, even leaning all the way over the large patient to contain him. “You can’t! Help!” she called for an orderly. “I need help!”

  “Lady, you need to move. I don’t want to hurt you.” Since he couldn’t dislodge the overzealous hospital personnel, he ripped the IV from his arm.

  “Sir, please! What’s your name?” she asked, admonishing him one moment and asking him a question in the other, trying to get him to pay attention to her and not hurt himself. She was joined by two orderlies, who set out to restrain him against his will.

  “I’m Blade fuckin’ Jensen!” he yelled, not caring who heard. “And I need to get the hell out of here!”

  “I told you it was him,” one female orderly said, who was hanging onto Blade’s leg.

  “Just be still, Sir. You’re not well enough to leave. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

  With three sets of hands holding him down, he finally quit struggling. “You don’t understand. I’m needed somewhere. At least let me make a phone call.”

  “All right, yes sir,” the nurse told him. “If you’ll just relax, we’ll answer all of your questions and make sure you get a phone.”

  “I really don’t know what to do to entertain all of you,” Lily teased weakly as she sat up in the bed, staring at the five people sitting in a semi-circle at the end of her hospital bed. She really wanted to be alone, but she didn’t know how to say that to her sister and her friends without being rude.

  “You don’t have to entertain us, you’re pretty funny looking with that catheter sticking out of your head,” Dinah said with a grin.

  Bliss slapped her sister’s knee. “Be nice. I could remind you how you looked when you were in traction after jumping off the roof with a towel clipped to your shirt with two clothes pins.”

  “Hey, I thought I could fly.” Dinah pretended to pout.

  “I brought you some magazines from the gift shop.” Glory plopped a half-dozen magazines onto the end of the bed. “When you want to look at them, just let one of us know.”

  “Thank-you, I appreciate everything all of you have done for me, especially loving me enough to care about my future.” Lily swallowed a lump in her throat. She tried not to think about what was happening to her, but there was no way she could ignore the plastic tube sticking into the side of her head. Even now, re-engineered polio virus cells were being pumped into her brain tumor. Soon, her own body’s immune system would begin to rally to attack the invader. If all went as planned, the cancer cells would be eradicated. This wouldn’t be a process that would end today, it would be months before they would know if the trial had been a success. In the last release form she’d signed, the wording had been clear, the danger period for her would be the next twenty-four hours to see how her body responded to the perceived invader in her brain.

  “Of course, we all want you well and no one more than I do.” Flora came to Lily and kissed her cheek. Dr. Kimmel hovered over Flora like a bee to a honeysuckle vine, so she couldn’t help but wonder how long it would be before wedding bells began to ring for the couple.

  “Me too. I’ve got a lot of living to do.” Lily nodded, seeing Bliss and Dinah glancing at one another as they pulled one of the magazines from the pile and attempted to slide it underneath their chairs. “What’s wrong? Did Glory sneak a Playgirl into th
e bunch? If so, I’d like to see it.”

  “No, it’s nothing.” Bliss waved her hand nonchalantly.

  Lily held her arm out, palm up. “Let me see.” Even before her friend obeyed the request, Lily knew what she would see. Part of her didn’t want to look, she still couldn’t believe the most romantic time of her life had been a lie. It was taking every bit of control and composure she could muster to act normally. Inside, she was dying – not just from the fear for her own life, but from the heartache of a lost love.

  Bliss looked sad, a frown marring her lovely face when she placed the glossy periodical into Lily’s grasp. “It’s just a gossip rag, Lily. You can’t believe ninety percent of it. Those asses get sued for making stuff up all the time.”

  Lily didn’t have to read the headline to discern the nature of the lead article. Blade Jensen was the subject of the cover photograph. For a second or two, she couldn’t breathe. Just seeing his beloved face stole the very air from her lungs. Every feature was dear and familiar. If their rendezvous had only been a hallucination on her part, the attention to detail in her dreams had been incredible. While staring at the picture, she noticed his hair was shorter here, so it couldn’t have been recent. Her gaze barely flickered to the woman hanging all over him. Lily didn’t recognize her and she didn’t care to learn her name.

  “I’m so sorry, Lily,” Glory said, apologizing. “I just grabbed what they had, I didn’t look.”

  Flora tried to take the magazine from Lily’s hand. “Give me that thing, we’ll put it in the garbage where it belongs.”

  “No.” Lily held on tight, her eyes transfixed on Blade’s face. “I can remember every word he said to me. I can remember his laugh. I can remember his touch.” She lifted her eyes to her sister. “How can you say none of that was real?”

  “I’m sorry.” Flora wilted, dissolving into tears. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, I just didn’t want you to get your hopes crushed. After everything you’ve been through, the way your mind has played tricks on you.”