In Your Dreams Bobby Anderson

by Maidwell, Sandra Jane

  Oh, how he had hated this assignment with nothing to go on but good pay. Money can never be a sole motivator for too long, he realized, and the clock had been ticking at the time Bobby had called him with the new name. After that, it was easy to find the girl; but Bobby wouldn’t like the condition she was in. Judge had convinced one of the nurses earlier that he was investigating Maggie’s case and had to verify the condition of the victim. The nurse, being new at her job and not knowing the condition so well herself, had led Judge to the room.

  It didn’t take the warden long to kick him out and give a lecture to the young nurse about scam artists, rapists, and murderers―how was Judge to explain that he was none of the above? But before being kicked out, he had seen the condition of the girl in question, and it didn’t look good at all. He wanted to warn Bobby, but realized that sometimes you just have to keep quiet. He would let Bobby discover the girl himself.

  Judge didn’t know that Bobby already felt he had fully and all on his own discovered the girl himself. He would pay Judge for his time, of course, but he would let the man know that he wasn’t impressed. Of course, extreme luck would be something he would have to consider later when taking all the credit.

  “This way,” Emily directed, familiar with the hospital. The nurses had all been informed by the family that Mr. Bobby Anderson was visiting, and that they were to give him full clearance.

  Judge trudged along behind, curious about the woman leading them. Who was she? How and when had she come into the picture? She was tall and seemed to take over the entire corridor as they sped past doors and more doors.

  Judge already knew the way. He had only been inside this particular hospital once, but he had a photographic memory.

  He liked following this Emily person, though. He even liked her looks. She seemed strong, and Judge did like his women strong, but it had proven difficult finding the right one. In other words, he hadn’t. It wasn’t that he was picky (not being much of a stud himself) but for some reason finding a woman who was both physically strong, mentally strong, and sexy all at the same time, had turned out to be a challenge. The way that Emily woman was swaying her hips now, though, as she marched ahead, that was definitely sexy. Yes, siree, this was one hell of an interesting day.

  CHAPTER 28

  Nothing could have prepared Bobby for what he saw when those two doors to Maggie’s room opened. It was all a bit like a slow motion scene from a bad movie. The first thing Bobby spotted, of course, was Susan. Beautiful Susan.

  She was sitting in a chair next to a figure in the only bed in the room; but as soon as they entered she jumped to her feet and ran over the greet them. She was smiling and appeared to be running into his arms. He opened them for her and leaned in for a kiss, but nothing happened. Susan was hugging Emily.

  Bobby could tell that she was trembling. He yearned to reach out for her, touch her, help her as he had done on the island; but she hadn’t seemed to even notice him. He felt that he knew Susan already, and it was strange to be ignored like that.

  “Susan?” he asked, to both the girl of his dreams and Emily, since they were both locked together and eying him like some sort of fresh and unexplored specimen.

  “This is the Bobby Anderson I told you about,” Emily explained, which was even more bizarre, because, of course Susan already knew who he was!

  “Yes, I’ve seen you in a couple of movies. Thank you so much for coming. Emily tried to explain to me on the phone the how’s and why’s of you knowing my sister, but to tell you the truth, I didn’t understand much of it. I’m just hoping that hearing your voice might bring Maggie back. You know, she’s a huge fan of yours. And now that she’s taken a turn for the worse, I’m sort of trying everything I can. I’m really lucky that you were dining with Emily tonight.”

  Emily gave Bobby that look again that said, I told you so.

  Bobby’s jaw involuntarily dropped open. Judge contemplated shoving his hand under there and setting it back into place, but thankfully he restrained himself.

  What Judge didn’t realize was that it wasn’t the site of Susan that had caused Bobby’s jaw to drop, nor the fact that she didn’t seem to recognize him, but that Susan’s voice did not match Bobby’s dream in the least. Yes, it was similar to the Susan of his dreams, but nowhere near the same. And her eyes: they were green, true, and the shape was similar as well, or perhaps exactly the same as his dreams, but they didn’t look at him the same way. And it dawned on him. The girl in the bed. Was the girl of his dreams.

  “Are you all right?” Emily asked him. “You—” Emily pointed to Judge. “Is he all right?”

  Judge shrugged. This woman probably knew Bobby better than he did. What was she asking him for? Maybe it was an excuse to talk to him, Judge hoped.

  “Is he going to faint again?” Emily asked Judge, as if he was the sudden expert on Bobby Anderson.

  “Look lady, with all due respect, I’ve met this guy once and only talked on the phone with him for a few minutes at a time. We aren’t buddies.”

  Bobby wasn’t listening to any of them. He started walking towards the bed. The cold hospital bed whose wires and buttons and steel frame could not be disguised with vases of flowers and get-well cards.

  “Do you know her?” Susan asked. “Do you know my sister?”

  Bobby looked down at the unfamiliar face and nodded. “Yes,” he chocked. “I know her.” He started to cry. The tears fell so easily; dripping down his cheeks with an ease he hadn’t experience since he was a boy. He had finally found her. It was a relief and a disaster at the same time. “I’m here,” he whispered to the girl. “I’m here. Think of me. Take me to you.”

  Bobby knelt next to the bed and searched for Maggie’s hand, but he couldn’t find it under all the linen. He wanted to touch her at last. He had made love to this woman. He had walked an island with her. He had promised her things and she had trusted him. Bobby picked up the sheet that covered her and saw that Maggie’s arms and hands were wrapped in gauze. Her entire body was wrapped in the same gauze. Only her head and face were left untouched.

  “What happened?” he asked at last.

  Susan stepped forward and touched Bobby’s arm. “Maggie was at a party in a night club in Brooklyn. There was a fire and the kids were all up dancing on the third floor. They panicked; but Maggie was smart, or she thought she was.”

  Susan paused to clear her throat. It was hard for her to tell the story of her sister. “You see, Maggie was wearing a cotton shirt. She’s so boring. Even to a club she wears cotton. If it had been me, I would have had on some shiny number, but not my sister. Anyway, she takes off her shirt and wraps it over her head and tries to run up the stairs from the dance floor. And she’s running like that, you know, to protect her face.”

  Bobby nodded to show that he did know.

  Susan sniffed and looked at her beautiful sister. “I don’t know why she did that, you know? I guess, and I’m just guessing, she did it so that she wouldn’t breathe in the smoke. She was just thinking about saving her life. I’m sure that was why.

  Bobby didn’t quite understand the disappointment in Susan’s voice. If it were he, he would have done the same. Saving his face would have been his number one priority. It was nothing to be ashamed of. Why was Susan acting like it was so bad, or pretending that that wasn’t what Maggie had tried to do and that she was in fact trying to stop the smoke? But he didn’t want to interrupt, so he just nodded again.

  “She was running up the stairs,” Susan continued, “but the crowd panicked and she fell, and they just ran over her.”

  “A stampede,” Bobby said.

  “Exactly. They just ran over her and left her there. They left her to burn!” Susan felt the anger well up in her again. She didn’t even bother to push it down this time. “She was burning to death, and every one of her so called friends made it out of there.” Her voice started to shake. “They are all fine now, lucky them. Do you know how she got out?” Susan asked Bobby, but looking direc
tly at her sister. “She crawled to a window and jumped. That’s how she got out of that damn club; that’s why she’s in a coma now; and that’s why she’s like this.” Susan gestured to the body lying on the bed. “She’ll never play the violin or cello again. If she wakes up and finds out, it will kill her.”

  Bobby understood the story at last. Maggie had sacrificed her body for her face, and had lost the use of her hands in the process. That was why Susan was so upset. She actually blamed Maggie.

  “If she hadn’t put that damn shirt on her face,” Susan continued, “she’d have made it out of there. She would have survived. But she couldn’t see!”

  Bobby felt compelled to say something to comfort Susan, but what he really wanted was to be left alone with Maggie. He wished they’d all just get out so that he could look at her in his own time and get to know this new face. It was a beautiful face: more beautiful than Susan’s. Susan was pretty, there was no doubt about it, and if Maggie had been her he would not have been disappointed, but Maggie was like an angel. How did he get so lucky that this girl would dream of him?

  And this is where we pause and realize that Bobby really was in love, because Maggie, although pretty in her own right, was no angel. She was just a nice looking twenty-year old with smooth pale skin, elegant cherry lips, long red hair, and eyebrows to die for. But no Grace Kelly, or even a Michelle Pfeiffer; let’s be clear on that.

  “So, how do you know her?’ Susan asked, wiping her teary eyes. “She never mentioned that she’d met you before…before the accident.” Susan choked out the last words.

  Bobby touched Maggie’s forehead and remembered the last time he had seen her. “Emily said Maggie had worsened, and it’s true. I was with her a few hours ago and she was…” Bobby couldn’t say the word “dying”.

  “What do you mean you were with her? How can you have been with her? That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “He dreams of her,” Emily explained.

  “That’s impossible.” Judge felt compelled to join the conversation, if only to get Emily’s attention.

  “You’re right,” Bobby nodded. “It’s impossible, but it happened. But it’s she who dreams of me, not the other way around. Susan, do you read articles about me to her?”

  “W—ell,” Susan flustered. I know she likes your movies and was—is!—a big fan; so to keep her spirits up and to have something to talk to her about, I used to read the gossip columns. B―but, with all respect, I don’t believe you. Why are you trying to get in here and tell…well, tell lies, quite frankly. You have to be lying.”

  “Do you play her classical music on Wednesdays?” Bobby asked.

  “Yes. I was told it’s good to have a routine, so on Wednesdays we have classical music days. I wasn’t sure if we should or not, considering her hands. I was hoping for a reaction. But how do you know that?”

  “She doesn’t like it. She wants something more fun. What did she say again? Paul Simon. And, who is Sheila?”

  Susan stumbled backwards. “Sheila is our mother,” She exclaimed. “Wednesdays are her days. Why would you check on that? How do you know all of this?”

  “Look,” Bobby said, with as much conviction as he could muster. “I’m not some sort of con-artist. I came to New York to find a girl who I thought was called Susan because that’s what she said her name was; although, come to think of it, I was the one who called her that because her T-shirt said Susan on it and I assumed that was her name. She didn’t really seem to know her name. I guess she was confused.” He was ranting on now, not explaining himself properly.

  “Look,” he continued. “When she hears about me, she thinks about me and brings me to this island where she’s sort of living now. She’s trying to build a shelter there. I don’t know if that means something to you? But maybe what she needs to do is get off the island instead, you know, get back to us, here.”

  “It does mean something.” Susan hunched her shoulders and looked at her sister. “When we were really young we pretended we lived on this deserted island. It was just a hump in the park, nothing special, but she said it was an island and I played along. She said she would like to build a house on it and live there forever. I think she didn’t want to go home because our parents were in the middle of a divorce and she wasn’t happy at home. Neither of us was.”

  “So she doesn’t want to come home, and that’s why she wants to build a shelter; but she’s not doing well. She has to get off that island. Can you talk to her about me now? Maybe I can get to her.” Bobby put his hand on Susan’s shoulders. “I believe I can talk her into coming home.”

  “This is crazy,” Susan shook her head. “It’s just too weird. And what did you mean about the T-shirt?”

  “I’ll explain that another time. But right now, what do you have to lose?”

  “Let him at least try,” Emily said, taking her friend’s hand and squeezing it gently. “You’ve tried everything else.”

  “Give my boy a chance,” Judge added, still trying to get Emily to notice him again.

  “All right,” Susan sighed. “What do I tell her?”

  “It has to be something that will really grab her attention,” Bobby said, “but not shock her.” He remembered the time Susan thought he was looking for a different girl. Considering the critical condition she was in now, it probably wasn’t a good idea to upset her.

  “Do you have any suggestions?”

  “How about you tell her that Bobby hired a famous private detective to find a girl name Maggie?” Judge suggested.

  “Or that he hired one of the most exclusive brokers in New York City?” Emily said.

  “Either one is fine.” Bobby touched Maggie’s warm cheek. “Let’s just try it. I’m going to sit on the floor, in case.” Bobby sat down close to Maggie’s bed and rested his head against the cold metal frame.

  Susan sat down in the chair next to the bed and started talking. “Hey, sis. Guess what? I just got the latest gossip on Bobby Anderson.” She stopped and shook her head, not quite believing what she was tempting.

  “Go on,” Emily whispered.

  Susan nodded and tried again, trying to sound as upbeat as she could. “Can you believe he’s in New York City? Well, you knew that already, and that he’s staying at The Dakota; but it says he hired this famous private detective and this well-known broker, and they are all looking for this girl called Maggie. And I thought it was probably you. It’s you, isn’t it Maggie? Bobby is looking for you. Isn’t that amazing? Your favorite star has the hots for you. You must be the luckiest girl in America right now.”

  Susan stopped talking and wiped fresh tears from her eyes. Everyone looked at Maggie for some sign, a blink, anything. They heard a soft thud. It was Bobby’s body, slunk down onto the cold hospital floor.

  CHAPTER 29

  “Maggie! Maggie! Oh Maggie!” Bobby ran over to her. She was sitting a few yards up the beach staring out to sea. “Are you feeling better?” It was still dark but the morning sun played peak-a-boo with the horizon. Maggie was aware of the days and nights in the real world. So strange, Bobby thought. How did she know? Was she somehow conscious enough to sense the time change in the hospital?

  “Why did you hire a private detective?” Maggie asked. “You know where I am.”

  This was tricky. No one had told him how he should break the news about her condition to her, or even if he should. He decided to stick to the plan of getting off the island. “Hey, I don’t know. Um, I hadn’t seen you for a while and I just panicked.” Bobby chuckled and sat down on the sand next to her. “You still have that knife you found?”

  “Sure.” Maggie took the knife out of her pocket and let it gleam in the twilight.

  “Do you need it?” she asked. “Are we starting the shelter today?”

  Maggie still looked pale and she didn’t seem as determined about the shelter as she used to.

  “We were going to build a raft, Maggie.” Bobby rubbed his head nervously. He hoped with every word that he wasn’t bl
owing it. The last thing he wanted was to wake up in the hospital next to her bed. “Do you remember what I told you about the raft made of coconuts?”

  “The one that Steve McQueen made in Papillon?”

  Bobby nodded. “Yes. He managed to get off his island.”

  “That was just a movie, though.”

  “But it was based on a true story.”

  “I don’t know.” Maggie dug the knife into the sand and started drawing circles. “Where would we go?”

  “Anywhere you wanted to!” Bobby felt a surge of hope. “Where would you want to go?”

  “I mean,” she said, more to the sand than to him, “there’s all that water out there. We might never be found. We might drift forever and die.”

  Would she do that? Put them adrift forever? “Maggie, if we don’t get off this island we will die. You’ll die. Please. Please let’s just take our chances and leave. I’m sure we’ll be rescued, and afterwards we could be together all the time. Would you like to be with me?”

  Bobby put his arm around her and kissed her cheek. He longed to ask her why she wanted to look like Susan when she was so beautiful. He wanted to ask her about the fire and what she was thinking. He wanted to tell her how brave she was for jumping out the window. She was a survivor and he’d never met anyone like her before.

  But, of course he didn’t dare ask any of those things or mention the fire at all in case it upset her and he ended up back in the real world. The understated world that had nothing in it if it didn’t have Maggie.

  “Don’t you know how much I love you?” he asked her instead.

  Maggie turned her face to his and kissed him softly on his lips. Oh boy, she sure knew how to make him want her. He would have liked to make love to her right there on the beach, just as the sun rose and the sound of the ocean broke gently in his ears. Her beach wasn’t an atoll, but it was perfect.