Blind Date

by Bruce Richards

  "Hello, Evan," Alicia said.

  She sounded okay about hearing from him, he thought. He hoped.

  A cool breeze blew through Evan's house and tickled the back of his neck, raising goosebumps. He turned around, expecting to see his uncle, but there was no one there.

  "What's up, Evan?"

  "Um… you said you'd call me and when you didn't I thought I'd call you instead. You know, in case you needed something."

  'Thanks Evan. But I'm okay."

  An awkward silence followed.

  "Um… Alicia… I know what they've been saying about me."

  "What do you mean, Evan?"

  "I've heard some talk about me and Scott and I want you to know it's all a bunch of lies," Evan continued hurriedly. "All lies. You know how they're always making up stories about me. The only thing is this time I actually saved a guy's life, and they still hate me. Still tell lies about me."

  Alicia was breathing heavily into the phone. "Don't worry about it Evan, okay?"

  "Okay." Evan struggled to make his brain work, struggled to remember what to say next. "Um… did you think about what I asked you before?"

  "About what?"

  "About, you know, the homecoming dance?"

  "Oh," Alicia said, and her mood suddenly changed. Evan thought maybe he shouldn't have brought the subject up so soon. "I guess I'm still thinking about it. Can I let you know later?"

  "That's cool," Evan blurted out. "No problem. I really just wanted to let you know that if you needed anything, I'm available."

  "Thank you, Evan."

  She sounded grateful. Like his uncle had said she would be.

  "I'm here for you if you need me."

  "I know, Evan."

  He loved it when she said his name. "And don't worry, because you're going to get your eyesight back." His heart was heaving inside his chest. "One way or the other."

  Alicia mumbled something. Was she crying? He couldn't tell.

  They said good-bye.

  When Evan hung the phone up he had a big smile on his face.

  This was the start of something great, he knew.

  The start of a whole new life.

  And the end of a few others.

  Chapter 29

  The next afternoon Alicia called Evan.

  She had to go to the hospital for another follow-up exam with Dr. Harrison. Something about a CAT scan. Then she was supposed to have her first meeting with a psychiatrist.

  Her mother had offered to take her, but Alicia wasn't in the mood to cheer up her depressed mother yet again. She couldn't go alone, though. Evan said he would be more than happy to drive her.

  On the ride over, Alicia became increasingly nervous. The idea of more tests unnerved her. She tried to joke about it with Evan — about it being a «cat» scan, like for his strays. But her joke was weak, and Evan didn't get it anyway.

  Alicia fidgeted in her seat. Then she ran her hands over the dashboard. Then she started drumming her fingertips against the side of the door.

  Evan's attempts to put her at ease didn't help. She knew he meant well, but she couldn't shake the dread. The hospital was where Alicia felt most helpless… most hopeless.

  In contrast, Dr. Hawke's little office in the basement of Evan's house had felt like a safe haven. Maybe it was because he kept it so nice and toasty-warm down there.

  Alicia recalled her nightmare of the night before. In it, she was leaving the hospital and passed by two bodies being wheeled in on gurneys. The bodies were covered with sheets; but as the gurneys passed her, the sheets billowed up and she could see who was underneath. It was Boomer and Tiffany. Boomer's legs were gone. Bloody stumps protruded from beneath his practice jersey. And Tiffany's eyes were missing. Alicia woke up screaming — the way she usually woke up these days.

  Now, as a nurse led her into the examination room she found herself unable to shake the images from her nightmare. She felt gripped with panic, and insisted that Evan remain by her side. The doctor in charge grumbled his disapproval, but in the end Evan was allowed to stay.

  They made Alicia lie down on a padded table. A huge machine was rotated over her.

  The doctor ordered Evan to step to one side.

  "Evan?" Alicia called out. She hardly recognized her own voice. It sounded like the voice of a frightened little girl. She felt Evan's long delicate fingers encircle her outstretched hand, the same fingers that had created the beautiful clay doll. He squeezed her hand reassuringly, unclasped her hand, and stepped aside again.

  "I'm here, Ali," came his voice from somewhere behind her.

  Alicia heard the machine buzz. She had forgotten to ask what they were doing first. The CAT scan? It was some kind of X ray, she knew. X rays didn't hurt, she reminded herself.

  This is a big mistake, a voice inside her head said.

  But another voice told her she was just being chicken.

  The machine whirred loudly. Over the noise she heard the doctor say something to Evan. Evan said something in response. The doctor told Evan not to mess with something. Evan said something about the wires being frayed —

  — The shock hit her brain like a fistful of exploding dynamite —

  She shook on the table.

  She would have screamed if she could have.

  — Another shock shot up the length of her body sending a jolt up her spine. Her eye-teeth chattered as a red wave of agony swept over her —

  "Do something!" she heard Evan yelling frantically. "Before you kill her!"

  — Another shock hit her and something that smelled like rotten eggs filled the air. She felt tiny sizzling-crackling sparks raining down on her face and into her hair —

  Alicia gagged back the bitter taste of bile that filled her mouth.

  And then her head floated away into an ominous dark cloud.

  Chapter 30

  Alicia was still shaking as Evan walked her to the medical office building that stood next to the hospital. He had already called the psychiatrist's office to say that Alicia would be a half hour late. Considering the circumstances, the psychiatrist had done the unheard of. He allowed her to come in anyway, apparently sacrificing part of his own lunch time to help his new and desperate patient.

  "I'm really sorry," Evan said again as they rode the elevator up to the fifth floor.

  "It wasn't your fault," Alicia assured him. Her temples were still throbbing.

  "I may have overreacted by yanking the plug out — but that idiot doctor was killing you. I don't know for sure what happened, but the wires in back of the machine looked loose or something."

  "I think you just saved my life," Alicia said gratefully.

  Evan smiled.

  "I'm not too eager to turn myself over to a psychiatrist," Alicia confided. "My mind is so messed up at this point that I don't think there's anyone in the world who could straighten it out."

  "I don't think you have much choice about it, Alicia," Evan said calmly. "You're not getting good sleep. You're exhausted. It's unhealthy."

  He guided her through the doorway and into the psychiatrist's waiting room.

  "Alicia," Evan said softly, as she sat down to wait. The receptionist turned back to her magazine. "I'll be back for you in an hour. You can tell me all about it if you want to, or you don't have to tell me anything."

  "You're very understanding, Evan," Alicia said softly. "I guess I can handle this alone."

  Evan gave her hand a squeeze, then he was gone.

  * * *

  An hour later, Alicia felt like she had been through yet another nightmare. She had not expected that she would have to relive all the awful experiences of the last few weeks. The doctor seemed to want to understand her, and apparently thought it would be good for her to spill it all out, clear her mind. But what it really did was make her suffer through it yet again. When she emerged from his office, she hardly felt cured.

  "We'll see you a week from today at eleven, then," he chirped as he guided her back to the reception room where Ev
an was waiting for her. The doctor acknowledged Evan with a nod, then turned to reenter his inner sanctum.

  Evan said a quick hello to Alicia, then escorted her down and out of the building. The hearse was parked in the lot close by.

  They drove home in silence until they reached Elm Street.

  "I don't suppose you've thought about the homecoming dance at all? It's just that it's coming up pretty soon and I… I don't know… I guess I just wanted to be the first in line to ask you."

  "Yeah, well," Alicia said, "as you can see that line isn't very long." Scott isn't even on it, Alicia thought sadly. "So if I do go, it'll be with you."

  "I hear you're still in the running for homecoming queen," Evan announced.

  "Well, I'm sure to get the sympathy vote," Alicia said with a warped smile.

  "You've got my vote."

  Alicia didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

  Evan pulled up in front of Alicia's house. He walked around to the passenger side to open her door and escort her up the front walk. Alicia heard the front door open as they approached.

  Then she heard her mother's voice, with more energy behind it than had been there for a long, long time.

  "Thank goodness you're home safely! There's terrible news! Terrible! Boomer and Tiffany!"

  "What?" Alicia said, terrified, a stream of horrible possibilities racing through her mind. She walked toward her mother's voice and reached out to find her hands.

  "A hit-and-run accident! About an hour ago. The ambulances were here. The police. They're all gone now. It was chaos."

  "What about Boomer and Tiffany?"

  Then her mother told her. "The car ran over the Harrison boy's legs."

  Alicia felt her head spin. "Tiffany? What about Tiffany?" The images from her nightmare filled her mind. Boomer and Tiffany…

  "They can't find her body!" her mother said.

  Alicia felt dizzy as the ground began to heave and tilt at odd angles. She felt herself floating down in slow motion — this was what it felt like to faint, she realized.

  Evan caught her as she fell, and carried her up the stairs to her bedroom.

  Chapter 31

  Alicia was already blind. Now she felt paralyzed too. She needed to do something. She needed to help. Somehow. She wanted to fix things up. Undo what had been done. Boomer without legs, she thought, was worse than Scott without a face.

  And Tiffany was still missing. She needed people out searching for her. There was still hope that she was alive.

  But Alicia was trapped inside her body, unable to do little more than twiddle her thumbs. She could search nowhere, arrange nothing.

  She had second thoughts now about asking Evan to take her anywhere. Second and third and fourth thoughts. Tiffany had been afraid of Evan. Maybe Tiffany had been right.

  The nightmare about Boomer and Tiffany had come true. If only Alicia could have done something to prevent all this. But how could she possibly have known that that particular nightmare would come true? She suffered through horrible, violent dreams every night. If all of them came true, most of Elm Street, and all of Springwood High would be dead or destroyed by now.

  There was a knock at the door.

  "Come in," Alicia called.

  The door opened. "Alicia, don't you even keep your door locked?" It was Ellen.

  "I'd just have to get up and fumble my way over to open it. Why bother?"

  There was a long pause. "There's still no word on Tiffany. They say Boomer will live."

  "Have you seen him yet?" asked Alicia.

  "I must have some kind of flaw I'm not aware of. Nobody will let me visit them in the hospital. First Scott, now Boomer. Charlie saw them both."

  "Charlie's a guy. Don't take it personally," Alicia responded. Why was she trying to make Ellen feel better? she wondered. She didn't even like her.

  "That's nice of you to say, after what we've both been through."

  Alicia didn't say.

  "Do you want to visit them?" Ellen asked quietly.

  "I'd take you."

  Suddenly it dawned on Alicia that nobody had even offered to do that for her before, and she hadn't even thought of asking.

  "That's nice of you to offer, considering what you've been through."

  "So, you want to go see them?"

  Alicia shook her head. "I think I'd better wait. I know I'm in bad shape." Another blanket of depression seemed to layer itself over her. "I'd better wait." She shook her head, incredulous that her life was in this condition.

  "Okay," Ellen said. "Let me know if you change your mind."

  Alicia heard Ellen get up and go to the door to leave. "Hey, Ellen," Alicia said evenly. "Will you come again tomorrow?"

  "Sure," Ellen said. Then she left.

  Alicia got up, shuffled her way over to the front door, and locked it.

  * * *

  Ellen wished she hadn't gone to see Alicia. She felt worse now than before. Anxious. Not sure of where to go or why.

  She had meant to go to Alicia's to be kind to her. But now she felt like all she had done was make things worse.

  Alicia seemed incredibly depressed, Ellen thought. Well, it was understandable. But she must be getting a lot of sympathy from people. That was probably a comfort to her. Alicia's problem was obvious. She must feel practically smothered by all the attention she was getting.

  While Ellen got none.

  Because Ellen's problem was invisible.

  Nobody could possibly understand. The rise and fall of Ellen. One day nothing. Then suddenly a curling iron, some lipstick and a bra, and she was captain of the cheerleading squad with a good chance of dating the best-looking football player in the school.

  Now it was gone. All of it. The football player was a mess. Football games were being canceled. Ellen was living in such a state of constant fear that she could barely remember to put her lipstick on in the morning.

  Tears came to her eyes and began to roll down her cheeks as she walked toward home. Nobody even knew that she was terrified for her own safety. Nobody knew that she was starting to have nightmares of her own. Probably no one would even care.

  Ellen allowed the tears to keep falling. Captain of the varsity cheerleaders, she thought to herself. Some thrill. Some honor. She hadn't even gone to practice all week.

  * * *

  Old Man Murphy leaned on a cane as he smoked his cigar, his fish-hook hat perched on his head. He always had his nightly smoke beneath the branches of the elm tree in his front yard. Mrs. Murphy wouldn't allow him to smoke in the house. And although she had been dead a long time, he still respected her wishes.

  The skeletal branches of the old elm tree glistened in the pale streetlights.

  He had learned to respect the dead.

  The crunch of dry leaves caught his attention. An attractive blonde girl briskly strode down the sidewalk toward him. He recognized her as his grandson's girlfriend. What was her name? Helen or Elise or something like that. Ellen. That was it. He had met her once but couldn't remember where.

  He couldn't remember a lot of things nowadays.

  And some things he would rather just forget.

  "Hello, Ellen!" he barked as she passed.

  The girl gasped, startled by the voice in the darkness.

  She didn't answer. Just picked up her pace.

  The nervous type, Old Man Murphy thought, watching her hurry away.

  Of course there were good reasons to be nervous on this street.

  He took a last puff of the cigar, and sent a plume of bluish smoke into the cool night air. He was just turning to go back to the house when he heard the scream.

  Or was it a scream?

  It had been small. It had come from the direction Ellen had been walking in. It could have been a muffled scream. Like a scream with a big hand over the mouth, to mute it. Or it might have been an animal making some sort of noise — a celebratory noise of victory over some little captured prey item. Maybe it had been a cat. The street sure was crawling
with them these days.

  His ears were going as bad as the rest of him, he thought. He already suffered from the ringing in them. Drove him crazy, that ringing. Now he couldn't even tell if something was a human scream, or a cat screech.

  Maybe he should take a closer look, he thought. Make sure the girl was okay. Old Man Murphy started to walk in that direction. Maybe she slipped and fell, he thought as he scanned the area as best he could. It was a dark, moonless night. Not all the streetlights were working, and it was almost impossible to see farther than a few feet.

  He heard another sound — a shuffling of feet maybe. Or someone dragging something…

  He wished he were leaning on his rifle now, instead of his cane. He walked quickly back toward his own house.

  At the edge of the white picket fence that surrounded his yard, Murphy peered into the darkness. He saw someone run away.

  Was it his grandson? He couldn't be sure.

  It could have been anyone.

  Anyone at all.

  He threw down the stub of his cigar and went into his house to get the shotgun.

  Chapter 32

  Where was Ellen? Alicia wondered. Maybe she had forgotten.

  Alicia sat on the seat of the rusty old swing set in her backyard. She couldn't believe how disappointed she was. She had actually been looking forward to a visit from Ellen. A girl she didn't even like! Her life had become too pathetic for words.

  The noise of chirping crickets seemed magnified a thousand times. And they were all screaming at her. She rocked back and forth, back and forth, the swing making a creaky, grating sound. Anything to shut out the screaming crickets.

  Anything to shut out the screaming voices in her head.

  Where was Ellen?

  Where was Scott?

  Where was Tiffany?

  She heard a twig snap. She cocked her head in the direction of the noise as she stopped swinging. And then she heard a soft thud. Something rolled to her feet and rested against her ankle. Something round and hard. She slowly reached down and touched it.