Opposite Worlds

by Sasha Pop

  “Young man, are you hurt?” a deep voice asked. Rodrigo saw an intense flashlight pointing at him from the end of the corridor.

  “Phew, I guess she did tell them about me. I am getting paranoid,” he thought. The policeman approached him, looking at the bloody sight.

  “I am ok, but the dog here needs immediate assistance, the patch I made won’t last long. I have called an ambulance.”

  The sergeant reported the hurt animal on the radio to his group. Rodrigo gathered the courage to say something.

  “Sir, I am sorry to interrupt you, but could you please ask your men to tell the lady outside there is nothing to worry about the dog? She is very concerned. ”

  The cop threw Rodrigo an evaluating look, and then paged somebody on the outside relating the message. As he was getting the response, he smiled slightly.

  “They are telling me that she was more worried about you being ok. You did a brave thing here young man.”

  Rodrigo was very surprised at this piece of information, but before he could give it additional thought the sound of an ambulance approaching caught his attention. Rodrigo took the lead:

  “Let’s clear the path for the medics to carry her out.”

  Nodding affirmatively, the sergeant instructed his team to clear the house. He and Rodrigo were the last to leave. As soon as Rodrigo stepped outside, he felt like he was getting attacked, but it was just the blonde girl who hugged him tight out of the blue, not caring they were surrounded by police officers.

  “You jerk, how can you be so reckless!” Jessica exclaimed, repeatedly hitting him on the chest while crying on his shoulder.

  Not sure how to react, Rodrigo hugged her back, and lightly brushed her hair.

  “It is all ok now. I promise you that Tara is going to be alright.”

  “What if you got hurt instead, what would I do then?” Jessica said, sobbing. She couldn’t explain why she had been so terrified while he had been gone; after all she was safely locked inside the car and the police were coming. She only knew that the few minutes that she had waited for him seemed to drag for an eternity.

  “I am sorry that I put you through this. It was so dangerous…” Jessica cried. The feelings of blame were getting to her.

  “Shhh, I am ok too. And you should stop that, you know? You look better when you smile,” Rodrigo blurted out. “Where did that come from,” he wondered.

  “Eh?” she asked, in awe. The comment struck Jessica like lightning, bringing her sobbing to an end.

  Soon, the pair had to step aside to let paramedics enter the house. A minute later, Tara was already lying immobilized on the stretchers, being carried outside towards the ambulance by a couple of EMTs.

  Rodrigo hurried to ask them what hospital they were taking the Retriever to. Caught in the moment, he grabbed Jessica’s hand to go towards the Ferrari. The police officers however had clearly other plans for them.

  “Miss, can you tell us in detail what happened tonight?” the sergeant asked. Jessica repeated the story she told earlier Rodrigo.

  “My parents are away and only coming back Sunday. I am afraid of staying here all alone,” she concluded.

  “My team will be here for the next few hours to search for evidence. It would be better if you could find a place to stay tonight,” the sergeant said, throwing a glance at Rodrigo. “In the morning we will need you to review the inventory for any missing items.”

  “Um, it is not like that between us,” Jessica denied, blushing at the realization of what the man in the uniform was implying.

  She was acting like a middle school girl, but Rodrigo couldn’t help finding it a little cute. “I think we will go now to the hospital, so that won’t be necessary,” he announced, giving her a little smile, which she gratefully returned.

  “Alright then. We will be contacting you in the morning,” the sergeant said, kindly nodding and smiling at how much fun it was to be young.

  “Thank you Sir,” they said in unison.

  Chapter XI

  “I must ask… how do you always keep your composure like that?” Jessica inquired from the passenger seat as they were on the way to the hospital. “I mean, you look my age…but you are so confident and decisive.” Somehow, just by being around him she now felt more confident herself. She also didn’t worry anymore that he thought badly of her for how they had met; it was as if the invisible barrier between them had crumbled.

  Rodrigo smiled. If only she knew how scared he had been of his upcoming mission, then perhaps she wouldn’t be so impressed.

  “I can be afraid too, you know. But there are some things in life that are worth overcoming fear for,” he said, thinking of his mother.

  Jessica wanted to ask what it was in his case that made him fight fear, but thought that it would be too inquisitive.

  “I wish there were more guys like you at my university,” she blurted. The stress she had gone through had made her brutally honest, not thinking of how her statements could be interpreted. “I thought about who to call…but couldn’t think of anyone else than you, almost a complete stranger.”

  Rodrigo remained silent, not knowing how to answer that. He understood that despite her flashy appearance and extroverted behavior she had no real friends. It slightly reminded him of himself. All the people who respected him now that he was driving a Ferrari and hanging out with the big boys – would they give him a second thought if they knew who he really was?

  “Anyways, how old are you?” Jessica asked, interrupting the awkward pause.

  “I am thirty-four.” Rodrigo answered, managing to keep a straight face.

  “What?!” Jessica exclaimed, slightly disappointed and not sure whether to believe him or not. She remembered seeing some Latinos before who looked very young but turned out to be way older. Plus, he obviously had big money and authority – it made sense now for him to be a lot older too. This saddened her a little; somehow she wished that they would be closer in age.

  “Wait, you really believed me?” Rodrigo laughed. “I am twenty-four, not some old man yet.”

  Jessica didn’t know whether to hit him for the prank or to hit herself for being so gullible. He was just so hard to read, this guy, with that serious expression and then the completely unexpected sense of humor. Still, she was relieved to learn the truth.

  “We are almost there. Let’s park in the garage; we might be here for a while,” he said.

  Once in the lobby, they were directed for the ER waiting room and instructed to wait. It was a relatively quiet night, so they had the room almost for themselves. Twenty minutes went by while they anxiously waited until a nurse came out to greet them.

  “Good news, we finished the stitches and your dog is sleeping now – she is not in any danger anymore. There was a big loss of blood though, so whoever made that patch might have saved her life.”

  “Thank God! Thank God!” Jessica repeated, almost about to jump up and down from relief.

  “In a few hours, you will be able to bring her home.”

  Jessica tentatively looked at Rodrigo for approval.

  “We will wait here,” he said, nodding. He could have chosen to spend his time otherwise, after all it might very well be his last week in freedom; however he couldn’t refuse the blonde girl when she was looking at him like that. He could not admit it to himself, but somehow at that moment she reminded him of a certain someone who he hadn’t seen in the past five years, but who he never managed to fully forget. Her long, smooth shiny hair falling on her gently pale complexion, her deep blue eyes that were cold at one moment and warm on the next one, even her somewhat hyper manners…he had seen, touched and felt all that before. Rodrigo shook his head to break this dangerous train of thought.

  “Are you falling asleep?” Jessica asked, looking at him. “You seem to be spacing out.”

  “No, I woke up really late today,” Rodrigo answered. “One more secret that I have to keep from her,” he thought, cringing on the inside.

  “Good. Th
en since we have a few hours, why don’t you tell me about yourself?”

  “Eh?” This was probably the question he dreaded the most in the world. Seeing that she wasn’t about to switch topics, he started as vaguely as possible.

  “Well, there isn’t much to know… I was born in Mexico, and then my parents moved to Florida when I was a little kid. I played soccer in my youth. Now I am a third-year student at vet school. I like animals like you guessed earlier,” he concluded.

  Jessica wasn’t buying his simple act though.

  “Is that it? There seems to be a lot more about you. For instance, what do you do at Docks? And that car you drive….do they pay that well at the nightclub or are your parents mega rich?”

  For a brief moment, Rodrigo contemplated just dropping everything and telling her the truth. “I am just a delivery boy for some local thugs, on the verge of becoming a drug smuggler. My family is dirt poor and my mother is dying with cancer,” he thought, desperately wanting to lay it all on the table, but instead he resisted and kept making up his story.

  “Oh that? I have some friends in the nightlife business that invited me to try out part-time work as a bouncer. Eventually, I became a shift manager… basically making sure that people stay out of trouble,” he said, pausing on the last part to imply he meant the likes of her. “And about the car, I just saved a lot over the years… and it is a used car too, so it is not that expensive,” he added. At first, Rodrigo thought to say it was borrowed from a friend, but this seemed to be even less credible than the story he had just told.

  Jessica looked at him skeptically, not convinced. Her dad had taught her something about cars, and she vaguely remembered him saying that it was his dream to buy an 84’ Testarossa which looked awfully similar on her dad’s posters to Rodrigo’s car. This was a rare classic, not a mere “used car”.

  “Come on, it is your turn to tell me your life story now. Tell me all the details since the moment you were born,” he joked, trying to shift the focus to her.

  “Well, I never really left this town, so my life is not as exciting as yours. My parents were living in a small, quiet neighborhood and we were a tight, happy family until one day my dad invented a new medical procedure…He is a doctor, a plastic surgeon. Then he became really famous in the medical circles and we moved to River Oaks. I had to attend a private school, which I didn’t really like. All the kids were really snobby, they annoyed me so much.”

  “When I first met you, I thought you would be snobby too, you know,” Rodrigo said, laughing.

  “And now, what do you think?”

  “Now I don’t think so anymore,” he stated. She could tell that he meant it.

  Next, she told him about how she had hated going to all the receptions and high society events where she was forced to go as a kid. Having gone to a fair share of events himself as a rising soccer star in his youth, Rodrigo could actually contribute to the conversation. They laughed hard as she told him the story about a dinner her family was hosting when she had placed some glue on the seat of the chair where a particularly obnoxious French friend of her mother was sitting, a respectable lady in an exquisite evening dress who kept pestering little Jessica about her supposed lack of manners. Jessica imitated the funny French accent of the lady cursing as her dress was ripping apart after she tried to stand up.

  “Et toi, tu aussi parle Français?” Rodrigo asked.

  “Ah…” Jessica was so surprised at him addressing her in French that she was barely able to answer his basic question.

  “Ouais, j’ai apprendu avec ma mère. Et toi?”

  “A little. I had a couple of French friends that I learned with.”

  “I wonder, did he have a French girlfriend?” Jessica thought, oblivious that he was innocently referring to a couple of teammates on his youth squad who he was friends with.

  “I was in Paris over the summer once – it is such a beautiful city with all these fancy palaces, churches, museums and cafés. I really dreamed about going there to study abroad, but my father would never let me.”

  “Oh. Is he strict?” Rodrigo said with sympathy.

  “Yes, like you wouldn’t believe. He used to even tell me what to study – he really wanted me to become a plastic surgeon, to make a lot of money, but I don’t like it. It seems just like such a waste of talent, instead of saving people he is just growing the boobs or facelifting some bimbo.”

  “Well, plastic surgery can be used to save lives too, you know. If somebody gets burned really bad, the doctors can grow a type of artificial skin that can be used while patients heal. And in severe accidents, it is the only way for people to regain their normal lives.”

  “I have never thought about it like that, I guess you are right. But I envy you that you get to pursue your dreams like that.”

  Rodrigo let go a forced smile, hoping she wouldn’t notice. “And what are you really passionate about?”

  Jessica went silent for a moment, deep in thought. “I haven’t thought about that for a very long time. For so long I had to deal with people’s expectations of what I had to become. With my father’s name, everybody assumed I was destined to be a doctor. And I don’t even remember if somebody ever asked me that question before. You know, whenever I met up with a guy, they just keep talking about their lives and how cool they are and what they want to do. If they ask me something, it is usually along the lines of ‘what types of clubs do you like?’ and ‘what do you drink?’”

  Rodrigo listened attentively. He could understand her now a little better, even if they were from two different worlds.

  “You didn’t answer my question though,” he reminded her.

  “Oh…well if I really have to say, I love singing. I wanted so much to become a singer when I was in middle school, but my parents wouldn’t let me enroll in music lessons saying it was a waste of time.”

  “Really? Then let’s sing,” he said.

  “What? Right here?”

  “Yes. Nobody can hear us anyway,” he told her while pointing at the receptionist in the corner who was falling asleep.

  “You are crazy,” Jessica said, giving him an incredulous look.

  He just smiled and started whistling a popular tune. Seeing that he wasn’t about to stop, Jessica joined in, quietly at first, and then slowly increasing the volume. It was a radio hit from early 2000s that she knew the lyrics of. They started singing at different tones and pitches, adjusting themselves throughout the song to match each other. To better feel the rhythm, they were locking eyes. Instinctively, Jessica’s hands were leaning forward, slightly touching his. Finally, they were singing in unison, like they were the only people in the world. Jessica felt that she was getting hot from the sheer proximity of Rodrigo. Did he realize the intimacy of the moment? Looking at his expression, calm as ever, she thought that probably he did not. “I am getting weird ideas again.” Getting self-conscious, she stopped and pulled away, slightly.

  “That was fun,” she said. “You are a good singer. I bet you use that to get girls all the time.”

  His reserved smile told her she was dead wrong. Still, she pressed on, touching on what she really wanted to know.

  “Do you have a girlfriend?” she asked. Seeing how he looked at her after that comment, she added. “Don’t get me wrong, it is not like I am interested or anything…I just thought that if you did, maybe it was bad that you were spending the night here with me…”

  “No, I have nobody like that in my life now. I haven’t had time for that sort of thing lately,” he answered. For some unexplainable reason, it saddened him to hear that coming from her.

  Jessica on the contrary cheered up and didn’t press further. After a few more minutes of chit-chat about lighter topics, she was getting sleepy.

  “Listen, do you mind if I take a small nap? My eyes are closing.”

  “It is normal to feel depleted after stress. Sure, go ahead.”

  “What about you? Will you be ok?”

  “I will be watching yo
u as you snore,” Rodrigo teased her.

  “You jerk. See if I care.”

  On that note, she demonstratively turned her head away and closed her eyes. Soon however, as she started drifting toward dream world, her back was leaning against him, with her head finding a resting spot on his shoulder.

  Rodrigo didn’t mind. Now that she was quiet, he had a chance to think about the events of the past few hours… with all the excitement, he almost forgot that he had exactly a week before the mission. Careful not to wake her up, Rodrigo looked at the face of Jessica from up close, who was already sleeping like an angel without a care in the world.

  “She really is beautiful,” he thought with sadness. “Too bad she doesn’t know the real me at all. And too bad we live in different worlds.”

  ***** a few hours later *****

  As the sunlight started entering the waiting room window around 6am, they both started to slowly wake up. Once they realized that they were holding each other tightly, probably because of the cold temperature at night, they quickly pulled away.

  “What are you doing, you pervert?” Jessica asked while standing up, not actually being mad.

  “Hey, you are the one who used me as a mattress tonight,” Rodrigo answered. They both laughed as if they knew each other for a long time already.

  “It’s time to go see Tara,” Rodrigo said, returning to his serious expression.

  The sleepy receptionist phoned the nurse to get a status check.

  “Good news, your dog is already up and full of energy.”

  Minutes later, Tara was walking out on her own through the metal doors accompanied by a nurse. The clumsy antenna-like plastic around her neck clearly bothered her, but she was delighted to see Jessica and Rodrigo.

  “You can take her home, but she should avoid the outdoors for the next few weeks until the stitches can be removed, to prevent an infection. Be sure to change the bandage every day too,” the nurse instructed them.

  Nodding, they headed for the garage. As they were boarding the car, Rodrigo thought that Maestro might kill him if he found out that he had transported a dog in his precious Ferrari. Concluding that this might happen sometime soon regardless of whether the car got trashed, Rodrigo cleared the back seat for Tara.