Copyright © 2021 James Russell Stoakes
All rights reserved.
http://JamesStoakes.com
“Are you sure you can stay all day?” Sarah asked Arron. She looked at the sky as soon as they had left Alice’s kitchen, and sure enough, clouds were coming in, and they looked laden with snow. “It’s going to suck if you have to drive back during a storm.”
Arron shrugged. “We can check the forecast when we get back to the house,” he said. “If it looks bad, I can leave earlier than planned. You seem okay to me.”
“I’m fine,” Sarah said. “I think I was just in shock last night.” They could hear snowmobiles in the distance. “Alice used to have Oak Grove open during the summer only,” Sarah said as she led Arron. “I convinced her to open year-round with seasonal rentals. Her property is right next to the state snowmobile trails, so it was a perfect fit for those guys.” She pointed at the cabins with a couple of snowmobiles outside them. “We just added heat to the cabins to make them useable.”
Tom and Eric were exiting their cabin as Sarah and Arron approached. They were bundled up for the trails and carried their helmets. “Hi, Sarah,” Tom called out in his deep, raspy voice and waved. He and Eric walked over to Sarah.
“Hi, Tom. Hi, Eric,” Sarah greeted them. “This is my big brother, Arron.”
“Nice to meet you,” Tom and Eric both said.
“Nice to meet you, too,” Arron said and reached out to shake. The hand of the large man in front of him absorbed his and shook it gently.
Tom looked at Sarah. “We just saw on the news that something happened at the high school last night. Were you there?” he asked.
“I was,” Sarah said, a bit uncomfortable. “Someone attacked one of my classmates outside the building,” she said in a grave voice.
“How bad? Will they be okay?” Tom asked, very concerned.
“She will be okay, physically, I think,” Sarah said. “Time will tell for the rest. The attacker will not be okay, physically,” Sarah lightly chuckled. “I was told that Mary bit part of his ear off.”
“Good Lord!” Tom said. “We had a bit of excitement here last night, too. Stupid Jason went and got himself in a bar fight. He came in last night, covered in blood. He said he was lucky to get out alive before grabbing his stuff and heading home.”
Eric gave Tom a concerned look. “Let’s get our ride in before the storm; we should probably head home before it starts,” he said. “We should check in on Jason when we get back, too.”
“Yeah, the idiot looked a little rough; we should check on him,” Tom agreed. “I’ll make a call. See you soon,” he said, and the pair walked off to their machines.
“Let me show you what we are planning for summer, Arron,” Sarah said and began trudging into the snow towards the pond.
As soon as Sarah was gone, Eric looked at Tom. “I don’t know if you saw last night, but it looked like one of Jason’s ears was bleeding badly,” he said.
“I don’t want to think Jason could have been involved in this,” Tom stated while fishing his phone out of his chest pocket, “but it seems a bit too coincidental.”
“I hope not, but he does act a little weird sometimes. Have you ever caught him staring at Sarah before?” Eric asked.
Tom thought about it for a moment. “I have, but she is pretty,” he dismissively said as he searched for the contact he wanted on his phone. Finding it, he pressed the call button.
“She is, but it looked like more than admiration when I saw him,” Eric insisted. “It made me uncomfortable.”
Tom spoke into his phone. “Jake! Hey Eric and I will be back in about six hours. I want you to hunt down Jason and have him at the clubhouse when we arrive.” He listened for a few moments. “Tell him it’s mandatory. You have my permission to use whatever means necessary to get him there and hold him for me.” He listened again before ending the call, “I’m counting on you to get it done.”
Tom put the phone away. “We’ll know more when we get home,” Tom said and slipped on his helmet and lifted the visor. “We have three hours to enjoy the ride,” he said with a smile.
“It looks pretty dark to the west,” Arron noted as they left Alice’s driveway.
“It does,” Sarah agreed, looking in the mirror behind them. “You should probably get going as soon as we get back.”
“Probably,” he said. There was a long silence before he spoke again. “Alice is nice,” he said. “Mom and Alice do have a lot of similar facial features.”
“You should see her picture holding the baby,” Sarah said. “That was another thing that I forgot to tell you. In the picture, they look so similar it’s scary.”
“I think you will have to come to terms with Alice at some point,” Arron reasoned. “You’ll have to do that first before you can say anything to mom.”
“I understand,” Sarah said. “That makes sense. I’ll work on it.”
“You have to go so soon?” Mrs. Mitchel asked Arron, disappointed.
“Yeah, they are predicting over a foot of snow overnight. If I leave now, I should be home before it gets too bad,” he answered. “Sarah’s strong. She’s okay,” he established for his mom.
“Do you think you will be home for Christmas?” she asked.
Arron smiled. “Absolutely, mom,” he said and went for a hug. They embraced for a moment, and when they separated, he hugged his father too.
“Drive careful,” Mr. Mitchel said. “Do you have your emergency kit with you?”
“Always, dad. Just like you taught me,” he laughed again. He opened the door, “See you all at Christmas,” he said and closed the door.
“Sarah!” Mrs. Mitchel called up the stairs. “Robbie is here.”
Her eyes shot open, “Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod, I fell asleep!” Sarah said quietly to herself. Exiting her room and rushing to the bathroom, she called down the stairs, “I’ll be down in a minute.” She looked in the mirror. “Nooo!” she whispered upon seeing her disheveled hair. She grabbed a brush and ran it under the water for a moment before dragging it through her hair a few times. Once satisfied, she quickly brushed her teeth. “One more look,” she thought as she stared into the mirror. “Ready,” she confirmed to herself.
At the bottom of the stairs, Robbie smiled up at her. “Sorry,” Sarah said as she descended. “I fell asleep.”
“I’m not surprised,” Robbie said. “I know that I didn’t sleep well last night. I assume it was the same for you.”
“I slept horribly,” Sarah confirmed.
“We don’t have to go if you’re not ready,” Robbie offered.
“No, we do,” Sarah said after considering the situation for a moment. “Do you mind if we stop and get some flowers on the way?”
“Not a problem,” Robbie agreed.
They arrived just as visiting hours were opening up. The woman at the front desk greeted them with a smile. “How can I help you?” she asked.
“We are here to see Mary Jordan,” Sarah replied.
The woman looked down at her screen, “Let me see where she is. Hmmm, okay, she’s been moved from ICU to a private room. Room 322. Check with the nurse station on floor three before going to the room to be sure.”
“Thanks!” Sarah chirped.
“Take the elevator just around this corner,” she pointed to her left, “The nurse station is just a few paces away from there.”
Sarah nodded, and she and Robbie strolled to the elevator. Neither seemed in a hurry at this point as their apprehensions mounted.
The elevator’s ping indicated it had arrived and drew them both out of their thoughts for a moment as they boarded it, and Sarah pressed the button for floor three.
The elevator pinged again, and the door opened. “What do you mean, we lost the baby?” a woman’s shriek greeted them from somewhere down the hall. “She wasn’t pregnant!”
Robbie and Sarah stepped from the elevator and stood for a moment, embarrassed for the person who was having a moment.
“Ma’am, please calm down,” a calm female voice said. “I’m only telling you what the report says.”
“Well, it’s wrong,” the woman said, anguished. Sarah could hear the woman leaving the area with an echoing clop, clop, clop, from her shoes.
The pair ventured around the corner. The nurse was sitting at her desk with her head in her hands.
Sarah gently coughed to make her presence known, and the nurse looked up.
“Hi,” she wearily smiled. “How can I help you?”
“Hi,” Sarah smiled back. “Can you tell me if Mary Jordan is still in room 322?”
Without looking down, the nurse said, “She is. Her mother is with her at the moment.” She noticed the flowers that Sarah carried. “Those are nice. I think they will really appreciate them,” she said and pointed down the hall. “The room is on the right side. She might be a bit sleepy during your visit.”
Sarah smiled broadly, “Thanks!”
Robbie and Sarah slowly walked down the hall until they reached the room. The door was ajar, and voices inside were quietly speaking. Sarah knocked, and the voices stopped.
The door opened quickly by a scowling Mrs. Jordan. Her face softened when she saw Sarah but immediately returned to its former scowl when she saw Robbie.
Sarah held up the flowers. “We came to visit Mary and see if there was anything we could do to raise her spirits,” Sarah said as cheerfully as she could.
Opening the door the rest of the way, Mrs. Jordan said, “Thank you, Sarah. Perhaps seeing some friends will help her through this.”
Sarah saw Mr. Jordan was seated inside. She noticed that when he saw Robbie, it looked like he wanted to say something but a glance from Mrs. Jordan made him swallow whatever he was going to say.
Marry’s eyes lit up, and she smiled when she saw the two of them. She winced in pain after. There were bandages around her head that wound around her jaw.
“Hey,” Mary said, but her jaw didn’t move.
“She won’t be able to talk much,” Mrs. Jordan interjected. “The bastard broke her jaw.”
Sarah took Mary’s free hand and squeezed it. “You already proved you’re a survivor by making it back to the school,” Sarah said. “You’ll get through this.” Sarah noticed the other arm was in a cast. Mary squeezed back for a moment but quickly released. Her eyes closed and she lay there quietly breathing.
“The pain meds make her sleepy,” Mrs. Jordan explained. “Whoever did this,” she paused for a moment and tried to gain her composure. “Whoever did this broke her up inside pretty bad.”
Sarah stood and went to the closet. She took a vase out and filled it with water before arranging the flowers she brought. The room was quiet while Sarah worked. She set the vase where Mary could easily see the flowers.
“You two don’t hang out together as much as you used to,” Mrs. Jordan said. “Why is that?”
Sarah thought for a moment. “I was recently wondering the same thing. We just drifted apart, I guess.”
Mary’s eyes opened. She was awake and listening, and she also wondered why.
A knock at the door interrupted them. A reasonably well-dressed man stood in the doorway. He presented a badge as he introduced himself, “I’m Detective Nico,” he said. “If Mary can talk, I’d like to ask some questions, privately, while the information is fresh in her memory.”
Mr. and Mrs. Jordan stood to leave. “You can try, but it’s difficult to understand her with her jaw wired like it is,” Mrs. Jordan said. She moved to the hallway; her clogs clopped on the floor as she moved.
“We’ll visit again tomorrow, Mary,” Sarah said and ushered Robbie out of the room.