Destiny by chance: A Contemporary Romance Fiction Novel (17 page)

Tears blinded her as she raced into the garage.  Once she locked herself in the car, she hit the garage’s door opener, but then accidentally dropped her keys.  Destiny closed her eyes and pressed on the horn—the alarm and the horn awakening every family in the quiet mountain cul de sac. Suddenly there was banging on the driver’s side window.  Destiny refused to open her eyes, exerting all her force onto the horn, screaming, “Leave me alone! Leave me alone!”

The banging moved to the windshield, startling her.  She looked up, terrified.  Only it was Andy looking down at her.  She gasped, released the horn and quickly, shakily fumbled to unlock the door.  Destiny fell into her brother’s arms, sobbing.  Within two minutes sirens and flashing colored lights further interrupted the stillness of the peaceful neighborhood.  But Destiny didn’t see or hear them through her sobs and Andy’s consolation.

“It’s over,” Andy said, stroking her head.  “It’s over, Destiny.”

“It’ll never be over,” she sobbed against his chest.  “Never.” She cried softly, holding on tightly, afraid to ever let go again.

By the time the police arrived Winston had somehow managed to drag himself to the back patio door.  The police found him there, struggling to open it.  They weren’t very compassionate about his pleas for help, nor his sobs of pain.  They simply rolled him over and handcuffed him with a knee in his back, as he lay on the ground, in his own blood and spit and snot. 

“She attacked me,” Winston whined.

“Sure she did,” one of the officers said.

“I want her arrested for assault,” he gasped.

“We’ll get right on that,” the second one retorted, sarcastically.

“I need a doctor.”

“Yeah, EMS is on the way,” the first one replied.  “We told ‘em a girl just kicked your ass.”

The second officer chuckled.

Andy walked into the kitchen and straight toward Winston.  Both officers grabbed Andy by his arms to prevent him from doing anything to their suspect though their first inclination was to turn their backs and allow him to beat the ever-loving snot out of him.  They knew who he was and what he had been accused of doing.  However, they were bound by the law and had to trust that the justice system would do its job.

Andy had, in fact, heard her after she dropped the phone, and immediately merged calls as he dialed 911.  Then he texted Lisa, as he sped to her house, praying that he wasn’t too late.  Lisa arrived just minutes after the police.  Destiny was still shaking and sobbing, distraught beyond consolation.  The first EMTs who arrived assessed her, and though she had no visible injuries, she was transported immediately to the hospital. 

Lisa asked her next door neighbor, Beth, who was woken from a dead sleep by the sirens and lights, to stay with the police until the crime scene had been worked, so that she could ride with Destiny to the hospital.  Beth and her husband, David, were more than willing to help, as much out of kindness as of sheer morbid curiosity.  Lisa rode in the ambulance with Destiny, if only for her own peace of mind.  Andy followed the ambulance in his car, matching its speed all the way.

The paramedics weren’t overly sensitive to Winston’s plight since he insisted on verbally assaulting them with obscenities and threats upon their arrival.  They finally assessed him, determining that his knee and nose probably needed further attention.  None of his injuries were life-threatening, but they felt a trip to the emergency room was warranted first.  Though none of them would have minded if he remained in some pain for the near future.  Regardless of his rants of police brutality or his threats of suing them and having their badges, they temporarily braced his leg, loaded him into the back of their ambulance and drove—within the speed limit—all the way to the hospital.

Upon Destiny’s arrival at the hospital, emergency room personnel immediately interviewed her again, to determine whether she had physical injuries.  Her psychological trauma was apparent.  She had become withdrawn and quiet.  After reviewing her chart and talking to Lisa and Andy privately in the hallway, a doctor immediately administered a sedative so that Destiny could relax.  Andy and Lisa stayed by her side until she fell asleep.  Then Andy, stoic for his sister’s sake, broke down and cried at her bedside.  Lisa wrapped herself around him as she contemplated what to do with her friend now. 

Destiny had sold her loft after the rape.  How could she ever go back to Lisa’s house after this?  Her phone vibrated in her pocket repeatedly, unanswered.

“Why don’t we get some coffee?”

“I don’t want any coffee,” Andy said, wiping his eyes.  “I want to drive over to the police station, wait until they release him and then kill the bastard!”

“And then what?” Lisa asked, tugging him up from the bed.

Andy stared at her for many moments, as if in a daze, before looking away.

“Look, I’ll take first shift.”  Lisa pulled him toward the door.  “Then I’ll call you if there’s any change in the morning.”

“I’m not leaving,” he said emphatically.

“Look, there’s no way I can go back home yet.  And I’m too wired from all this.  I need to get my head wrapped around what we’re going to do with her now.”  Lisa smiled faintly.  “One of us needs to go home and get some rest.” 

Andy looked down and nodded, lacking the strength to argue.

“Then break out the air mattresses,” she sighed.  “She’s running out of places to go.”

Andy turned to Lisa.  “You know, if it weren’t for you being so levelheaded, he’d be in the morgue right now, and I’d be the one behind bars.”

“Yeah?  I was just about to tell you the same thing,” she grinned and kissed him on the lips.  “Now, get the hell out of here.”

“Ooh.  I love a woman who takes charge.”  Andy smiled weakly.

“You couldn’t handle me.”

Andy stared into her eyes for a moment, feeling them revive his strength, feeling them somehow encourage him when he felt so discouraged.  He finally nodded, and then without saying a word, walked away.

Lisa retreated to a chair in the waiting room and fell into it, her body exhaling at the same time as the vinyl cushions.  She dropped her head into her hands in utter exhaustion.  Her phone vibrated again in her pocket, and she took it out.  Bill’s phone number scrolled across the screen. 

“Bill?” she asked, surprised.  “Yeah, I’m with her right now.”  Bill explained that they were supposed to meet hours ago for coffee.  Since she wasn’t answering her phone, he had become concerned.  “Bill,” Lisa sighed, initially reluctant to say anything.  Then she dropped her head and closed her eyes.  “We’re at the hospital.”  She listened for a moment as he spoke, then gave him the abbreviated version of what had happened.  “She’s sleeping now.”  Lisa smiled at a passing nurse.  She told him which hospital when he asked.  “Bill, I don’t think it’s a good idea.  Bill?” Lisa then took the phone from her ear and looked at it before placing it beside her ear again.  “Hello?” Only, he was no longer there.

The hospital was eerily quiet.  The eleven to seven shift was making their rounds throughout their floors, entering the results of their visits to each room into their computers.  Nights allowed for more one-on-one time with each patient, not that many of them were awake at that hour.  But there were no doctors or family members in the hallways, conversing with them, distracting the staff from their regular duties.  Some found it hard to adapt to overnight hours and to sleep during the day, but after a few days of the routine, their bodies usually adjusted, albeit with a little more caffeine to help them through; using whatever was needed to trick their circadian clocks into resetting to a new schedule.

Marji had been in nursing for almost twelve years, with her last four being as a night duty nurse.  When her husband, Mike, was offered more money for the midnight shift at a local factory, he encouraged her to switch to an overnight shift as well.  Their kids had all grown up and moved out.  Marji was a night owl, anyhow.  That way they’d both be on the same schedule.

In his first week of overnights, however, the factory record was reset from no injuries at work to two.  Mike’s best friend, Jorge, stepped too close to one of the floor machines and his vest became caught in the gears.  Mike was working desperately to free Jorge when his own arm became caught in the machinery.  He bled to death before they could rescue him but not before he’d saved his friend.  Margie, also on the late shift, was on duty when she got the call.  She met him for the last time at the emergency room entrance. 

Marji quietly entered Destiny’s room to check the few monitors and the IV they had inserted as a precaution to ensure Destiny was taking in enough fluids since she wasn’t drinking anything and refused to eat.  Marji looked over at Destiny and gently pulled the blanket over her frail body until it covered her completely.  She had read the chart, and she had heard the gossip by the nurses from the emergency room.  The poor woman had been through so much.  It only served to remind her that when she was missing Mike, feeling like no one could understand her pain or her loss, there was always someone who had gone through worse, who had suffered more pain, who had suffered more loss.  She put her hand on Destiny’s arm, lowered her head and prayed for her. 

It was not something she’d always done.  In fact, before Mike died, she’d never prayed with her patients.  Not because it was awkward or for fear of someone reprimanding her.  It just never occurred to her to do so.  When they had brought her husband in, his arm shredded, his body contorted, Jorge was still holding Mike’s other hand, and he was praying for him, even though he had died an hour before.  After the funeral, friends from the factory had told her that once Jorge was free and Mike was dragged into the machine, they were finally able to turn it off.  Mike was crying in pain, knowing he wouldn’t get out, and that he didn’t have much time.  While many worked to free him, a few of his co-workers stood around him, laid their hands on him and prayed over him.  And even when he died, Jorge wouldn’t let go of him.

That’s why she prayed over other people’s mothers now, other people’s fathers.  And their children, and their husbands—because someone had prayed over hers.

Destiny stirred, and Marji stepped back.  The things for which she prayed for Destiny others had prayed for her after Mike’s death—that she not give up, that she not be so angry at God that she would lose her peace.  Marji knew she was still alive because of those prayers; she knew it deep in her heart.  Marji smiled weakly and wiped a tear from her face.  So many people in pain every night.  So much sorrow.  It used to be a job, just a job.  And it used to break her heart. But now she looked at it differently.  It was an opportunity to make a difference, to say a prayer or hold a hand or even help loved ones say that last goodbye, something she wasn’t able to do in her own life.

She looked up when she saw the light from beyond the door creep into the room.  She didn’t recognize the man, so she walked toward him.  He stood just inside the doorway; his hands stuffed deep into his jeans pockets.  She put her finger to her lips as she stepped around the bed.  “Can I help you, sir?”

He looked at her with pained eyes.  “I know it’s not visiting hours, but…” he whispered.  “She’s been through a lot.  I just needed to see her, to see that she’s okay.”

Destiny opened her eyes, letting them adjust to the darkness around her.  She moved her arm to rub her eyes and realized that she had an IV in the crook of her arm.  She held her arm up and looked at it with narrowed eyes, contemplating it.  She glanced over at Lisa, who was asleep on the fold-down chair in the corner.  She turned her head just slightly to see two people talking in the shadows at the end of her bed.

“She’s resting.  And since you know she’s been through a lot, she really shouldn’t be disturbed,” Marji said, as quietly as possible.

“It’s okay,” Destiny said weakly, causing them both to turn.

Marji smiled and patted Destiny’s foot.  “Just a few minutes, okay?  You need your rest.”

Destiny nodded against her pillow.

Marji turned to Bill.  “Keep it brief,” she instructed firmly, patting his arm before leaving, pulling the door mostly closed behind her.

Bill stepped closer to the bed and crouched beside it, rocking on the balls of his feet.  “Hey.”

“Hey,” she said, softly.  And then there was silence.  Unbearable silence.  It was dark, but not so dark that she couldn’t see his eyes.  “You shouldn’t have come.”

“I know,” he sighed.  “But I had to.  You know?”

Destiny nodded slightly, a single tear slipping from her eye and running across the bridge of her nose to the other side of her face.

Bill reached in and wiped it away.  “Don’t cry,” he whispered sweetly.

Destiny curled tighter against her pillow.  “I can’t do this anymore,” she whispered back.

Bill reached through the railing on the bed and took her hand, squeezing it.  “Yes, you can,” he said emphatically.  “You have so many people that are here for you, that love you.”  He stopped suddenly, then smiled.  “Sydney, my little girl.  She’s nuts about you.  She’s got a birthday party in two weeks and all she talks about is making sure that you’re there.”  He leaned in closer, feeling as though he was looking through jail cell bars.  “You wouldn’t want to break an eight-year-old’s heart, would you?”

Destiny let go of his hand as she sniffed and wiped away her tears.

“Well?”

Destiny barely moved, but he saw she was shaking her head.  He rocked on his feet and scratched his head before reaching his hand back through the railing.  He brushed her cheek with the back of his finger.  He wanted so much to tell her that his daughter wasn’t the only one who was nuts about her, but he knew this wasn’t the time.  There would be a right time, just not now.  The room became brighter as Marji opened the door slightly.

“I’ve got to go,” he sighed.  “Before they throw me out.”

Destiny shook her head slightly, and held his hand tighter, her eyes conveying her fear.

“You know I have to go.” Bill motioned with his head toward the door.  The warmth in his smile was immeasurable, reassuring, and she was no longer fearful.  Bill pulled her hand to his mouth and kissed it gently.  “But I’ll see you soon.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.” He kissed her hand again. As he stood he heard Lisa move and glanced over to see her sitting up, still wrapped in a hospital blanket.  He nodded slightly to her, then Bill turned back to Destiny, releasing her hand.  He leaned over the side railing and gently brushed her cheek again.  “I promise.”  He pulled the blanket up over her shoulders, turning to Lisa as she slowly stood.  He looked down at Destiny as he hesitantly backed away.  The light from the hallway filled the room for a few moments, disappearing again, taking him with it.

Lisa walked to her friend’s bedside, crouching by where Bill had just stood.  “I think he’s sweet on you.”

Destiny looked up at her, slowly moving closer to the side, pulling the blanket with her.  Lisa stood, and walked around the bed before lowering the railing on the other side.  Then Lisa crawled into bed with her, wrapping her arms around her friend, much as she had done when they were children, and again when they were in high school right after Destiny and Andy’s parents died.  Destiny didn’t care what people thought, or what people might say.  She felt safe in her friend’s embrace.

“You know I love you, Dee.”

Destiny nodded.

“You know you’re going to be okay, right?”

Destiny closed her eyes and tried to think about nothing as she slowly drifted back to sleep.