My Sunshine (23 page)

The teller punched a few keys on her keyboard and made a
note on the form. “How do you want that?” She asked. “Cash? Or a cashier’s check?”

“Cash.”

The teller looked a little perturbed by her answer. “I’ll be right back,” she said. She returned a few seconds later. “Follow me, please.”

Chloe
followed her to another office where another

smiling bank employee was waiting for her. “Please sign this,
Ms. Boston,” she said. “Right here.” She tapped another form with the tip of her pen. Chloe leaned over the desk and signed the form. “Large bills okay?”

“Yeah, fine,”
Chloe said. “Thank you.”

The woman disappeared from the room.
Chloe sat in a chair to wait. The woman returned a few minutes later carrying a slim stack of brand new one hundred dollar bills. She sat at her desk facing Chloe and counted out the money. Even though she had worked in the banking industry, it surprised her that such a large amount of money made a stack less than a half of an inch thick. She picked it up and put it in her wallet.

“Thank you for your business,” the banker said, still

smiling.

Chloe
nodded. “Thank you.”

She went back to her office and nervously waited for her
mother to arrive. At four on the dot, her phone rang and Cassandra’s arrival was announced. Chloe stood as the door to her office opened and Cassandra entered. “Hello, mother,” Chloe said.

“Do you have my money?”

Chloe nodded and opened the top drawer to her desk and took out an envelope with the cash inside. She handed it to Cassandra.

“This is it? This is ten thousand dollars?”

Chloe nodded. “You can count it.”

Cassandra
folded the envelope and shoved it into the front pocket of her jeans. “And the other?”

“I took care of it.” Sh
e handed Cassandra a statement of her account showing it paid in full.

“Okay, then. Your secret is safe with me.” She turned to
leave. “Safe for now.”

Chloe
sat back down at her desk, her whole body shaking.

Thank God that’s over. “Please God,” she prayed. “Please
keep that woman out of my life and don't let her tell anyone.

What are you going to Him for? What’s he going to do to
help you? Your faith has been worthless. He hasn’t helped you any. You’ve spent all this time praying and He hasn’t done anything.

“You can still go with me,” John said. He was zipping up his suitcase. “It won’t be any trouble to get you a plane ticket.”

Chloe
frowned. “That’s okay.”

“Are you okay,
Chloe?” John asked, putting his hand on her arm.

“Did you ever sleep with her?” She asked. The question
had been on her mind since John had told her he was going.

The voice telling her that he was going to do it again wasn’t
helping her insecurities.

John
raised his eyebrows. “Monica Williams?”

“Y
eah, Monica Williams. Did you ever sleep with her?”

She spoke slowly as if
John couldn’t understand the question.

A red flag popped up in his brain, and something told him
not to answer her
.
There’s no reason to lie. If she’s asking, sh
e
must suspect that I have
.
“Yeah, I have. Why?”

“Because I want to know. I want to know if you’ve had sex
with the girl you’re going to spend the next few days with.”

He threw his hands up in the air. “I’m not going to spend
the next few days with her. I’m going to work.”

“You didn’t ask me to come.”

“I did ask you to come,” he said shaking his head. “You’re the one who can’t because of your stupid job.”

He didn’t ask you to go. He’s trying to make you think
you’re crazy. He’s lying to yo
u
.

“You told me that it was going to be next month. Why did
you change it?”

John
shook his head. “I didn’t change it. Monica and Carl did. We already talked about that. Don’t you remember?”

You didn’t talk to him this morning. He’s making that up.

Chloe clenched her jaw. “I didn’t talk to you this morning, John. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

John
shook his head, disbelieving what he was hearing.

“We talked. You were planning to go with me. Then you
called back and told me about that stupid training. You don’t remember any of this? I told you to quit your job.”

He wants total control of you. That’s why he’s playing
these mind games. Don’t fall for it Chloe. You know what’s true.
“You’re lying to me. You changed it after I told you abou
t
work.”

John
slammed his fist against the wall. “I didn’t know it was going to be changed. I told you that already. Didn’t you hear me?”

“I can hear just fine, and what I’m hearing is that you have slept with that whore.”

He doesn’t really love you. You could do so much better
than him. Just let him go and screw that whore. You’d be better off.

“Hold on, now. There’s no need to name call. You don’t
even know Sam.”

“Oh, it’s Sam now. I see.” She crossed her arms over her
chest.

“What do you see? Damn,
Chloe, what has gotten into you? You’re acting crazy!”

Oh sweet
Chloe, he’s calling you names. Don’t let him call you that.

“Don’t call me crazy!”

John rubbed his forehead, frustrated with the situation.

“What do you want me to do? Do you want to go? You can go.

Quit your job and come with me.”

“Why so you can bounce back and forth between us? Or
maybe just have us both at one time?”

John
grabbed her shoulders. “Chloe! What the hell are you talking about?” He was mad. He pushed her so that she fell back against the bed.

See, he’s just really no better than
Trevor.

John
started to walk out of the room. Chloe jumped up from the bed and jumped on his back. She pulled on his hair and kicked her legs, trying to make him fall.

“Good God,
Chloe!” He fought her off of him and pushed her back onto the bed. Her eyes were blazing. “You are crazy!”

She jumped up and stood in the middle of her bed. “Get
out! Go to LA with that slut bitch whore Monica Williams, but if you have sex with her, don’t think I’m sticking around.”

John
backed out of the room and shut the door. He didn’t look back as he picked up his bag and headed for his car.

Chloe
walked into the kitchen. John had been gone for only a couple hours, and she missed him already. She had fallen asleep soon after he left and woke up with a much clearer head.

She was sorry that she had argued with
John
.
That was so stupi
d
.
He’s the best thing that ever happened to you. You’re going to ruin i
t
.

Yeah, so what if he has sex with other people, right? As
long as he doesn’t kick you out, you’re golden.

“He’s not going to sleep with anyone else,”
Chloe argued.

“You’re just trying to start something.”

I’m not starting anything. You live in this freaking fantasy world. You’re unbelievably stupid, Chloe. So stupid.

“Why have I been listening to you?”
Chloe asked. “Why did you even come back anyway?”

Because you need someone to tell you the truth. I’m the
only one who’s always told you the truth. And the truth is that you’re worthless. Your mother knows it, and Daniel knows it, and John knows it. No one has ever loved you. John doesn’t either. If he did, he sure doesn’t now, after the way you attacked him.

Chloe
shook her head. “I can’t believe that I did that.”

She looked at her watch.
John’s plane wouldn’t have landed yet. “I’ve got to call him and apologize.”

You don’t have to apologize to him. He was the one that
was wrong. He lied to you and tried to make you think you were crazy just so he could go out there and cheat on you.

“I’m not going to believe that.”

Believe it.

“No. Go away.” She went to her room and pulled the pill
bottles out from under her mattress. She opened one and poured the pills into her hand.

Don’t take those. It’s just another way for him to control
you. You don’t need that medicine. You’re fine, Chloe.

She looked at the pills in her hand. “I don’t need these,” she
whispered. She dumped them back into the bottle and shoved it under her mattress. She returned to the kitchen and looked around, thinking she needed to straighten up a little before heading out to church that night.

She opened the cabinet under the sink and reached far in the
back for a garbage bag. A mouse ran out from under the box of bags, brushing her fingertips. She screamed and jumped back, hitting the back of her head on the inside of the cabinet. She grabbed the back of her head and fell backwards. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the mouse run under the stove. She tried to sit up, but a stabbing pain in her stomach pinned her to the floor.

The rats! The rats! They’re biting you! They are on
you!

The pain worsened but
Chloe managed to get to her feet.

She staggered to her bedroom. She could feel the rats crawling
all over her body. She stripped off her clothes, trying to fling the rats away from her. She noticed the fresh blood on her panties.

They’re inside you!

Chloe screamed. She picked up a dirty T-shirt off the floor and pulled it over her head, pulling it in every direction trying to stretch it to swallow her. She crawled onto her bed and covered herself with the sheet.

“They’re eating me!” she screamed.

                        
Chapter Eleven

John pulled the car into the garage. He was glad to be home, even if Chloe was still angry with him. He assumed that she was from her refusal to answer his phone calls.

He took his duffel bag out of the trunk and let himself into the
house. He went directly to his room and threw his bag on the bed. He checked his answering machine before going upstairs to the kitchen.

He was shocked at the state of the kitchen. The same
glasses and soda cans that had been on the counter when he left three days ago were exactly where he had left them. The pizza box from their last meal together Sunday afternoon was still perched on top of the stove. The garbage hadn’t been emptied and the peels from the bananas he had had for breakfast Sunday were beginning to smell. Mrs. Potts was scheduled to come on Thursdays, tomorrow, but it wasn’t like Chloe to not do the most basic cleaning. It was like she hadn’t even been there.

She's gone. She left me.

He had his hand on the phone, ready to pick it up and call Daniel’s Auto Service when it rang. He glanced at the caller ID box as he picked it up. It was the hospital where Chloe worked.

“Hello?” he said, fully expecting it to be her.

“Chloe Boston, please.”

“She’s not here. Can I take a message?” He was convinced
now that the reason she hadn’t answered the phone or returned his calls was because she was back above the garage in North Carolina.

“This is Mr. Briggs from the hospital. Is
Chloe sick? She hasn’t been in to work all week, and she hasn’t called.”

“Umm, yeah,”
John said, not knowing what else to say.

“I’ll have her call you.” He hung up the phone and parted the
curtains above the kitchen sink. The Lexus, which had pretty much become Chloe’s car, was parked in her spot under the tree, confirming to him that she had gone back to Canton.

John
went down the hall to Chloe’s room. He tried the knob unsuccessfully
.
That's not right. Why would she lock th
e
door if she's gone
.
He knocked on the door. “Chloe? Are you here?”

He heard a small moan from inside. He stepped back away
from the door and kicked it several times just above the knob.

The mechanism failed allowing
John entry into the room.

Chloe
was lying on her back on her bed naked from the waist down. Her skin was pale and her eyes were rolled back in her head. A large rust colored stain was on the mattress under her hips. The stench in the room, a combination of old and new blood mixed with the odor of urine, was overwhelming.

John
rushed to her, thinking that she must have been attacked, stabbed, shot, raped, or injured in some way.

“
Chloe,” he said, grabbing her shoulders.

She rolled her eyes toward him. “They’re killing me,
John,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Who’s killing you?” He glanced at the lower half of her
body trying to determine where the blood was coming from.

“The rats. The rats are eating my insides. It hurts,
John.”

He moved toward
the end of the bed. “Where are you hurt?” He touched her leg and she jumped, bending her legs at the knees. He saw the blood smeared on the insides of her thighs. It became apparent where the blood was coming from.

“The rats,
John. Watch out. Don’t let them eat you.”

“There’s no rats,
Chloe.” He reached for the phone, knowing he should call someone, but not sure who. She began to moan again and John quickly punched in Jane’s work number.

“Hello, Orange County Family. This is
Jane.”

“
Jane, you’ve got to get over here quick.”

“What’s going on,
John?”

“Something’s wrong with
Chloe. She's hurt. Just come quick.”

“Call 911. I’ll be there as quick as I can.”

He ended the call and dialed the emergency number. He gave the dispatcher the required information and turned his attention back to Chloe

She grabbed his arm. “It hurts,” she whispered. “The rats
are eating me. It’s killing me.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking

about.” He felt her forehead, expecting her to be warm and her delusions were caused by a fever. Her skin felt cold and clammy.

He covered her with a blanket. She closed her eyes and
began whimpering. John noticed that her lips were dry and chapped looking. Her hair, which needed to be washed at least at least once a day, looked so wet and weighed down that he thought he could wring it out like a washcloth. It was obvious to

him that it hadn’t been washed since he left.

“God, Chloe. What’s happening to you?” He mumbled.

He glanced around the room looking for evidence of drugs.

Maybe she’s on a bad tri
p
. He didn’t see any signs of drug use other than her packet of birth control pills that were lying on the night table. He picked it up and opened it. The last pill she had taken had been on a Saturday, but he had no idea if she had not taken one in the past for days or if she had taken a weeks supply or more in the past three days.

“
Chloe,” he said sharply. “What did you do to yourself?”

She slowly lifted her eyelids. ‘It’s not me,
John. It’s the rats.”

What the hell is she talking about
?
He ran his hand through his hair and tried to think of what he could do for her. He just sat next to her bed and stroked her hair listening to her mumble about the rats. “John!” Jane’s voice called out. Met her at the door to Chloe’s room. “The paramedics are coming up the driveway, and Dr. Paul’s on his way. What’s going on?”

John
stepped aside and Jane entered room. “Oh,” Jane gasped as she pulled back the blanket. “What is this?”

The ringing doorbell alerted
John to the paramedics' arrival and he left the room to let them in. They were followed in by Dr. Paul.

John
led the doctor and paramedics to Chloe’s room and leaned against the door frame to watch as they poked and prodded her. The glances that passed back and forth between them were not good.

“Could she have been pregnant?”
Jane asked as she once again lifted the blanket.

John
shook his head. “I don’t think so. She was on the pill.” He handed Jane the pill pack that he was still holding.

“What’s she talking about?” Dr.
Paul asked, leaning his ear close to Chloe’s face. Her voice was barely audible.

“Rats?”

John shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s the only thing she’s been talking about. She says the rats are eating her.”

Jane
walked over to the door. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave for a minute.” She pushed the door shut.

He returned to the kitchen. He lifted the full bag of garbage
out of the can and took it outside before grabbing a can of Coke out of the refrigerator and sat down at the bar.

Dr.
Paul joined him after a few minutes. “She’s a very sick, girl, John.”

“What’s wrong with her?”

“Well, for starters, she’s severely dehydrated, which may be causing the delusions.”

“Was she pregnant?”

Dr. Paul shook his head. “I’m not sure.”

Jane
came back into the kitchen. “She’s ready.”

The paramedics wheeled the gurney with
Chloe's stricken body through the living room. John followed them to the driveway. He started to climb into the back of the ambulance when Jane stopped him.

“Ride with me,” she said. “I need to ask you some
questions.” He reluctantly got into the front seat of Jane’s Jeep. “When was the last time you talked to her?”

John
shook his head. “Sunday, before I left. We had a fight. I tried calling a couple of times, but she didn’t call back. I thought she was still mad.” He paused. “She hasn’t been at work all week.”

Jane
rubbed her forehead. “I tried calling her last night and didn’t get an answer. I didn’t think anything of it.”

“Do you think she’s been like this since I left?”

Jane shrugged. “I don’t know. I do know that she’s been lying on that bed for a while. She’s pretty sick.”

At the hospital,
John waited helplessly in the waiting room while Jane disappeared behind the scenes looking for Dr. Paul and Chloe. Jane had called Bright from the car and within a few minutes, he made an appearance.

“Hey, man, what’s going on?”
Bright asked, sitting down in a chair across from John.

John
shook his head. “I don’t know, man.” He recounted to Bright the events that had led up to the trip to the emergency room. “You know I don’t think she’s taken a shower since I left. Not to mention she hasn’t done anything around the house.

I mean, I know it’s not her job, but it’s not like her, Mike.”

John leaned forward and gave his head a small shake. “I don’t think she’s left her room in three days.”

Jane
came back into the waiting room. John jumped up.

“What is it,
Jane?” He felt his knees shaking and he sat back down in the chair.

“They’re not sure. She’s getting some fluids and they’re
watching her. She is still talking about the rats. They’re waiting for the results of a tox screen. Maybe you should call her brother.”

“Yeah, I should.” They went outside the main entrance and
sat down on a bench. John dialed information on his cell phone and the operator connected him to Daniel Boston.

“Hello,” a gruff voice answered. Whoever had answered
the phone had been asleep.

“Hi, yeah, is this
Daniel?”

“Yeah, who’s this?”

“Daniel, this is John.”

“What’s wrong?”
Daniel asked. John thought he detected a hint of worry in his voice.

“
Chloe’s in the hospital.”

“What’s wrong?”
Daniel said again. “Was she in an

accident?”

John shook his head. His mind was full of jumbled words and he couldn’t make them come out in the right order. “She wasn’t acting quite like herself,” he finally said.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, uh, she was talking about rats eating her. She was pretty delusional.”

“Oh, God,”
Daniel groaned. “An episode. I told her this would happen.”

“What are you talking about? What kind of episode?”

“She didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what? What’s wrong with her?”

Daniel sighed. “Chloe’s a schizophrenic, John.”

“Schizophrenic?”

The word caught Jane’s attention and she immediately got up and went back inside the hospital.

“She’s crazy? What does that mean?”
John knew nothing about the disease outside of the stigmas that came along with it.

“She’s supposed to be on medication, but she doesn’t
always take it. I had to tell her everyday to take it. She’s not crazy most of the time, but she’s not well. She was diagnosed when she was seventeen.”

John
didn’t know what to say. He held the phone to his ear, but didn’t say anything. “You still there, John?” Daniel asked after several seconds.

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“I’ll get down there as soon as I can. I’m leaving right now.”

“Okay,”
John said. He clicked off the phone.

“Is he coming?”
Bright asked.

John
nodded. “Right away.”

“What did he say?”

“He said that she’s been sick since she was a teenager. I can’t believe this. It can’t be true.”

Bright
stood up and put his hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“Let’s go back in and see what’s new.”

Jane was waiting for them in the waiting room. “Tox screen came back,” she said. “There were small traces of an anti-psychotic medication in her system. The psych doctor seems to think that she must have gone off of her medication about a week ago.”

“No other drugs?”
John asked.

Jane
shook her head. “No, drugs, no alcohol, no birth control pills, no caffeine, no nicotine. She hasn’t had anything to eat, drink or smoke since you’ve been gone.”

“What does this mean,
Jane? Schizophrenia? Is that like a split personality or something? How could she have been so normal?”