The Denver Cereal (20 page)

“
Go over again what he
told you,” Valerie said.

“
He said Jill was going to
get fired and the owner was going to attack him.”

“
What about the blood?”
Mike asked.

“
He saw a lot of blood.
Lots of blood,” Delphie said. “That’s what he said.”

“
What do you see?” Valerie
and Jacob’s father walked into the room from the
kitchen.

“
Lots of blood,” Delphie
said. “Just lots of blood.”

~~~~~~~~

Jill remembered what
happened like this:

She was spacing out,
listening to jazz and enjoying the cool air on her skin. If she
thought of anything, it was that she had never been in such a nice
car. With the air conditioning on and the music playing, she
couldn’t hear the street noises. She felt enclosed in a cozy
bubble. She even slipped off her shoes and her torn nylons. Holding
the Kleenex box in one hand, her fingers played with the torn
nylons in the other hand.

Out of the corner of her
eye, she noticed Jacob come out of the office. He winked at her. He
held up Katy’s medication and a box as if to say, “That was easy.”
Their eyes caught and he smiled.

Mostly, she remembered his
beautiful smile. His teeth were so white against his sun-kissed
skin. Yes, his smile was something she would always
remember.

A second later, his face
flashed in horror and then went slack. He fell forward toward the
cement. As he fell, his right shoulder seemed to disintegrate.
Blood sprayed from his neck. Jacob’s fall to the ground revealed
Ashforth behind him. Ashforth jerked the head of a twenty-pound
straight pipe wrench from Jacob’s shoulder.

Jill screamed,
“NO!”

Fumbling with the locks,
she somehow managed to get the door open. Jacob’s body bounced on
the sidewalk until he landed on his left side. Blood began to mist
into the warm day. With both arms, Ashforth swung the pipe wrench
over his head to bash in Jacob’s head.

“
NO!” Channeling Megan,
Jill screamed in her bossiest voice. “DON’T YOU DARE.”

Hearing Jill, Ashforth
lowered the pipe wrench to step over Jacob’s body. He spit on Jacob
before moving his rotund body across the sidewalk toward Jill. Jill
ran forward toward Jacob. They met in the middle of the
sidewalk.

Ashforth hefted the pipe
wrench over his head.

“
LOWER THE
WEAPON.”

Ashford swung at Jill.
Jill avoided the arcing pipe wrench as if she were playing champion
dodge ball.

“
THIS IS THE DENVER
POLICE. LOWER YOUR WEAPON.”

Time shifted into slow
motion.

Ashforth’s pipe wrench
bashed into the open passenger door, catching on the roof of the
Aston Martin. The window shattered in tiny pieces. Amidst the mist
of Jacob’s blood, the tiny pieces of glass floated through the air
to the sidewalk.

As Ashforth lifted the
pipe wrench over his head for another swing, the police officers
stopped running and lifted their handguns. Ducking the pipe wrench,
she continued toward Jacob. The glass tore at her feet. She felt,
more than saw, bullets pass over her.

Ripping apart the
cardboard Kleenex box, she slid on her knees next to him. She
jammed a wad of tissue into the river of Jacob’s blood coming from
where his collarbone had been. The spray of blood stopped. Using
her torn nylons, she tied the tissue in a neat pressure dressing.
Yanking off her cotton work shirt, she pressed the fabric into his
oozing, destroyed shoulder. Hoping to slow his bleeding, she
pressed her weight into his shoulder.

Jacob opened his
eyes.

“
I love you,
Jill.”

He jerked and went
slack.

Time returned to a normal
pace.

She felt Ashforth lumber
toward her and then fall to the sidewalk.

One Denver Police officer
ran past her to her ex-boss. Another police officer, a Hispanic
woman, came to Jill.

“
I have a weak pulse,” the
policewoman screamed into the microphone at her shoulder, “We need
an ambulance NOW.”

~~~~~~~~

“
He’s still alive?”
Valerie whispered.

“
For now,” Delphie
said.

I wanted so much life

“
Mom,” Jacob
whispered.

He felt his mother near.
Gradually, her face came into view. Not her cancer-ravaged face,
but the face she wore when he was a very small boy. Like a thirsty
man, Jacob drank in her image.

“
Mommy.”

“
My baby boy,” Celia
said.

“
I’m dead?”

“
Not quite.” He felt her
hand touch his face. “I love you.”

“
I love you,
Mom.”

“
I am so proud of the man
you’ve become. You’re kind and loving to everyone who knows you.
Honorable. You are a wonderful person.”

“
Mommy.”

Jacob stretched out his
hand to touch her face.

In an instant, they were
walking along a familiar shore. The day was bright and warm. There
was a slight wind from the west that blew wisps of clouds through a
bright blue sky. Their footprints in the tan-colored sand were
washed away by a slow white-capped tide. They were alone on the
shore. This youthful version of his mother slipped her arm into his
elbow. They walked in silence for a while.

“
I’ve missed you,” Jacob
said.

“
I’ve missed you. I’ve
been around. It’s you who refuses . . .”

“
To call you Naomi?” Jacob
laughed. “Don’t you think that’s a bit . . .
much?”

“
The truth is always a bit
much,” Celia said.

“
Are
you . . . all right?”

“
I was in pain for such a
very, very long time. It’s nice to not be in pain. But I long for
Ruth and you children. I miss Sam like a hole in my
soul.”

“
He’s lost without
you.”

“
You’ve been a tremendous
relief for him. I don’t think he realized how much he needed
you.”

“
It’s hard for me to
imagine Dad needing anyone . . . Except
you.”

“
Poor Sam. I really messed
up his life . . . and yours.”

“
With the new wife,
Tiffanie?” Jacob asked.

“
Yes. I thought that
. . .

“
With loving support and
resources, they’d blossom,” they said together.

Celia stopped walking to
gawk at her son.

“
You used to say that any
time someone was . . . hurtful.”

“
I was wrong.”

“
Yes, but that’s part of
your beauty. Your belief in people.” Jacob smiled. “Are you all
right with Dad and Delphie?”

“
Ruth?”

“
Dad and Ruth.”

“
Of course,” she said. “My
best friend and my soul’s love.”

“
They miss you and love
you so much . . .”

Celia stopped walking and
hugged her son.

“
You don’t have to explain
it. I’m not jealous. We belong to each other — Ruth, Sam and I. And
with you and Jillian, Jillian and Michael, Michael and
Valerie.”

Jacob kissed his mother’s
cheek. “You’re very sweet.”

She smiled. They walked
along the unending shore in silence. A river of palpable love
flowed back and forth between them.

“
I wanted so much
life . . . Love . . .
laughter . . . babies . . . I wanted
to grow old . . . with Jill . . .
Twenty-six years isn’t a very long time to live. After years of
thinking . . . hoping, I only . . .
one chance . . . very fast . . . with
Jill. I wanted to live . . . I liked
living.”

“
Yes,” Celia said. “Why
haven’t you stepped into your wisdom?”

“
Why didn’t
you?”

“
I never pretended I
didn’t know things. Never. I never told people . . .
What is it that you say?”

“
I just figured it would
happen,” Jacob said. “What am I supposed to do? I’m not going to
read tarot cards.”

“
You know tarot cards can
be quite a mess. You might enjoy fixing that kind of
mess.”

They laughed.

“
I did like sorting out
messes,” Jacob said.

“
Then it’s time to sort
out the mess you’re in.”

Jacob gasped.

He felt tremendous ripping
pain on his entire right side. A blinding white light filled his
eyes. He would have thought he was “following the light” except his
ears were filled with the sound of yelling people and screeching
machines.

“
He’s back,” the nurse
said.

“
Welcome back,
Jacob.”

Dr. John Drayson’s lack of
wings and his British accent confirmed Jacob’s non-descent to
heaven. His gloved right hand, coated in Jacob’s blood, held a
scalpel. He leaned into the light so Jacob could see his
mask-covered face. His cobalt blue eyes seemed huge through his
magnifying glasses.

“
We’re hoping to keep you
with us for a while. Nurse?”

Amidst the blazing light
in his eyes and the agony in his right shoulder, Jacob felt the
sharp stab of what felt like a four-inch diameter needle. A whoosh
of pain relieving medication moved into his system.

“
You need to hang around,
Jacob,” Dr. Drayson laughed. “Alex has her heart set on the leaded
glass tulips transom windows you showed her. I was hoping you could
get them in by our anniversary. What do you think?”

Jacob tried to laugh but
the machines screamed.

Everything went
dark.

~~~~~~~~

Jacob opened his eyes. The
room was dark and he was lying in a hospital bed. Looking to see
who was holding his hand, he felt a stabbing pain in his right
shoulder.

The monitors
blared.

Everything went
dark.

~~~~~~~~

Hearing voices, Jacob
tried to open his eyes. The effort was too much for him.

“
We’ve been able to clean
up a lot. He still has quite a bit of internal bleeding. If we
continue to work, we will only do him a disservice.” Dr. Drayson’s
staccato words broke through the darkness. “The trauma team removed
a portion of his upper lung, ribs . . . His collar
bone is crushed. His scapula shattered. His right shoulder girdle
is all but destroyed. There’s a break in two of his cervical
vertebrae. We’re hoping to get him stable, stronger, then go back
in . . . maybe tomorrow morning. I only do veins and
arteries. If he’s ready, the orthopedic surgery team will start
tomorrow morning.”

“
Thank you, doctor,” said
Jacob’s father, Sam.

“
John,” Dr. Drayson said.
“We’re lucky. He’s in great shape, healthy and strong.”

“
I heard you’re the best
in the business . . . The nurse said you weren’t
working today. I . . . just thanks.
He’s . . .”

Jacob heard his father
weep.

“
We love Jacob, Mr.
Lipson. I’ll do everything I can.”

“
Thank you,
John.”

~~~~~~~~

“
He’s awake.”

He opened his eyes to
Valerie’s red, puffy eyes about an inch from his face. Her nose was
bright red and swollen. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the
blur of someone moving away from the bed.

“
Your mascara’s running,”
he whispered.

“
You stupid jerk,” Valerie
said. She didn’t bother to stem the flow the tears that dropped
from her eyes and nose. “This was supposed to be
my
drama,
my
crisis.
My
life is in crisis
buddy, not yours.”

Jacob tried to laugh. He
managed a vague groan.

“
Where are my paparazzi?”
he whispered.

“
Outside. The police
escorted us, and a billion photographers, to Denver
Health.”

“
Will I make the cover
of
People
magazine?”

Through her tears, Valerie
laughed at his imitation of her early actress days.

“
Do you think this outfit
makes me look fat?”

He tried to move his right
arm to pat his stomach but felt a ripping, burning pain.

The monitors
blared.

Everything went
dark.

~~~~~~~~

“
Jill.”

“
I’m here,” she
said.

He felt movement and then
saw her face. Her eyes were red from crying and her face a little
gaunt from worry. She leaned over to kiss his cheek.

“
I wanted to tell you that
I’ll marry you.”

“
Really?”

“
Well, you asked on
Saturday night and I never gave you an answer.”

“
I remember,” he
mumbled.