Where the Sun Sets (7 page)

“Hey, how are you feeling?” he asked
Josephine.

“I have been better.” she responded.

“Antonia? How is she holding up?”

“They haven’t said yet. They think it will be
a while before they know anything.”

Jessie motioned over to Bernie, “What’s with
him?”

“Who knows? I don’t think he has moved since
he got here.”

“You should have seen him when the ambulance
took you guys away. He freaked out. He was crying and screaming. He
kept bouncing up and down. I thought he went mental.”

Billy entered the room and walked directly
over to Josephine and knelt down on one knee. He planted a kiss on
her forehead. “Thank God you’re OK. I got here as soon as I
could.”

“For Christ’s sake Billy, I have been here
for six hours. Where the hell have you been?” Josephine snapped at
him.

“Sorry, I had to go down to police
headquarters and fill out a bunch of papers. Shit, Josephine, there
was no one else to do it. What did you want me to do?”

“Your job would have been nice. Your fuckin’
job Billy.” Billy looked down at the ground. He knew he should have
been there when the shooting took place. He was guilt ridden over
Antonia. But how was he to know it would happen. He went after a
potential threat on the water.

“Antonia? How is she? Is she gonna make it
you think?” Billy asked in a childish way. Josephine looked back at
him blankly. Jessie’s girl was ready for bed, and was trying to
seduce him into leaving.

“Were going to head outta here.” he said to
Josephine, as he placed a kiss on her cheek. Josephine never took
her eyes off of Billy. “I’ll stop back and check on you guys
tomorrow sometime. Later Billy.” And off the two lovebirds went, so
entangled with each other it was a wonder they didn’t walk into the
door.

Finally, Josephine stood and pulling the suit
coat closer she said, “Let’s go.” As she stood the doors to the
emergency room opened. Dr. Luke was coming out to see her. In his
hand he held a small manila envelope. He extended his hand to
Josephine and then to Billy. “You came in with the shooting victim,
correct?”

“Anthony, yes, is she...?”

“Please, if you could sit down a moment.”
They all seated themselves. The doctor glanced over at Bernie.
“Your friend, Antonia...” he started, “she has had a pretty rough
ride. We managed to get all but one bullet out...”

“All but one? How many were there?” Josephine
is stunned. She still can’t remember the shooting at all.

“She took four shots in all. You were there,
yes?”

Josephine nodded her head, “I still can’t
remember everything.” She added.

The Dr. looked at her head wound. “Is there
someone we can call? Does she have any family, relatives
nearby?”

“I am all the family she has; since we were
seven. She has no one else.” The Doctor handed Josephine the
envelope.

“These were on her person when she arrived.”
Billy inquired as to Antonia’s condition, while the Dr. looked at
Josephine to assure himself that she was stable. “As I started to
say, we managed to remove three of the four. The last one is in a
difficult spot. There is some swelling in the area where the bullet
rests and this is causing more delay in its removal. We are
awaiting a surgeon from Long Island. He should have been here over
an hour ago, but seems to have been delayed.”

“How is she?” Josephine asked.

“She seems to be in good physical condition,
seems to have been healthy and strong prior to the shooting. Under
normal circumstances I would believe a full recovery possible.”

“Under normal circumstances? What would be
considered normal circumstances?” Billy questioned. Not knowing how
to answer that exactly the Doctor continued, “As I stated, our
problem is still lodged inside Antonia. Until it can be removed, I
can’t say what the outcome will be. And if the swelling should
increase, internal bleeding and rupturing could very well be an
issue. It is really too soon to tell.” Dr. Luke looked to
Josephine. “Your friend was very lucky. Not one of the bullets hit
any major organs. Two entered neatly and caused little or no damage
and the third, I have just explained.”

“The other one? You did say four didn’t
you?”

“The other I am afraid, entered her abdomen
on the right side. It tore through her right ovary and continued
straight through her uterus exiting out into her left ovary. The
baby died on impact. We had to perform a total hysterectomy. Your
friend...”

“Baby? What baby...Anthony wasn’t
pregnant.”

“Excuse me?” the Doctor questioned.

“She couldn’t have been pregnant.” Josephine
said.

“I am sorry Ms. Ferrero, but she most
certainty was. However, the important thing here at the moment...”
He looked skeptically at Josephine. “She is going to need your
support. Do you understand what I am saying?” Josephine nodded.
“She lost a lot of blood and still has more surgery required. As
soon as the surgeon has arrived and has familiarized himself with
the situation, we can get finished. Six hours of surgery is a lot
for any one person. Antonia has it in her favor, that she kept such
good care of herself.” He stood to excuse himself.

“You should all go home and get some rest.”
The Dr. looked over to Bernie, who had opened his eyes and was
looking over at them but had not yet moved his head. “If anything
happens, changes in anyway, you will be contacted. You gave your
number to the nurse?” Josephine just nodded her head yes. “Fine
then, go home and get some rest. You can’t do anything for her this
evening and she has at least another two hours of surgery before
her. Place another two to three hours more for the recovery room
and at a minimum you’re looking at sun up before anyone will know
anything.” With that, he returned to his patient.

“Pregnant. How the hell could she be
pregnant?” Josephine asked of Billy. “Did you know she was
pregnant?” Billy felt uncomfortable and shot a look over to Bernie,
hoping for an escape. Bernie was looking at Josephine with an evil
smile upon his face.

Noticing his smirk, she asked him “What, like
you knew?”

Bernie laughed mockingly. “Of course I knew.
Everyone knew she was with child.”

“Everyone? Everyone knew? I don’t think so. I
don’t think everyone knew she was pregnant. I didn’t know she was
pregnant! Why didn’t I know she was pregnant, dammit?” She looked
back and forth between the two men. Billy was obviously trying to
duck the question, Bernie was standing to leave.

“I don’t know Josephine...why didn’t you know
she was with child...after all, you are her best friend...isn’t
that right...best friend...” With that he turned on his toe, stuck
his nose up in the air and exited the building.

Josephine once again pulled the suit coat in
closer to her. “I am ready to leave now, Billy, take me home.”

“I got you a room in town for a couple days.
At the police station it was mentioned that it might not be such a
good idea, you’re returning to the house yet. They have to check it
out and all.”

Josephine was totally drained. She wanted
nothing more than to lie in her own bed and sleep forever. “I said
take me home. Did I say take me to some damn hotel? No, I
specifically said take me home. Billy, I am going to have to
seriously rethink your position. Do you have a problem that I
should be made aware of?”

“No Josephine, it’s just that the...”

“Billy, I want to go home...now.”

“Yes ma`am.” They left the hospital together.
Behind them, in the emergency room, an alarm went off in
surgery.

On the way back to the house, Billy called
the police station and requested that there be cars posted on the
property and perhaps an officer or two at both entries to the
dwelling. Explaining his boss’s steadfast refusal to spend the
night away from her home, he was assured there were already
officers at the home and that they would remain until noon. While
waiting for a light, Billy reached over and opened the cars glove
box extracting a video tape from within it. Josephine had her head
resting on the window to her right. She followed Billy’s movements
with her eyes. He handed her the video. She looked out the window.
“It’s the tape from the party.” Billy offered. “You should look at
it when you get the chance.” Josephine did not make any inquiries
and Billy did not offer any more information as he pulled the car
into the driveway.

As they entered the house, Josephine headed
straight for the staircase, to her room. Billy held brief
conversations with both officers holding positions at either
entrance and then took a quick sweep of the interior, before he
followed Josephine up the stairs. Josephine tossed both the video
and the manila envelope, thoughtlessly onto an awaiting chair just
inside her bedroom door. On top of the tape, she then discarded the
suit coat. The bottle of painkillers the nurse had given her fell
out of the coat pocket and onto the floor. Josephine bent to
retrieve them and glanced at the video tape, peeking out from under
the coat. She picked it up and looked questioningly at it as she
walked over to her bed. Kicking off her shoes, she placed the
bottle of pills down on the table next to the bed. She sat down on
the edge of her bed and turned the tape over in her hand,
thoughtfully. As she got up and started for the VCR she was
startled by Billy who stood in the doorway.

“Shit, Billy, what are you trying to do, kill
me?” She said.

“Sorry, just checking to see if everything is
secure. May I?” He asked. She motioned with her head for him to
enter the room while placing the tape into the machine. She turned
to search out the remote control for the TV. Not finding it right
away, she had to search the room for it. Billy checked the attached
bathroom for any sign of an intruder. Then he checked the extra
large walk in closet.

“You knew she was pregnant?” Josephine
asked.

Billy could tell she was tired and not up for
fighting. He finished his inspection with a final glance under the
bed and replied, “Josephine, it’s like Bernie said, everyone
knew.”

“Everyone but me, huh?” She simply stated as
she sat back down on her bed, temporarily forgetting her quest for
the remote control.”

Billy quickly removed himself from her room
and any further questions. “I’ll be right outside, in the hall, if
you need me.”

Josephine watched him exit and caught sight
of the envelope the doctor gave her. She walked over and picked it
up and carried it across the hall to Antonia’s room. She paused in
the doorway. Switching on the light, she noticed for the first time
the simplicity of the room. It was such a drastic difference from
her own. Antonia’s room had very few decorations. There was a queen
size bed, night stand, dresser and a hope chest at the foot of the
bed. There was no chair. No makeup table. No television or stereo
system. No pictures hung on the walls. There wasn’t even a clock.
Josephine walked to the dresser, where she placed the envelope.

On the dresser were two pictures in frames.
The first was of Mother Teresa and a small child, of perhaps five
years of age. The second was of Josephine and Antonia taken right
before they parted ways from school. Josephine picked up the photo
of herself and Antonia and looked at it as she returned to her own
room. She placed it on the table beside her bed and sat down again.
Laying herself down, she recalled how Antonia hated having her
picture taken. She squeezed her eyes shut tight as she ran both
hands up her head and through her hair. Laying there on her bed,
staring up at the ceiling, with her hands resting on the top of her
head, she tried to think, if she knew and perhaps had just
forgotten about Anthony being pregnant.

She thought about Antonia’s mission. She had
to work at remembering exactly what the mission was. ‘Literacy
Awareness something. Reading. It had something to do with reading.’
Josephine had to ask herself why she did not know exactly what it
was Anthony did in Africa or anywhere else for that matter. She was
sure they had discussed it. ‘They had to have, didn’t they?
Reading, Anthony and her reading.’ Josephine’s head started to hurt
again. She closed her eyes and allowed the fog to take control.

Chapter 6

Twelve year old Josephine excitedly phoned
Antonia from the lobby just inside the Hilton, where she was
staying with her parents. It was raining outside and the lobby was
crammed with people trying to stay dry and that made phone
conversation difficult to hear. The phone rang. “Saint Agnes, can I
help you?

“Hello,” Josephine said a little too loudly,
“It’s Josephine. Is Antonia around?”

“Hang on a moment, she’s down the hall. I’ll
get her.” Someone slipped in a puddle in the main lobby. The
commotion increased the noise level to the point where Josephine
could barely hear at all.

“Hello, hello is anyone there?”

“Anthony? Is that you? Hey it’s me, Joe.”

“Joe, hi, how’s vacation?”

“Oh, you won’t believe it, guess what
happened?”

“You finally got some hair under your
arms.”

“Come on, this is serious!”

“OK, sorry, what happened?”

“Ma got me an audition for this big time
director!”

“Really? Who?”

“Louis Irving, you know the guy who did that
movie, that one that got the Oscar last year?”

“Gee, that really narrows it down a bit for
me, now doesn’t it?”

“Anyway, anyway, I did the audition thingy
and guess what?”

“I don’t know, Joe. You found out you were
related?”

“What? Anthony, do you even care? I got a
part in his next movie!” Josephine was talking very loud into the
receiver, due to the noise behind her. Perhaps too loud, since
people behind her seemed to have stopped to take notice of the
young woman who had managed to get a part in the new Irving flick.
“It was so cool. I just had to read a few lines and turn around and
smile. It was so easy.”