Where the Sun Sets
"What's the good word, Luke?" he asked of the lead surgeon. Luke looked up, if
only to let him know he heard, and then back down to the task at hand.
"We're going to need more blood here Jen, take care of it." A body left the
room immediately. "It's a pretty rotten thing we have going here, Doc," the lead
surgeon was saying, "four shots, everyone making an entrance, two planning to stay
a while, one ending a life as well as any future plans of creating life. Damn
shame. Hold this here...steady...one more...alright, close this one and let's start
the next...lucky this one missed the spine. Trouble is it tried to make friendly
with the pulmonary trunk. Got Sidney flying up from Long Island to check it out.
Seems to be some swelling, he won't be here for another hour or so, that one may be
the bad seed, hard to tell. Guaranteed to be in here a while Doc. Go ahead and make
your rounds, I'll find you if I need you...damn shame."
Dr. Kessler exited the surgery room and walked back to the nurse's station.
"Page me if anything in that room changes."
"You got it, Doc." the nurse replied while posting a note on the phone that
read, "Page Kessler'. He exited emergency thru the waiting room, stopping at the
receptionist's desk to make a notation on the schedule, which was hanging on her
door.
He looked up and noticed, for the first time, the gentleman seated in the
corner. He glanced over to the receptionist, who in turn responded, "Came in with
the gun club. Everyone else went out for drinks. He hasn't moved. You want him,
he's all yours."
He smiled smartly at her and walked over to Bernie. He sat himself, again, on
the edge of the magazine table, in front of Bernie. "I am Dr. Kessler. You are?"
Bernie came out of his trance and started to cry.
Dr.Kessler looked back to the receptionist, hoping for some sort of life
preserver to be tossed his way. She only looked back with a sarcastic smile and
waved her hands, signaling she had nothing to do with it.
"Do you know the woman who was shot?" Dr. Kessler decided the head on approach
would be best. He had always detested the mental part of his line of work. While
awaiting some sort of response, he dropped his head into his left hand and rubbed
his forehead. He hoped the rest of his shift didn't mirror his last hour.
Bernie wiped his nose on the hem of his shirt. He looked pleadingly at Dr.
Kessler. "Is she okay? Can I see her?"
"She's still in surgery but holding her own, it will be a while before anyone
can see her. You should go home and wash up. Get some rest. You would do her a
better service if she didn't see you in this shape."
Bernie crunched his brows. "Holding her own, what...what exactly does that
mean?"
"It means she is a strong woman and seems to be in good physical cond..."
"Strong woman, yes, Antonia is strong and in the best physical shape. She
works out every day. You would be hard pressed to find any fat on that girl. I
see...holding her own. She was pretty shot up huh?"
"Were you there when it happened?" Dr. Kessler tried to move the conversation.
"Everyone was there." Bernie said as he replayed the scene in his mind.
"Everyone but Billy."
"And Billy is who?"
"Billy is supposed to be Josephine's bodyguard. Billy was supposed to be on
duty. That's what he gets paid to do. Protect Josephine, how hard can that be?" He
looked up at the doctor and started to cry again.
"Do you know of any other?" Bernie rolled his eyes.
"Josephine and this Antonia, were they fighting?"
"They were having some sort of argument. Seemed a bit one sided to me, can't
see how you could call it a fight." Bernie wiped his nose again.
"When was it that Antonia pushed Josephine?"
Bernie glanced at the wall and shook his head. "Josephine, she slapped her."
"Antonia slapped Josephine?"
"Lord no, never. Antonia would never, not even to save her own life. "Josephine
slapped her, you know, Antonia. Antonia started to walk away from her to find that
damn Billy and Josephine slapped her right across the face. Bitch."
Dr. Kessler was now totally confused. He started to stand, and was going to
excuse himself and get on with his rounds when Bernie caught his attention.
"She saved her life you know." Bernie added. "She saw the man with the gun. She
saw him and she got Josephine out of the way. Josephine, she...you know she didn't
even look at Antonia, she just pushed her aside, just pushed her aside like a piece
of furniture that had fallen on her. And then she started complaining about her head.
Antonia made her hit her head and now she was going to need stitches and...stitches...
she was complaining about stitches... Antonia was bleeding to death... right next to
her...stitches..." Bernie started to cry again. Dr. Kessler decided it was time he
started his rounds. He offered a polite good bye and ducked out of the room, into
the hospital.
He noticed Josephine, still sitting in the lobby but decided not to stop. He
had work to do, down here on earth, in the real world. He wanted to remove himself
from the soap opera that he accidentally wandered into this evening.
Josephine heard the elevator bell, signaling it was rising. It brought her back
from the fog. She looked down at her hands and saw the cup still full of coffee, but
now cold. She placed the cup on the table and stood to stretch her legs. 'How long
has she been here?' There was a clock directly over the registration table. Just past
nine p.m. Over three hours. 'Why was she still here?' She remembered she was
supposed to wait for someone. Who, she couldn't remember. Her head was starting to
hurt again. She saw a sign for the restrooms across the room and headed over to it.
After using the facilities she came back into the lobby where she noticed a large
cross hanging from the wall, directly above where she had been sitting just minutes
ago. The figure on the cross seemed to be staring right at her. To her right was a
small sofa. She went to it and laid down. Pulling her legs up, so that she was in
almost a fetal position, Josephine looked back at the cross again.
Still the figure watched her, accusing her. In her mind's eye, Josephine saw
flashes. Flashes of memories she had long since forgotten. The flashes started with
a large cross much like the one she was looking at in the lobby. Flash, a cane pole.
Flash, the cross. Flash, a broken statue. Back and forth, these flashes kept coming,
then from somewhere in the distance, a voice, a stern, angry voice and the sound of a
crack, the sound of the cane pole hitting something. Josephine squeezed her eyes shut
as tightly as she could, trying to block all the intrusions. A sharp searing pain
shot across her temples, and once again she was thrust into the fog.
10