I went into the living room and dug the TV remote out of the sofa cushion, sat down next to Jake and changed the channel. “Hey, I was watching that!”
“It’s not like you can’t quote that stupid movie word for word. Your mother just told us to put on the… what the fuck?”
Splashed across the bottom of the screen was a breaking news banner reading four dead in hospital attack. A reporter stood in front of the camera. “For those of you just tuning in, we’re coming to you live from St. Vincent’s Hospital where just moments ago police shot and killed a female attacker. Eyewitnesses report that a female patient began attacking other patients and staff in the Emergency Department shortly after midnight.
“Authorities have yet to disclose the identity of the attacker, or the three victims brutally slain in the violent assault. The scene is in chaos, and we have received reports that the attacker was mistakenly pronounced dead just minutes before, regained consciousness, and began attacking staff. We will continue to bring you real-time coverage as information is released. We take you now to chief meteorologist Ken Aspesi for more on Tropical Storm Ike.”
The scene flicked back to the studio, “Thanks, Jim. Tropical Storm Ike has just been upgraded to a category three Hurricane. Southwest Floridians can expect to see some severe weather in the next twenty-four hours. Tune in to Channel four for continuous coverage as Ike progresses.”
“Oh, my God, Jake. I was just there. I… I think I know the patient that did this. I mean, I lost someone tonight, right before midnight. I did CPR on her and they pronounced her dead. But she was dead. Really dead. I saw it with my own eyes. It couldn’t be her.”
I was floored by what I had just seen and reality crashed down on me. I realized Kat was still at the hospital. What if she had come down to say goodnight after her shift? Leaping from the sofa like a madwoman I caught my shin on the corner of the coffee table. “God damn son-of-a-whore!” I made a weird hobble to the kitchen table and found my phone.
At this point, in near hysterics, I was close to hyperventilating. With each ring of the phone that went by with no answer, I became more frazzled. Tears sprang to my eyes as I heard Kat’s voice mail pick up. I disconnected the call and redialed. The phone connected after the third ring and I collapsed into the chair.
“Thank fucking Christ you’re okay. Did you see it?” I cried into the phone.
“I was so scared that something happened to you,” she replied. “You never answered my text when I got done so I just went home. I had no idea what was happening down there until I got home and Sam met me in the garage. There is no way I’m sleeping tonight. I’m wired.”
Her kids could be heard in the background fighting with Sam about going back to bed. Kat sighed. She had the perfect family, the kind you would see in a packaged picture frame. Her husband, Sam, was a corporate big-wig, and they had two of the most adorable little girls I’d ever seen. They were the perfect age, too, five and seven. Old enough to be more independent and carry on a good conversation, but still young enough that you could shower them with hugs and kisses.
“Grr. They won’t go back to bed for hours now. Would it make me a bad parent if I did a little late night grocery shopping and brought them? I am so not prepared for this stupid hurricane.”
“Meh,” I said. “Go for it. It’s probably better to get it out of the way now than wait ’til the morning. You just know there’s going to be a frenzy.” A grin spread over my face as I thought of my fully stocked house. I utterly hated the grocery store, so when I reached the point that I could no longer sustain life on what stocked my pantry, I made a very expensive trip to Costco and was safe again for two months.
“Ugh, you’re totally right,” she groaned. “Girls, go get dressed, it’s fieldtrip time!”
I remembered what my patient had told me about the man attacking her at McDonald’s. It was less than a quarter mile away from the grocery store. “Hey, Kat,” I blurted before she hung up the phone, “be careful. I admitted a patient tonight that got attacked near there by some crazy dude.”
“Thanks for the heads up. And if I hear anything more about the hospital thing I’ll text you.” With that, she hung up.
I spent the next ten minutes pinging texts back and forth with Ollie about the hospital—both the patient we lost and the attacks. We both had the same thought about poor Mary Jennings’ fate and wondered if she could have been the one to go postal.
I cuddled up to Jake in bed and smiled at the thought of Mary beating people with her wallet. Jake rolled over and held me for a bit, kissing the top of my head. “It’s a good thing I didn’t see the news before you got home. I don’t know what I would have done. Wondering if something happened to you and not knowing would have torn me apart. I knew you were okay, and it still wrenched my guts into knots. Thank God you’re home safe. I’m sorry you had such a crappy night.” He squeezed me even closer, and I melted into his arms. Exhaustion settled in, and I started fading.
“Why don’t you sleep in a little tomorrow? I’ll go to the gas station early and fill up the car and some containers for the generator. If the power goes off, I don’t want to let all that food in the fridge go to waste.” That was one thing that hadn’t changed since his time in the army. Jake was still an early riser. If the sun was up, so was he.
A loud crack of thunder woke me from my slumber the next morning. I shot straight up in bed and watched as poor, unsuspecting Daphne bounced in the air like she was on a trampoline. Jake wasn’t in bed so I assumed he had made the trip to the gas station. I lay there for a bit and cuddled with my pooch. “Who’s a mommy’s girl? Who is it?” She got all excited and curled up like a teddy bear under my arms as I assaulted her with kisses. These moments were my favorite as I lay there snuggling my prized possession. I’m sure every psychiatric professional would tell me I supplemented the love I would show for children with puppy love. That didn’t stop me from showering her with hugs and kisses every spare moment. “Come on, let’s go outside and make a pee-pee.”
The house was unusually dark as I walked to the back door, and it took me a minute to realize that Jake had pulled the hurricane shutters closed before he went in search of gas. I asked myself my daily question, “How did I get so lucky?” Jake had left one side of the back sliding door uncovered so we could take Daphne outside, and when I opened the door, a huge gust of wind hit me in the face. Rain was coming down sideways in blankets and the backyard looked like a lake. Oh the joys of hurricane season in Florida. Daphne stood at the door and just looked at me, her eyes saying yeah, I don’t think so. I made another attempt, this time punctuating it with now at the end. Not even that could make her go out in that weather.