One Blood

Chapter Forty-Four

Chapter Forty-Four

 

Monday

Baton Rouge, LA

 

“Governor! Governor!”

Someone shook him. Randy opened his eyes. One of his secret service guards, Jack, leaned over him with a look of extreme alarm.

Randy’s vision doubled for a brief second. He shook his head from side to side to remove the grogginess draped over his body like a rain poncho. He attempted to tell Jack he was fine, but nothing came out.

Something was inside his mouth. The something slipped a few notches as if in reaction to his thinking about it. Randy gagged in response.

Jack groaned.

Randy made the universal choking gesture.

Jack came to his senses and moved behind Randy. He wrapped his arms around Randy’s midsection and pressed on Randy’s solar plexus with his thumbs inverted performing the Heimlich maneuver.

Randy’s vision cleared dramatically upon the first pressure. He looked upon his surroundings in amazement. He sat before Huey P. Long’s tombstone in the southeast corner of the Capitol grounds—a good ten minute walk from the Observation Deck. He looked up at Louisiana’s first and only assassinated governor, and for a moment swore the statue was staring down at him.

Rumor had it Huey Long was actually killed by his bodyguards, not the dentist blamed for the crime.

A dark tint clouded his vision as Jack pushed again. Randy felt the first tickle of panic. Sane people didn’t lose track of ten minutes of time. They didn’t sleepwalk down twenty-seven flights of stairs.

Jack pressed a third time. Randy felt like his chest was going to cave in.

What’s happening to me?

Jack pressed again, with more force.

The object in Randy’s throat dislodged and blasted off into the open air. He took a few deep breaths, ignoring the pain coming with each inhalation. Then he looked at what he’d just expelled.

A blood red rose, wet and shiny with saliva, lay on the manicured lawn.