The Empty Hospital

PART II: The Streets of Pottsmain

5.

James ducked his face out of the corner window of the car. All the windows of the front half were open. The gas and the powder on the floor had flown with the air.

The train was slowing. The detectives were well-hidden between the seats. His shoulder was burning, his head was pinning. Thanks to the dramatic backward jump he made when he surprised the detective who thought himself the next best thing to Sherlock.

Now, everything's all right if he gets out of this train. Everything's all right if no one say's "Hi!" to him at the door. Everything's all right if they don't wake up. They won't wake up, at least not before Madison, he told himself. But he couldn't think of anything else until he's out of this train.

The train came to a halt, and he bolted out the door to the empty platform. He felt like dancing, moved a little, remembered he sucked at it, but rotated on his toes anyway. He hummed his way out of the platform. Now he just had to hop in a taxi, and home. But the place was deserted except for one taxi, which was also empty. It was raining. No one was near, around or anywhere. Strange. The wet road shined when the lightning flashed.

James saw something lying by the taxi. At first, he thought of it as clothes. But that idea ridiculed him.

"Colt.45 semiautomatic pistol is not approved for use in law enforcement in this state, Detective." James said out loud to the image of that detective in his mind. James liked talking to himself. "How will a civilian know the difference between a real badge and a fake one? Usually, this time of the night, Dear Detective fetches his bottles, and drink and cry and drink until sweet sleep comes. Oh, his red, hollow eyes, foaming mouth, that white mark on his finger. It was a tough divorce, huh, Detective? Hey, it's not your fault! okay? It's not your fault that you are super smart, and that she felt like a piece of shit around you." He laughed silently at this. "Well, Ma'am, you tell me, two guys tell a person they're detectives and then take him at gun-shot, IN AN EMPTY TRAIN, and tell him he's under arrest, because They think he's suspicious. And that's why they will take him to THE POLICE STATION. Isn't that a great way to kidnap someone?"

Then he started laughing. I outsmarted two real detectives, he thought, and felt like leaping. He felt he was at the top of the world, for a few seconds, then those feelings faded like dark shadows saturated-in-front-of eyes do. He sighed. Nobody will ever know this. Nobody will tell the stories about the time when James outsmarted two real detectives.

He didn't had any friends. Ever since Mary did what she did he had cut himself off from the world. The first person in a long time James liked to open up to was her dad's first home-nurse, Jules. Two days ago, she got kidnapped.

Maybe he'll tell Dad, he thought, but Dad is rarely awake when he's home. Cancer's been preying on Dad since the month Mom died.

They were traumatized for life the day Dad found her lying by the dining table, her barely eaten lunch still on the plate. How long had her cold body been lying there...staring at the ceiling?

James was at a job interview when a stroke snatched her Mom away from him forever. He still didn't know it for the next couple of hours. Nobody did. They had no one other than themselves. Dad was from an orthodox background, and he left his family, society, and city behind for Mom. Still Dad invited his brother to Mom's funeral. But he didn't come.

Then, one evening, Dad fainted, and when the doctor said the word "cancer" James remembered something he once saw in a movie: a tall building demolishing –its concrete structure shattering like a tower of cards. Only this time he saw his life shattering.

Dad's medical expenses sucked up all his savings. James was desperately looking for a job, but rejections didn't cease.

Two months from today, a company from Pottsmain called. And James and his Dad moved to Pottsmain for a fresh start. Start for what? He didn't know or care, but at least now they'll have a roof over their heads. Now they'll have food on their table. Now they'll be safe.