Jimmy Carrick is enjoying the Mardi Gras parade with his girlfriend Lana, the love of his life, when she disappears into the crowd. Lured into an abandoned building by a man claiming to know where she went, he is thrust into a life and death struggl...
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Wednesday Afternoon
Detective Gennery escorted Jimmy to the secured hospital room handcuffing him to the safety rail of the old school hospital bed. The room, barren of comfort, had little more than an empty end table and a pull string light over the head of the bed.
"Welcome to your new home, John."
"Why am I here?"
Gennery cracked a smile. "You are getting your noodle checked out then it will be back to the Nine."
"You still haven't told me the prostitute's name." Jimmy looked up at the detective.
"Ahhhhh!" Her name slipped Gennery's mind. He snapped his fingers believing he remembered but the name eluded him again. "I will get you her name by the morning, John."
Jimmy took him at his word. "Okay."
The door opened. "Detective Gennery, Sir?"
"Hey, Jeffries. John, this is Officer Jeffries. He will be outside the door. You need to use the can, push the call button. It tells Jefferies you want him. Two meals a day. We bring the food."
"I got it. This ain't the Marriott." Jimmy rolled his eyes.
Gennery agreed. "Exactly! See ya in the morning. If you remember anything get Jeffries to call me. Got it?"
Without any enthusiasm Jimmy nodded. "Got it, Detective."
Gennery and Jeffries left the room as Jimmy laid back speaking aloud. "I feel like I had a frickin truck ran me over." He closed his eyes and easily drifted off.
Jimmy's mind, scrambled by the pistol-whipping, relaxed enough to allow him to dream. The memories began to gather in his mind but they were fragmented and unsettling to the thirty-eight-year-old man. He may have been asleep but it was not restful or peaceful.
Jimmy experienced the violence of being shot over and over. But then a Black woman's face appeared above him smiling while teasing him about sleeping in. "Hey, Honey we are supposed to be doing exciting things on our vacation. Not just sleeping! Come on, Jimmy! Get up!"
Jimmy got up from the bed and looked out the window at the Pacific Ocean. "I could use another couple of hours of shut-eye, Babe!"
Windy pulled Jimmy to the shower. "We did not drive all the way to Tofino to hang out in here. I mean this is great but the whales are waiting, Honey."
Jimmy woke from the dream not entirely sure what he just dreamed. "A Black woman, my girlfriend? I mean it is possible, but...I don't know." He quickly slipped back into the dream.
"Honey, look! What a beautiful flute!" Windy's face beamed with joy. "Did you know every flute is different?"
"Babe? I didn't know. Were you always interested in the whales?" Jimmy reached into his pocket fumbling with a ring.
