Chapter 9
Valerie grinned as she drove alone down the dark, deserted road. She was confident her letter to the News Local had served its purpose and wrecked Cora's election chances. Pleased with her efforts, she chuckled and shot a fist into the air. "Yes!"
She drove into a fierce wind, trees bending violently and debris swirling across the pavement. She was only ten minutes from home, though, and could probably make it before the storm hit.
The polls closed three hours ago. Valerie pictured Cora checking the results on the County Board of Elections website and discovering she had lost the election. She would shed tears of disappointment, and surely guess who was responsible. Valerie hoped she made some trouble for that snotty reporter, too. She smiled widely, waved her arms and wiggled happily in her seat, doing a little celebratory dance, singing, "We will, we will, rock you, boom, da-da boom."
Suddenly a powerful gust of wind hit her car, knocking it into the oncoming lane. Not a problem-no other traffic on this road. Then a downpour struck, and Valerie could barely see the pavement.
That's okay, she'd be home in minutes. Molly was safe with a sitter, but she was terrified of storms, and Valerie was anxious to be with her.
Wiper blades on high speed swept back and forth, thumping with each pass. Sharp claps of thunder, the deluge pounding on the car roof, the wind-the din was deafening. Continuous flashes of lightning created a strobe-like, disorienting effect. She felt isolated, as if nothing in the world existed but her car and the storm.
She slowed the car, visibility improved, and she relaxed as she drove carefully down the narrow and now slippery road, feeling in control of the car and allowing her thoughts to return.
Valerie traveled this road frequently and knew she was moving into an area of open fields with nothing to shelter the car from the wind and rain. Instead of the increased battering she expected, the rain abruptly slackened and revealed unbelievably on the road ahead...
"No! It can't be!" She screamed and rammed her foot frantically on the brake pedal.
It was over in an instant-the car went into a spin, there was a loud thud, and incredibly the driver's side window just exploded, glass flying, the car struck nose down, dizziness....
Then excruciating pain, loss of consciousness, and she saw no more.
---
"Jean, you know Valerie Jablonski pretty well, don't you?" the aide asked, entering the ER unit, where Jean was dressing a face wound.
"I suppose so, although there's been a recent change in that. Why?" Jean asked.
"Well, get ready for another change. An ambulance just brought her into Unit Three, and she doesn't look so good," the aide said.
"What do you mean? What happened?" Jean turned her head to face the aide.
"An auto accident. She's pretty banged up, and she's not coherent, ranting nonsense."
"Maybe I should go in there. A face she knows might calm her," Jean said. She put the last strip of tape over the dressing on the elderly woman's cheek. "Stay here just a minute," she instructed. "I'll send someone in with home instructions, then you can go. Is your son waiting to take you home?"
At the woman's nod, Jean pulled the aide into the hallway. "Get a copy of wound care instructions from the desk, call this lady's son, and arrange transport. I'll complete the discharge, but I want to check on Valerie first," she said. She headed toward the exam room.
Jean heard wailing before she entered the cubicle. When she walked in another nurse and a paramedic were holding a struggling Valerie while they placed restraints on her. "I know her. Maybe I can help," Jean said as she approached, snapping on a pair of exam gloves.
"Valerie," she said. "Valerie? Can you hear me? It's Jean, Valerie." She reached out and took Valerie's blood-streaked hand. A large bandage covered Valerie's eyes, under which were wads of gauze, placed to keep pressure on the eye sockets. So much for Valerie recognizing her face.
"Jean?" Valerie said, and stopped struggling. "I can't see you. I can't see anything. Why can't I see?"
"You have bandages covering your eyes, Valerie. You won't be able to see until they take the bandages off. You're in the ER, Valerie. Are you in pain? Did you get anything to make you comfortable?"
Jean glanced at the paramedic, who nodded as he removed his exam gloves and scrub cap.
"I'll talk to the doctor, and then I'll stay with you, Valerie. I'll be sure they take good care of you. Let me step away for a minute and get someone to cover me so I can sit with you. Is that okay Valerie? I promise. I'll be right back."
Valerie nodded. She seemed sleepy, as if the medication was taking effect.
"Jean?" she said. "Jean, you tell them. It was the wolf, Jean. They don't believe me."
Jean turned with a puzzled glance at the paramedic, who shrugged and then motioned her to follow him out to the hallway.
"Has the doctor been in yet?" Jean asked.
"No, we just got here. You know her, huh?"
"We're not close but we work together. I think having someone she knows in the room will help reassure her, and she doesn't have family nearby. I'll stay with her as much as I can. What happened, do you know?" She glanced anxiously through the doorway.
"Someone called 911 for a car in a ditch. When we got there she was out behind the wheel, and her face-well, I've been doing this for years but I never saw anything like that before," he said, shaking his head. "Glass shards all over, bloody as hell, lots of deep lacerations, gouges really, like she was clawed or something, especially around both orbits. At first I thought that her eyes were punctured and decompressed, but on further examination they weren't in the sockets at all...it was...nightmarish." He rubbed his head, letting out a long slow breath.
Jean looked away for a moment, blinked rapidly, then hugged her arms to her chest, directed her gaze back to the EMT and asked, "What did you do for her?"
"Put pressure over the orbits and a big bleeder in the temple, stopped the bleeding, and got her out of the car. That was tough, but we managed, and she woke up while we were pulling her out. There was no apparent trauma except to the face-the airbag helped there-and her vitals were good except for tachycardia, which is to be expected, and the usual soreness, swelling and bruises, of course." He looked away down the hall for a moment, perhaps picturing the scene, then back at Jean.
"From the looks of things the car went nose down into the ditch. She must have struck the side window with her head and concussed-there was no side airbag. Maybe some glass punctured her eyes and she tore at them-that would account for the gouges and the blood on her hands too. She keeps screaming and she's not responding to questions, at least not rationally. We sedated her, and it's taking effect." He shuffled his feet and edged toward the exam room door.
"Wait," said Jean, reaching out to grab his arm. "You say she's not rational. What has she been saying?"
He shifted his eyes away toward a wall, frowning. "She keeps repeating the same thing-the wolf, she says. From what I could put together, she says a wolf was standing on its hind legs in the middle of the road and after the car crashed it attacked her. She must have hallucinated that while she was out, I'm thinking."