AUTHORS NOTE: The entire book is currently posted. This will only be up for a limited time. The completed book is available for purchase on Amazon in either paperback or kindle formats. Just search my name on Amazon: Mike Turpen
Or at CreateSpace https://www.createspace.com/4178821 (paperback only)
WARNING: THIS STORY MAY DISTURB YOU. EXPLICIT CONTENT, LANGUAGE, AND VIOLENCE...READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED!
Daddy's Little Girl
In the four years he's owned the car, Harrison Kringe has never driven it like this. Weaving in and out of traffic, and ignoring road signs, the white knuckled ride is all but familiar to him. Gripping the wheel of his Ford Taurus, as if his life depends on it, though, it isn't his life that is in jeopardy. Unrelenting anxiety, and dizziness from hyperventilating doesn't help the matter at hand. While his mind races and panic is scratching at his soul, Harrison can't help, but think the worst.
Rebecca, his wife, lay slumped in the back seat. Harrison would prefer the screaming she had displayed, only moments prior, as opposed to the now deafening silence that surrounds him...at least he would know if she was alive or not. Harrison's heart pounds beneath his breast plate so hard, and so fast, he swears it is going to break through, or explode trying.
As Harrison speeds along in the darkness, very few street lights pave the way, he isn't very familiar with these roads either. He and Rebecca have only lived in North Point for five days. They had moved recently, due to Harrison's job promotion. He works for the large security firm, A.C.T.S., or Armored Car Transport Security. While the rest of society struggles with unemployment, bankruptcy, and foreclosures, Harrison's company is steadily growing. Rebecca worked as a part time substitute teacher, before the cross country relocation. She has not found a job yet, but Harrison's income more than makes up for her lack of employment.
None of that matters now. All the money in the world can't change the way Harrison feels about Rebecca. He would quit his job in a second, if it meant saving her life. In Harrison's mind, his only purpose here on earth, at this dark hour of his life, is to save his wife.
The rescue attempt is nearly cut short. Seemingly, out of nowhere the road veers to the right, a sharp turn that isn't meant to be taken at such risky speeds. The car slides off the road, to the shoulder, the tires screeching all the way, kicking gravel up into the under carriage. Harrison pulls the wheel hard, his sweaty palms slipping off the steering wheel, he nearly hits a tree. Harrison manages to keep control of the vehicle long enough to return to the proper side of the road.
Harrison curses to himself, "Shit! Where is it? Where the fuck is it?"
Then, as if someone had heard the cries of the desperate man, a rectangular sign, suddenly appears in the pair of bright beams, glaring from the Taurus. A large white "H" in the center of a promising blue background. Harrison shrieks with relief at the sight of the sign.
Harrison speaks to his wife, as if she is still conscious,
"Hang on baby, we're almost there."
Rebecca offers no reply...she hasn't made a peep, since she passed out from the loss of blood.
North Point Hospital sits silently, looming in the night. Rebecca is dying, and the sight of the massive building gives Harrison only a shallow sign of hope. He races to the emergency entrance doors, bringing the car to a loud but hastened stop.
Harrison runs with Rebecca, limp in his arms, between the glass doors into the lobby. No doctors or nurses seem to be present.
He screams for help, for someone to save his soul mate. "Somebody? Please, my wife is dying, HELP!"
Two nurses rush through the doors of the ER. "What's happened?"
"My wife, she's lost a lot of blood, help her, please! I think she's in labor."
If Rebecca was in labor, it was two weeks early. Harrison paces just outside the doors of the delivery room. The terrible thoughts that torment him, come from the sounds he can hear from behind those doors. He can't be sure of what is being said, but the voices sound panicky. Their tone is unnerving to him. Fast paced beeping comes from the machines that Rebecca was, no doubt, currently attached to.
Harrison's eyes dart around the room, from a wall, to the floor to a clock, to the door, again and again. The unknown happenings behind that door gives him a terribly uneasy feeling. His wife's life is in the hands of this team of medical professionals, as is his sanity. His heart hasn't slowed a bit, though it does skip a few beats, when he suddenly hears the sickening, steady sound, coming from behind that door, 'Beeeeeeeeeeeee...'
For what seems like an eternity, time stands still,
'...eeeeeeeeeeeeee...'
Harrison can't bear to even begin, to imagine his life without her. "Oh God!"
Harrison collapses. The room seems to be spinning, and Harrison's stomach can't handle the nauseating revolutions. He clutches his head, and vomits on the cold tile floor. The splattering sounds echo off the walls.
He screams, "Noooo!" As bits of leftover regurgitation drip from his quivering lips.
He sobs and whimpers, and thinks to himself, 'Why God, why?' and 'How can this be happening?'
Suddenly, a sound of hope, or, desperation. An electrical charging noise, 'Chizzzzzzzt' and a faint 'Bunk'.
Harrison is frozen in place, but still, the heart monitor continues to scream the high pitched, '...eeeeeeeeee...'
Then again a few seconds later, 'Chizzzzzzzt,... bunk'.
Finally, a series of beeps pulls Harrison to sit up and listen...'beep...beep...beep...'
The single best sound Harrison has heard, since crossing over the threshold of that hospital, fills the air. Harrison caresses the door, and listens to the beautiful melody of a child crying, his very own child, crying it's first breaths of life. Tears roll down his cheeks and he falls to his knees.
Looking up, he whispers, "Thank you, thank you God!"
A doctor opens the door, and invites Harrison to enter, "Come meet your beautiful baby girl!"
Harrison enters, and immediately sees a nurse walking toward him, holding the child, wrapped up snug in a blanket.
"Congratulations." She offers, as she hands him the fragile new born.
Harrison carefully holds her, and whispers, in a soothing voice, "Hi. I'm your daddy."
Rebecca appears to be resting, the stress her body has just experienced was, overwhelming, to say the least. Her eyes lay shut, her brow beaded with sweat, and her short, shallow breathes, come and go, seemingly, without effort. The atmosphere of the room is calm, and the feelings of joy and relief radiate from Harrison.
"Sweetheart?" Harrison softly speaks to his wife, "Look,...our new baby girl!"
Rebecca stirs, her head turns from side to side and she slowly pries open her eyes. A weak smile graces her face at the sight of Harrison.
As she tries to speak, it comes out, merely a mumble. "The baby's coming!"
She seems confused, or delirious.
Harrison holds the baby closer, so she can see, "No sweetie, see! Here she is, she's here!"
Rebecca widens her eyes, and looks, "She's here? How? It can't be..."
Suddenly Rebecca starts to convulse, as her eyes roll back, and she squeezes out a spine chilling groan.
Harrison yells for the doctor, "Somethings wrong! Help her."
Harrison stands, watching the horror unfold, his wife has once again flat lined. The machine seems to grow louder as the the unbroken chime continuously rings out. All Harrison can do is hold on tight to his new baby girl, pray for his wife, and watch, hoping the doctors can bring her back.
'Its been too long,...'.
Thoughts Harrison has been hoping to avoid, begin to whisper, deep in his mind,
'...there's no hope,... '.
Growing louder and more clear by the second,
'...she's gone!'
Three minutes have passed, since her heart has stopped, and the voices within are ever present,
'Even if they bring her back, there will be severe brain damage, and memory loss...'
The wicked voices smash into his brain, continuing to force their way in.
'...she'll spend the rest of her life in a coma,...'
Harrison tries to fight back at the thoughts, but to no avail,
'...death would be a show of mercy.'
After nearly five minutes of fruitless efforts, a doctor looks to his watch and calls it, "Time of death,...11:52."
Silence fills the air as a nurse shuts off the heart monitor. A look of despair falls over the other doctors. Losing a patient is bad enough, but when their spouse is present and witness to the entire ordeal, it only makes things that much harder.
The doctor, with a heavy heart, gives Harrison his condolences, "Sir,...I'm sorry..."
Turning, he realizes, Harrison is not in the room, neither is the baby.
The doctor rushes to the door, yelling, "Sir?"
He peers up and down the hallway, no one is in sight.
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