Page 9 of Fly Back to Me
My paramedic reaches her free hand behind me, shuffling it inside the medical box just as Officer Bellmont keeps us company. “Can you tell me what happened, Mr. Owens?” he asks.
I’m sure they see crazier shit all the time, so this scene isn’t much of a distraction at all for Peter.
I grimace when the cold antiseptic spray licks my skin, only to briefly gesture toward the dusky parking lot. “I was about to hop on my motorcycle when I heard noise coming from behindthe dumpster. I heard this woman plead with someone not to hurt her, so I checked out the scene. This man was holding her against the building with a knife, and I stepped in. He cut me with it. I acted in self-defense.”
“Found the weapon!”
Officer Bellmont’s head whips to the sound of his partner’s voice, and my throat rolls as I digest his apprehensive expression.
Does he not believe me?
Does he think it’s my knife?
Is he just taken aback?
“Okay, bear with me a little longer. Almost done.” I look over to the woman wrapping the gauze in place around my forearm. Her black hair is fastened in a tight bun, as sturdy as her demeanor, and I quietly thank her for her attentiveness.
My eyes find Officer Bellmont again. “She could hardly move when I tried to comfort her. I think she’s in some sort of shock or something,” I explain.
“I’m going to need you to file a report, Mr. Owens. Can you do that?”
The woman discharges my left arm as I say, “Sure. I can do that.”
Bustling sounds by the dumpster throw our attention, and the other paramedic makes his way over. My butt slides off the rear step of the ambulance, and I meet him halfway.
“Is she going to be okay?” I ask quickly.
His brown eyes flick over my shoulder to peep inside the truck where his partner is. “Amy, we need to unlock the stretcher. Start unlatching.” Then his gaze greets my impatient stare. “She seems to have hit her head. There was a small cut there, and we just want to rule out a concussion. Other than that, there were no signs of assault. At least that we can see for now. But that will be confirmed at the hospital.”
He drifts past me to unload the stretcher with Amy, and the weight of my thoughts drags my gaze to the blacktop. I wander to the side, just enough to offer the medical professionals and policemen room.
Wafts of latex and alcohol linger around the steel frame of the rattling stretcher. Navy-decorated bodies start to blend in my periphery, the rustling of their movements muting gradually.
No signs of assault.
I don’t even know what she looks like besides what I think was blonde hair under the dusky sky.
I don’t have a face to a woman I’ll surely think about for a very long time—maybe for the rest of my life.
Chapter 5
Olivia
My side dips into the thin mattress, eyes lazily dragging across the skinny stripes of the pale-yellow curtain. Murmured conversations jumble with medical carts scrolling along the tile, but all sounds are muffled in comparison to the ones echoing through my mind.
My hysterical pleas.
His coarse voice brutally grinding against my flesh.
All that horrid noise beats around the walls of my brain like a boomerang. Shock steadily departs my body, but the chill of its remnants sprinkles along my skin.
I continue to stare blankly at the patterned drape in front of me, grateful for the busy sounds of caregivers that scurry the perimeter of my small shelter. My fingertips greet the loose weaves of the gauze taped to my forehead—a weak attempt to stabilize my spinning mind.
The curtain slides open, curling with the bend of the steeltrack. I pop up to a sitting position, and Nurse Joy welcomes my mom and Lauren to flood the cubicle.
I gasp, burrowing into my mother’s already outstretched arms. Her lavender-vanilla scent temporarily warms the vicious chill, choked sobs falling from her mouth and into my hair.
“Oh my god,” she breathes. “Thank God. Thank God you’re okay. I don’t know what I would’ve done.”
