Page 38 of Intangible
“I don’t know,” Thayer said uncertainly as a mug of tea was placed in her hand. She realized that this was the first time she had had time to really think about the situation they found themselves in. If she didn’t fight against it, the enormity of everything that had happened would overwhelm her.
“You don’t know if you’re his girlfriend or you don’t know what trouble you’re in?” Thayer just shrugged her shoulders. “Why does that not surprise me either,” the woman laughed, shaking her head.
“Now you just sit here and drink your tea. His foster brother will be here in a minute to see to him. You’re safe now. You understand?” Thayer nodded, looking up into the woman’s kind face. “You can call me Miss Beulah. What do I call you?”
“Thayer,” she said quietly. “Thank you, Miss Beulah. I didn’t know where else to go. Memphis just told me to go home.” They sat quietly, watching Memphis, until she heard the front door open.
“Jay, we’re in here.” Miss Beulah stood, sticking her head into the hall. Thayer watched as a tall, handsome man entered the room with a doctor’s bag. He gave the older woman a quick peck on the cheek before nodding to Thayer.
“What has the kid done to himself now?” he asked in a booming voice, stepping to the bed. Gently, he peeled back the bandage on Memphis' side to assess it. “Did you sew him up?” he asked, looking over at Thayer.
“His vet tech did.”
“Humff,” he grunted, turning back to Memphis. “Miss Beulah, can you get Ben to bring the portable X-ray machine over here? He should have one in his rig. Tell him to park in the back with no lights. We don’t want to invite anyone to come snooping around who doesn’t need to.”
When she left to make the call, Thayer stood, walking to the other side of the bed.
“Is it bad? We couldn’t take him to the hospital.” Thayer took Memphis’ hand, holding it in hers as she brushed his hair back with the other one. Not receiving an answer, she looked up at Jay, who was studying her intently.
“I think it missed everything important, but we need an X-ray to confirm that,” he finally said, looking back down at Memphis. “Let’s look at this arm.” Gently removing the bandages from his arm, he moved it while feeling for damage. “I don’t think it’s broken, but I’ll need an X-ray of that as well.”
Laying the arm down carefully on the bed, Jay stood straight, glaring at her. When she finally swung her eyes up to meet his, he asked, “What the fuck happened? Why couldn’t you take him to the hospital?”
“Jay! You are not too old for me to scrub that dirty mouth with soap,” Miss Beulah exclaimed, walking into the room with a heavyset man who kept trying to sweep his hair out of his face. He had a grin plastered on his face behind her back.
“Sorry, Miss Beulah. But I would like an answer on why, after all these years, Memphis shows up on your doorstep with two gunshot wounds. I’m pretty sure this woman has something to do with it. I, for one, would like to hear what story she tries to sell us.” He crossed his arms over his muscled chest as he glared at her. Thayer shrunk back, overwhelmed at the man’s anger.
“We’ll learn what happened only when Memphis is out of trouble. Now, we are going to the kitchen to wait for you to finish tending to him.” Reaching out, Miss Beulah gently took Thayer’s hand, pulling her out of the room.
“Let’s find you something else to wear.” Looking down, Thayer noticed the dried blood on her scrub shirt for the first time. “I’m bound to have something that will fit you. Probably still have a couple of Memphis’ old T-shirts if truth be told.” Digging through a closet in the hallway, she pulled out a T-shirt with a blue tiger on it. “There’s a bathroom at the end of the hall you can change in. Should be fresh hand towels on the rack too.”
Closing herself in the bathroom, Thayer took in her appearance in the mirror. No wonder they didn’t trust her, she was a mess. Her hair looked like she had been through a windstorm, she had dirt still on her face where Knox had basically clotheslined her as she ran past him, there was also crusted blood on her shirt and arms. She even still had on a pair of Memphis’ scrub pants that she had to belt with a piece of rope after rolling them up. She looked like a prison escapee.
Pulling her shirt over her head, she groaned, remembering she didn’t have a bra on. They had barely made it out of the cabin with their lives, undergarments hadn’t seemed like a big deal.
Finding a washcloth, she scrubbed it on her face and arms until she had all of the grime off. Searching around, she finally found a hair tie, pulling her hair up into some semblance of a ponytail.
When she felt at least somewhat clean, she pulled the clean T-shirt over her head. It fit a bit snug, but at least it wasn’t covered in Memphis’ blood. Looking in the mirror, however, she realized it left little to the imagination. She was going to have to pick up some new underwear at some point.
“Miss Beulah?” she called quietly from the door of the bathroom. Walking down the hall past the bedroom where the men were working on Memphis, Thayer turned the corner into a large kitchen. She had just a moment to take in the room, marveling at the large modern appliances, commercial mixer sitting on a gleaming granite counter and an island large enough to accommodate six cooks at one time.
“Oh, my! We’d better find you a shirt to put over that. Although Jay would probably be a lot more patient sitting across from those. I would hate to see Memphis pull his stitches out fighting with his brother.” She dug back through the closet until she found a long-sleeved flannel shirt for her. Sliding it on, Thayer looked up with a questioning shrug. “Better,” Miss Beulah grinned at her. “Let’s go see how Memphis is.”
Thayer followed her back into the bedroom, relieved to see a little color returning to Memphis’s face.
“The X-ray of his stomach shows a through and through, which is lucky,” Ben said, smiling shyly at her. “The bullet that went through his arm, however, chipped part of the bone off. We had to cut it out, but he should be okay. We put it in a sling to keep it still. I’m Ben.” Thayer shook his hand before looking over at Jay.
“I’ve given him a round of antibiotics and hooked up an IV,” Jay continued. “I’ll give him another shot tomorrow. I also added some painkillers to help him sleep. He should be pretty sore, but he’ll be fine. Now, I’d like a cup of coffee while we hear what happened.”
Thayer nodded to him before he turned toward the kitchen. When everyone had filed out, she walked over to the bed. Holding his hand for a moment, she finally bent down, kissing his forehead. With a sigh, she turned to the door. She knew they needed an explanation, she just hoped they didn’t kick her out when they heard it.
With a deep breath, she walked into the dining room that sat right off the kitchen. It was decorated in light green paint with wainscotting wrapping around the bottom of the walls. The large bay windows on one side looked out into the backyard at a crape myrtle tree that lay dormant for the winter. There were two large buffets gracing the wall opposite the windows that Thayer assumed housed all of the dinnerware needed to feed a large foster home family.
The rest of the house was quiet. She supposed the younger kids had been chased to bed already. She could barely remember what it felt like to sleep. Thayer stood looking at the large table with Miss Beulah, Jay, Ben, and another young man who introduced himself as Shaun. Sliding a cup of coffee across, Miss Beulah pointed at an empty chair across from Jay.
“It started about a month ago,” Thayer began her story, sinking into the seat. She proceeded to tell them everything. Though she skirted around Memphis appearing to her as a hologram until Jay brought it up. “I didn’t know if you knew about that.”
“We do, but we’ve never shared it with anyone else. He used to get into so much trouble over that,” Ben said, laughing softly. “He landed in the middle of the girls’ locker room once. He was grounded forever, but he said it was worth it,” he added with a grin.
