Choosing My Life - Bear And Rachel

modern communication

Bear

Rachel took a little while to respond
"I'm feeling good, very well rested, thank you for asking."
"That's good to hear. How about your pain? Had it dulled a little. " I felt like I was flying talking to her. Everything faded to background while I concentrated on listening to her.
"Oh, I, it's not as bad. How did you know?" She sounded so surprised, I chuckled.
"They usually give you painkillers when you go to hospital." I explained
"Why?"
"Well, you usually only go to hospital when you've hurt yourself really badly, which means you need something to dull the pain."
"Oh, that makes sense."
"It does, doesn't it?"
She hummed in response.

There was a pause.
"Miss Henderson, do you mind if I come and sit with you again tonight? I'd like to see you and make sure you're well." I asked. The yearning was almost agony.
"I, I don't know who to ask permission from." Her voice sounded confused.
"Why do you need permission?"
"I don't know, I just... I just remember something about..."
"Sweet pea, you are in charge of yourself. You say who you want to see, and who you don't. I'm asking permission from you to come and see you, but if you don't want to see me, I won't come."
"I would like to see you." She sighed down the phone line, "I'm so confused, Bear. This is all so different. It's like another world, but it's the same. I don't know what to do and I'm scared."
My heart sank. It probably was a while new world to her. I'd taken her from her home and dumped her in what would be an alien planet.
"I'll come over now. We'll work something out to help you feel less scared." I assured her.
"Thank you." She sounded relieved.
"So you remember how to hang up?"
She gasped.
"It means to end this phone call." I clarified.
"Oh, " she paused, " I put this thing on top of that. Don't I?"
"Yes." I guessed she was pointing at the actual phone part. But we'd work it out. I just didn't want to hang up on her.
"Ok, if you do that, then I can come over."
"Ok."
"I'll see you soon, sweet pea."
"Bye."
A dial tone rang in my ear.

I huffed out a sigh as I dropped the phone from my ear, and pulled on my ponytail. My mind was racing.

"You leaving us again?!" I jumped. Maz was standing at the end of the aisle with her hands on her hip, and an angry look on her face.
"Jesus, Maz. You scared me." I blurted out.
"What?" She was the one who looked surprised now.
"You crept up on me. You surprised me." I explained, " so what did you want to talk about?"
She squinted at me in suspicion.
"Brian, no one's ever been able to sneak up on you ever. What's going on?"
Rachel.
"Don't worry about it. Did you have something for me?" I responded.
"No, just... that girl... what exactly happened to her?"
I dropped my eyes to the floor, and took a breath.
"Maz, if I tell you what I saw on that house, the things that she said."I shook my head "It's not really my place to gossip about it. Probably not your place either."
I glanced up at her. She looked at me as if I'd slapped her.
"I love hearing the gossip Maz, it makes a boring day fun, and your curiosity probably saved this girl's life. But I won't be giving you her secrets." I stepped around her. "Excuse me."

"I'll take my laptop and do some work from the hospital." I told her over my shoulder. That might also help answer some of Rachel's questions if I can show her videos.

"Brian, Bear, wait! I'm sorry." Maz grabbed my arm as she apologised, "I promise I won't tell anyone. I'm just... well, worried. That place looked dead, or abandoned. And then you come out carrying a young girl in a bundle of blankets with a nurse running beside you. You guys got in the car and left. No one would tell me anything except Mr Jefferson who growled each time I mentioned Mr Henderson. And now you say it reminds you of hell, I just want to know."

I turned to look at her.
"Maz, it'll come out eventually. But when the information comes out, it has to be told by the people who are most affected. That's not you in this case. I'm sorry I'm not telling you any more about this."

"I just want to know!"
"I know Maz. You probably should study intelligence gathering. You'd be good at it."
Her face lit up,
"Really?"

I nodded.
"Yeah, if you can keep the information to yourself and not tell everyone you know, you'd be brilliant."
Her smile dropped.
"I thought you said you liked my stories." She pouted
"Sometimes, the stuff that didn't hurt anyone. The bitchy, nasty stuff that sounds like it's continued on from high school, that, I can do without."
I took another step up and then turned around.
"To be honest, Maz. I like the stuff that I can do something about. Like yesterday, it feels good to help."
Maz had a thoughtful look on her face.

This is a free book available through Wattpad (c) LTM1986. If you are not reading this on Wattpad, it had been stolen. I turned to climb the stairs to my loft apartment. I was going to grab the laptop and then go to the hospital. I had a brave young woman to help enter a world new to her that I'd dragged her into.