Songs In A Minor

Chapter 34

Chris

The ambulance barged through the room to find Erin’s body held tightly in my arms. I tried to put her in some type of clothes, so she’s not naked when the ambulance came. 

The first responder pried her body which was starting to cool down from my hands. “No. Give her back!” I yelled at the woman. I tried to fight with her as they hoisted her body onto one of those stretcher thingies. 

“Sir, I need you to calm down.” She replied to me. A tear broke the surface of my eye. 

“I need to go with her.” I told the first responder. A police officer came into the bathroom and brought me to the corner of her bedroom. 

“I need to ask you a few questions.” He told me. 

“Okay, but I need to go with her.” I muttered as I watched them check her body.

“She’ll be fine.” He tried to assure me. 

“Does she look fine? Does she look copasetic?” I questioned.

“I understand you’re upset, but we have to make an accident report and I need to get to the bottom of this.” I crossed my arms defiantly. 

“What are your, and the victim’s names?” 

“I’m Christopher Brown, and that is Erin Pittman.” I answered.

“So, what happened here?” 

“I walked in looking for my girlfriend,”

“And that’s her?” He asked.

I nodded. “I came in and found her lying in the tub unresponsive. I tried waking her up, but obviously she didn’t respond.”

“Obviously.” He muttered. I narrowed my eyes at him. 

“Are you mocking me?” I asked. 

“No, sir, at this time I can’t be mocking you that would be rude.” He said. His tone didn’t sound too convincing, but I wasn’t in the mood to argue with a police officer and end up in jail when Erin needs me. 

“Whatever.” I mumbled. I walked away from him ending this awful conversation. 

The ambulance already had Erin’s body in the elevator and was taking her down to the truck. I ran down the stairs to try to catch them before they drove off without me. 

When I got outside the building, they were already loading the stretcher into the back of the ambulance. I tried to get on, but the nurse wouldn’t let me. “I need to get on with her.” I told her. 

“I can’t let you do that.” She replied.

“And why the hell not?” 

“Because only relatives can ride in the back.” I sucked my teeth and watched as they closed the doors and drove off. I jumped into my Eclipse and rushed to the hospital. 

By this time, the sun had started to cower behind the skyscrapers. The moon slowly rose with its big round chest glowing in the purple sky. The stars came out like they were the moon’s body guards.

The male nurse sat at the front desk trying to answer everybody’s inquiries. The waiting room overflowed with people: a few with bones protruding out of their arm, minor gunshot wounds, and mauled legs.

I finally got to the front of the line, and asked the nurse what room Erin was in. “I don’t know.” He snapped. I tried to keep my cool, but he was beginning to try it. 

“Well, can you look it up?” I asked. He sighed heavily as if what I was asking was so difficult.

“She’s in the OR. You’ll have to wait for her.”

“Do you know when she’ll be out?”

“Whenever the surgeons are done.” He replied. I groped the nurse by the front of his scrub and brought his face close to mine. 

“I understand you’re stressed, as are the rest of the people in the god damn hospital, but you need to give better customer service. We’re all at our wits end, and it is us more than you who are stressed, so have a little sympathy for the injured.” I sneered. People around me started to clap. 

“I’m sorry sir.” He told me. I released his shirt, and he sat back in his chair, smoothing out the front. 

***

It was a few hours before I could see Erin, so I decided to get her a bouquet with her favorite flower chrysanthemums. I smelled the flowers as I walked down the corridor to Erin’s room.

I walked into the room, and saw Erin sleeping in her hospital bed. I crossed the room and sat the vase on the bedside table. I brought over a chair and sat by her. I rested my head on her tummy and felt her abdomen rise and fall as she took her breaths. It was soothing, and it was practically putting me to sleep, but Erin woke up before my eyes felt too heavy.

She groaned and then gingerly sat up in her bed. “What happened?”

“I don’t know, I walked in the bathroom, and you were there in the tub unconscious.” I answered. 

“Oh,” She muttered. Suddenly, her eyes widened. “Oh, did you find anything on the floor?” She asked.

“The floor?” I questioned. The door behind us flew open, and in stepped a black, middle aged woman. Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun, and she seemed too relaxed to work in an Emergency Room.

“Hi, I’m Dr. Palmer, I’ll be your doctor.” She told us. I introduced myself as I shook her hand and then she went to shake Erin’s. 

“Well, what’s the problem, Doc?” I asked. She opened her clipboard and flipped through the pages.

“Well, it looks like she OD on drugs, we’re still waiting for the test to come back for what drug it was. When she got here, we were able to pump her stomach out of the drugs. It’s state policy for these cases to get a psychologist in here to check her out. So, we’ll keep her until the doctor gives the go.” She said. My eyes shifted to Erin, who had this expression on her face like she knew she just got caught.

“Thank you.” I mumbled. She nodded, and then stepped out the hallway.

“You’re using again?” I questioned Erin. She looked down at her hands that were crossed in her lap.

“To be fair, I never stopped.” She replied looking up at me. My eyebrows furrowed. 

“I thought you stopped after I found you out the first time.”

“I mean I did, but I really didn’t if that makes sense.”

“No it doesn’t!” I yelled. 

“Calm down, Chris.”

“Calm down? You expect me to calm down when you told me you would stop this shit, but you lied to me, and continued to do it anyways.  Here you are lying up in a fucking hospital because you want to be a junkie.”

“I am not a junkie. Do not call me that!”

“That’s like telling me not to call you a female, or black, that’s who you are, Erin, and unlike those other labels, you chose this for yourself. So don’t tell me not to call you a junkie when you are one.”

“Okay, then don’t get mad when I call you an asshole.” She replied. She rolled her neck and exuded the maximum amount of sass. 

“Go ahead call me an asshole. I know I’m being an asshole, but that’s only because I care.” 

“You could care a little less you know.”

“You want me to stop caring? You want me to stop being there for you when you need me?” I questioned. Tears started to roll down her face and tear started to collect in my eyes. 

“DO YOU?” I screamed. She bit the bottom of her lip.

“Fine then. Good luck paying your hospital bills, damn junkie.” I said. I picked up the vase with the flowers and tossed them across the room.

The vase made a resounding crash as the glass fragments into the tiniest pieces and then crashed into the floor to make even smaller pieces. 

Erin shrieked, and I stalked out the room.