Traffic (Complete two-hundred pages) (Moving to Kindle Vella in 30 Days! )

25

DOUBT

THIS WAS ALL SHE SAID. As though a short response would mend the breach of patient privacy.

Jack stopped for a second. Her mother? Could he believe that? Thinking on it, he did remember Penelope's mother lived in Mexico City as well. But was he that fortunate for her mother to have somehow gotten word that Penelope was in the hospital? Did Pat call? No, he didn't know Penelope like he did. Was Penelope conscious enough to contact her or give the nurse her emergency contact? Jack had hoped she would remain in the hospital for if she had gotten better she could have called him . . . But he never got the call. So was this truth or deceit?

The guard and the nurse merely looked at him as they saw a million questions ricochet within his skull.

"Sir?" the nurse leaned in as though inviting him to leave.

Jack looked over finally at the dark hallway to the patients' rooms but in default stepped backward toward the entrance. "Okay," was all he said.

The nurse looked happy for once at the resolution. That is until Jack sidestepped and plopped himself in a waiting chair. "If you don't mind I'm going to wait here for an hour or so in case she comes back."

The nurse looked utterly befuddled. "But why would she come back?"

"I don't know. Problems with insurance? Forgot something. Have a question . . . ," Jack said.

"She could always call, sir," the nurse insisted. "There's no reason for them to come back.

"Maybe a relapse or heart palpitation, maybe post-traumatic episode . . ." Jack continued as though he hadn't heard her. "There are a million reasons why really . . ."

"Sir," she said, "she has no reason to return once she is discharged. We let her out of our capable hands once and only once we were certain she wass perfectly fine--"

But Jack stopped her and leaned forward in his chair with a look of both omniscient knowing and stubborn indignation. His thin, tired eyes were threatening, "I just have this-- wild-- feeling. That she's coming back. And I don't know why but, I actually have the even-- stranger feeling. That she's still here." Those last words wiggled through the air like a flying serpent and wrapped itself around the nurse's neck until her face turned red. She looked to the security guard finally and he obliged to walk around the desk and threaten to kick Jack out. But Jack shot to his feet. His hands out, his eyes on the gun.

"Alright," said Jack, "alright." He made up his mind to come back tomorrow. To sleep on a park bench or something and then return to check the patient rooms once the stubborn nurse and security guard were either replaced or too busy to notice him.

But he was caught up before stepping around the corner when three men lumbered in through the entrance and stepped briskly up to the nurse and security at the counter. The three men looked like they owned the joint.

Watching the nurse grow pale after being so red, and seeing the security guard run briskly over behind the counter to offer what seemed like protection to the short in stature nurse, Jack found himself terribly interested and he sat back down on the waiting room chair. No one gave a damn about him being there. He was a fly on the wall.

One of the three men stepped forward and said, "Dos horas mas." The nurse looked reluctant and gave a stare to Jack. She seemed to be considering him. But what did two more hours mean? Jack thought. Jack thought he could see the man toss a roll of bills to the security guard and say, "Puede mantener la boca cerrada, ¿verdad?" You can keep your mouth shut, right?

The security guards eyes popped into his head like a turtle's head into its shell. He didn't touch the money but let it sit on the counter behind the computer out of sight.

"Volveremos en dos horas," said the man stepping back with the two thugs. We will be back in two hours. "Dos horas," he repeated. The three cackled. They gave Jack an uninterested look and walked out.

Jack quickly left after them, looking back only once to see the nurse and security guards divert their eyes. They split the bribe under the table.