The Sentinel

Chapter 3

  I woke in a fog. For a minute I couldn't remember where I was or why. As the sounds of a hospital broke my fog, pieces  started to come back to me. I looked down at my leg wrapped in a large amount of white gauze. My shoes were not on my feet, my little black dress had transformed into a tacky off yellow hospital gown and my elbows stung from where they were pressed into the plastic wrapped mattress.

  There was a soft tap on the door before it fully opened.

“Oh, you're awake. Fantastic.” A short plump nurse with a dyed blonde bob walked into the room. “We will just check your vitals one more time, ya know for good measure and you should be almost ready to go home.” her little badge said her name was Marcy. I know because it hit me in the face twice while she was putting the blood pressure cuff on me and once more when she took it off. “I'll go page the doc and let him know that those nasty drugs are all out of your system. Okay.” She patted my arm and gave me a sympathetic look.

  What the hell? Was my leg that bad? It didn't really hurt any more. How long had I been here?

  There was another tap on the door as an extremely old man walked into my room. His hair, what was left of it was pure white. His lab coat was probably older than I was. It was threadbare and yellowing with age. He shuffle walked to my bedside. “Good afternoon Miss Doe. I'm doctor Sowers. Do you want to tell me what happened last night?” His voice matched his appearance old and raspy. He poured me a Styrofoam cup of water and handed it to me with trembling hands.

  I took a large swallow, the cool water on my throat was much appreciated.

“Well, I was walking home and I saw two dogs fighting. I tried to get to a hose to maybe make them stop fighting and ended up getting bit.” I finished more quietly than I started. His side eye look he was giving me said I was crazy.

  “Where were you bit?” He asked.

  “In an alley behind Rosies.”

  “No you silly girl, where on your body?” He raised his bushy eyebrows.

  I pointed to my leg like it was obvious.

“hmmm. So you were bit by a dog? That's the story you want to go with?”

  “I was, look!” I pointed again.

  The doctor looked down at my leg and the gauze. He moved his gnarled fingers down my leg and removed the bandage.

  What. The. Actual. Fuck.

  The skin was as smooth as the day I was born.

  I shook my head and squeezed my eyes closed before I opened them again. Nope leg was still fine.

“What is going on? I swear I was bit by a dog. I was walking home from a party and was bit by a dog! Ask Brent the paramedic!” I was starting to panic.

  “I don't know, you kids and your drugs. Brent and Cole brought you in on a drug overdose."  the old doctor "tsked" and shook his head. “Did someone give you drugs at this party?”

  “No, I was barely there, I walked in and turned around and walked back out!”

  “I see. Well you're free to go. Don't do anymore drugs okay.” He tapped my shoulder twice and left the room.

  What was going on? I sat up fully and felt my leg all over. There was nothing. I was freaking out. This was not right, I had to get out of here.

 I spotted my dress in a plastic bag sitting on a chair next to my bed. My shoes were still missing, but my purse and cell phone were in the plastic bag also.

  I quickly changed into my dress, discarding the awful hospital gown.

  I tried my cell, but it was dead. Figures.  Guess I was walking the six or so blocks home, barefoot.

  I eventually made it home, my feet tender and a little sore from walking so far on the mid afternoon warmed concrete. I knocked on the door praying Amelia was home. My keys were missing from my purse.

  Amelia threw the door open and pulled me into a hug. “Welcome home. You could have called I would have come to get you.” She released me and closed the door behind me.

“Phone's dead.” I scowled as I made my way to my room.

  “So how's the leg?”

  “That's right you were there! You saw my leg!” Amelia was my proof to at least myself I wasn't crazy.

  “Yeah, it was freaking gross.” She fake gagged.

  “Look!” I flashed her my completely healed leg.

  “Calla? What the hell hospital did they take you to? Like an alien hospital that can cure cancer and shit?” Amelia crouched down to touch my leg.

  “The doctor told me I came in as a drug overdose. They told me I was never bitten by a dog!”

  “This is totally some X-Files shit. Those paramedics told me you would call when the hospital released you.” She tapped her front teeth with her finger. “Maybe you were bitten by an alien!” She sounded like she really hoped I was.

  “Amelia, seriously? Aliens that look like dogs? What? The paramedics like Will Smith in Men in Black?” I scoffed.

  “Then what the hell happened to your leg!?”

  “I don't know.” I shrugged. “I don't know how this is possible. To make it worse i lost my keys and my shoes. You didn't happen to take them did you?”

She pouted at me a little and shook her head.

“Ugh, I hate losing my keys. And those shoes were brand new.” I had worked a lot of hours at the bookstore for those.

  “I'll go back to the alley with you in a bit, maybe they are still there. Go take a shower first, you reek of hospital.” She scrunched her nose and went towards our kitchen.

  I showered and washed my long mahogany hair. I did have some bruises on my stomach and my elbows were skinned up, but other than that I was fine. It made no sense at all.

  I threw on some shorts and a tank top. I combed out my wet hair and twisted it up into a bun.

“Ready to go.” I shouted as I came out of my room.

  “Let's go find your stuff.” Amelia and I set off towards the alley arm in arm. On the way there I told her about Craig and she like a good friend told me he was an undeserving ass. She tried to tell me I needed to just try again with someone else. Not fricken likely. I'll just get a dog or a cat.

When we got to the alley, it was broad daylight and looked totally different than it did last night.  Still though, I had to gather all of my courage to go in. A breathed a sigh of relief that there were no large fighting dogs.  But my blood or one of the dogs blood was on the ground. We kicked around some debris, old newspapers, napkins, anything that was supposed to be in the dumpster but had somehow made it to the ground.

  “Ha! Found them!” Amelia shouted as she lowered her tall six foot frame to the ground. She reached under the dumpster and grabbed them. How had they gotten there? My purse was still on me. My keys were in my purse. “I don't see shoes anywhere though. Did you ask the hospital?” She flung my keys to me as I tried to think of how they got there.

  “No I didn't ask. All my other stuff was in a bag in my room. I figured if they weren't there then they didn't know where they were. Plus everyone there thought I was a drug addict.” I sighed.

  “Well at least you have your keys. Let's go eat and see if we can't make some sense of all this.” She gestured to my leg.

  “All right let's go.”