She Never Came Home

Chapter 4

Laura Sumner couldn't wait to get home late that night on December 26th. She'd just finished a double shift at Scripps Mercy Hospital, where she worked as a nurse in the NICU unit. The hospital was understaffed due to the holidays, as was expected, but this day had been particularly stressful because of one particular premature baby that had been rushed to the neo-natal unit after an emergency Caesarian. The mother was 29 weeks along in her pregnancy when she and her husband got hit head-on by a drunk driver. Every baby struggling for life in the NICU touched Laura's heart, but this particular infant just stuck in her mind for some reason. Maybe it was because his father had defied his doctors' orders and sat vigil in a wheelchair beside the incubator.

"Are you sure you should be out of bed this long?" She'd asked him gently. His face was a mass of black-and-blue contusions.

"I'm fine," he replied stubbornly. "Tell me, how is my son doing?"

"It's too early to tell," she'd replied, "but so far so good." The tiny infant squirmed suddenly and raised and clasped one of his hands into a fist. "I can't make any promises, but that's definitely a good sign," she smiled.

"He's a fighter, just like his mother," the man said. Laura had brought the man a cup of coffee later and had chatted with him a little more. He told her that his wife had suffered a closed head injury, many broken ribs, a hairline spinal fracture and a punctured lung. She'd been on a respirator for the first 48 hours, which is why the doctors decided to deliver her baby. "She's breathing on her own now," the man remarked about his wife. "And when she wakes up I want to tell her about how well our beautiful son is doing."

The baby boy seemed to be stable when Laura completed her shift, but the whole encounter had left her emotionally drained. She couldn't wait to get home and relax in a warm bubble bath with a glass of wine on the side. She was startled out of her reverie by the sudden appearance of a flashing red light in her rearview mirror. "What the..." she thought to herself. She instinctively looked at her speedometer to check if she'd been speeding. No, if anything, she'd been driving below the speed limit. She pulled onto the shoulder of the freeway.

A California Highway Patrolman walked up to her driver's side window and said, "We're not safe here, too easy to get hit by a speeder. Why don't you back up and then pull off on that Mercy Road exit."

"Go backwards on the Interstate?" Laura questioned him. "Isn't that illegal?"

"I'll guide you," the officer replied. He stood back as if to hold up freeway traffic and gestured for her to back up the hundred feet or so to the entrance of the Mercy Road exit. As Laura obeyed his directions it occurred to her that he'd never bothered to tell her why he'd pulled her over in the first place.

She didn't drive too far up the exit ramp, as it was dark and somewhat creepy. Laura vaguely recalled hearing news reports a few years ago about how construction on the ramp had abruptly stopped due to safety concerns and union disputes...something about the stability of the bridge portion of the ramp that hovered some 65 feet above a small creek. Her headlights illuminated an orange-and-white striped construction barrier in the distance with a ROAD CLOSED sign on it. She opened her driver's side window when the officer approached.

"License and registration, please," he said.

"I have to reach into my purse," she replied, thinking of some of the online videos she'd seen of people getting Tazed (or worse) for making sudden moves during a traffic stop.

"That's fine, I'll wait," he replied. Moments later he was studying her driver's license. "Well, Miss, or is it 'Mrs.', Sumner, do you know why I stopped you?"

"It's 'Miss', and no."

His face and posture seemed to relax ever so slightly as he told her, "Your license plate light is out."

"Oh," Laura replied. She considered his statement for a second and then asked in rapid succession: "Is that against the law? And how would I know if that light was working or not? It's not like I can see it while the car is running..."

"Calm down, Miss Sumner," Officer Peter Gregg said as he reached through her open driver's window and brushed a strand of her long blonde hair off of her shoulder. He then clasped her shoulder briefly and then let go and smiled. "That's what we're here for, to alert drivers of possible infractions."

"So what kind of ticket is this?" Laura was still too irritated at being pulled over to suspect that the officer was being overly-friendly with her. "Will I get points on my license? I have a clean driving record...."

"No, it's not a moving violation," Officer Gregg assured her, "it's just an equipment malfunction. No points, and if you go to court and show proof that you've corrected the problem you won't even have to pay the fine." He paused and then leaned slightly into the window. "But I haven't written a citation yet. You seem to be a nice young lady, not someone who would purposely violate the law..."

"Like I said," Laura interrupted, "I not only didn't know that the light bulb was burned out, I also did not know that it was some sort of crime." She gestured at the dashboard of her Volkswagen. "There's a 'check engine' light, and that oil can icon, but nothing that I know of that alerts me when the license plate light burns out."

"That's why it helps to have a boyfriend or a husband," Gregg replied, "some significant other that's there when you pull out of the driveway and can let you know if something's not working." He paused and then said, "That is, I'm guessing since you are a 'Miss' you are single...?"

"Yes, I am."

"Pretty young girl like you?" He asked with a big smile. "How is that possible?"

"Well, first of all, I haven't been a 'girl' for a very long time, according to the booklet the school nurse handed out when I was in the sixth grade." He chuckled as he recognized her reference. "And work keeps me very busy," she added.

"What do you do?" He asked with interest.

"I'm a nurse," she replied.

"Really? Where do you work? I've got some good friends who are nurses..."

"I work in the NICU at Scripps Mercy."

"Nursing is stressful enough, from what I've heard," he said in an empathetic tone, "but working with premature babies and such must be an extra strain, emotionally, that is..."

"It has its ups and its downs," Laura told him. She stole a glance at her dashboard clock. This cop had been talking to her for almost 20 minutes and he hadn't yet pulled out his ticket booklet.

"So is that why you're out here driving alone at this hour of the night?" He asked her. "Because you were working late?"

"Yes, of course..." She thought it should have been obvious, based on what she'd just disclosed a moment ago.

"I guess you have no other choice, since you work late hours, but I think I should advise you that it's dangerous to drive alone at night like this."

"How else am I going to get home from work?" Laura was starting to get impatient with his banter. She had half a mind to say "Just give me the damned ticket and let me be on my way!"

"Like I said, sometimes there are no alternatives, but I want to warn you about potential hazards for women like you...if you were, say, to break down on the side of the highway, you should remain in your car and not exit if a stranger offers help."

"I have a cell phone, I can call my auto club if I break down..."

"That's good," Peter nodded. "You'd be surprised at how many young women I've stopped that don't have insurance that covers roadside assistance..."

"Um, are you going to write me a ticket or am I free to go?" Laura finally said.

"I'll let you off with a verbal warning," Peter said, "but please make sure to get that light fixed."

Laura made a U-turn on the exit ramp that led to nowhere and merged back into the freeway traffic. Part of her mind was still thinking of a soothing bath and a glass of wine, while another part kept poking at her consciousness about that cop, saying "That was really weird...."