I'm visiting a hospital to meet up with a Miss Revica Lopez. Her long term boyfriend who refuses to marry her was ejected from his car while trying to perform a car stunt for some kind of fancy car show. Her boyfriend Gordon Small was performing his stunt at the practice run when his seat flew out of the vehicle too early sending him catapulting through the air.
This, in and of itself, wasn't much of a problem. He was supposed to be ejected from the vehicle just a few seconds later and then sail back down to earth gently with the aid of a parachute. But the parachute was stuck and wouldn't open which meant Gordon met the ground hard.
She explained all of this to me with tears in her eyes. "There just had to be foul play. There's no way he would have messed up like that."
I could think of plenty of ways for the man to mess up like that. Plenty of ways in which stunt driving could go wrong. But I didn't say them. Gordon was a professional, after all. That implied that he knew what he was doing.
I needed to see this car before anything else happened. "Miss Lopez," I began.
"Call me Revica, please."
"Revica, would I be able to take a look at the car he was driving?"
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I was in contact with his company and they said I could look at the car, no problem. I went to their agency and there was the car. The owner came over and shook my hand, "You're the guy that wanted to come and see Gordon's wreck, right," he spoke crassly. It was a little off putting.
"Yeah," I answered.
"Alls we did was pull it into the garage. Haven't touched it otherwise," the man led me to the car, "Do whatever you need to do."
He left me and went off to work on another car in the garage.
I looked at the car trying to figure out where to start. I could do simple things, but I certainly was no mechanic. Maybe it would be easier to start searching areas that I did know about.
I looked in the console first. There was a bunch of trash in it but otherwise nothing. I was surprised his stunt car even had some of this regular stuff. I heard in most cases the cars looked the same as regular cars but on the inside they were high tech and different. Gordon's car wasn't like that for some reason.
Next I looked in the glove box. There I found the usual papers. Owners manual, insurance papers, an envelope addressed to Revica.
I opened it.
Instead of reading the contents I was brought into Gordon's mind and thoughts as he wrote the letter.
Trapped. There were people after me. I owed them money. Why did I take what they offered me? I knew it was a bad idea. Now there was no way out. I was too far down the rabbit hole. Worried for myself. Worried for Revica. Revica, she didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve a loser like me as her partner. Why did she stay with me? She said she loved me. Was her love that strong? It seemed like a chain tethering her to me. I was a piece of shit, barely made enough for us to live and still she stayed. She deserved better. That's what her family said, that's what her friends said. Hell, a random cashier in a grocery store had even said that to her. I was beginning to think the only way to set her free was to break the chains that held her fast. I needed to die. Nobody would miss me if I was gone. It would be a blessing for everyone and Revica... god she would hurt. Hurt for a long time, no doubt but she'd eventually find the love she deserved and she'd soar without me weighing her down. I knew what I had to do to make this right.
Wow... I hurried from the vehicle and made my way back to the hospital. I didn't bother to call Revica, I knew she'd be there.
Once there, I gave her the note. It hurt her to read it but I knew she would want to know.
If he woke up from his coma, which I'm hoping he would, things would be different between them, that I was sure of.
I headed home and greeted my cat at the door. Also waiting for me was Ezriah. He seemed to be visiting me more and more frequently. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but I could at least admit that I did want him here. He hadn't done anything relationshippy with me since the day he kissed me and admitted his feelings. I don't know if I was disappointed by that or relieved. Either way, I could feel the relationship between us changing into something different too. Was it a good or bad change? I didn't know. It was just different.
I led the way over to my couch and Ezriah followed. There he held me for a little while. "Bad day?" he asked me in one of the gentlest tones I ever heard.
"It was an interesting day," was all I said. I didn't elaborate and he didn't pry. It was one of the things I was starting to really like about him.
We sat down together and I snuggled into his arms, for once not caring if he thought it was uncharacteristic of me to do so. If I was going to take this plunge, I needed to dive in.
