Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Clark TOC can be found
HerePart 84Part 85“Hi, Lois,” Clark’s voice said over Lois’s answering machine. “I tried to reach you at the office, but Joe told me you were out. Don’t worry about Superman; he’s invulnerable. I’m sure he’s fine. I don’t think EPRAD Control is expecting him back until late tonight, anyway. I’m guessing you’re on the way home. I’ll meet you there. I’m on my way, so I’ll see you in a few, and, yes, I have quite a story to tell you. I love you,
minha.”
She had listened to the message three times now, and Clark’s actions still didn’t make any sense. If he had come right over three hours before, where did he go? Obviously, she wasn’t at home three hours ago, so why hadn’t he come to the Daily Planet to look for her? Why hadn’t he called back? Why hadn’t he left another message? Where was he? Clark had mentioned EPRAD Control in his message, so perhaps he went there to await news of the hero. Lois picked up her coat and briefcase, and went out the door.
Lois noticed on the way to EPRAD that the panic in the city hadn’t abated since Superman’s trip into space. People were acting as if they didn’t know if Superman would save them. She shook her head. Of course, he would save them. That was what he did.
Have a little faith, people!She pulled into the parking lot, and headed for the pressroom. She wondered whom Perry had assigned to wait at EPRAD all night for news of Superman. She hadn’t been paying all that close attention during the meeting as her mind had been occupied with Clark’s empty chair.
Her entry into the ERPRAD pressroom caused a stir among the sleepy journalists. She heard the whispers increase and several people rose to their feet. She wished she could say it was because they knew they were in the presence of greatness, but it was more likely that they were all talking about her and Clark. Reporters were notorious gossips, since it was their stock and trade, so she was sure her romance with her partner had already made the rounds. How they found out about it, she hadn’t a clue. Probably, Cat had said something to someone. She spotted Wally over in the corner playing cards with a no name guy from the Metropolis Star. It would have to be Wally. He was one rung down from Ralph on the journalistic ladder and barely tipped the scale in his direction, humanity wise.
“Hey, Lois. Have you heard something?” Wally asked, getting to his feet. “Did Superman contact you directly?”
“What? No, that’s not why I’m here, Wally,” she said, and glanced around at the other reporters, who were eyeing her expectantly. Was
that why they were whispering? Because of her relationship with Superman? Rag mongers! All of them. “Have you seen Clark? He said something about thinking that Superman’s expected to get back to EPRAD late tonight. I thought he might be waiting here.”
Wally hushed her and, taking her arm, led her to the side of the room. “Nah, I haven’t seen Kent. Did he really say that about Superman? Because that’s the first thing I’ve heard about an ETA.”
Crap! Clark was going to kill her for disclosing his scoop.
“I said he
thought that’s what Superman had said. I could have heard him wrong,” she said dismissively.
Wally raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “
You could have been wrong?” he scoffed. “You don’t ever admit to being wrong, Lane, even when you are.”
She pulled her arm out of his hand and set her hands on her hips. “
I’m never wrong!” she growled.
“Exactly!” Wally said as if she proved his point, and maybe she had. That wasn’t important now.
“So, Clark hasn’t been by?” she asked, returning to the reason that she’d come.
“Lose your puppy?” Wally snickered. “I’m sure he’ll turn up. He always does.”
“He’s my
partner, not my puppy!” Lois retorted.
“Is he now? Why exactly are you here looking for him, Lane?” Wally grinned, a naughty glint to his expression, and pointed at her. “Is there something more going on between you and Kent, something sexual, which the rest of us haven’t been apprised of? Don’t look so surprised; we knew there was something happening between you two all along. Nobody would deal with what Kent has without getting something in return.”
Lois blanched. “No!” she insisted, shoving him in the shoulder. “We’re
just partners!” She marched out, feeling as if someone had dumped a bucket of cool oatmeal over her head as the whispers turned to titters behind her. She had handled that badly. She had better find Clark soon, and he had better have a darn good reason for disappearing; otherwise, she might end up killing him herself.
***
Lois stormed up the stairs to Clark’s apartment. The man had some explaining to do. Disappearing on her all day. Only leaving the one message. Now, she was ticked off and starting to get really mad. Just because they had some sort of understanding and had exchanged a
few kisses did not mean that he was allowed to treat her in this manner.
She finally made it to his top floor landing, trying not to use up all of her steam before she reached his door. She wanted to make plenty sure that she had some left to…
Clark’s apartment door was wide open. His blue scarf and big heavy winter coat lay on the landing outside his door. She walked slowly up the steps leading to his front door. “Clark?” she called hesitatingly. The door of the apartment swung in the slight breeze, as if long ago abandoned, but other than that, she heard nothing. “Clark?”
She went inside his apartment and saw that it looked completely different. Of course, the last time she had been there had been almost a week ago, after his apartment had been robbed. She hugged her coat closer around herself. “Clark?” she called again, despite knowing that he wasn’t there.
So many of his things had been broken or damaged beyond repair during the break-in that he had needed to replace them. He hadn’t gotten around to replacing his television, or if he had, the new one was now gone too. Clark had gotten another copy of the framed photo of him and Jimmy from the baseball game. Moreover, she noticed the addition of two new photos from the Kerth Awards banquet, one of the four of them, Lucy included, and the other, sitting on his bedside table, of just her and him. Actually, it was more of her, than them. She was holding her third Kerth award, and Clark was beaming at her with pride… and love.
Her chest ached. Where was he?
The break-in, his coat and scarf abandoned by the front door, which had been left ajar, and that car that Joe had sworn had been aiming at Clark, indicated that someone wasn’t using fair play. Someone was after Clark. Could it be that a person, or persons, from his past, whom Clark was afraid might use her against him? Had they captured him? Had he been kidnapped? Was he still alive? Would she ever see him again?
Lois raised a hand to her mouth. She picked up his telephone and dialed 9-1-1.
***
Perry walked into the newsroom. He had gone home for a few hours of shut-eye after putting the paper to bed the night before, but here it was, hardly six a.m., and he was back where he belonged. It helped ease his guilt that Alice and Keith had gone to Des Moines to visit Jerry at Iowa State. He wished they could have been together, but somehow he felt that they were safer there, out of the city, than here in Metropolis during this current crisis.
He walked down the steps into the bullpen and slowed. Lois Lane sat at her desk, her head resting on her hand and looking, for the entire world, as if she were asleep. He noticed that she still wore the same clothes, which she had been in the night before. Perry had left word with the desk that he be called immediately when news of Superman’s return came in, but he had never gotten the call. Lois’s appearance was confirmation that Superman was still MIA.
Perry set a hand on her shoulder. “Lois, honey, go home. Get some sleep in a real bed. We’ll call you if there’s word on Superman,” he said softly.
She jerked awake. “I’m fine,” she lied, and then sniffled. “Clark’s missing.”
He raised an eyebrow. So, Lois was keeping tabs on Kent’s location now, was she? Perry had guessed something had happened during their stay at the Lexor Hotel, but he was waiting for official confirmation before saying anything.
Kent had been good for Lois. Since partnering with him, she had lost some of that sharp edge, which had alienated her from her co-workers… well, humanity in general. It was only old fools, like Perry, who remembered her as an intern with passion for news. Lois had never been bubbly, but a friendly go-getter. She had worked longer hours than she should’ve, and had gone above and beyond what the reporters needed to research a story. She had never complained about assignments, or lack thereof. She had known she had to pay her dues, and was willing to chalk up every experience as a lesson, as one more step forward in her career.
Until Claude.
Stealing Lois’s story had only been the tip of the iceberg, which made Perry fire him. Claude had taken a strong young woman with a positive outlook on life, used her like the trash that he was, and had thrown her away when he was done. Lois had never been the same. Even though Perry hadn’t been able to wrangle the whole story from her, he had known that something awful had happened to her to shatter her soul. She stopped being friendly with her co-workers or chatting with them at the coffee counter and before meetings. She guarded her stories and research as if they were gold at Fort Knox. She started living only for her career. She refused to be partnered with anyone for over a year. Trust was only given rarely and never fully. She had no problem running over others to advance her career. Lois was becoming so hard and brittle, Perry knew he had to do something or she’d break.
It was one of the main reasons Perry had assigned Kent to her, and why Perry had hired the man… well, after he had proved himself with the theatre piece. The expression on Lois’s face when she had first looked upon Kent was priceless. He had stumped Lois. The one on her face after she had heard Kent’s story on the theatre had pleased her boss more. Kent had intrigued her. No wonder Kent had been half in love with Lane since that first day. If a beautiful, intelligent woman had looked at young Perry like that… Well, actually, she had, and Perry had married her.
Since Kent had started working at the Planet, he had pushed Lois’s comfort zone with his no-nonsense approach to life, his manners, his work ethic, his patience, and his refusal to back down. Kent reminded Perry of himself as a young man. He made Lois curious and passionate about life again. Oh, sure, she had still been a driven reporter after Claude was finished with her, but her passion and compassion had been missing. It had taken that young man from Kansas to instill those values back in her. She cared about her stories, and the people they were about, more so now, and
that had made her a better journalist, and a hell of a better person.
“Kent can take care of himself. He wouldn’t want you worrying yourself to the bone just because he forgot to call in when he got a hot tip,” Perry said, turning towards his office.
His protégé’s disappearing acts weren’t exactly a new thing. Knowing Kent, he’d probably come in promptly at seven with an exclusive post-mission Superman interview, much to his partner’s chagrin.
“No, Perry. He’s been abducted,” she replied.
Perry paused his step and returned his focus to her. “Come again?”
“Clark left a message on my home answering machine yesterday evening, saying he was on his way over. I don’t think he ever arrived,” she said. Her hand moved papers around on her desk, until she found a half-eaten Double Crunch Fudge bar and consumed the rest of it. “I was here, so I don’t know for sure, but nobody’s heard from him. When I stopped by his apartment after finding his message late last night, the front door was wide open and both his heavy coat and scarf were lying on those stairs outside his front door.”
Perry raised an eyebrow. That didn’t sound like Kent.
“Detective Wolfe thinks I’m crazy,” she said, her tone told her boss exactly what she thought of the detective, and none of it fit for print. “Wolfe says, regardless that someone had broken into Clark’s apartment last week, in spite of the fact that a car was gunning for him the day before yesterday, despite the coincidence that his safety deposit box at the National Bank of New Troy had been robbed the other day, and even though Clark said he was coming to see me with a huge story before vanishing, Clark won’t officially be considered a ‘missing person’ until tomorrow night, forty-eight hours after his message on my machine.” She picked up her coffee mug and took a sip, grimacing she set it back down. Her coffee must have grown cold while she had slept. “I’ve talked to everyone here at the Planet, and nobody saw him yesterday. I double-checked all of LNN’s coverage of Metropolis yesterday, nada. I called all the hospitals, and even the morgue, but no Clark. I don’t know what his big story was, or where he disappeared off to all day, but he’s gone now, and I don’t think it was by choice.”
She had done all that since hearing Kent’s phone message last night? All this concern because her partner didn’t show up when he said he would? Yep, something significant had happened between them. True, finding Kent’s front door wide open was suspicious, but it was possible he left in such a rush that he hadn’t latched it properly.
“You know, Lois,” Perry said slowly. “Wouldn’t you be perturbed if Kent had wasted a night looking for you, if you went off on a story without informing him first? Don’t you think you should give him the benefit of the doubt, and concentrate some of that power of deduction to figuring out what happened to Superman?”
Lois sent him a glower that made Perry glad that Superman didn’t share his abilities with his friends. “EPRAD Control hasn’t issued any statement yet. Nobody has seen or heard from Superman since his transmission went out yesterday afternoon,” she informed him. At least, she wasn’t letting her fear of Kent’s safety stop her from doing her job. “And if someone had made off with me, I’d want my partner to leave no stone unturned, looking for me.”
“Okay, darlin’, keep me posted,” Perry said, heading to his office.
He remembered the first time he met Lois. He had just returned from overseas. He was grumpy at being assigned to the home office, even though he had asked for the position because Alice had said that Jerome needed a father who was there for him. Not that being in Metropolis had helped his and Jerry’s relationship any. At ten, Jerry had already hated his father, and nothing had changed his mind.
So, Perry had been sitting at his desk, the same one Lois sat at now, hating his life, and wondering if an old warhorse would be able to cover politics without murdering his subjects for their idiocy, when he had heard a little gasp. He glanced up and there, standing next to his desk, was this beautiful child of seventeen, looking at him as if he were Elvis himself.
“Oh. Oh! Oh! You’re the great Perry White!” Lois had gushed.
“Yeah, so,” he had grumbled back, feeling anything but ‘great’.
“Of course,
you know that. Stupid, Lane,” she had chastised herself, before continuing. “You’re like my idol! I love your articles. You bring such depth and humanity and life to words, I feel as if I’m there dodging bullets with you. If I could be half the writer you are, I’d be able to die happy.”
He had leaned back in his chair and scrutinized her. He wondered if one of his co-workers had sent her to him as a joke. She had appeared genuine, and he knew he’d be doing her a disservice if he didn’t discourage her in her aspirations. “If you were half the writer I am, you’d die a horrible, miserable, and lonely death, or…” He had waved a hand at the office. “You might end up like them, which isn’t much better. But if you really want to be an investigative reporter, young lady, you’ll have to be twice the writer I am just to get a desk in this newsroom, and four times as perseverant, and six times as smart. You’ll have to give up all chance at happiness, at a real social life, or a family. This job would have to
be your life,” he said, tapping his desk. “And I wouldn’t wish that on you or anyone else.”
“I
am smart,” she had retorted with a spunk he hadn’t expected from a girl her age. “Class valedictorian and senior class president. I’m smart enough to be anything I want to be.
My father says I should go to medical school and become a doctor like him.”
Perry’s brow had furrowed in thought. Lane. Doctor. Was this girl Dr. Sam Lane’s daughter? Perry had covered a fight or ten when he was first starting out in Metropolis, before he had found his niche in investigative reporting. So, the great Sam Lane had a daughter, and
she wanted to be a reporter. If she were anything like her father, she would be a bull-headed, obstinate, hard working, tough as nails, tell-it-like-it-was genius, because her father wouldn’t accept anything less than perfection.
“
And you’d have to start making your own decisions about your life, since it would be you who would have to live it. Pleasing Daddy to get him to love you isn’t going to earn his respect, let alone mine. Go!” he had said, shooing her away. “Be a doctor, if that’s what you want, but if you want to be a reporter, you need to live it twenty-four / seven. Treat every person you meet as a possible story, every day as a new mystery, whose secrets you haven’t yet unlocked, and every story as Pulitzer Prize material, whether you’re interviewing the president or covering a dog show. You need to observe the world around you, live in it, but apart from it at the same time. It’s hell on your relationships, and no matter how many Kerths you may win, they won’t keep you warm on a cold winter’s night.”
Instead of scaring her off, she had nodded her head, accepting his advice, and handed him his mail, because she was working as a mailroom lackey. The next day, when she had come by with his mail, he had quizzed her about what she had observed in the newsroom. She had failed miserably, and he had ignored her for two days. Then he had quizzed her again, and she had passed, not with flying colors, but she had passed. It became a game with them. What had she observed? What had she missed?
A month later, when school had started up again, Perry had actually been sorry to see her go. Lois Lane had changed his life. She had given him a new goal of inspiring the next generation, making others better, making the Daily Planet the best paper – bar none – and passing on what he knew. It was because of his relationship with that young lady, which had made him turn to editing. Unknowingly, he had become her mentor, and she his student. She had far exceeded any expectations he had ever had, and he couldn’t be prouder.
Perry had barely removed his coat and set it on his coat rack when Lois entered his office and shut the door behind her. “Was there something else?” he asked.
“Do you remember how I told you, when we came back from Kansas, that I had overheard Clark and the Kents talking about his past?” she asked, sitting down in the chair opposite his desk.
Evidently, this discussion wasn’t over. Perry sat down in his chair. “Uh-huh.” He had thought she had let that angle blow over, especially with her burgeoning relationship with Kent. Apparently not.
Perhaps telling her to search for every person’s hidden secret hadn’t been the best advice.
“I’ve been looking into Clark’s past. From what I overheard of their conversation, I thought he was born in Italy, where he witnessed his parents’ death by the hands of the mob over there. He escaped, somehow, to the States as a teenager, seeking out his relatives here,” she said. “So, I’ve been searching the archives of the Daily Planet’s European edition to see if I could find any record of a couple dying in a mob hit, leaving a son behind.”
Perry leaned back, steepling his fingers. This obsession of Lois’s was getting bigger and more uncontrolled. He began to suspect he needed to have a word with Kent about telling Lois the truth, whatever it might be. “Did you find out who he really is?” he said, continuing to humor her.
“Well, no. I haven’t found out anything. There are a lot more Kents in Italy than I ever thought,” she said, before clearing her throat.
“Go on.”
“Anyway, what if my digging around into his past, clued in these mobsters to Clark’s present location? What if it was because of me that he was abducted? It’s just what Clark feared would happen if he told me about his past. Okay, not exactly, he feared that they would come after me to use me to get to him. Clearly, that wasn’t necessary.” She looked down at her hands and rubbed them together as if she were cold. “I’m stuck on what to do next. I can’t just sit around waiting any longer, Perry. Tell me what to do.”
Yep, she had fallen off the deep end.“Lois, go home. Get some sleep. If you can’t sleep, take a shower and get something to eat, something without chocolate in it. Imagine what Elvis could have done if he got more sleep and didn’t burn his wick at both ends. Why, he could have been president!” Perry said, spoken like a true hypocrite. He received a glare for this analogy, so she either didn’t think that Elvis applied here, or knew Perry wouldn’t do the same if he were in her shoes, hence the hypocrisy he felt. She had better not start in on him on his Elvis stories. He walked around his desk and set his hand on her shoulder.
Lois jumped to her feet. “I should be out looking for him.”
He tightened his grip on her shoulder. “You need to get your mind off Kent and Superman for a while. It won’t do either of them any good if you can’t function.”
She stared at him, plainly disagreeing, but then relented to Perry’s better judgment and nodded.
“Maybe if you get out of the office and clear your head for a while, you’ll figure out what to do next. We’ll call you if any news comes in on either of them,” Perry said. He didn’t need to lose two reporters with only one of them being missing. “I don’t want to see you back here until at least 10 a.m., missy.”
Lois rolled her eyes, but gave him a mock salute. “Aye, aye, Captain.”
“Colonel,” he corrected her with a wink.
“Colonel,” she muttered, leaving his office.
Perry watched as she went to her desk, retrieved her coat and briefcase and made her way to the elevators, half surprised that she had actually listened to him. He picked up his receiver, glanced down at his watch with shrug and dialed anyway. Bill picked up on the third ring.
“This better be important,” he grouched. Apparently, he had been using the same clock as Lois.
“Kent’s missing,” Perry informed him. “Lois says he’s been abducted. Her arguments are sound. She says Detective Wolfe is blowing smoke.”
There was a pause on the line, before Bill sighed. “Good morning to you too, White.”
“I don’t like it when my reporters’ hunches are ignored, Bill, especially about their partners,” Perry said.
“Is there some reason I should be dropping everything else keeping me up all night to find your lost reporter?” Henderson asked.
“Because I found your brother’s murderer,” Perry retorted. “Freeing you from that bum rap. I introduced you to your wife, mother to your beautiful daughter. And I…”
“Okay, fine. You’ve made your point,” Bill grumbled. “You picked a hell of a time to call in one of your chips.”
“If Lois wasn’t pulling her hair out about Kent, you know I wouldn’t do it.”
“You’re getting soft, White. Starting to care about your reporters’ feelings and all,” Henderson teased.
“You know Lois is like a daughter to me,” Perry argued back.
“And here I thought it was Kent you were worried about. I haven’t heard anything about him, but it doesn’t surprise me. The ‘not hearing about it’, not ‘the abduction’. There’s a lot happening in the city right now. Until we hear that Superman’s mission was successful, people are still going to be in panic mode. Do you think this might have something to do with our case?”
“I don’t know,” Perry said, leaning back in his chair. “Kent hasn’t brought me anything new on that front since he blamed Cost Mart’s problems on Lex Drug.”
Bill chuckled. “Yeah, that was a good one. I’ve heard about corporate strong-arming, but that’s a bit extreme. Anyway, it only really works if Cost Mart is corrupt too.”
“Bill Church is one of my oldest friends, and I’ve known his son since he was in diapers. If either of them are head of a criminal organization, I’ll come and dance in a pink tutu at the next policeman’s ball,” Perry said, cracking his first smile of the day. “Wait, I just thought of something. Clark did try to connect Miranda, the love perfumer’s, death to Luthor too, but according to Sergeant Zymak, she was seen storming out of Lex Tower after their meeting where he rejected her perfume. So, Zymak put Luthor in the clear.”
“That one I did hear about. I’ll keep my ear out for anything strange for you, but I wouldn’t name me as his guardian angel yet. When people think it’s the end of the world, they have a tendency to go a bit crazy,” Henderson reminded him.
“Oh, okay. I’ll just tell Lois
you think she’s crazy,” Perry suggested.
“
I never said that, White! Don’t you sic your Mad Dog on me,” Bill said with a chuckle.
“Why not? You’re the one who gave her that moniker. Anyway, the way she looked this morning, Kent had better show up alive and fast, or she’ll be a Stark Raving Mad Dog by lunch.”
Henderson sighed again. “To each his own, White. To each his own.”
***
He could hear voices nearby, muffled by the chill of the cold water. A bright light flashed in his eyes and he moved to cover them with his arm. It felt heavy and awkward. All he wanted to do was sleep.
“Call MPD! He’s still alive!” a man’s voice called. “Get me that life preserver ring over there. I’m going to try and pull him up.”
The pain in his head was intense. It felt like someone was pressing on his ears, trying to get them to touch each other. He heard some muted footsteps and a splash.
“Hey, man!” that same man’s voice said. “Can you reach the ring?”
He didn’t move. He couldn’t move. It hurt too much, and he was cold, so cold. He tried to explain this to the man, but all that came out of his mouth was a groan as his teeth rattled.
“It’s okay. I understand. Reed, I’m going into the water to get him. Hold the safety rope and light, will you?” the man said.
“Are you daft, Jake? That water must be forty-five, if that,” another voice said. “You’ll freeze.”
“He’s going to freeze before MPD gets here,” the first man said.
He heard an accompanying splash. A hand touched his arm.
“Try to hold on to the ring,” the man said.
Though his arm was stiff, he tried to move it away from his eyes, but the light was too painful. He jerked to get away from it and slipped under the surface of the water. Dirty, salty water went up his nose. Only the man’s hand on his arm stopped him from sinking to the bottom. He broke the water and started coughing.
“Come on! Try!” the man coaxed.
He tried again, this time with his other arm; he was able to loop it through the life preserver ring.
“That’s it. You’ve got it now,” the man in the water with him said encouragingly. “Okay, Reed, pull!”
He could feel motion. The water had become accustomed to him being in it and refused to give him up easily. A few minutes later, they had reached a ladder.
“Can you climb?” the man in the water asked him.
He didn’t think so. His teeth started chattering louder. It was becoming more difficult to hear the men now over the noise.
“Reed, you’re going to need to pull him up,” the man called.
“This is nuts,” the man out of the water grumbled.
A hand reached down and tapped his head.
“Give me your hand,” the man on land ordered.
He tried to move his hand out from away from his eyes but the light was too bright and painful. “Light,” he murmured.
“Did you hear him? I think he said something,” the man above him called down to the man behind him in the water, before patting his head like a small child.
“Light,” he repeated.
“Douse the light, man,” the man in the water suggested.
“How in the hell am I supposed to help you up if I can’t see you?” yelled the man on land.
“Just for minute, Reed. Geez. Come on! I’m losing feeling in my toes here. Hurry!” the man in the water complained.
The light went out, dropping them into darkness. He pulled his hand away from his eyes and set in on the rung of the ladder.
“That’s it!” called the man on land. “Now, step up with your feet.”
One of his legs burned. He should really look down to see if it was still there. Wait; it hurt, so it still must be there. He concentrated on the pain and used it as a guide to his nerves, trying to convince them to move. He put some weight on that leg, but then slipped off the slimy rung. The man behind him caught his foot and put it back.
“You’re not allowed back in the water. Up you go,” the man insisted.
After what felt like a few more minutes of pulling from the man on land and pushing from the man under him in the water, he heard some more footsteps, echoing on the wooden dock. Two more sets of hands took hold of his arms and yanked him out of the water. He was shaking more in jerks and jolts now, than in a smooth manner. Every bone in his body hurt and felt like it was scraping against one another. Every muscle was stiff.
A new light flashed in his eyes and he once more raised his arm to block it.
“Here!” said the man from the land, sliding some hard plastic sunglasses over his eyes. “That should help with the light.”
He was able to see now, even in the darkness of the night and the tint of the sunglasses. He was sitting on a dock. There were two policemen and the two men who originally helped him: Reed and Jake. The man from the water climbed up the ladder and stepped onto the dock. That must have been Jake. He was nondescript other than being burly and bald. The other man, Reed, was the opposite. Although just as large, he was ugly with a pockmarked face and a scar highlighting his otherwise dark cheek, but he was smiling, as well he should be. He had just saved a man, and his goodness showed, despite his appearance and gruff manner.
Someone draped a blanket over his shoulders, but it didn’t seemed to warm him. He was chilled past his bones.
“Who is he?” someone asked.
Through squinted eyes, it appeared to be that the policemen were now asking questions.
“Don’t know,” answered the man from the water… Jake, who was now also shivering under a blanket. “We found him floating there when we came out for a smoke, and thought he was dead, until he moved.”
He didn’t know. He felt pretty dead.
“Who are you?” the policeman asked, shining his flashlight into his eyes.
Despite the sunglasses, he winced and drew up his arm to cover his face.
“Them some nice shiny bracelets you got there,” the policeman said. “Where’d you get ‘em?”
He turned away from the light to look down at his wrists. There was some sort of metal rings around his wrists. He began to shake. It felt colder outside in the air than it had in the water.
“Not talking, huh?” the policeman said.
“Hey!” said Reed. “Give him a break. The man’s half dead.”
The policeman grabbed his wrist and pulled it up for all to see. It was a painful movement, which his body rebelled against. It just wanted to curl up into a ball and try to get warm.
“See this. Handcuffs with the chain broken. I bet he’s some kind of escaped felon,” the policeman said, dropping his wrist.
He looked down at his arm, studying the bracelet more carefully. It was a handcuff. Was he a criminal?
“Wearing that outfit?” scoffed Jake. “He looks more like a bank teller than a criminal.”
“They come in all shapes and sizes,” retorted the policeman.
A couple of men in blue uniforms arrived, who looked like firemen, who brought a stretcher. “Where’s our D.B.?” they asked.
“Alive,” the other policeman said, pointing at him.
The fireman looked at Jake. “You better get out of those wet clothes before you catch chill.”
“His eyes hurt,” Reed informed them. “That’s why I gave him my shades.”
“Probably drug related,” suggested the policeman.
The fireman examined him. “That’s some pretty nasty bump you have on the back of your head. Possible concussion. Do you know where you got it?”
He shook his head. It was a blank, like how he got the handcuffs.
“How long have you been in the water?” the EMT asked.
Hesitantly, he shook his head again. It hurt to move, but talking didn’t seem in the realm of possibility. All he could remember was hearing the men who saved him finding him. Another blanket was put on top of the first.
“Do you think you can walk?” the EMT asked.
He rose to his feet but stumbled.
The firemen grabbed him before he could fall. “That’s okay, we’ve got you. How about you sit down on the stretcher and we’ll take you to Metropolis County Hospital?”
He looked up at the man in confusion. Did he really need a hospital? “I’mmm… fiiinnnne,” he said, between chattering teeth.
“Really? How about you let me be the judge of that?” the EMT asked, a slight grin slipping onto his face for a moment. “What’s your name?”
He shook his head. Stars danced around the man’s head.
“Don’t know, or won’t tell me?” the fireman asked, lifting up the sunglasses Reed had given to him and shining that bright light in his eyes again.
He turned his head away to avoid it.
“Definite signs of concussion, probably from that bump on the back of his head. He’ll need to be monitored at the hospital, overnight… All day, I guess it is now, and into tomorrow. Moreover, he’s well on his way to moderately bad case of hypothermia,” the fireman EMT went on, lowering the sunglasses back over his patient’s eyes. “He needs to be warmed up, and probably warm saline fluids admistered. Radio County to expect him.”
“We need to call it in. He’ll need a police guard too,” said that rude policeman. “He’s an escaped criminal.”
“Oh?” replied the EMT, glancing over his shoulder to the policeman. “What’s his name then?”
“How in the hell should I know? He’s wearing broken cuffs. We’re treating him as a hostile until we know otherwise,” retorted the policeman.
“Do you know your name?” the EMT asked him gently with another smile.
He opened his mouth to answer. “Uh…” He had a name. It was right there on the tip of his tongue. What was
his name? He closed his mouth and looked at the EMT blankly. He was too tired to think. All he wanted to do was sleep. He shook his head. He didn’t know. Maybe it would come to him in the morning. He lay down on the stretcher and closed his eyes.
***End of Part 85*** Part 86 Comments
