Limbo

ASHLEY:

TAP
TAP TAP
RAT-A-TAT TAT CLICK

These sounds penetrate my brain, sounding very familiar, but I can't quite figure out why. My eyelids feel very heavy, almost like I've been drugged, and as I try to force them to open, I hear Jinxx say, "Dude! Will you please stop doing that? You're gonna break the damn window, and you're making me crazy!"

"Sorry, man," I hear CC reply. "You know I do that when I'm nervous." When he says this, I finally place the sound. It was the incessant tapping he does when he's stressed out about something, which has actually driven both Jon and Yanni to pitch drumsticks out the window of the bus on a couple of occasions. I'm kind of confused for a second, wondering what he has to be nervous about, and then I remember the break in, and finally manage to get my eyes to actually open.

When I do, I also belatedly realize that I'm lying down, and not in my room, so I try to sit up. Before I can, though, both of them are next to me, holding me down, and CC says, "Whoa there, cowboy, let's hold off on that a bit. Just take it easy, okay?"

"Yeah, you've had a rough couple of days here, Ash, so don't try to rush yourself," Jinxx agrees.

I open my mouth to ask what the hell they're talking about, but only a sort of croaking noise comes out, and I realize that my throat feels like someone has taken a cheese grater to it. I make a motion towards my mouth, and CC grabs a glass off the table and pours a bit of water into it. "Here you go, man. But go slow, okay? You don't want to make things worse," he says, handing me the glass.

I take a small sip, and almost wish I hadn't, because the first swallow almost feels like I'm swallowing broken glass, but after that, it gets a bit better. After a couple of sips, I manage to whisper, "Where are we?"

Jinxx gestures around the room with his hand, and responds, "In the hospital, of course. Can't you tell from the five-star decor?"

"You've been here for two days, bro," CC informs me, looking more serious than I think I've ever seen him. "You were on the kitchen floor when we got back, Charlie and Andy had to do CPR on you to get you breathing again. And Jake said that the EMT's had to do it again in the ambulance, because they lost your pulse. We've all just been hanging out waiting for you to wake up."

"Where are they? The guys, I mean?"

"They'll only let us stay in here two at a time," Jinxx informs me. "Andy and Jake were here most of the morning, they went down to find something to eat about an hour ago, and then they were gonna crash in the lounge for a little while. I guess one of us should let them know, and probably the nurses, too."

CC dashes out into the hall, while Jinxx finds the remote for the bed and helps me get into a sitting position. As he helps adjust the pillow, he remarks, "It looked like you must've done a pretty good job on at least one of them. The cops got blood samples, so maybe they can get a match on somebody."

I just sort of stare at him for a second, and just as the door bursts open, and everyone practically falls into the room, I say, "I have no idea what you're talking about. I didn't get a chance to do anything, the guy came at me from behind."

"Then where the fuck did all of the blood come from?" Andy inquires, as a nurse starts checking all of the monitors around the bed. "And why did the kitchen look like somebody blew it up?"

"And who the hell threw a soup ladle through the kitchen window?" Jake demands, but before I can even try to answer, the door opens, and a cop walks in.

"I'd kind of like to get those questions answered myself," he announces, as he walks into the room. "Good to see that you're doin' better, Mr. Purdy. I'm Deputy Chief Whitworth, and I'd like to ask you a few questions, if you feel up to it."

"I'm sorry, that will have to wait until I've had a chance to examine the patient," the doctor says as he steps into the room. "If everyone will excuse us for a few minutes, I'll let you know when you can come back."

The nurse shoos everybody out, and the doctor spends several minutes poking and peering at me, and writing things on his clipboard. "Well, you're a very lucky man," he tells me. "You've come through this in remarkably good shape for someone who had to be resuscitated twice. Your throat is obviously going to be painful for awhile, but it should heal completely, as long as you don't overuse it for the next week or so."

"Does that mean I can leave now?"

"Not today, Mr. Purdy. I'm going to have someone bring you some light food in a little while, and I want to wait and see how you react to that, to be sure that there's no bleeding or excessive discomfort. If everything goes well, you'll be discharged in the morning."

So I resign myself to being stuck here for the night, and when the doctor and nurse finally leave, everyone else comes back a couple of minutes later. Whitworth isn't exactly thrilled that the guys followed him back in, but he sort of grudgingly accepts it, after informing them that if any of them interrupt, or say anything that could possibly influence my statement, he'll have them kicked out.

They all go hang out by the window while he goes through his questions, and after I tell him about seeing the first guy, he asks for a description. We go through everything else that I remember, and then I gesture toward the guys and ask, "Why didn't you get a description from them? Whoever hit them, or whatever, should have seen them."

"Dude, none of us saw anything!" CC exclaims. "Didn't you hear me tell you that you were already out when we got there?"

"Then who the fuck was there?" I sort of whisper-yell. "The guy behind me groaned, like somebody had hit him or something, and I'm almost sure I heard somebody yell. And it sounded like a woman, so I thought it was probably Susan."

They assure me that none of them had anything to do with it, which puzzles me and frustrates Whitworth. But he sort of sighs, and says, "Okay, then explain this to me. Why did you call the emergency number on your own phone, and then go down to make another call from Mr. and Mrs. Endicott's suite?"

"See, I told you! Somebody else had to be there!" I state. "I never got any further than the kitchen, let alone upstairs to my phone, or anybody else's. I never called anybody."

Finally, Whitworth leaves, seeming to almost be more frustrated than he was when he got here, and a little bit later, they kick the guys out and tell them to go back to the B and B and get some rest, since they know now that I'm going to be okay. And after I go take what feels like an hour-long piss, I come back to find that they've brought me a bowl of cream of chicken soup and some chocolate pudding. Not exactly my first choice, but I do manage to get it down without hurting myself too badly, which hopefully means that he won't have any reason to keep me after tomorrow. The guys brought me my phone, so I call my grandparents to make sure they know I'm okay, before they hear things from somebody else, and after that, I just watch TV until I fall asleep again.

*********************************************************************************

"Welcome back, Ashley! I'm so glad you're okay!" Susan declares as I walk in the front door.

"Thanks, Susan. I'm definitely glad to be back here, instead of being stuck in the hospital," I reply.

Charlie comes over, claps me on the shoulder, and hands me a small card, with some numbers on it. "This is the new keycode to get into the house," he explains. "I want to be damn sure nothing like this happens again."

We go over all of the new security stuff they've had put in over the last couple of days, and then I notice that the guys are all clustered around sort of awkwardly near the front door. "Go ahead, get back to work," I tell them. "Just because I'm under orders to be a layabout for the next couple of days, that doesn't mean you shouldn't get something done. We don't want to get too far off schedule, so do whatever you can, and I'll catch up on my parts later."

"You sure you'll be okay, dude?" Jake asks.

"Yeah, it's not like I'm gonna be here by myself, Charlie and Susan will be here. I'm just gonna go take a shower, and then maybe do a little work on my sketches, just so I don't feel too much like a lazy slug."

Bob finally gets them out the door, and I go upstairs to my room. As I look around, I'm glad to see that nothing seems to be missing, or out of place, except that it looks like someone might have looked through the sketchpad on my desk. Probably one of the cops when they were checking the place out.

I kick off my boots, then get undressed and head for the shower, since I haven't been able to take one for the last three days. When I finally feel clean again, I turn off the water and get out, drying myself off as I head back to the bedroom. But as I step into the room, I'm startled to see a woman standing by the window, looking out into the yard. I quickly wrap the towel around my waist, and say, "Excuse me, but who are you, and how the hell did you get into my room?"

But my surprise at finding her here is nothing compared to the shock I get when a very familiar face turns my way with a look of complete astonishment, and she asks, in an incredulous tone, "Wait, do you mean that you can actually see me?"

Notes