Abandonment - Part 4

All the days are starting to mush together into one long day punctuated by periodic darkness. But here's something different. Part four in the rip roaring tale of New Toronto.

If you've missed Part 3, it's right here, but if you're up-to-date, let's get going!

I was in a room with three beds. Curtains hanging from tracks in the ceiling divided the room into three cells. The curtains were thin and didn't block out my roommates' personal dramas. I tried to ignore everything going on, but it was impossible, and I quickly realized I wasn't in such a bad way. 

My little cell included an outside wall and a window. I promised the nurse I'd stay in the room, but I didn't promise to stay in bed. I pulled a chair up beside the window and plopped myself in it. I couldn't lie in any bed. I was scared I'd fall asleep and not wake-up. I fell asleep in the chair now-and-then, but when I woke up and realized I'd been asleep I didn't feel any dread that the next time I fell asleep might be the last as I did when I was lying down.

I was lost in thought, staring out of the window, when I heard the curtain pulled back. In walked Leslie looking like a tall drink of cool water to a very dry desert rat. She said, "Why aren't you dressed? I thought you were getting released today?"

"Something happened last night. They caught me in the lounge sitting in a chair and talking rather loudly to myself. Long story short, they're keeping me for one more day for another round of tests, and a shrink is supposed to drop by."

"It's come to 'shrinks' has it? I knew this day would arrive."

I didn't appreciate the sarcasm, but let it pass. Instead I got all factual with her and said, "They said that maybe the accident triggered some thoughts that were giving me trouble."

"Ok. Who were you talking to?"

"Adams again. I also talked to him when I had the accident. He was as real as you are right there. Maybe I was hallucinating."

"Maybe? There isn't any other explanation."

There might be. Both encounters seemed so real, just as if he was there. But ghosts don't exist. I keep telling myself that. I said, "I know it's crazy, but it seemed like he was right in front of me."

She seemed to sense I wasn't in a joking mood and simply said, "Tell me."

"It's like I spoke with two Adamses. Last night's Adams was different from Adams at the accident. There he was uncharacteristically mellow and laid-back, but last night he was back to his usual self, formal and tightly wound. Dejected and depressed too. At the accident he said he had a job for me, and last night he told me what it was. He wants me to get a box of files that has all the dirt on the criminals he was working for and give it to a high-placed guy at the bureau who'll blow the whistle on them. Those guys were responsible for wrecking your fusor research, your dream, not to mention they're implicated in murder, theft, and subversion. They might get caught if all this is true."

She had that intense look of hers I knew so well. I had her attention. I continued, "I've been sitting here all night wracking my brain trying to think of a time when Adams told me about his evidence stash. I don't remember anything."

"You aren't going to drop this just because I'm skeptical are you? What do you want to do?"

"I think it might only take a day or two to follow-up on this and bring it to an end. If it turns out to be a wild goose chase, I'll forget all about it. Are you with me?"

"You know I am."

"One more thing. You know my memory is not so good these days, but I have to ask: are we married?"

Leslie slipped on a mischievous smile. "No. When the ambulance picked you up I told them I was your wife so I could ride with you and get in the hospital. They didn't ask for ID and I didn't offer any. I didn't think anyone else would be with you while you were here."

"Thanks Leslie. I owe you."

Leslie's smile flattened. "Look buster, our relationship isn't based on owing. You don't owe me. I don't owe you. When I do something it's because I want to. You should know that by now."

Our relationship? I changed the subject and said, "I have an idea to get this little investigation over with quick. Instead of picking me up here tomorrow, meet me at the Kresge's downtown at Young and Ellington."

"The one with the long lunch counter and phone booths?"

"Yes, that one. Be there at 11:30. I'll buy lunch."

"That'll be a first."

Part 5 is here.