Part 2

“He’s stable but has lost a lot of blood. You can talk to him when he wakes up, but he’ll be weak so keep it brief.” “I understand, but I have an investigation to follow up on, and it’s best to get the truth when he isn’t prepared for questions.” Beeep… Beeep I here this repetitive sound as I began to open my eyes slowly blinking to adjust to the light. What I see next are the privacy curtains drawn open. A police officer was talking to the nurse and another guy in a black suit stood two feet away from my bed. Then it hit me, I was stabbed. I replay in my head the one thousand tingling sensations when that knife was plunged into my gut followed by the hot sensation. I tried to move and get off the bed but the pain from my stomach made me groan. I felt like my guts were going to pour out. In pain I tried reaching to hold my stomach, when I noticed left arm couldn’t move and I set into panic. The nurse turned to me and said, “It’s okay, it’s okay.” The officer stepped in and tried to restrain me by holding me down. “Let go of him!” “When he calms down I will.” “Stop moving or you’ll open up your stitches!” I stopped struggling and he let me go.

I looked at my left arm and realized it was handcuffed. Only a gurgle sound is made when I try and talk. I have a tube down my throat! Why am I handcuffed? As if reading my thoughts, the officer says, “We wanted to make sure you didn’t run off anywhere.” Run off anywhere? Is this how you treat your heroes? “Patrolman take those cuffs off him! He is not under arrest! “Yes detective,” the officer said sheepishly. “I’m told you tried to force yourself on a young lady, but two guys stepped in to stop you.” What have I got myself into and how can I get myself out of it? Damn, this is what you get! All these thoughts race through my head. “Is he alright? His eyes seem to have glazed over.” The nurse leaned over and looked into my eyes. I could see the concern in her expression. “He has been through a lot and just woken up. So, I insist you leave him be.” For once I was glad about my mind wondering off into thought about how dumb I am. “I’ll be back tomorrow. But Mr. Dean you should know the alleged victim those men Protected didn’t stay until we arrived, so I don’t know what to believe about the stabbing incident. You were the only one who hadn’t been drinking. So tomorrow if you have that tube in I’ll have you answer some yes or no questions if you can’t write. He walks out along with the patrolman.

The nurse came over to try and communicate about the type of pain or numbness I was experiencing. I must have ignored most of what she was saying because I don’t remember much of what she said prior to her walking out. On her way out she said, “We’ll get you some pain medication and possibly remove that ventilator tomorrow.” I wondered if it would hurt. I wondered about a lot of things. Were my parents contacted? Are they on their way? Where is my cell phone and what to tell this cop tomorrow? But mainly I was wondering about that girl. What kind of trouble was she in to just take off like that? The nurse was true to her word and I got some morphine to dull the pain. I wondered how long I had been in the hospital. I may not have a job when I get out. Maybe having a job was the last thing I should have been thinking about at a time like this. But there were very real problems that I didn’t want to face at that moment. Can those Creeps really convince the police that I tried to rape that woman with her making a statement against me? I did the right thing! I did the right thing! No, stupid if you want to play hero you get hurt… I need to have this ventilator out and let this detective know what happened. I have no criminal history… Man, I was making myself go crazy. That might have been the longest night of my life.

Somehow, I nodded off and now I’m being woken up by a new nurse. She let’s me know its time to change my bandages and I point to the huge tube protruding from my mouth. I’m told the doctor will make the call on my ventilator and I should rest easy. Near mid-day the doctor walks in. “Mr. Dean your nearly left us a few days ago. We couldn’t let you check out without paying your bill.” He laughs at his own corny joke. Yes, he was one of those people. I will stay on the ventilator for a few days monitored since there was a small puncture to a lung. Overall, I was stabbed three times, but I was expected to make a full recovery, and will be in the hospital for a while. The doctor left and eventually the detective came back as promised but with more of a gruff demanding attitude. He said that those guys were from well off families and blatantly accused me of starting trouble with them in the alley. I wanted to yell at him about they were the only ones drinking. But I couldn’t talk.

He pulled out a sheet of paper demanding that I sign it as a confession. He placed the pen between my forefinger and thumb. As he placed a phone book under the confession letter, so I would sign, some tall man dressed in a three piece navy blue pinstriped suit came in. “What are you doing with my client?” “Who the hell are you? He can’t hire a lawyer if he can’t ask for one.” The tall dark man strode through the room in two steps to my bed. He pulled out an envelope from his breast pocket and handed it to the detective. As he was reading the paper I saw his brows furrow. He looked up from the letter and stared directly into this newcomer’s eyes for a few heartbeats. The detective then strode away from the room without a word.

Part 1 The reluctant hero

I apologize to those who may have tried to contribute this past week but were unable to reach me. I wrote my email wrong in the original post. Please contact at : [email protected]

Please contribute and write a follow up to Part 2 by posting your part 3 here for the community to vote on. Email me at [email protected] with the link to your part 3 so we can submit it for a community vote. You have until Friday night 7/20 /18 to submit. This is a Community project which needs you to survive. Thank you.