Part 3 (1/2)
She pauses and stares. The look she's giving me is hard to read. She seems deer-in-headlights, wide-eyed and slack jawed as though I've caught her in the act. Then her heads drops and she moves back into the darkness beside me.
”Let me help you,” she says gently.
And I do as she s.h.i.+mmies the final sleeve of the jacket from my arm.
”You've dislocated your shoulder.”
”Yeah, cheers for that, Sherlock.”
”If you quit that att.i.tude, I can put it back in but I need you to stay really, really still. Hey miss, do you wanna speak to him for a little bit for me? Hold him still.”
The older woman crouches down to me, putting an arm behind my back.
”Are you ready?”
”Yeah, just...Just gimme a sec. I'm just distracted by the fact I'm about to be in excruciating pain right now.”
”Quit complaining,” Mary-Sue says. ”You're so drunk this won't hurt a bit.”
”I'm not drunk,” I say then realize that could probably help explain my current fuzzy head and short temper.
”Just ignore her,” the older lady says. ”Talk to me. Are you from around here?”
”Portland,” I answer instantly, the city flas.h.i.+ng to life in my mind. I guess I hadn't forgotten everything. ”Been there... Awhile.”
Click. Mary-Sue gently extends my arm. I flinch, but before I can say another word, she makes a move that is anything but gentle.
”Jesus f.u.c.k!” I shout. A shocking pain so jarring buckles my sanity. I shout like a little b.i.t.c.h into the night. It seethes down the tendons of my arms like mercury.
”There.” Mary-Sue gives me a demeaning pat on my leg. ”All better.”
”You said it wouldn't hurt!”
”Quit being a baby. You're a fighter. Fight through the pain,” she says sarcastically. ”You don't want to be using it much for a few days. We'll need to strap it up. I've got a first aid kit back at the tavern.”
”The tavern?”
”Yeah, it's where I work now...I mean...It's where I work.”
”We're not taking him to the hospital?” the older woman asks, but Mary-Sue stops her. ”Lets just get him back to the tavern. That'll give me a chance to look him over and we can use the phone there if he still needs an ambulance.”
”Any chance of a name before I'm kidnapped by a couple strangers in the middle of the woods?”
”I'm Jules,” the older lady says, but she goes quiet when she realizes I wasn't really asking her... We sit there in an uncomfortable silence until my Mary Sue speaks up in a voice no louder than a mild wind...
”It's Lucy. Lucy...Rivers.”
”Lucy,” I reply, a cool but distant feeling of recognition rolling around in the back of my mind. I try to hang onto whatever f.u.c.ked up memory is still inside my f.u.c.ked up head, but it's gone as quickly as it appeared.
”Pleasure to meet you,” I say, hauling myself to my feet.
Lucy gives me one h.e.l.l of a confused look, and she tries to stop me as I walk over to what's left of my ride, telling me that I need to take it easy... I might not remember everything, but I know taking it easy was never my strong suit. I stare down the black two lane highway and feel an overwhelming urge to get the bike out of sight.
”Help me with this,” I ask her, grabbing onto the handlebars with my good arm. Together, we pull the wreck further into the gra.s.s. On our way back toward the car they arrived in, Jules is eyeing me suspiciously.
”So, before I let you in my car, maybe you could tell me your name?” she asks.
My head pulsed with pain. ”Look lady, I can't think straight right now... I don't... I don't know...
”You don't?” she replied, cutting me off. ”You don't know your name?”
I closed my eyes, ignoring the throbbing ache behind my eyes as I dragged a word from the depths.
It felt right... It felt like home. Right or wrong, I was going to use it because I needed to get the h.e.l.l off the side of the d.a.m.n road.
”Landon..... My name is Landon.”
4.
My finger pulls at a ring of water left on the wooden surface of the table. My knee is bouncing underneath it. This is torture. This is the G.o.ds playing some cruel trick on me. They're taunting me. The only thing that could bring me relief right now is to scream and cry until my throat is raw. But I can't.
Instead, I'm made to sit in a booth at The Tavern beside the single love of my life, and he's acting like he doesn't even know me!
”So, Landon. What do we do with you?” Billie says, standing beside me with her arms folded. ”'Cause you sure as h.e.l.l aren't staying here by yourself.”
The tavern was empty by the time we arrived back allowing me a chance to endure another panic attack in the privacy of the bathroom.
”I'll stay with him tonight, Billie,” I say. ”If anything goes wrong, it's on me.”
”That's an even worse idea. No way in h.e.l.l I'm trusting him around you. No way, no how, young lady.”
”I'm right here,” Landon says.
We ignore his comment. ”You're being dramatic.”
I've hardly spoken a word since we walked back in here. I keep coming back to the idea that this might be one very lucid night terror. How else can I rationalize this? Heck, I don't want to rationalize this because it means facing heavy choices I'm nowhere near stable enough to make right now, or ever for that matter. Landon is supposed to be a ghost of my past. I've spent six years trying to let him go, to stop loving him, to stop thinking about him. All that anguish spent fighting the memory of him and here he is, in the flesh, in my tiny town.
”Why are you even here? What brings you to Baddock?” Billie continues.
”It wasn't by choice, darlin'. This one's the reason I'm here.” Landon gestures to me with his one free arm since his other is now in a sling. I wanted to be left the h.e.l.l alone back there.”
”You don't 'darling' me.” Billie leans onto the table to tower over him but Landon doesn't seem intimidated. ”Your boyish charms may work on the other ladies but they sure as s.h.i.+t ain't flying here. I'm not asking you how you ended up in my G.o.dd.a.m.ned tavern. I'm asking you why you're in this G.o.dd.a.m.ned town.”
”I wish I could f.u.c.king tell you,” Landon replies, rubbing his temples. ”Look, things are a little foggy right now.”
I continue to dab disinfectant onto his facial wounds fighting every urge to have him hold me, to inhale him, to feel him. I want to thank the Universe for returning him to me. I want to be happy that he's back but I realize the truth...