PRESENT TENSE
Chapter Ten

True to her word, Michelle returned Rose to the hospital early the next morning. Both Michelle and Mari were almost glad to see Rose go; she had awakened them twice during the night with her screams. The second time, Michelle had threatened to gag her, but it hadn’t been necessary. Rose had finally managed to calm down enough to sleep peacefully through the rest of the night.

Nevertheless, a disgruntled Michelle had dropped Rose off at Memorial Hospital that morning, suggesting rather snidely that if Rose fell asleep by Jack’s side, she might wake him with her screams if she had the nightmare again. Rose, still shaken from the repeated dreaming, had not dignified the remark with a reply.

Rose spent most of the day by Jack’s side, leaving only when one of the doctors or nurses needed to work with him. One nurse allowed her to help move him, so that his limbs wouldn’t stiffen from being in one position for so long, and for the first time, Rose hoped that he truly didn’t comprehend anything going on around him. She knew that he would hate to see himself this way, unable even to move by himself.

There had been no change in his condition. Rose had tried to reassure herself that at least he wasn’t any worse, but she didn’t know how long he could survive in this unconscious condition. She had heard of people who remained in comas for years, and sincerely hoped that he wouldn’t be one of them. The longer he stayed in the coma, the less chance he had of a complete recovery.

Tommy and Helga showed up around 3:30. One of the highways connecting Masline and Southland had finally been cleared enough for people to get through, and they had come looking for Jack and Rose.

Helga looked terrible. Her head was bandaged, her usually bouncy blonde hair hanging limp and tangled, but worse than that was her face, pale and drawn, her eyes red from crying. Tommy didn’t look much better. His face was tense and strained, and he hadn’t shaved in a couple of days. Both looked like they’d been through an ordeal.

Rose was glad to see them at first, but her smile faded when she saw the look on Helga’s face and noticed Fabrizio’s absence. "What happened?" she asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"Fabrizio was killed...in the earthquake," Helga told her, her eyes overflowing again. "That horrible, rickety Sunpeak building collapsed. They didn’t even start looking for survivors until the next day. By then, it was too late. They only found six survivors...and hundreds of bodies. Fabrizio was one of those killed in the collapse. It looked like he had survived for a while, but died before he was found. If they had just started looking sooner, he might have lived." She started crying in earnest.

Tommy put an arm around his cousin, trying to comfort her. "Helga’s apartment building caved in," he told Rose. "Luckily, she was standing in the doorway when the earthquake struck, talking to someone. A hanging plant fell and hit her on the head, giving her a nasty cut and a mild concussion, but she’ll be okay. My house is still standing, with only a little damage—a few broken windows, a section of ceiling caved in—so she’s back living with me. I found her at this makeshift hospital that had been set up in the Wal-Mart parking lot. She was well enough to leave, so she came with me. We went looking for you and Jack late yesterday, but when you weren’t in any of the shelters, and you weren’t on the list of those who had died, we started asking around. Sophie said that your mother said that you had been taken to Memorial Hospital, so as soon as the road was cleared, we came looking for you." He hesitated. "Did you hear about Trudy?"

"Yes." Rose looked from Tommy, to Helga, to Jack, and back to Tommy again. "I called Mom on my roommate’s cell phone, and she told me what had happened." Rose felt like crying herself, but it seemed like she had no tears left. She had cried so much in the past two days that she was worn out.

"It’s so unfair." Helga suddenly spoke up, her voice choked from crying. "Why did this have to happen now? Fabrizio and I had only been married two weeks. We’ll never have the chance to live out our lives together, to grow old together, to have children..." She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "Where’s your fiancé?" she asked Rose.

"In jail," Rose told her, tiredly. "He tried to kill Jack and me." She looked at Jack’s motionless form. "He may yet succeed in killing Jack."

"He tried to kill you two?" Tommy and Helga both looked at her in shock, their other problems forgotten for the moment.

"He shot Jack in the back as we ran away from him. Earlier that evening, he had Jack framed for stealing my engagement ring. I broke Jack out of jail just before the flames reached it, and as we were walking back through town, away from the flames, Cal confronted us. Cal and I started arguing, and Jack intervened, saying that I hadn’t helped him get out of jail at all, because Cal was threatening to tell the police what I did. We started walking away, and then Jack turned around and saw Cal pulling the gun. We started running, and Jack pushed me in front of him, so Cal shot him instead of me. We took shelter in between a couple of half-collapsed buildings, which then collapsed the rest of the way. While we were trying to escape, a piece of concrete fell on us. So now Jack has a fractured skull, and is in a coma. He’s doing better than he was—the doctor said the brain swelling has gone down—but he hasn’t shown any sign of waking up."

"How long has he been in a coma?" Helga asked. Her work as a nurse in the intensive care unit of one of the now collapsed hospitals in Southland had taught her a great deal about comatose patients.

"Since at least seven o’clock yesterday morning, probably longer. They had him under general anesthesia while they operated on the bullet wound, in case he regained consciousness, but afterwards he didn’t wake up. They don’t know if he will or not."

"If he’s going to recover, he’ll most likely wake up soon," Helga told her. "The longer that people stay in comas, the less chance they have of recovering. Some people have stayed in a coma for years and recovered, but they’re pretty rare. Most either wake up within a short time—a few days, at most—or they die. Jack’s already been in a coma for at least thirty-three hours, so if he’s going to wake up, it’ll most likely be soon. His chances are already decreasing, from having been unconscious so long. Still, a lot of people wake up after a few days in a coma and are fine. Maybe Jack will be one of them."

Rose reached for Jack’s hand, hoping against hope that he would wake up and make a full recovery.

"Why did Cal try to kill you?" Tommy asked.

"He was upset that I had broken off the engagement, and was convinced that Jack was the reason. I guess that when he failed to discredit Jack in my eyes, he felt he needed to take more drastic measures. Cal is one of those people whose view is ‘if I can’t have her, no one can’. He was a despicable person to begin with, and he couldn’t stand to see me with someone else, so he did everything in his power to stop it."

"A crime of passion."

"Probably. He always was rather impulsive." Rose shuddered inwardly, realizing that Cal had probably never planned any of the beatings he had given her, or the rape, or the attempt to kill her. His temper was violent and unpredictable, which made him all the more dangerous. His obsessive need to keep an eye on her had only exacerbated the situation.

"Did he know about you and Jack?"

"He always thought something was happening between us."

"I thought you two were just friends," Helga interjected.

"They were, until two days ago," Tommy told her. "Then they took it to the next level."

Rose turned red, remembering Tommy’s shocked, embarrassed expression when he had walked in to find her and Jack in bed together. Helga looked at Rose’s face and nodded knowingly.

"I thought you two would eventually get together," she told Rose. "You didn’t seem too happy with Cal, and you and Jack certainly seemed to enjoy spending time together. Your dancing at the wedding got a little risqué."

"I discouraged any kind of romantic relationship with Jack until I had decided to end things with Cal," Rose told them, trying to clarify the situation. She realized that she probably should have told Cal that things were over before she turned to Jack, but she hadn’t really thought about it. Things had just happened, from the first kiss up on the hill, to the evening spent in Jack’s bedroom, to the confrontation with Cal later on. She still wasn’t sorry for what had happened, except for the incidents with Cal. She and Jack loved each other, and she felt that what had happened was an appropriate expression of that love.

"This would have to happen now, when he’d finally gotten away from Sunpeak," Tommy told Rose. "Did Jack tell you about his new job?"

Rose nodded. "He told me at dinner two nights ago. He had two weeks left at Sunpeak, and then he was going to work for an advertising agency in Southland, drawing pictures for ads."

"Yeah, the Messner Agency. He has a lot of skill, but he would get into trouble with the background checks. Technically, a person’s criminal records from before the age of eighteen are supposed to be sealed, but employers would find them anyway. Apparently the owner of this agency had commissioned him to do some work in Los Angeles, and figured he could be trusted." Tommy shook his head. "He may not live to do this job, and even if he does, he’s probably going to be in the hospital for a long time."

Rose thought about that. "If Jack wakes up, I’m going to go over there and explain what happened. If Jack’s boss liked his work well enough to hire him after all this time, he may want to keep the position open. It’s worth a try."

"Well, no one’s working for Sunpeak now, that’s for sure. The building was completely destroyed, and no one knows if they’re going to rebuild. Their finances weren’t the greatest, and some of the upper management was suspected of skimming money."

"It wouldn’t surprise me if Cal was involved in that," Rose told him, shaking her head.

"Not many employees would be sorry to see the management get into trouble. If your fiancé goes to trial, they’ll probably be watching with delight. And few people will be sorry to not work for Sunpeak. I was one of those downsized a few months back, and it was the happiest day of my life. It took a while to find another job, but Sunpeak really sucks."

"I know. I did an internship for Cal, and I hated even visiting the place. The employees all looked like they wanted to shoot someone."

"It probably would have improved the place."

"They glowered at me because I worked so close to Cal, even though I hated the internship."

"Are you looking for a job now?"

"Yeah, I have to. My mom is throwing me out because I broke the engagement with Cal, and I’ll be leaving Elias University. I can’t afford to go there without Cal paying my way. I’m living in the dorm right now, but I’ll need a new place to live when the quarter ends." She hesitated. "That night, I told Jack that when the quarter ended, I was moving in with him. He had told me that his home was open to me. Whether he survives or not, I’ll still need a place to live. Can I move in with you guys? I’ll pay my share of the rent, utilities, and anything else."

"Of course you can," Helga told her. "Your share of the rent will be one hundred and fifty or two hundred dollars a month, depending upon how many people are living there." She glanced at Jack. "Your share of the utilities will be about forty dollars, and whoever has the task of cooking for that week buys the food. We take turns. Any other expenses are your own personal expenses."

Rose nodded. "Thanks. I’ll try to find a job as soon as possible."

"Try temp agencies," Tommy told her. "That’s what I did before I found my job. Every bit helps, and you can learn some interesting things, and get some interesting experience, while you’re at it."

"Right. I’ll try that."

The three of them left soon after, Tommy and Helga dropping Rose off at her dorm before returning to Masline. Rose took the elevator up to her floor, thinking the whole time. She had a place to live now, and some idea of where to find a job, but her heart was still heavy. Two of her closest friends had died, and Jack’s chances of surviving grew slimmer every hour.

Chapter Eleven
Stories