When he woke up the following morning, Anton walked into the kitchen, only to find a plate with two pieces of toast and a handwritten note sitting side-by-side on the table. 'Had to run. - E', the note read.
Elena had already left the house about a half hour ago. Soon as she got to the hospital, Elena walked into Dr. Hartman's office, a black shopping bag in one hand, and placed the bag onto her desk.
Mary turned her head away from her phone conversation and eyed the bag, before she looked up at Elena and asked her, "What's in the bag?"
"Just open it", Elena told her, sounding angry.
Mary put the phone back to her ear and said, "Mom, I have to call you back." She hung up the phone and reached over and looked into the bag. She pulled out a magenta-colored lingerie and said, "Elena, what is this? I gave this to you."
"I'm returning the birthday present you gave me last year on account that it didn't work", Elena explained.
"What do you mean?" Mary asked her, standing up from her chair behind the desk.
Elena placed her hands on the desk and said, "I tried wearing this last night to get a guy to speak to me. It didn't work, and now I'm refusing to speak to him, just like he refused to speak to me."
Just as Elena turned around and was about to walk out of the office, Mary came around from behind her desk and said, "I didn't know you were dating anybody."
Elena stood in the doorway and turned back to look at her. "I wouldn't exactly call it dating, Mary", she said.
"Is he tall?" Mary asked her, sounding interested.
"Yeah, he's about six foot tall", Elena answered.
"Is he handsome?" Mary asked her, eyes sparkling and a wide smile on her face.
Elena shrugs her shoulders and said in a modest sort of voice, "He's somewhat easy on the eyes."
"Is he an educated man?"
"Educated!? He rarely talks! Everytime I look at him, it's like I'm staring into the eyes of one of those things from Night of the Living Dead! Now I don't know if he's got some kind of mental retardation or what, but what I do know is that he's anti-social, he shows little to no emotional expression, he snarks at Marge every chance he gets, and, I'm not gonna lie to you, Mary, he lacks all regard for social normalities. What's your diagnosis on that?"
Mary paused for a minute and spoke in a polite tone, "Elena, there's a cleaner word you could use around here. It's called autism."
Elena shook her head in disappointment and said to herself, "How Professor Williams ever let you pass through medical school is beyond me."
Elena left the hospital at 10:30 and rode back home under cover of darkness. When she pulled up into the driveway and stepped out of her car, Elena saw a light coming from the living room window and shut the car door and walked up the steps to the front porch. She opened the door, seeing the dark-clothed man with the pageboy haircut sitting in a chair on the left side of the couch, a book in his lap. The lamp on the sidetable drawer providing the source of light.
Elena eyed him for a minute, before shutting the door and locking it behind her. She then walked over to the phonograph, ignoring the hitman as she crossed the living room, and removed the current disc from the record player.
Anton looked up from his page and turned his head left, studying her. Elena walked over to the shelf in the corner and knelt down and began to look through her record collection. She pulled out an album sleeve and placed the record back into it, before putting it back onto the shelf. The hitman tilted his head slightly to the right, his face apathetic. Elena pulled out a different album sleeve and stood up and walked over to the phonograph again, pulling the vinyl record from the sleeve and placing it in the center of the phonograph. She brought the tonearm over the record and turned on the switch, turning the music up to full volume. Soon as the Rolling Stones started playing, Elena turned around and looked at Anton, who looked away from her and returned his attention back to his book.
They ate a late supper together, neither one speaking to each other. Elena kept silent on her own account, testing the waters to see how long she could mirror Anton's behavioral pattern from last night. Two can play at that game, she thought to herself. Anton, seeing right through her little shanghaiing, paid her no attention and kept to his own silent self. Once they had finished, the hitman cast his eyes at Elena to see if she would break her meaningless vow of silence. The nurse picked up her glass of milk, turning the glass and examining it as one would do with an expensive wine. She took no more than a sip of the white liquid and set her glass down. Elena then looked at Anton, who stood up and picked up his own glass, retreating back into the living room.
Elena rose from her seat and followed him into the living room. She walked over to the couch and folded her arms and sat down next to Anton, who turned his head right and looked at her. He then looked away and sat there silently for a minute, holding the glass of milk in his right hand.
Elena turned her head left and opened her mouth to speak, but then remembered she was giving him a taste of his own medicine and looked away from him, slouching back as she breathed through her nose.
"You know you can't keep this up, don't you?" Anton told her, taking a drink of milk.
Elena sighed to herself and tilted her head back, her eyes staring up at the ceiling.
"If you have something important to say, you better tell me now, because I won't ask you again", said Anton.
Elena tightened her lips at his remark, not wanting to give in.
Anton looked at his glass of milk and drank again.
Unable to resist, Elena rose up from the couch and snapped at him, "How can you live like this!?"
Anton paused for a minute, before turning his head right and said to her, "Indicating to what?"
"I'm talking about you acting like an emotionally-deranged corpse all the time!" Elena exclaimed. "I mean, did somebody fill your head with bubblegum or something? Wake up! What are you so afraid of anyway?"
Right away, the hitman's eyes filled themselves with contempt. He set the glass of milk down on the coffee table and put his right hand on his knee, standing up slowly.
Elena found herself taking a step back, as she stared up at the tall, brooding, and easily intimidating man looking down at her. A scary predicament he had seen many times from his past victims.
"Is that what you're asking me? Is there something I'm afraid of?" Anton asked her, his voice baritone and guttural.
"Look, Anton, I just want to know why you act the way you do", Elena explained. "All those little antics you do, the reasons why you never talk about your personal life. Were you the victim of some horrible incident or something? Please talk to me!"
"This conversation is over", said Anton, turning to walk away, only for Elena to tug onto his shirt sleeve and pull him back. He spun around quickly and grabbed hold of her wrist, frightening Elena and making her gasp. Knowing she had crossed the line, Elena was forced to stare directly into the soulless eyes of the villainous Anton Chigurh, unaware of his true nature, but still thinking he would hurt her.
Anton stared into her turquoise eyes with calm, but furious anger and said to her, "You do that again and I'm not responsible for what happens to you."
He released Elena, who looked at her wrist and rubbed it gently with her other hand. She then looked at Anton with fear, tears slowly creeping themselves into her eyes.
Elena nodded her head in understanding and said to him in a hushed tone of voice, "Okay...You know what? I've tried being nice in helping you, but now I'm starting to get really sick and tired of you being here and treating me this way. You don't want to follow doctor's orders? Then you can leave."
"You're not a doctor", Anton reminded her. "You're a nurse. A foolish one at best."
"Okay, well, if you don't want my help, why don't you just go back to Odessa and stay there?" Elena suggested.
Anton shook his head and said to her, "I've have no business going back to Odessa. So, why the hell would I go back there?"
"Then tell me why you were lying on the side of the road bleeding to death with a bone sticking out of your arm?"
Things got quiet all of a sudden, as the hitman and the nurse both stared at each other for a minute.
"What did you say?" Anton asked her. His voice was stern and his eyes spoke with malice.
Elena threw her arms up and then back down and said to him, "You asked me what I wanted to know what I was asking of you and that's it." She shook her head, trying not to cry in front of him. "I don't have anything else more to say."
Just at that moment, the phone rang.
Elena looked hesitate for a minute, before she forced herself to walk past Anton and over to the phone sitting next to the lamp on the sidetable drawer. The hitman turned himself to look at Elena, as she picked up the handset and rested it onto her shoulder, looking at him.
"I'm warning you right now, Anton", said Elena. "Either you lighten up and tell me what's gong on or you can get out."
He said nothing, staring at her with cold, dead eyes.
"It's your choice." Elena put the receiver to her ear and smiled. "Hello, this is Elena Olmsted." Within a millisecond, the smile on her face disappeared. Her eyes widened and filled with a stronger fear than when Anton had grabbed her not five minutes ago. "What?" She asked the voice on the other line, her brows knitting themselves together in confusion. A look of despair soon spread across her face, as she closed her eyes and let out a sigh, a tear escaping down her cheek. "Yes, Andrew", she answered. Elena opened her eyes and looked over at Anton and put the handset on her shoulder again. "Excuse me."
Elena turned her back to the hitman and placed a hand on her hip, taking two steps forward. "Okay...When did that happen?...Wha-...N-no, don't...Don't go there with me, Andrew! You know exactly why I...What?...Well, fuck you too!"
Without warning, Elena through the phone onto the floor and put her hands to her face. Her shoulders shook, as she let out a sob and started to hyperventilate.
Seeing her in emotional distress, Anton walked over to her and tried placing his right hand onto her shoulder, but then Elena turned around quickly and pushed him back onto the couch.
"GET YOUR FUCKING HAND OFF ME!" Elena warned him, yelling at the top of her lungs. "YOU TOUCH ME AGAIN AND I'LL BREAK YOUR OTHER ARM AND SHIP WHAT'S LEFT OF YOUR BALLS BACK TO KINGDOM COME! YOU UNDERSTAND?!"
Anton nodded his head. "All right", he said, calmly. His expression was one of shock and surprise.
Elena looked at Anton with a mixture of shame, guilt, and remorse written all over her face, fresh tears starting to fill her eyes. She placed a hand over her quivering lips and turned around, running away from him and down the hall into her bedroom.
Sighing to himself, Anton stood up slowly and walked down the hall towards the back of the house. He turned towards the second room on the left and stood outside, listening to Elena crying through the door. He knocked on the door four times before opening it and seeing Elena lying down on her bed, sobbing. Her back was to him.
"What happened?" Anton asked her.
"Go away, Anton", Elena said to him, her voice breaking. "I don't want you to see me like this."
"You need to talk to me", Anton told her.
Elena shook her head, not looking at him. "I need to be alone for a minute", she whispered.
Anton stood there for a moment looking at her, not sure whether to feel sorry for her or put her out of her misery. "Okay", he said at last. "But as soon as you've settled yourself down, I demand an answer from you."
Elena kept herself quiet and waited until she heard him close the door behind her. She closed her eyes and put a hand to her face, crying softly.
Anton walked into the bedroom next to Elena's and sat down on the bed for a minute, thinking. He then decided to lie himself down for a while and rested his head back against the pillow. He stared up at the ceiling, wondering who on Earth had just called Elena and what made her force herself to shut him out. The caller had to be somebody she knew, for she said his name out loud. Whoever he was, the caller had to be a much bigger threat to her than even Anton was aware of. If Elena was that scared and wanted to shut him out, then there had to be a reason. But who or what she was afraid of, he did not know. She spoke of no enemies, which was a good trait, but even if she did have one, she would have told him by now.
With that in mind, Anton closed his eyes and slowly started to drift off.