Chapter 8
"Why not? !".
"I repeat, Annie, lower your voice, please" Eric looks around, there is almost no one in the hospital in that moment, but that tone of voice still made turn around a couple of nurses. He smiles at them and then back to his daughter "It's a forever-no. Stop!" he turns, giving her his shoulders, and retrieves the cart with detergents, heading towards the next office.
"But what kind of answer is? ! And why not ? ! Come on, Eric!".
"Annie, I already told you that you can't go to that damn concert, period!".
Annie blocked him, one hand on the cart, scowling (reminding him too much of her mother). He sighs, trying not to look at her.
"For Heaven's sake, there will be other concerts Annie!".
"I hate you! !".
"And I hate you both. Go screaming like Tibetan eagles somewhere else!".
Eric closes his eyes, frozen, looking over his daughter's shoulders. She doesn't even turn, continuing to stare at him sullenly. Annie puts her hands on her hips, eyes straight and proud "None of your business, go back doing what you were doing".
"Hey, raven curls, I work here! And if your buddy wants to continue to do the same, you'd better keep your voice down!".
Annie raises an eyebrow before turning around, his father tries to stop her, at that point, he could seriously risk his job.
She looks at him closely, he was standing near the glass door, brown Converse, jeans, blue shirt and a t-shirt with skulls on. She rolls her eyes in disgust.
"Oh my god, don't tell me that they allow you to procreate too? !".
Annie approaches him more defiant than ever, without listening to the calls of his father "I am talking to my father If you don't mind, piece of repressed sixties!".
"Annie? !".
House frowns, now that she is closer, he knows that she is the girl of the bike, in addition of being the daughter of his cleaner...whatever his name is.
"Sixties? I understand that you've just fallen from a tree of bananas, but you have to know that this is not the way to address someone...".
"Who is older than me? Bullshit, seniority doesn't give you the right to insult me!".
"I was going to say that this is not the way to talk to the person that could fire your dad, but If you prefer the racist and social ideologies, I can see that the apple does not fall too far from the tree".
Annie looks back, and Eric sighs with a resigned shrug. She looks back at the guy near the door, biting her lip.
"Yeah, when you realize you were wrong, you all seem contrite" and he limped back inside without his cane.
She smiles "You are the one on the bike".
"Alas, I'm afraid to tell you that I have a twin brother, crippled too, it would be too paradoxical even for you" he hears footsteps behind him and turns around. She's in his office. "You're kidding me, right?".
"I didn't expect a doctor office like this".
He's still quite incredulous, looking around as If at any moment someone'd come out with a camera. Twists his mouth "It's a cover, I'm not a diagnostician, I sell drugs here".
The girl still doesn't go away, on the contrary, she seems very interested on the furnishings. He retrieves his cane, lowering the volume of the stereo.
"And what kind of doctor is a diagnostician?".
"A guy who fights with diseases substantially. Now, can you go away?".
She smiles at him, he hates that kind of intrusion. He surpasses her quickly to look out on the corridor, and he finds the cleaner one step away from his face, eyes wide "Take her away, seriously, cleaner Friday".
"Annie, please, let's go".
Annie turns to House, ignoring her father "Can I ask you a question?".
"No".
"At sixteen years old, your father would have sent you to a concert of the Beatles?".
House frowns, clutching the handle of the cane "I'm not so old, I'm sorry to disappoint you but in the '75 the Beatles had already split. And, anyways, no. My father was a bigot, he hated the Led Zeppelin, but you can always get away when he goes to sleep. Provided that you go away from my office now, otherwise you will not have the opportunity because you will be strangled by your father, in the exact moment in which I'll fire him. Have a good day".
Eric grabs her by the sleeve of her shirt, dragging her out of the office. She continues to look at that doctor astonished "He's crazy, Eric?".
"According to someone..." he pushes her down the hall, but he feels him behind.
"Hey you, cookie, come here".
He sighs, lowering his shoulders, leaving Annie there. House throws him something, and he gets it while it's going. Eyes wide when he looks at the doctor. He shrugs.
"Is this a condom? !".
"Yes, I know how they are made, but not you apparently" he nods to the girl "To avoid that history will repeat, you know how the concerts are, right? Drugs, unprotected sex and rock'n'roll...It's never too early".
Eric remains puzzled for a moment even when he's gone. He throws the "gift" in the trash and turns to Annie.
"You won't go to that concert".
Samantha Collins ran quickly her pink lip gloss on her lips, looking in the mirror. After checking carefully that there were no flaws, she observed all the rest. She was not too tall and certainly not lean, but not overweight either...She could be defined as one of those women "with the forms", thanks to her fourth of bra and forty-four of hips.
She was wearing a very low-cut t-shirt but not too tight and short, in eccentric colors. She had always liked to show off her physique, although many didn't consider it an enviable thing, but she had always been proud, and fortunately her work didn't stop her from dressing like she wanted.
Her father and mother were from South America, which was why her skin was very dark, similar to that of South Africans. She had a broad face, with huge eyes and nose slightly flattened, and a huge mouth, able to give shining smiles. Her hair, she loved them, were the same as ever: frizzy, raven, not too long, that day coiffed as always in a disorderly ponytail.
But what was very beautiful in her, what most men noticed and appreciated in her, were her hands. Thin and cured, always soft and warm, with nails not too long, regular and smooth palms, capable of many activities of all kinds...She smiled to herself, as always happy with her body.
Grabbing her jacket and bag, she walked quickly toward the exit of her small apartment.
After getting in the car, started the engine and put her favorite CD on. When the music finally started, she allowed herself to wander into useless thoughts, as always. She remembered who for the first time had called her Sammie, Marc, her first and only love.
Oh yes, although it would have seemed strange, she had once been able to love.
Before entering in that business, before ending up in that world of shit, before not being able to look at herself naked in the mirror without wanting to throw up...
He had dumped her, her beloved brother was run over by a car just three days later. She was only eighteen years old, she was born in the slums with the intention to get out of it one day, but then she had entered the tunnel of drugs, and she had understood that it would't have been easy to do it.
She had managed to stop taking drugs at twenty seven years old, soon after, needing money to earn a living, she began to work as a prostitute in her own house...After all, a job was worth the other.
And now, at thirty years old, she felt profoundly incomplete.
She had not yet figured out exactly what was missing, perhaps a dignified job, the money for a nice home, love, family... But certainly, she had no intention of wasting her days thinking about it. She had always been strong, as a child, and the more she went on, the more she repeated to herself that it was useless to feel sorry for herself and complain about how life had not been kind.
She lowered the volume, at the very moment when she heard her Nokia ringing. After taking it in her hand, she looked at the number on the display. The name "Allie" flashed.
Sammie, without realizing it, smiled. If she had to make a list of the most important persons to her, without a doubt among the top three would appear Allison. She loved that girl. For her she was like a sister, with whom to have fun and let off steam at the same time, a wonderful person from whom she would never refuse a request for help, never.
Serene, she answered without hesitation "Tell me everything, darling".
TBC...