Chapter Three
When You've Lost Everything You Loved
Michael Schmidt.
He'd been just working in her grandpa's shop when suddenly, while working with Jeremy whom she'd met a few times she'd visited in the past before going overseas - he was such a nice guy, too - a potential customer turned up and somehow recognized him and drew a pocket knife, ranting like crazy. That was the gist, at least.
She barely managed to puncture his left lung, so he required immediate surgery, and here she was assisting with the equipment and the tools while the surgeons worked on the patient after putting him under.
It was nothing new to see, but oh, God, the blood...making his suit look pure black where his lung was...
Traumatic pneumothorax. He was alert when he was brought in, but now he's out of it and put under so we can save his life. Someone had to notify his mother, and that was me. Thankfully she was here, but why did this happen?! Kaleia knew she had to concentrate, or her ass would be handed to her for endangering the patient's life. She was a professional-to-be and had no business panicking. Why was this time different for some reason?
Mike had suffered from a shortness of breath and struggled to form coherent sentences, the thunderous beating of his heart seen on the EKG.
If things had been worse than they already were, his skin would have turned blue; it began to show on his lips, but that was it.
The x-rays showed the proof and the necessary procedure was decided. Normally, if it was just a small puncture, then it would heal alone in no time but still required rest and oxygen, aided by a doctor administering more air by sticking in a needle and helping expand the lung. However a larger injury meant a chest tube through the ribs, draining the oxygen, and left in place for a while, for several days to be precise, and then the chest would be back to functioning. He might need further surgery since this was a pretty deep wound for an amateur attempt to KILL.
Kaleia had seen worse shit in Iraq, but there were no comparisons to attempted murder.
Or was it murder? I heard the attacker was on some drugs or something. After this, I'm gonna ask around, but discreetly. Ms. Clara deserves to know, too, so maybe she can tell me herself.
They weren't even friends, but it seemed they naturally clicked together as if fate deemed it. Yeah, Kaleia was too curious for her own good, because even though this was the first time she'd seen Clara's son in person, and she was a caring person thanks to her grandparents, she decided to just stick by his side and console both him and his mother even after he woke.
~o~
"I thought he was the man I know killed my son. They couldn't prove it back in Hurricane, but I KNOW. I'm not alone in this. That goddamned lawsuit was never enough. Not like it would bring back my little boy, either."
Clara glared at the woman through the two-way window at the police station. Her little boy had pulled through after the tube was inserted, but he would be that way until a week at most, because of this bitch. Mikey...God, I pray to you that he makes it. He's strong, my baby, the last of my children. She clasped her hands in front of her stomach as she mentally said the prayer, despite losing her faith long ago when Evan and Elizabeth were taken from her.
She could empathize with this woman, but it didn't excuse attacking another human being the way she did. She was damned lucky Clara Schmidt was reasonable.
Detective Mark Phillips was the one overseeing the interrogation. He was a ten-year veteran with a Marine background, bald-headed with dark blond sideburns, and an intimidating scowl that easily softened into the warmest demeanor akin to Clara's late father. Right now, it was the former, because he was trying to get the facts straight. "Your blood levels show high concentrations, Mrs. Wilson -"
"Because it's all I have to feel good about myself!" the distraught, wild-haired blonde woman burst. "My only child, my little boy, was taken from me, and I refuse to go the rest of my life never knowing if it will change!" She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths through her nose before exhaling through her mouth.
"I can't even see him anymore outside the pictures I still have. Except when I'm in the happy place of memories keeping him alive..."
A bull-faced excuse to avoid coping with the emotions properly. I drank for a while after Evan and Lizzie, but as a consequence, it made me close off to the only child I had left. This woman still lives, yet - yet she has no one left. "My husband is leaving me because he can't take it anymore. I came out here from Hurricane to get away, as a result. He accepted life as it is now," Mrs. Wilson rasped, reddened eyes glazing, "but I brought Fritz into this world. We never got to bury him, and neither did the other families. When I saw that man's face - I thought it was the man the HPD let go."
Clara gritted her teeth at the mention of her ex-husband.
"Should I know his name?" Phillips questioned carefully. Mrs. Wilson glared at him from below her eyelids. "Ma'am, you know you will face assault charges regardless of your intentions, and the fact you were on drugs for this regardless of the reasons, plus if the young man doesn't make it..."
The way the woman was trying to justify her actions brought Clara back to when Michael was a teenager, and them both dealing with the emotional and mental backlash of losing her two youngest children. Her drinking had made her numb, but also blind to what was going on with her only living child, and it wasn't until she came home one night from the liquor store and saw the young Michael was put through rehab that Clara herself understood what SHE was doing was just as wrong. The two of them together needed to find a way to move on and heal from this heavy loss.
She thought of the other children who were never found to this day: Susie Stampler, her little girl's best friend. Gabriel Grace. Jeremy O'Neill. And Cassidy Landis. Their families would never get the closure they'd needed, though Clara knew from experience you NEVER got closure from losing a child.
She wondered how they were all coping, or lacking thereof, compared to this woman she pitied and loathed at the same time.
She wished she could see her ex right now, make him see the damage he'd caused, and her heart knew it without physical evidence. She wanted him to see this woman but also knew William wouldn't even bat an eyelash. He would also likely smirk as if it were a game show to him.
Once Mikey was out of the woods, and her heart knew it would happen, she was going to do everything in her power to keep him from this rabbit hole except to answer the necessary questions the police had for him.
~o~
She checked in on Mike just as her lunch break began. She wasn't sure why, but the tug in her stomach was hard to ignore.
She replaced the IV bag and gave him more drip, checking that his vitals were all normal for the moment. She smiled tenderly at the good news, and at his face in spite of herself. Maybe the damned war made her realize life was too short to put off distracting thoughts of boys, and in high school, they'd been too intimidated by her brains, Melinda the same. It was just a sign of the times in which relationships were looser or slowly becoming unimportant compared to "real work". Kaleia called it bullshit because her grandparents and her late parents set a prime example of how family was more important, work and money second if vital for living.
She'd worked really hard so far to get to where she was now, but where would she find a guy who accepted the way things were and not what he wanted out of old-fashioned values? No way in hell would she give up her nursing career even when kids came into the picture.
Kaleia looked down at the peaceful face of the young man sleeping for a few more days. His mother would be here soon -
"Oh, what a surprise to see you here, Kaleia."
Yep, what timing.
Damn, Clara looked...how should she put it nicely? She looked worn down and tired, her eyes reddened around as though she'd been crying before coming. Not that the nursing student blamed her. "I'm sorry," Kaleia said softly, putting her hand on the raised side of the bed.
"Yeah, well, I gotta say I pity her," Clara muttered, sucking in a breath to hold more tears at bay. Her adult little boy was going to make it, but it would never stop her from worrying. "She was on that stuff because several years ago, she'd lost her son. Her only child. Thought she'd seen the face of the man responsible."
She was telling Kaleia this because she needed to trust someone with it, and Kaleia didn't even need to ask. It touched her heart but also piqued her curiosity. "Do you want to talk more about this?" she asked carefully. "I just started my lunch break, but I had to check on Mike first. I do this for a lot of my patients."
It felt almost like an hour had passed, and she didn't think the woman would answer so easily, yet hesitantly.
"It's been a long time since I ever had anyone to talk to about this, but can you keep secrets?"
~o~
She hadn't had anyone to talk to, aside from Mike and Henry, for a long time. But she was gonna have to be careful with what she said and keep her voice down as much as possible to the girl across from her in the hospital garden. This beautiful location was within an enclosed compound, one of three around, the plants consisting mostly of succulents and trees, around a rose-stoned circular fountain atop smooth river rocks. They were near the middle of March, and then spring would be here. The temperatures were starting to become mild, which made it comfortable for both women.
Clara was extremely grateful that this hospital was her final choice. The residents of Beaver had every reason to be proud of it, too. In the county of its name, it was very empowering to know that it all started in the home, with no stores or settlers trained in the profession, unlike today's physicians. The jobs were generally the family's women; all they had were homemade concoctions, cloths, and splints, but because of what they now knew today, the past methods didn't always work, hence the growing need for trained professionals. Now look at Beaver Valley Hospital today: three medical bays within a single emergency room, two surgical suites, one location for outpatient services, and two birthing units. The CAT scans received not that long ago were upgrades from the previous software.
The professionals, for the most part, were very caring and compassionate, and Kaleia Kai was among them.
With her raven locks pulled up to the base of her skull into loose twists, some strands framing her face, and earlobes hung with pearl-dripped gold smartly created to look like paperclips, she was a very pretty young lady who looked innocent to the world, but if you looked deeper in her eyes, there was a weariness that showed the loss of that innocence because of the brief war not that long ago.
"I met my former husband back in college," Clara told her, though knew they had limited time for this lunch break. It would have to be another scheduled lunch outing or something. She genuinely liked this girl even if it had been for a short while now. "You already know the little bit I divulged in our first meeting, but I'll give you a little more. Will -" To even SAY his name sickened her even now, much less think and bring it all up from where it belonged. "- is the reason we are here now, yet he blamed Mikey for the aftermath. What I'm gonna share with you is extremely sensitive, and if this was entrusted to the wrong people, it would get out and hurt my son again." But that woman in custody... "Can I trust you since you've seen this much?"
Kaleia's eyes had widened a little, but she nodded without a word.
"Okay, here goes nothing, but I warn you that you'll wind up having more questions after this. Because what happened sticks with you no matter where you go."
~o~
Everything Clara said to her...everything that was...
It felt like a can of worms had been opened. Or should Kaleia say, reopened?
She was so tired when her shift ended in the evening, and she and Melinda were out of their hospital scrubs and in regular clothes for the rest of the evening. Melinda was in a fuzzy, comfy white sweater with puffy elbow sleeves centered with a navy blue heart, her favorite earrings with the trio of light green peridot, her birthstone, and the elastic gold bracelet with a single crystal. Kaleia opted for a kelly green sweater over her white blouse, and a brooch which was one of many that her grandma let her borrow from her collection: as if it jumped from the ocean and onto the beach, a dolphin of gold set with tiny diamonds on the body, head and snout, the underbelly placed with baguette aquamarines, and the tailfin cradling a pearl.
"Nothing but a relaxing drink at the end of the night," Melinda said with a laugh as they walked into the tavern and grill not far from their neighborhood. "Hey, Cal!" she shouted to their favorite old bartender who was like a dad to every one of his customers. "The usual!"
But despite nurturing her favorite Long Island Iced, Kaleia was immensely troubled with everything Clara told her, combined with the demons of her own past she hadn't thought of much since growing up. That man was far back in Hurricane, so no way he'd come here, right?
Detective Mark Phillips is named after the first husband of England's Princess Anne, whom she divorced after two decades and then shortly afterward married her current hubby. Appearance is based on Elliot Stabler of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. :)
The hospital Kaleia works at is the real-life Beaver Valley Hospital. I tried looking for pictures of its interior and grounds, but nothing much. Check out the article "County Hospitals Milestones Vol 24 No 1 Spring 1999" on the website bcpahistory . org.