Being Emma (9 page)

The woman’s legs were twisted – It looked
like she had fallen after making the call. Her phone was on the
floor and luckily she had fallen onto the bed. She tapped her on
the shoulder. No response. Janie straightened her legs and then did
a preliminary check of her airway and pulse. No pulse. No air
coming from her airway… She pushed firmly downwards in the middle
of the woman’s chest and then released it. Janie’s training had
taught them that chest compressions would keep the blood pumping
around the body and help keep the vital organs alive until help
came.

After thirty chest compressions, Janie began
CPR. She tilted the woman’s head back and gently lifted her chin
forward to open the airway. She began mouth-to-mouth breathing.
Within a few minutes, the woman began to stir and Janie stopped the
procedure. The woman coughed and sputtered as she began to breathe
on her own. Then she leaned over and threw up on the floor. It was
plain to see all the partially digested pills that came out of her.
Quite often a tube would have to be inserted, but not this time.
This wasn’t anything Janie hadn’t seen before and she merely sat
with the woman until she emptied her stomach. Then she collapsed
back on the bed in time for the paramedics to rush in the door.

They loaded her into the ambulance and Janie
followed along to make sure she was all right. Later she would head
to the office and write her report.

Dave thanked her for coming so promptly and
went about his business. He had to call for a cleanup crew to go
into the woman’s apartment. Actually, it wasn’t mandatory, but Dave
was a nice apartment manager and wanted her to come home to a clean
place. Nice of him…

At the hospital, Janie checked her in and
talked to the attending physician. He told her that the woman would
be fine and a social worker would be coming up to see her soon. The
doctor was a friend of Craig’s, so Janie, of course, knew him.
After completing their business and signing the appropriate forms,
he smiled at her.

“How you been, Janie? How’s Craig?”

“Um… Fine, Scott… Craig’s good, I guess.” He
looked at her curiously.

“… You guess? … I thought you two were
getting ready for the big archery competition. Vegas, right? Sounds
like hard work and fun all wrapped up together.”

“Yeah… Getting ready… How’s Kathy?” Scott
thought that was a strange answer and wondered.

“She’s great. We just got engaged and are
planning a spring wedding. I’ll make sure you and Craig get an
invite.” She smiled weakly at him.

“Thanks. Well… must get back. Duty calls.
Bye.”

“See ya, Janie.” He knit his brows at her
comments. Then he shrugged it off and went into one of attending
rooms to see a patient.

Instead of leaving the hospital, Janie
checked to see which room the woman was in. She walked purposefully
down the hallway, nodding to some nurses and doctors en route. They
knew her well, as a deputy sheriff and local member of the town.
She found the room she was looking for, knocked on the doorframe
and entered. The woman she had brought in was conscious and smiled
at her. She was partially sitting up and drinking some water.

“Hi…”

“Hi there. How are you feeling?” Janie smiled
at her. She stood at the end of the bed.

“I’m good… Thanks to you, right?” Janie
nodded. “Please, have a seat.”

Janie sat in a chair by her hospital bed. She
held out her hand.

“I’m Deputy Johnson, Naples Sheriff’s
Department.” The woman took it.

“Sharon Anderson. I work in the restaurant at
the Hot Springs Resort.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“You too. Sorry about the circumstances.”

“No problem. Just glad to see you’re still
with us.” Sharon frowned and looked at her hands in her lap. She
sat that way for a few minutes.

“… Would you prefer that I go?”

“No… it’s just that I’m so embarrassed. You
being a woman and all…”

She looked upset and teary. Janie handed her
a tissue.

“Don’t be. We all have down days… Yours
apparently got away from you.”

“I’ll say… Could I tell you something?” She
wiped her tears and composed herself. Janie looked at her – They
were about the same age.

“Sure.”

“No, I mean… Do you have to rush back to the
station or something?”

“I’m good. Don’t worry about it.”

“Okay. Here’s my pathetic little story. I
moved here last year from Reno trying to get away from a man I
thought was a good friend.” She paused.

“You were trying to get away from a good
friend?”

“I know this sounds stupid, but we had been
friends all our lives. Our families were close and we did
everything together. We weren’t lovers, but I didn’t think that
mattered. I thought that might come in time. Somehow, in the back
corners of my mind, I thought we’d even get married someday.”
Sharon reached for another tissue and wiped fresh tears. This was
beginning to sound too close to home for Janie.

“What happened?” She really wanted to hear
the rest of this story.

“I guess he got tired of waiting for me. My
family and I went on a week’s vacation in Utah and when I came
back, he was dating some woman.”

“He was seeing a new woman who just came to
town?”

“Yes…”

“Did you meet them out at dinner?”

“Yes…”

“How did you feel when you saw them
together?” Sharon let out a deep breath.

“… God, I couldn’t breathe. It was like I had
the wind knocked out of me. I just stared at him, realized finally
that I loved him and had never told him so.”

Janie blinked. That was Craig’s exact
reaction when he had seen her with Mike at the Naples Bar and
Restaurant.

“Um…”

“And then it was too late.”

“Why was it too late? It’s never too
late…”

“This time it was. Apparently, it was a
whirlwind romance. They were married today.”

“Oh, how horrible for you…” Sharon
nodded.

“I couldn’t go to the wedding and the more I
thought about it, the worse I felt. Just moving out of town didn’t
move him out of my heart, so I tried sleeping pills.” She gave a
small laugh. “But then I chickened out and called 911.”

Janie,
the big strong deputy sheriff, had tears in her eyes and they
weren’t all for Sharon.
What was she doing herself?
What was she doing with Mike?

This woman sitting in front of her just
described her relationship with Craig. She now knew how Craig was
probably feeling about her. Janie felt like she had the wind
knocked out of her as well.

“Deputy? Are you all right? Do you need to
throw up? …”

Janie laughed. “That’s a good one, Sharon.
Listen, thanks for telling me your story and I’m happy that you are
on the mend.” She fished a business card out of her pocket. “Here…
My roommate and I live in the same complex. Call me sometime when
you’re feeling better and we’ll introduce you around a bit.”

“Really?” Sharon’s smile made Janie feel
better.

“Absolutely. Please call me. We’d love to
hear from you.”

“Thanks, Deputy.”

“Janie, please.”

“Bye now.”

Janie left the hospital and got back in her
car. She let out a huge breath she’d been holding. Driving back to
the Sheriff’s Office to write her report, she was really confused.
She mulled over what Sharon had said. Was Craig really hurt over
her dating Mike? Didn’t he just want to be friends? After work
today, Janie was going to cook dinner for her roommate. She needed
to have a good talk with her best friend. It was time…

* * *

Mandy and Jeanne had been on the phone
together for a while now. They were both struggling and becoming
frustrated. Jeanne always compared every problem or event in the
family to some movie. Her family was used to it…

“I can’t even think of what movie this would
be, Mandy… That’s how frustrating this is.” Mandy laughed.

“
Jeanne…
I can’t believe that you, the movie diva, can’t compare their
relationship to a movie. How about…” She thought a minute. “How
about
‘When
Harry Met Sally’?”

Jeanne brightened. “Hey… Not bad. I like it.
Long time relationship between protagonists… They fight… makeup…
fight some more… get involved with other people… and eventually
realize they’re in love with each other. Great!”

“Great except for the Happily Ever After
ending.”

“Right… major point actually.”

“… But Jeanne, are there any clues in that
movie that will help us now?” Jeanne’s smile faded.

“… None that come to mind.”

“So… we’re on our own here?”

“Looks that way…”

“Have you spoken to Lily?”

“Of course. She’s completely spooked over
Janie dating Mike Church. She’s met him and thinks he’s nice
enough, but she and Sandy are sick about Craig. He hasn’t even gone
over for dinner since he’s been back, and they’ve invited him a few
times.”

“I wonder why not. He’s been over here with
us…”

“Maybe he doesn’t want to run into Janie. Or
maybe he just doesn’t want to see the looks of pity on their faces.
I don’t know.” Jeanne sighed.

“So where does that leave us, Jeanne? Out in
the cold?”

“I think so… At least until Janie makes some
kind of move, one way or the other… Everyone seems to be holding
their breaths waiting to see what she’s going to do.”

“That’s pretty accurate, I’d say.” She
thought of something.

“You know, we haven’t seen much of her in the
last few weeks.”

“Well, she knows Colt and Craig are best
friends. Maybe she doesn’t want to talk to Colt either.”

“Boy, there’s too little fact here. Has
anyone spoken to her?”

“Lily tried last week, when Craig was back.
She said Janie wouldn’t talk about Craig at all to her, but did
speak about Mike… What a great guy he was…”

“Huh…”

“She got the feeling that Janie’s just having
a fling or something. It didn’t sound serious to her.” Mandy felt
relieved.

“…Well, that’s good to hear. Maybe Mike is
just a passing fancy. His work is about done, isn’t it?”

“Oh, my, yes. The well was completed a few
days ago. I think Mike’s still around because of Janie now. Lily
thinks he’s waiting for a new job to come up.”

“So he’ll move on, you think?”

Jeanne blew out a breath. “Let’s hope so…
Actually… I take that back.” She narrowed her eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe Mike is giving Craig the kick in the
pants he’s needed to make a move… You know, tell Janie how he
really feels about her.”

“He was here for dinner the other night,
Jeanne, and admitted to us that he was in love with her.”

“Really? Okay, that’s one down. Now Janie
needs a kick in the pants to realize how she feels about Craig. I
wonder who’s going to give it to her?”

“Got me…”

“I gotta go, Mandy. Thanks for calling for
the heart-to-heart. It’s good to talk it out.”

“
Yeah,
it’s good that
we’ve
talked it
out. How about
them?”
Mandy
laughed.

“… The question of the year, my dear…”

CHAPTER TEN

Dinner that night with Diane was good. They
were friends again and Janie was happy about that. She promised not
to interfere in Diane’s love life again and would be there to
support her future decisions. And Janie meant it – No more being
Emma for her…

Janie had made stir-fry and they were sitting
on the floor with their backs against the sofa, eating with
chopsticks. She was better at eating with chopsticks than Diane
was. After a few minutes and more vegetables falling back into her
bowl than her mouth, Diane began to spear the food instead of
delicately picking it up. Janie laughed at her.

“No… No… This is how you use chopsticks.”
Janie modeled how to put the sticks between her fingers for maximum
plucking power. Diane managed a bite, but then laughed and got up
to get a fork.

“You give up too easily…”

“Ha. I just know when I’m licked here.”

“Grab the wine, would you?”

“What? A second glass for the infamous Deputy
Sheriff who never drinks more than one glass of anything?” She
pretended to be shocked.

“Yeah… I’m in for the night…”

Diane picked up the bottle of wine and
brought it back into the living room with her – and a fork. She
poured Janie a glass and glanced over at her.

“So… what’s up with you and Mike?”

“We’re just having fun, that’s all.”

“What kind of fun?”

“… Well, we’ve been to the movies, a few
restaurants, riding horses at the ranch… He’s not a bad horseman,
actually. One of his many talents… And I’ve invited him to that
dance in Gardnerville Saturday night.” She laughed and picked up
some more stir-fry.

“Isn’t the well finished?”

“Yes… He won’t be around forever. I know he’s
waiting for another job to come along and he’ll probably be off.”
Diane ate her forkful of vegetables and thought about that.

“It’s not serious then… between you two?”
Janie laughed.

“Oh, Heavens, no. He’s not looking for Miss
Right. He’s looking for Miss Right Now.” They both laughed and ate
another bite. Diane swallowed and looked over at her.

“Have you slept with him?” Janie looked up.
She blushed.

“No.”

“Really? What red-blooded American male
wouldn’t want to sleep with you?”

“Oh, he wants to.”

“But you don’t?”

Janie shrugged her shoulders. “… He’s
attractive enough but…” She blushed again.

“What? You’ve really got me curious now.”

“I know this sounds strange – especially from
me – but I’m holding out for love.” She looked sharply at her. “No
jokes… That took a lot for me to admit.”