Soulshine (17 page)

John Fleming left his hotel at eight o"clock in the morning. He was able to get some much needed rest after arriving in Ottawa late the previous evening. He had checked in under an assumed name to help absolve him of anything he may do while in Ottawa, and his objective was the murder of Evan Troy. He was not awake long after he crashed on the bed upon his arrival at the hotel. He awoke intermittently during the night, each time listening to the conflicting thoughts running through his head. His hatred for Evan would defeat his self-preserving need to keep above the law.

John entered Fletcher University Hospital and walked straight to the information desk. “May I help you?” asked the lady behind the desk.

Evan Troy in?”
“Just a minute, sir. Let me check the admissions list.” The
receptionist scanned the sheet a few times. “I"m sorry. There"s no
one by that name here.”
John was visibly agitated. “Are you certain? I was told
that he would be here.”
“I could check the list of names of patients scheduled to be
admitted and see if he is expected to be here today.”
“Supposedly, he was admitted yesterday,” said John as the
receptionist began checking the list of pending admissions. “Nobody with the name Troy is being admitted today
either.”
John wondered if it were possible that Evan died before he
was transported. “Was there a cancellation yesterday?” “Let me see… Yes, yes… Evan Troy was due to arrive here
yesterday and it was cancelledthe day before.”
“The day before? Obviously my wife didn"t know about
the change in plans. So tell me… I know that he was being
transported from another hospital. Could you tell me what hospital
he was being transported from? He may still be there.” “The list doesn"t say
how
the patient was due to arrive. Let
me see if I can get in contact with anyone who knows that answer.
It may take a little while.”
“Thank you. I"ll wait,” said John as he turned to take a
chair in the waiting area.

The sunlight poured through the window into Evan"s unit. Michelle, who was unable to sleep comfortably through the night, awoke easily. She looked at the clock and noticed that it was eight-thirty.
Oh, my. They’ll be coming for Evan soon.
She rose to go to Evan"s bed and found him just starting to open his eyes.

“Now that"s the best sight for me to look at first thi ng in the morning,” he said weakly.
“Hi, Evan,” said Michelle, trying her best to face the morning bravely and hopefully. “Today"s the day the other doctors will get you better. Are you excited?”
“I"m not as optimistic as you.”
“Evan… you
have
to be… for
me…
please?”
Evan looked soulfully into her eyes. “For you… and our child.”
Michelle froze as she was reminded of her pregnancy, which got lost in the urgency of Evan"s health. “You
will
get healed, Evan. You
will
.”
“With you by my side, I have a better chance. I want to kiss you.”
“Of course,” said Michelle as she leaned over the edge of the bed so they could kiss each other.
“Michelle… the doctor is coming in at nine, and the ambulance will be here shortly afterwards. I… need to talk to you.”
“Sure, Evan. What do you want to say to me?”
“Well… besides telling you a thousand times how much I love you… I do need to talk to you about my final preparations for you and our child… just in case.”

Evan and Kim exited the train together after it pulled into the Providence station. Kim was fascinated with Evan ever since he mentioned his work as a thespian. She found him to be ruggedly good-looking and was in no rush to go straight home.

“Well, so long, Kim. It was nice talking to you on the train. It made for a pleasant trip,” said Evan as he prepared to take a solitary stroll in the quaint old city. “I hope you have a wonderful family reunion.”

Kim had been in college for a couple of years and felt that there was no hurry to get home. She felt mature enough to get there in her own time and Evan"s charm was not something from which she wanted to part… yet. “Thanks, Evan, but I was wondering… the theater I mentioned to you is just up the street. Would you like to check it out? It would be cool to get an opinion of my hometown theater from a Broadway actor.”

Evan smiled. “I… wasn"t exactly on Broadwa y for a very long time… but I did do some work at the Royal Shakespeare Theater.”

“In London?”
“That would be the one,” musedEvan. “Is there another?” Kim felt like a silly schoolgirl with a crush. “I guess not,”

she giggled. “So it would be neat to get an expert opinion from an actor who has been all around the world doing his thing. What do you say? Would you like to see if anything"s playing?”

Evan so wanted to be alone with his thoughts. He did not like the way he had to leave New York, but he somehow saw Providence as yet another new beginning, which always excited him to some extent. Kim seemed to be nineteen or twenty, pleasant enough but rather childish. Evan sensed the attraction on her part, a testament to his youthful appearance. He wondered if Kim was hoping for something that he was not prepared or inspired to get involved in. Still, he felt it to be a relaxing proposition to be a patron in a theater for once, and maybe he could possibly determine if the small company had a chance at becomingpart of his near future. He looked at Kim"s hopeful face and said, “Sure, Kim. Lead the way. I would love to see this little playhouse.”

“I think that one is definitely you,” said Evan with a grin from ear to ear.
Michelle couldn"t believe what she was looking at. “A car… for me?”
“Why not? You got your license, didn"t you?”
“Yeah, but…”
Evan tilted his head without losing the grin. “But… what?”
“I… I just expected us to be world travelers. A car seems like it would just get in the way.”
“Ah, yes. I did mention something about going to Europe, not to mention taking a boat across the Mediterranean to Greece, didn"t I?”
Michelle nodded. “I know that I was unsure about traveling out of the country at first, but I kind have been dreaming about doing it lately.”
Evan got somber. “I"ve been thinking a lot about it, too, sweetheart. It"s funny. My situation has been so liberating, yet so restrictive.”
“What do you mean?”
“Michelle… I"ve been to many parts of the world, as you know. At first it wasn"t very difficult. Methods to track citizenship were crude in the beginning. As they became more stringent, I became quite adept in my ability to stowaway aboard ships in order to go from country to country, and sometimes from continent to continent. I… just feel that it could be difficult for you to be a stowaway, and that"s the only way we could travel around the world. I came to America over a century ago. Customs has changed quite a bit since then. I don"t think stowing away would be as easy for me even if I were alone.” Evan looked at the disappointment in Michelle"s eyes. “So you were looking forward to it, were you?”
“Yes, I was… but I understand.”
“I"ll tell you what. You"re legal… for now. I"ll look into finding out how I can get some good counterfeit passports, now that I"ll be keeping my current name forever.”
“That sounds dangerous, Evan. What if you end up in jail?”
“Don"t worry. I would have to feel very good about pulling it off before I ever did anything that could compromise our life together. We"ll work on it. In the meantime, we can always spend some winters in Hawaii and the rest of the time stateside. So we may as well have our own set of wheels. If I could get a driving license, I would, but since I cannot… I trust you will do a great job.”
Michelle beamed. “I
do
like the car.” It was rather sporty, but not ostentatious.
“It didn"t matter if you did
not
like it,” said Evan. “You can have any car here you want… but I"m glad you like the one I picked out for you.”
Michelle got on her toes and threw her arms around Evan"s neck.“Have I mentioned how happy I am to be in love with you?”
“You have! It"s what keeps me motivated. In case you haven"t noticed, I think
you’re
pretty special too.”
Michelle excitedly looked the car over. “So this is a Chevy?”
“Yes… a 1967 Camaro Rally Sport. A European car would have been cool, but I think you"ll find this fun as you take us where we need to go.”
“I love it.”
“Good… then let"s pay for it and hit the road. Oh… and happy birthday!”

“Excuse me, sir. I have information regarding Evan Troy.” John was deep in thought on a chair in the waiting area, but quickly came to attention upon hearing Evan"s name. “You do? What is it?” John looked up and saw a man in a suit.

“My name is Stuart Williams. I"m the hospita l administrator. The receptionist told me that you were inquiring about a patient that is being admitted here tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? I had heard that he was being admitted yesterday!”
“That was the original plan, but the facility that has been treating him wanted a couple more days to see if they might have any success.”
“Did they?”
“I imagine they have not… yet, anyway. Otherwise, I most likely would have heard from their administrator.”
“Oh, good… that I didn"t miss him, I mean.”
“Mr…?”
“Uh… Johnson.”
“Mr. Johnson, the reason that Mr. Troy is being moved to this facility is because he is in grave danger. We cannot allow visitors as the patient needs around-the-clock intensive care. Are you immediate family?”
“I"m… his only surviving blood relative… his uncle.”

“Evan, how are we feeling this morning?” said Dr. DiLaurio as he entered the intensive care unit.
Evan"s deep concentration on Michelle was broken as he turned to see his doctor. “Well, I don"t know about
we
, but
I’m
not exactly doing well. I have a lot of pain and it got a lot worse overnight,” he said weakly.
“Hang in there and keep fighting, Evan.” Frank thought about how much Evan and Michelle had touched the lives of the hospital staff. It was particularly interesting how they were all on a first name basis after only five days.
When they first arrived, we thought about calling the authorities. Now we’re all praying for both of them
, he thought. “I came to check on you one more time and let you know that the ambulatory services vehicle has arrived to transport you over to Fletcher.”
“Evan,” said Michelle. “You were talking about… final preparations. That scares me. What did you want to tell me, exactly?”
Evan looked at Frank as he checked his blood pressure and listened to his heart. “Um… doctor…”
“Please… call me Frank.”
“Frank… could Michelle and I have a moment alone?”
“Sure… I"m just about finished. Uh… Evan?”
“Yes?”
Frank sighed lightly. “Yours is a grave situation. I need to let you know that this past night has produced your greatest degradation in health since the accident. If you…
have
made some final preparations… I agree that it is best that you share it with your… wife… as soon as you can.”
Michelle could only stare at the wall behind the bed and cry. “I"m sorry,” said Frank. “I just do not want to make light of a serious situationjust to give either of you false hope.”
Michelle caught enough breath to utter, “I understand. Thank you for everything, doctor.”
“Please… call meFrank.”
“Thank you… Frank.”
“Well… I"ll leave you two alone for just a couple of minutes, and then we need to make haste to hopefully get you some better treatment. It"s your only chance. I"ll check downstairs to make sure we"re good to go.”
Evan and Michelle watched Frank leave the room, and then Michelle put her head on Evan"s chest. She wanted badly just to listen to his heartbeat, for any moment could be his last. Evan put his hand on her head and felt the warmth of her hair, wet with sweat from crying and worrying. He loved the scent of her hair.
“There"s not much time to talk, my love. I need to make this quick.” Evan paused to formulate his words. His condition was making it more and more difficult to even carry a conversation. “Back in Riverside… before we left for good… I hid something away in a post officebox.”
Michelle didn"t want to raise her head from his chest, so she didn"t. “What… what is it?”
“It may be nothing,” replied Evan. “But it could be everything… for you. When I poured the rest of the elixir from my small container into your ice cream soda, there remained a residue. Now it"s not much… and it may not be enough to produce any kind of effect on anyone else… but I figured that if anything ever happened to me, you would most likely return to Riverside… and I didn"t want you to ever have to roam the earth alone as I did for countless centuries… so I wanted to leave that tiny amount with you… as a small hope that maybe you can share it with someone you find to love… and want to spend many, many years with.”
“Evan, don"t say that!”
“You need to face reality, Michelle. Our time together may be ending. You"re such a beautiful jewel. Don"t spend forever all alone… please? I"d rather die knowing that you have a chance for eternal companionship.”
Michelle could hardly take it all in. “No… I don"t think I could ever use that elixir. Look how it might end up for us? We have more to lose than anyone else in the whole world. That"s what makes it so devastating. If you die… I don"t think I would want to live.”
“No! Don"t say that. This was a freak accident. It doesn"t mean that your nextrelationship will end like ours.”
“It"s
not
going to end,” said Michelle angrily. “
You
are going to get well… as soon as you get to Fletcher University Hospital.”
Evan touched her chin and kissed her softly on the lips. “You just keep having that faith… but
please
realize that life is worth living if I happen to go… and I have given
you
the legal right to open that safe deposit box.”
Brenda Croshere entered the room with the paramedics as they rolled the gurney into the unit. “It"s time to go. Best of luck to you. The staff at Fletcher is excellent.” Then she turned to Michelle. “Are you going to the hospital with him, or will you be taking your own transportation?”
“Oh, my,” said Michelle. “I didn"t even think about that. My car was towed. It…” She started to cry as she remembered being surprised on her twentieth birthday with the 1967 Camaro RS back in San Diego almost ten years ago. Brenda gave her a hug. “I
do
need a ride… thank you.”
“That"s fine, honey. We"ll escort you down to the emergency doors where the ambulance is parked,” said Brenda as Evan was wheeled out of the unit and Auntie Blue entered the room.
“I"ll be glad to show her the way, Brenda,” said Auntie Blue.
“Oh, thank you, Auntie Blue. You"re such a doll,” said Brenda. “There you go, honey. Just follow Auntie Blue. She"ll get you where you need to go so you can be with your husband.”
“Yes, honey. You just come with me,” said Auntie Blue as she held out her arm to comfort Michelle.
“Please,” said Michelle as they went into the elevator. “I"m not a child. Call me Michelle.”