Up in Smoke (12 page)

As we all were working together to dissemble the stage as the final step before being able to leave the park, my phone suddenly rang. “Here,” I said to Kane’s nephew, motioning for him to come over and grab the metal rod I was holding up.

He grabbed onto it as I pulled my phone out of my pocket and walked away. It wasn’t a number I recognized.

“Hello?”

“Mr. Aderman?” a woman’s voice said on the other end.

“
Alder
man. Yes, it’s me. Who is this?” My steps took me aimlessly across the grass.

“This is a nurse from Deaconess Hospital. Your wife was brought in about an hour ago—”

Sticking my neck out slightly, I shouted, “What? Are you kidding me right now? Is she okay?”

“She’s doing great, considering what happened.”

Cole tried to call out to me from over at the stage, but I wasn’t paying attention. I walked further away.

“What happened?” I shouted into the phone as I squeezed the phone tightly in my hand.

“She ran a red light and was hit in the driver’s side by a truck.” My insides felt like they were in a furnace at the words.

Susan
, I thought to myself.
Be okay
.

“She’s been there for an hour already? Why didn’t anyone call me?” I snapped at the nurse as I paced the grass in circles.

“Sir, she’s okay. Mostly just scrapes and bruises. Can you please come down? She is asking for you, and she will need a ride home.”

“Yeah. I’m already on my way,” I said, hanging up the phone as I jogged over to Cole.

Cole walked up to me as I approached him. “What’s going on?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Susan was in a wreck. I need to go see her.”

“Take my car,” Cole said, pulling out his keys and handing them to me.

“Y’all will be okay getting home?” I asked, looking over at the other guys.

“Yeah,” Cole replied. “Between Kane’s girlfriend and Micah’s wife, we should have plenty of seats. Don’t worry about us. Go see your wife.”

“Thanks,” I replied. Turning, I jogged over to the street where his car was parked.

“Rick!” Cole shouted as he walked through the grass to get in earshot of me.

Turning before getting into the car, I looked at him.

“Give it to God,” he said.

My lips pursed. Cole didn’t get it. He had no idea how screwed up my life was in that moment.

Putting the car in reverse, I punched the gas and flew backward out of the parking spot. I braked hard, threw the SUV in drive and floored it, heading to the hospital to see Susan.

T
he emergency room at Deaconess was packed. It looked like an outbreak of a virus must have hit Spokane, judging by the sea of people that were stuffed into the waiting room. I made my way to the line that led up to the front desk to get checked in. I didn’t see anyone else available that could let me into the back. With every second that ticked by, my patience grew thinner and thinner.

After a while, maybe ten or so minutes, I leaned onto one foot and looked up the line toward the desk.

“I just need to get into the back to see my wife.”

“We all have needs, dude. You ain’t special!” Some punk kid lashed out at me over his bulky shoulder.

“Excuse me?” I said, stepping out of line and walking up to him. He didn’t acknowledge me. I tapped his shoulder.

He turned and looked at me. “What do you want?”

“I want you to repeat what you said to me.” My fist was already clenched and ready to pummel the guy.

He glanced at my fist and then at me. “
I said
, ‘we all have needs and you aren’t special.’ ”

I cocked my arm and fist to swing, and someone from behind me grabbed my hand. Twisting around, about to clock the little punk, I saw it was Ron.

I shook my head and said, “Thought you were an old man and didn’t have any strength left!”

“Thought you were an adult and had common sense!” He grabbed my shoulder and pulled me away from the line.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, looking at him. “Don’t you have some food to cook?”

“You better knock it off, Rick! You’re not a kid anymore!” He patted my side where the gun was. “You’re packing heat that isn’t registered to you and about to swing at a complete stranger in hospital, you moron! I gave you that gun to protect yourself, not to get caught with it in act of stupidity!”

My eyes went to the floor.

He put his hand on my shoulder.

“Look . . . I know that guy is screwing with you, Rick. And when I saw on the news what happened at your rally, I knew something wasn’t right. Then, I called Cole up and found out about Susan. The nurse I spoke to on the phone at Deaconess said Susan is okay . . . you know that?”

“Yeah. How’d you find out about her?” I asked.

“I said I was family.”

“Susan might be okay, but I’m not! I need to get back there to her, Ron!”

“You need to calm down. Take a breather,” Ron said, patting my shoulder.

Ron led me up to the front of the line, past all the other people. Leaning over the counter, he asked, “Could you just open the doors? We are here to see someone.”

“Sure,” the woman from behind the desk replied. She reached over and hit a button on the wall that opened the doors for us.

“Thanks,” Ron said. Turning to me, he said, “See? You just calm down . . . you can use your noggin.”

Walking with Ron through the double doors that opened, we found our way to a nurses’ station.

“Name, please,” the lady at the station said without looking up at us.

Leaning on the counter, I said, “Susan. Susan Alderman.”

She typed for a few moments and said, “Room 17.” She stood up and pointed down the hall. “Just go down to the end of the hall and hang a left; it’ll be the first room on your right.” She sat back down.

“Thank you,” I said.

She nodded, but she said nothing in response and went back to typing away on the keyboard.

Coming to Susan’s door, Ron stopped me and said, “You go ahead in there. Just give me your jacket . . . so you’re not walking around with my gun.”

I took off the jacket and handed it to him. As I did, I said, “I’m sorry, Ron. I should have known that about the ER doors being opened easily like that. I should have just asked them to open them so I could come see her.”

“It’s okay. You’re stressed and freaking out. We have a hard time thinking clearly during moments like this.”

Nodding my head, I smiled at him and said, “Thanks for showing up like you did. You’re a good man and a solid friend.”

“Don’t get all mushy on me.” Ron laughed. He patted my shoulder and winked at me. “I just didn’t want my gun to show up in a criminal case of a husband gone mad.”

I laughed.

“Take care, Rick. Keep a level head between those shoulders.”

Smiling as I pushed open the door to Susan’s room, I saw her lying there, and reality came back to me in an instant.

My wife was in a car wreck.

She was hurt.

Frozen in place, I thought about all the things that could’ve happened. She could’ve been seriously hurt—she could’ve died. And I wasn’t there to protect her, in fact, I was lying to her left and right, endangering her, and hurting her in my own way.

Rushing across the smooth hospital floor, I came to her bedside and grabbed her hand. Her eyes were shut.

“Susan!” I shook her hand. “Can you hear me?”

Her eyes blinked open. “Of course I can hear you. I was just sleeping. I don’t even have an I.V. in my arm, Rick.” She raised her arm up.

Looking her over, I saw that she wasn’t even in a gown, just under a cover.

“I got cold,” she said, seeing that I was looking at the blanket.

“Oh. Are you still cold? Do you need another blanket?”

“No, this is fine.”

“I see. I hate to ask, but what happened, Susan? You’re one of the best drivers I know. How did this happen?” I asked, sitting down on the edge of bed.

“I couldn’t stop the car. I hit the brakes at the light, and the pedal just went straight to the floor of the car.”

“You didn’t notice on the way out of the parking lot?”

“I didn’t have to use the brakes. There weren’t any cars coming when I pulled out.”

“What about on the way to the park? There had to be some indication?” I asked, confused.

“No, Rick, they were fine.” Looking away from her, I looked at the floor as I thought about it. Then I remembered that Susan got out of the car for a few minutes. Shaking my head, I thought about Robert. He had to have been there, lurking off in the distance behind a tree or something. It sounded crazy even to me, but it had to be him. He must have been nearby and cut the brake lines. Susan sat up and put her hand on my arm.

“What are you thinking about, Rick?” she asked. “You look like you’re debating something.”

Looking her in the eyes, I couldn’t tell her another lie. I cupped my face and couldn’t hold back the tears.
This is going to break her heart, but I can’t keep lying to her. This is getting out of control.

“What’s going on?” she demanded. “You’re freaking me out!”

Shaking my head as I wiped my tears, I said, “It’s bad. It’s really bad, Susan.”

“What do you mean? The doctors said I’ll be fine.” She leaned forward and looked out the door. “Were they lying to me? That doctor rubbed me the wrong way. I’m an adult and I should be treated as one, it was the car’s fault, not mine! You’d think I was crazy with the way they’ve acted toward me here.”

I raised my hand, and she stopped. “No, Susan. It’s not that.”

“Then what, Rick?”

Turning to face her on the bed, I scooped up her hands from the blanket and held them in my lap. Fighting back tears, I looked her in the eyes.

“C’mon Rick, what is it?” she said, urging me on.

I took in a deep breath and let it escape my nose as I focused on her.
This is it. There aren’t any other options left for me. My wife has been hurt, I have to tell her.

My phone rang.

It was Cole.

Looking at her, I just couldn’t tell her. This was a perfect opportunity to spill the truth about it all, and I couldn’t. Using the phone call as a needed excuse, I stood up and walked away from Susan’s bed.

“Rick . . .” she said from the bed.

“Hold on,” I said to her. “It’s Cole.”

“What’s going on, Taylor?”

“We got back to the station and found a North Bend Casino poker chip sitting on your car. Does that mean anything to you?”

The kid. I have to stop this…

Any remaining doubts of him being the one behind this vanished in an instant. “Don’t worry about it,” I replied in a false state of calm. “I’ll swing by the station here in a few and get your car back to you. I’ll talk to you later.”

I now knew where he was. He was at the casino. He was trying to draw me there, and it was going to work.

“I gotta go, honey,” I said coming back over to her bed. Leaning in, I kissed her cheek. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Rick. What were you going to say? And you can’t leave; they’re releasing me within the next few minutes. I need you to take me home, they said. I don’t have the car here, it’s sitting over in a grocery store parking lot, plus they said I shouldn’t drive on the medications they gave me anyway.” She grabbed onto my hands. Her eyes were begging, pleading for me to just stay with her.

Anxiety began to rise in me. I had to get out there to the casino. I had to go find Robert, see him and get this fixed before he goes away into the shadows to torture me and the people I care about more.

“Honey. You just have to trust me.” Thinking back to how upset she was about that one little poker night and not knowing anything, I feared the worst as the next few words came off my lips. “Call a cab, I’ll see you later.”

“Rick!” she shouted as I released myself from her hold and headed for the door. Her broken voice in that moment echoed in my head as I made my way to the door of her room.

I stopped at the doorway and looked back at my sweet and broken Susan as she had tears streaming down her cheeks, and her sadness about killed me. I could feel the sting of her disappointment, but I had to stop the kid.

Leaving the hospital, I swung by the fire station and dropped off Cole’s car to him. I promptly got into my car and began driving north to the casino.

Getting to the poker tables, I scoped out the place. My heart was pounding as my eyes went from table to table, searching for the kid.

He was nowhere.

My jaw clenched.

“Where are you?” I said under my breath.

Walking farther into the poker area, I saw Joe. I saw that his table was on break, so I approached him and tapped his shoulder.

“Blaze,” he said, reaching up with a hand to shake mine. We shook. “Haven’t seen you around in a while,” he said with softness in his tone.

“I know . . . some stuff came up. Hey, you remember that kid I played with the last time I was here?”

“Yep. He plays here all the time.”

“I’m looking for him.”

“He was here about an hour ago. You just missed him,” Joe said.

Standing up, I scanned the room again. He wasn’t at any of the tables. I still couldn’t see him anywhere.

“What’s going on?” Joe asked.

Patting his shoulder, I said, “Too complicated to discuss. Take care. And thanks, Joe.” Walking past Joe, I headed out the back exit of the casino and stood near the curb.

“Where are you?” I said, dropping down to sit on the curb.

Click.

The sound of a gun from behind me froze me in place. Feeling its presence right behind me, I stood up and raised my hands in the air. I began to turn, but the gun’s tip pushed into my back.

“Don’t move,” someone said, stepping closer and jabbing the gun into my back. “And put your hands down, this isn’t a movie.”

It was Robert.

“What do you want? Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you. Just stop torturing me and ruining my life!”

He laughed. “I guess you’re one of those people that just needs a little motivation to get moving in the right direction, eh?”

I remained silent.
How did I let it come to this?

He grabbed my shoulder and shoved the gun into my back again. “We’re going on a little trip to see Lincoln. Remember him? He’s not going to come across quite as nice this time, though. He’s a little upset with you.”

“Why? Because you lied to me about the stupid buy-in? I thought you took care of it.”