~*Chapter 4*~
~*2 More Days Later*~
It was 6AM when Dr. Learner arrived at the hospital. Holding a large silver travel mug of coffee, he voyaged up the elevator, yawning all the way to floor 6 where his office was located. Walking down the dimly lit hallway, he passed by room 712 and saw a light on. He stopped suddenly and peeked in, watching a walking dead Phoenix kneeling next to his bd, leaning onto the light mattress, reading a Steven King book to Ethan, her left hand massaging his as she read with great intonation and life. Dr. Learner also noticed the growing masses of flowers in vases stacked on any available space day after day. The wreath hanging on the left wall of roses of every color was from Sid, Nick, Barry, and Kory (his bandmates). Friends from the music business sent or hand-delivered vases and vases of carnations and other perennials and several rock gardens, distant family sent in “Get-Well bouqettes,” and the assailant left daffodils and baby’s breath at the front counter. Coward, Phoenix though bitterly. She glanced up at saw Dr. Learner there and gave him a little pixie smile. “He loves Steven King,” Phoenix told him, turning to the back cover and reading the summary of Firestarter to herself. “I’m saving his favorite, It, for last.”
Dr. Learner leaned against the door and grinned in thought. “Who’s better to him than you?”
“Nobody,” she quickly answered, dropping her head to her chest, rubbing his fingers with hers. Phoenix really wanted his parents to be alive. Ben and Alice Barker would know what he was going through, maybe how to ease his pain. Deep in the molds of her troubled mind, Phoenix knew how to make him feel better. He’s been in a coma for 5 days.
“I think you should go home, Phoenix,” Dr. Learner told her suddenly, entering the room and taking leave on the gray chair, making an arch with his hands on the lap of his twill gray pants. “You’re completely wiped out. You looked better when you first got here!”
“He needs me, Doctor!” Phoenix protested passionately, gazing worriedly at his motionless face, gingerly running her thumb across his paled lips.
“He needs you to be strong for him,” Dr. Learner corrected her, clasping his hands together, wrinkling his nose as his glasses began to slide down. “He can’t have you getting sick on him.”
“I need to be with him, Dr.,” Phoenix pressed on, a tear cascading down the slope of her cheek.
“He knows you’re with him, Phoenix,” Dr. Learner responded, patting her genially on the shoulder, “What will a day do? He’s not going anywhere. Go home and see to Madison for a little while.”
She paused, inhaling and exhaling a deep sigh as she reached down for her green backpack and her silver flip phone to call a cab. “You’re right, Doctor,” Phoenix reluctantly agreed, slowly taking her charm bracelet out of his left hand as if it would make the difference between life and death, “I need to see the sun again.” She captured one last picture of the ailing Ethan in her mind, blew him a kiss, and exited the room.
~*~
With a swift turn of the key, she bumbled into her and Madison’s 2-bedroom apartment, early morning light trying to push through their sheer leopard-print drapes in their living room. She walked straight onto bashe carpet and dropped her backpack on one of their 2ndhand black Leather couches. Running her hands through her knotty, long hair, she slowly paced to her right to Madison’s room. She knocked, then entered, and found her bed made with her star comforter and purple sheets. Phoenix glanced around the room, then realizing that Madison goes for morning walks every morning, then heads to class at the Maryland College Institute of the Arts, depending on the time. Phoenix was not a morning person.
She paced around the apartment as if lost in a dream. The paintings of flowers from artistic friends in the living room, the 24’ TV, the oak kitchen to the left of the front door, complete with cabinets, oven, microwave, and black fridge, the oak dining area to the right of the front door, her bedroom door tacked up with inspirational quotes from magazines and authors on the left, her zebra-print throw rug, her rainbow sheets and comforter on her bed to the right, her stereo on her shelf on the opposite wall, her cherry-wood dresser, it all seemed like it wasn’t real. Nothing was real.
Phoenix couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t brush her hair or take a shower. She just plopped on the couch to think. She must have been sitting there like a statue for hours. It made her feel selfish, that she could do all those things without thinking while her boyfriend fought for his life. It made her appreciate all she had. But, still, without Ethan, his warm smile, his dimples, his strong, big hands, the crinkles on his forehead when he was concerned, she was nothing, not human, not alive.
She enjoyed her life, loved Madison, her parents, her friends. But they don’t give her the kind of love she needs, the innocent cuddling in the middle of the night, the short, sweet kisses when she has a bad day, the long, pulsating nights of passion under the stars. She felt that without love, there was no life.
Phoenix shook her head vigerously, her hair flying everywhere. The more she thinks, the more she’ll go mad. She jumped to her feet, kicked off her black Volatile sneakers, and made her way to her bedroom, grabbing her rainbow comforter and Gary the Snail doll Ethan gave her for her birthday in August and yanking them off her bed. She popped in a video, ‘Toy Story’, one of her favorite Disney movies and collapsed on the couch. Sleep took over her before the opening credits were over…
~*~
Madison, with a bit of trouble, wheeled into the apartment, the door closing softly behind her. She carried the mail in the lap of her gray Tilt flare pants as she placed her pink JanSport backpack on one of the oak dining room chairs. She noticed the blue screen on the TV screen, then looked down to a knocked-out Phoenix, her hair limply laying over the couch arm, Gary’s eyes popped above the couch’s horizon like a watchdog’s.
Madison smiled, glad to see Phoenix not shackled to Ethan’s bedside for another endless day. She slid the mail onto the table and began to sift through it. Junk…Letter from Mom…Credit Card Bill…Junk… Her eyes peered curiously at the last bit of mail, a white envelope with simply ‘Phoenix’ handwritten on it. ‘It’s not sealed,’ Madison told herself devilishly, ‘She’ll never know I looked at it!’ She carefully extracted a card from the envelope, the front of the card adorned in beautiful roses and a yellow border, ‘Sending our Sympathy’ scrolled in the middle in a cursive font. Madison proceeded to open the card. Inside, it said
‘Phoenix,
You, Ethan, and Madison are in our thoughts. Please contact us if you need anything.
Sincerely,
Billy, Paul, Joel, and Benji.’
Madison let out a smirk. “Guess the famous do have hearts.”
~*~
The phone rang obnoxiously in the night, Phoenix plummeting from the couch at the sound, confused at where she was. With the comforter wrapped around her and with frazzled nerves, she fumbled to the kitchen to pick up the wall phone. She pulled on the light switch in the middle of the kitchen quickly and reached for the red cordless phone. “Hello?” she said in a groggy voice, rubbing at her eyes, letting the comforter fall to the sky blue tiled floor, glancing up to the clock on the oven. It read 9:34 PM.
“Phoenix?” the person asked, “This is Dr. Learner.”
A pang of hope shot through her heart, her face lighting up like a child’s on Christmas morning. “Dr. Learner! I’m so glad you called. It’s good news, isn’t it?” There was silence. “I knew it! You’re in shock! He’s going to make a full recovery, isn’t he? I was strong for him. He knew he had to get through it!” The silence still lingered in the air. She skipped to the table and plopped down in the head chair, her feet bouncing up and down against the carpet with excitement. “Doc, aren’t you going to say anything?”
“Phoenix,” Dr. Learner morosely began, “Ethan’s heart failed out 10 minutes ago…” The phone plunged to the floor…