Paradise 69

66

THE IMAGES AROUND ME are blurry, drifting in and out. My eyes slowly begin to focus. My legs ache, and my body feels like I've been run over by a truck. The lights over my head are super bright, sterile. I'm in some kind of examination room. I smell astringents, strange chemicals. I hear people talking close around me. I see blurry white forms.

Are we all wearing white?

I'm either in an asylum or heaven.

From the burning in my throat, I decide it could not be heaven. I snap my eyes wide open, and I realize that I'm lying on a gurney.

"What is going on?"

"My name is Dr. Kaylani.", The woman says. She explains what just happened. "You are very lucky to be alive."

I did not feel lucky. I could barely make sense of my own memories... The chase... Sam Mijan. My body aches everywhere. She hands me a cup of water, and I rinse out my mouth.

I sit up by the open ambulance door and stare outside. Police cars and ambulances flash all along the street. People stand off to the side, trying to see what happened. The police tell the crowd to leave. Nobody listens.

I catch the back of a reporter's head to my right. He is holding a microphone to a woman's mouth. She is wearing jumbo size hair roller sets on top of her head.

"I heard people screaming in the alley. See, I'm used to seeing druggies below my apartment. I'm always asking them to skedaddle. So, when I opened the sliding door, I see that guy holding a gun against that girl's head. So, I yelled 'Oh hell – not in front of my house!' – and I tossed a pot of plants on top of his head, knocking him unconscious."

The bright lights spotlight me, and people crane their necks to get a peek. Peeters crosses in front of me while laying down on a gurney.

"Brave kid!" He raises a thumbs up at me.

"Thank you." I mouthed back.

I can't breathe. I can't.

Breathe.

I gasp.

And gasp.

And gasp.

"Scarlett!"

Suddenly someone is yelling coming from the front of the ambulance.

"Scarlett?"

Brown eyes with long eyelashes appear in front of me.

"Oh, thank God. You're safe!"

It's Vittoria!

I open my mouth to respond. A sob comes out. She wraps her arms around me. She rubs my back and speaks in hushed tones.

"We are finally going home!"

"What about Giuliana and Adrianna? How are we just going to leave them behind? We can't leave them behind."

"Scarlett. This is our only chance to get out of here and go back to Italy. We don't know where they are. The authorities are working on this case. They will keep us informed. They are already considering this not to be a search and rescue..."

"...But a search and recovery!" I add thoughtfully. "Damn."

"Yea...it really sucks!"

"They didn't even get a chance of having a burial ceremony."

"We don't know that yet. Let's just wait it out."

"Vittoria! Listen to me. How do you think Adrianna's mother is going to react to this news? She lost her husband a few years ago. Then her son overdoses in the school's bathroom last year! I feel a great deal of responsibility knowing that she could be dead! This was my idea! It was my idea to come to Tahiti Island! What-the-fuck-was-I-thinking?"

"It was your idea to come here. Yes. I agree. But we all agreed on it! Now, you can't blame yourself for the rest of your life for what happened here. What we did here. We were on vacation. Having fun."

"I'm never going to forgive myself!"

"It will take time to heal. This wound, many never heal!"

We hear shouts a few feet away from us. I raise my eyes towards the commotion. Vittoria turns around and follows my gaze.

The doors to the first and third police vehicle spring open, and a group of men and women wearing lapel pins, sunglasses, and flesh-colored earpieces stepping out onto the curb and make a path for their boss. A man gets out of the backseat of the middle vehicle.

"Holy shit!"

"Who is he?" I lean towards Vittoria.

She turns her head towards me.

"That is the Secretary of State of the United States."

I hear reporters shouting questions, photographers snapping photos, and cameramen jostling everyone in an attempt to get one second of unobscured footage.

The Secretary of State strides through the phalanx without flinching. As he walks, he catches a glimpse of people standing on the sidewalk. I follow his eyes, trying to understand what he is looking at. Some of the people on the sidewalk are standing around in "You Can Run – But You Can't Hide" and "Former Hide & Seek Champion" T-shirts with Mijan's face on them.

I watch a guy selling them across the street.

"Game Over t-shirt, buy it now! Promotion. Buy one get one free."

The Secretary of State steps away from the rear window of an SUV. The driver pulls away from the curb slowly. I glance at the figure sitting on the rear passenger seat. A streetlight flashes across Mijan's face, revealing how tight his jaw is set. His veins bulge along his head. He spots me in the middle of the crowd, and this time I wave at him.

Good-bye.