See You in Hell

17

The ride to the hospital had been a blur. Gene and Teddy had managed to quickly shuttle Logan through the crowds to the bug. They'd had to put him in the front. The back seat was still crammed with film equipment.
"Go! I'll meet you there!" Gene closed the passenger door.

The drive had felt like hours, but it must have only taken a few minutes. She'd ignored every red light and ran every stop sign. Louise tried her best to keep her focus on the road, but her eyes kept drawing back to Logan slumped beside her, his face pale, his breathing becoming more shallow with each labored rise of his chest. If the parade hadn't drawn all the pedestrians and traffic away from her route, there'd have been no telling of the carnage her blind panic could have left in its wake.

When she'd finally skidded into the Emergency entrance, the hospital was serenely quiet. In her head, Louise had expected a ready crew of surgeons in scrubs running out to greet her. But in reality she had to lift Logan's arm over her shoulder and drag him out of the car alone. When she finally made it inside, a startled secretary at the front desk looked up from her lunch. The events of the past 30 minutes sputtered out of Louise in a jumble of yelling. The secretary seemed vexed to be disturbed from her magazine, as she dialed someone for an emergency pickup in the lobby.

"He's not breathing!" Louise had shouted, exasperated with the woman's utter lack of urgency.
"They're on their way Mam."

Two men finally appeared to alleviate her.
"Overdose?" One asked.
"Anaphylactic shock!" He asked her a few more questions about the circumstance as the other man finished strapping Logan to the gurney, then they started to roll him towards the elevator. Louise followed, but he put his hand out.
"Are you family?"
"No, but-"
"Family only in the ICU." He waved at a seating area. Louise watched as the elevator doors closed.

Sitting in the Lobby was torture. There was far too much dead silence for her brain to spiral down all the darkest conclusions. What would happen if Logan died? She tried to push that thought away. There was a growing panic in her chest, different from the adrenaline induced hysteria from earlier, but more all consuming. It was obvious that she needed to tell his family what was happening, but in the midst of the crisis she hadn't even grabbed her cellphone. Even if she had, what use would it have been? If they were a normal functional business, this would be the moment where an employee emergency contact form would come in handy.

She asked the woman at the front desk if she could check if they had Logan's parent's numbers.
"Oh yea sure, let me just hand out patients personal information." Under different circumstances Louise would have appreciated the level of sass this woman was able to deliver in one sentence.
"Well can I use your phone?"
"No." She answered sarcastically "But you can use the pay phone and the phone book." She gestured to a dingy corner in the lobby.

After some frenzied rifling through the archaic pages Louise was disappointed, but not surprised, to find that the Bush family was unlisted. Who the fuck was still using the phone book? She could try to call the restaurant. It was almost impossible that anyone would still be there to pick up, but it was maybe worth a try. She didn't know the number by heart, but she was pretty sure most local businesses were still included in this obsolete piece of junk. Then a better idea struck her. Logan's fathers firm was probably in here somewhere. She flipped to the business section and her finger skimmed down the 'B's. There it was, Bush & Associates.

Her heart pounded as she dialed the number. The phone wrung for what seemed like an eternity. Louise was about to give up, realizing that no one would be in the office anyway on a Sunday, but then the automated message clicked on. A female voice went through a lengthy list of options, hours, and extensions for various legal needs, before finally offering a general inbox. With a sudden beep the message started recording. Louise struggled to find her words.

"Hi. This is uh, Louise. From Bob's Burgers." She realized as she was speaking that this would have no meaning to Logan's estranged father. "Your son works here- er there, at Bob's. Anyway, he got in an accident at the restaurant and he's here at the hospital - Seymour Hospital. Just wanted to let you know. Uh.. yeah. Thanks."

She hung up.