The Crew

Untitled Part 21

Chapter Twenty-One

When I came to I was lying in a metal bed, naked except for a blue cotton gown, still drunk, confused as hell. A bottle of fluid hung above me with a tube running from it to the needle in my arm, supplying my body with water. I yanked the needle out, shaking my fingers to free them from the tape that had been securing it.

A nurse entered the cubicle with manufactured calm, trying to soothe me, attempting to re-insert the needle. I seized her arm and flung it away in frustration.

"What're you doing to me? Where am I? Why're you trying to drug me?! I want answers!"

"Listen Mr. Donnigan, do not grab me again or I will call security to restrain you. You have been brought here by your friends, who are out in the waiting room. They said you passed out and stopped breathing; apparently you were displaying some violent and aggressive behavior—"

"What? Help!" I sat up at a ninety-degree angle, desperate. "Help! Someone, help me!"

"Calm down Mr. Donnigan, you are at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura. You're damn lucky to be here, kid. You stopped breathing; you could have died—"

I flung my legs off the bed and pushed the nurse out of my way. Seeing my clothes in a pile on a chair outside the open curtain, I snatched them and ran out of the room, past ER attendants who stood, mouths open, witnessing the scene. Panting, sweating and half naked, I reached the waiting room where I saw Laura, D.D., Cannonball and Bear. I rushed past them toward my one and only chance for escape—the back door exit of the hospital all the way down a long, wide corridor.

The sprint toward freedom began. I heard the sound of footsteps running behind me. I was back in the parking lot of the Motel 6 running for my life with the cop in pursuit. I turned around in horror half expecting to see him, but it wasn't the cop; it was Cannonball, my trusted commander-in-chief and best friend behind me with a smile. The rest of the gang was not far behind, running to catch up, all of us now in pursuit of the same goal.

"Go Dog, Go! Bear's Jeep's in the parking garage!" Cannon yelled out of breath, running right behind me.

Cannonball yelled his explanation to me as we reached the door together, pushing down the metal bar with a clank and opening the emergency exit. My friends were back. I seemed to have sobered up slightly in all the excitement. I could hear other metal doors blasting open and an alarm sounding. The scuffle and squeak of shoes on linoleum signaled staff were after us, hot on our trail.

Then we were inside the parking garage, panting like escaped jailbirds free of the warden, the prison gate violated, freedom within reach.

"Dog, it's on the second floor, one floor up man; hit it!" Cannon yelped.

We ran with fire in our hearts, Bear, D.D. and Laura now close on our heels. Up, up the stairway we went in a flurry of faces and limbs, stopping at the faithful Jeep of Chaos. We jumped in as Bear did his usual routine. We blasted down the circular, curving track until we landed on the bottom floor, street level. There were two massive hospital guards there, holding radios, their hands sticking out indicating for us to halt.

I was in the back seat with D.D. and Laura. Cannon was up front, of course. Bear eyed Cannon. "What's the word captain?"

A giant African American guard approached quickly. "Pull over, sir!"

"Hit it, Bear," Cannon said.

"Sir, I'm warning you," the guard yelled. A long orange bar lowered past the little registration parking kiosk, preventing cars from exiting until they'd paid.

"Put your seat belts on," Bear said. We did.

"Last chance!" the guard yelled. He tapped the glass of Bear's window with a baton and then tried the door handle.

Bear placed his foot all the way down on the gas. "Here we go...." He said. We all held on for dear life. The guard looked at us in slow motion, his eyes wide and disbelieving; shocked. The Jeep plowed right through the flimsy bar, breaking it into hundreds of pieces like nothing, shards of the hard plastic running up the windshield and over onto the street behind us.

Before we knew it, we were out of the darkness of the underground structure and on the Ventura streets again, home free. Bear drove down Loma Vista—the street the hospital was on—and headed north on East Main Street.

The car erupted into cheers. "Whewwwwwwhhh! Yeah, Bear! Always, just when I need you, you swoop in at the 11th hour, like Superman!" I yelled proudly.

Cannon slapped Bear's back and said, "God damn. If ever I need a man to help me out of a situation, it's Bear. I have underestimated you one too many times my friend. Never again."

Snorting, D.D. said, voice cracking, "'This is your last chance!,' 'Stop, I'm warning you!'" He was mocking the guard.

We all yelled and cheered and sang, the windows down, the Jeep moving languidly to avoid trouble with the police. Bear turned south on Seaward Ave, back in the direction of Laura's.

"So, what the hell happened, Laura?" I asked, conscious of being in the blue gown, the cold backseat a reminder that my rear had been exposed during flight.

"You drank way too much of that Russian stuff, Southern Comfort and Royal Crown, Dog, which is not exactly like guzzling beer!, threw a bottle at the cabinet, pushed me down to the ground and passed out. I thought you were dead! You had no heartbeat...you stopped breathing! I freaked out and called D.D. to figure out what the hell to do and he told me to stay put. Then he and Bear and Cannon showed up and we took you to the hospital," Laura explained rapidly, hardly stopping for a breath.

"I'm sorry Laura," I said, feeling ashamed. "Thanks for saving me."

Terror struck me. I'd metamorphosed, like I'd wanted to, only I'd become something beastly and out of control, something foreign and ugly. Something violent and aggressive. This wasn't the person I wanted to be, the person my mother hoped I'd become, the young adult I realized Mr. Bry envisioned. I'd happened upon some metaphorical fork in the road, like Robert Frost had written about in his famous poem, and I'd chosen the wrong path. Now I was alone and confused, deep in the heart of the forest. I needed help finding my way back.

"You owe me some new cabinet glass. Fortunately, my folks won't be back until next month, so don't stress too much. You did get kind of scary though. A little violent."

"I don't know what came over me Lore, I really don't. I'm sorry for scaring you."

"It's okay Dog, don't beat yourself up. Listen, let's all go back to my place, clean up the glass, get Dog here some coffee and chill out for the night," she said, deciding for the group for the first time.

We all agreed this was the plan of action. Bear pumped down Seaward, speeding off toward Ocean Avenue. I stared out the window and tried not to think about what might be going through Cannonball's head.