Our Sick Inheritance (editing)

Chapter 53- I Warned You

Kyle was looking at Jolene's file when the ring of the phone made him jump so that his knees hit the underside of his desk. After he hung up, he kissed his wife Alicia goodbye. Stacy was still asleep in her bed since it was only nine in the morning. Kyle grabbed Stacy's keys and his briefcase then headed to her little cheerleader car, as he called it, because it made him feel so cramped. He had to adjust everything just to fit his tall frame in the newest version of the Volkswagen bug. When he dropped it off at the service station, he was very happy to accept the common but a comfortably nice silver family loaner car that he could stretch out in. Kyle headed to the hospital to meet Walt so they could go over Jolene's autopsy together.

The storm had dropped three feet of snow overnight. Kyle and many others were struggling on the roads that were also congested with road workers trying to melt the snow to keep them from being slippery. It was a slow process, but they were doing what they could to keep people safe. It took Kyle forty-five minutes longer than he had anticipated. Thank goodness Walt was an understanding man. The hospital was busy with minor bumper to bumper injuries, and the icy roads were to blame.

A little girl with long curly golden hair dressed in a yellow sweater and blue jeans was holding her mother's hand. As her mother stood listening to the treatment the doctor was giving to care for the girl's father who was sitting in a wheelchair next to them, the girl was staring straight at Kyle. He noticed the man's head was wrapped with a bandage, and it was the rules of the hospital to be wheeled out the door although he insisted, he could walk out just fine. The little girl staring at Kyle smiled. Her eyes seemed much older than her age. Her expression changed as if she reflected Kyle's sadness. Kyle's heart skipped a few beats against his ribs for he wondered if the little girl sensed that he was about to look at Jolene's dead body.

The little girl turned to her father, put a finger to her lips and let out a soft 'shh' sound gentler than any snake could express, yet as demanding. The girl's father did as his daughter suggested and stopped arguing with the doctor and his wife as exit paperwork was being filled out. Walking slower than normal, Kyle watched as the man smiled at his little girl in obedience. Kyle was impressed but sensed there was something different about the little girl that he recognized. He walked past them to the door he needed.

Kyle took the stairs down to the basement of the hospital as he wanted to avoid all elevators until his faith in them returned. He couldn't risk Jolene's spirit to have any more fun at his expense.

Long metal tables lined two walls in the quiet room he walked into. This room felt colder than the rest of the hospital and everything seemed more silent than an empty room with concrete walls should, strange since the room wasn't empty. Even the fan humming from a vent in the wall seemed to sense the practice of silence it for it barely made a white noise as soft as a breath escaping a baby while it slept.

Five bodies were lying on tables under sheets, unmoving and waiting to find their new home underground somewhere else but here. Kyle briefly wondered how the people that worked in cemeteries were able to dig graves in such unrelenting snow that was freezing the dirt to stone.

A movement caught his eye. The third table against the wall seemed to have shifted in some way but the longer Kyle stared at the body, the stiller it seemed to remain. Hairs moved up gently from Kyle's neck at the eerie feeling of being alone with the corpses. Then Kyle saw Walt walk towards him from his office in the far back of the table filled room. Kyle met Walt halfway across the room with outstretched hands, where they stopped right in front of the third table. It was the table where he thought he had seen movement.

"Oh, I see you found her." Walt said pointing to the third table. Walt moved the sheet to expose corpse feet tagged with a name and number. Jolene Parker. Kyle's heart hit hard against his chest and he realized he was holding his breath.