This Place Only

Chapter Five - Ink

Chapter Five

Ink

Each step I took toward the X-Ray department brought me into more familiar territory. Gone were the memories of another man. Here, now, was a place I’d been many times before—bringing Lauren a lunch, or a dinner when she had to work late.

Turning a corner, I walked into the office and smiled, recognizing two of the people there—Kim, the office manager, and one of Lauren’s good friends, Karen. Both watched me cautiously as I entered the office. I asked if Lauren was free or in with a patient.

“Lauren?” Karen asked, glancing at Kim.

Kim didn’t return the look, but stared intently at me and said, “There aren’t any techs here named Lauren. What’s her last name?”

“Anderson,” I said weakly, knowing now I should have never come down here. “Sorry,” I said quickly, backing up and bumping into someone. Turning, I found a tall man who appeared to be a doctor, perhaps one of the radiologists, though he did not seem familiar.

Still, he put a hand gently on my shoulder. His voice was warm:

“I’m sorry about your loss, Mr. Anderson. Are you here visiting Mrs. Kasner?”

I looked down at the package I was still holding; I’d forgotten I still had it. It was then that a horrible truth began to take form, congealing and floating to the surface of my awareness: Not all of this was happening out of pure chance or coincidence.

“I need to go now,” I said, leaving the office and backtracking to the reception area. Locating the entrance of the men’s room, I slid inside. The first stall was open so I took it quickly and slid the smooth, metal latch quietly to the right.

Too agitated to sit, I stood and stared intently at the package. Apparently, it was something of importance for my mother-in-law. Strange, though, that I was to deliver it on the day before my wife’s funeral.

“I don’t think so,” I whispered and began to tear the brown wrapping from the box. Part of me even hoped it was something for her. Something real. My fear was actualized, however, when I dropped the crumpled paper and found a small rectangular box.

The box was empty.

Dropping the torn mess, I ran back to the lobby and cringed when I saw a black limo pull into the corner entryway.

It’s David, my mind screamed.

Turning back the way I came, I retraced my steps through X-Ray, turned a sharp right corner past Nuclear Medicine and sprinted through the door into the Emergency Room. Slowing my pace, I passed through the busy open area and made it outside without apparent notice.

The day was clear and strikingly beautiful. The clouds, moving quickly overhead, were nearly portrait perfect, each twist and swirl a reminder of storybook renderings. Beautiful, yet odd. And then there was something about the sky that bothered me. It was too perfect, wasn’t it? That was it. Skies just don’t look like that, even when passing over real islands where the temperature is a uniform 72 degrees.

As these bizarre thoughts filled my mind, I moved stealthily across the parking lot and entered a copse of trees. I imagined David entering the hospital, trying to locate me—demanding my whereabouts from everyone he saw. I could see this so clearly and felt my anger resurface.

He did this to me.

He was responsible for taking Lauren away from me… or me away from her.

What kind of technology did he have at his disposal? I couldn’t replay exactly what transpired in his office back in Monroe, but I did recall enough to know something monumental was going on. That elevator. It did something to me. It took me somewhere.