Purgatory

Chapter 11

"You need to pick her up from here, Mr. Renzulli," said the voice on the phone.

"I don't know if she can handle life now," said Pete.

"She's served her sentence," said the doctor. "The courts say she has to be out by this evening."

"I can't house her," said Pete. "I last dated her 6 years ago."

"We can't contact her ex-husband," said the doctor.

"You shouldn't contact her ex-husband," said Pete. "She gets psychotic whenever his name is mentioned."

"Try to be here before 4 this afternoon," said the doctor, who then hung up.

Pete was not too thrilled at the prospect of picking up his ex-girlfriend, or of leaving her out on the street. He could leave her in a shelter, but there was none anywhere near the Staten Island psychiatric facility he was picking up his ex from, so he drove across the Verrazano to the hospital.

He parked his car in the visitors' lot, and passed by a flock of wild turkeys on his way to the facility. He went to the front desk.

"Who are you here for?"

"I'm here for Allison," said Pete.

"The one who was brought here in '97?" asked the receptionist.

"Yes," said Pete. "I'm not sure if she still uses her ex-husband's name Stokes or if she goes back to her maiden name of Miller now."

"Our records list her as Allison Miller," said the receptionist.

"I'm glad, for her sake," said Pete. "Does she know about what happened 10 days ago?"

"You know we can't let our inpatients know about any bad outside news," said the receptionist.

"All they have to do is look outside," said an increasingly angry Pete.

"They're not allowed outside," said the receptionist.

"I guess that explains the turkeys roaming free outside," said Pete.

"No, they wandered here from South Beach," said the receptionist.

Allison wandered around the dank corridors of the mental health facility until she heard a familiar voice. She looked at her ex-boyfriend from the hallway and ran towards him.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you so much," she said. "I knew you would pick me up and not that faggot I was married to for 2 years."

"Your sentence is over," said Pete. "You'll have to stay at my place until I can find a program for you."

"I won't be running into the fruitcake, will I?" asked Allison.

"No, he's in Detroit," said Pete.

"Let's get out of here," said Allison.

Allison climbed into the passenger seat of Pete's Taurus. Pete then drove off towards Brooklyn. As the car crossed the Verrazano Bridge. Allison looked out the window and noticed smoke coming from the north of the bridge. Some buildings were gone too.

"Pete, what the hell happened while I was locked up?"

"A lot of bad stuff," said Pete. "10 days ago, terrorists flew planes into the twin towers and the Pentagon. The towers collapsed, and several other buildings collapsed Downtown. A lot of people were killed. The subways are fucked up because the towers collapsed onto the 1 train. All flights in this country were shut down for days. All the tv stations are out except for Channel 2 and Univision."

"Oh my God, Pete," said Allison. "You think they would have let us known when it happened."

"I don't know why they didn't," said Pete.

"Did anyone you know die in that disaster?" asked Allison.

"Keyshia's husband George didn't make it," said Pete. "Almost everyone in Hampshire Funds and Cantor Fitzgerald were killed on that day. And Matt barely made it out alive- he lost his left leg when they pulled him out of the rubble."

"I guess your band is dead for good," said Allison.

"I don't know," said Pete. "Matt won't be able to anything for years other than rehab. And Gary's in Creedmoor now. He couldn't handle being out of the spotlight. And I don't have a backing singer anymore."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Pete," said Allison.

"I should be happy," said Pete. "I still get royalties from the old songs, and I'm now Homecrest's football coach."

"You'll make a fine coach," said Allison. "You had to deal with Matt, your sister, your late grandfather, and those goomba wannabe cousins of yours. Dealing with high school boys into football should be a breeze compared to that."

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