As I Breathe (One Breath at a Time: Book 2) (9 page)

All the way home from the park, my parents lectured me about never accepting anything, absolutely
nothing
from a stranger, ever again. In my eyes, even the police lady was a stranger.

My mother reassuringly said, “It’s alright, Brielle. You can have the candy this one time.” Dang, adults can be so confusing at times!

The following day, the two police officers returned to our house. My mother instructed me to go to my bedroom but instead I hid in the shadows of the stairwell so I could hear what they were saying. I peeked around the corner and noticed one of the officers was holding the same little puppy that I had seen in the bad man’s car. My heart skipped a beat.

The policewoman smiled as the puppy licked her face. The male officer said that the terrible man was in their
custody
. I wasn’t sure what the word
custody
meant; however, I could tell from their faces it was good news.

Apparently, the police had found the wolf-looking man several hours later. After he left the park, he crashed his car somewhere on the North Shore of the Long Island into a big oak tree that was, ironically, in the middle of an open field. The man broke both of his legs rendering him paralyzed for life.

That’s what he gets for being mean to little girls, I thought.

Both officers and my parents agreed that the odds of the man’s car crashing into the tree, in the middle of an open field was virtually impossible. To them it made no sense. They called it a freak accident. However, it made perfect sense to me; I knew the angels caused the accident. It was an act of revenge. They were the ones who put a stop to this man so that he couldn’t hurt little girls anymore. Paybacks sucked for him. Fortunately, the puppy was not hurt.

The male officer spoke in a quiet tone. “There is something else...a young girl was in the trunk of the car. She didn’t have a scratch from the accident, but we’re afraid she may be scarred forever. You don’t live through what she did without being scarred. At least, she is safe and with her family now.”

“
Oh, Lord! Thank God!” my mother exclaimed as she petted
the top of the puppy’s head. She really loved animals.

“
So, do you want to hold her?” The female officer asked my mother.

“
I—I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’m curious, why on earth did you bring the puppy to our home?” My mother’s hand grasped onto my dad’s forearm. “Mitchell, this could really upset Brielle if she sees her.”

My dad replied, “You are absolutely right—officers are we through? We really appreciate that you have updated us, but—I’m sure you can understand—we’ve been through enough already.”

The male officer glanced at his partner. A confused expression crawled over his face. He said to my parents, “I’m really sorry, we certainly do not want to upset your family. We thought it was okay to bring the puppy along. Someone called the station and said that you wanted to adopt—”

Dad interrupted him. “Why would we do that? We didn’t even know you caught the guy. Sorry, but no one called from here. That just doesn’t make sense.” Dad rubbed his jaw. “Your mother wouldn’t have—would she?” he asked, turning toward my mother. The muscles in his jaw clenched.

“No, of course not. My mother may do a lot of odd things, but she would never do anything like this,” my mother answered with certainty.

The male officer had a surprised look on his face. “We’re very sorry for the confusion.”

I clearly heard the female officer say, “That’s fine, but if you don’t want the puppy, we’ll have to take her straight to the pound...poor little thing,” she crooned and rubbed the top of the puppy’s head.

This frightened me. Without missing a beat, I ran down the staircase and begged my parents if we could keep the puppy. The female officer helped plead my case.

“It would be a nice—a reward for helping to capture the bad man. Of course, that is only if it’s okay with you both?” The officer’s eyes darted between my parents.

Immediately, my mother was strictly against the idea. “It’s a bad omen, forget it. I can’t believe you would bring the puppy here without our permission first.”

“Again, someone called and told us to bring her here. It’s okay if you’ve changed your minds. Honestly, we were told…”

“
It’s alright officers. Please, give us have a minute to talk about this.” Dad seemed to be riding the fence.

“
It’s not the puppy’s fault that the bad man did horrible things to little girls,” I stammered. My argument fell on deaf ears.

Mom suggested that we could go to the pound and rescue a nice puppy.

Relentlessly, I continued to beg them for this puppy. I was almost spastic. Honestly, I went as far as dropping to my hands and knees, making a real spectacle out of myself. God, I should’ve been an actress.

“
I don’t want another puppy,” I screamed and stomped my foot, “I want her. I want this puppy!”

I was determined to have
this
puppy. It was no use. My tears were not getting me anywhere, except for into more trouble once the police officers would leave. How could they hold me accountable for acting out of control? After all, I had been traumatized by the incident. Still, my outburst was of no use.

I heard Storm whisper in my head. “Brielle. Stop behaving like a baby. If you want the puppy, you need to outsmart your parents.” Of course, I couldn’t reply to him with everyone standing around. “Think about what happened last time you acted out of control.”

What I could remember about the last time I was so-called, out of control—I was sent to my room without dessert. Then it dawned on me—my mother had told me fake tears were cheap and temper-tantrums wouldn’t get me anywhere. Storm was right. I needed a different approach. Frankly, I didn’t know what to say.

“
I’m sorry,” I said for starters, sniffling between my words and wrapped my arms around my mother’s waist.

“
It’s okay, Brielle. We know that you’ve been through a lot,” my mother replied, smoothing down the back of my hair.

“
Well...” I paused to think, and just in the nick of time Storm told me what to say. “Mommy, maybe the puppy is a hero.”

“
Now look up at her with your little red teary, puppy dog eyes,”
Storm said, directing my act of manipulation. I wondered if
all
angels were so deceitful when it came to helping their host.

“
How is that?” My mother asked.

Storm, what do I say now?
I asked inwardly, knowing it was no use because he couldn’t hear my internal thoughts.
You got me into this. I hope you know what you are doing?

I stood there staring into space not knowing what to say to my parents and the police officers. I must have looked like an idiot or as if I’d had a sudden attack of stage fright. I was so worried Storm had left the conversation. How could he have left me hanging in a time of such dire straits? At least, that is what it felt like to me at the time.

“Brielle, are you okay?” my mother inquired.

I just stood there with my mouth gaped open.
Suddenly, Storm chimed in, “
Sorry Doll, I had to check on something, but I’m back now.”
I wanted to wring his neck for a minute.
“Tell them this
...”

He better have something good up his sleeve, I thought.

I repeated exactly word for word what Storm said. “What if the puppy jumped into the bad man’s lap and made him crash?” I exclaimed with a good amount of emotion. “She’s a good puppy and doesn’t deserve to be sent to the pound.”

Both of the police officers nodded, agreeing with me that this was very probable. Even though I knew the truth, I couldn’t tell them it was my angel who had caused the man’s misfortune.

Bingo...Storm’s words worked like magic. My parents finally conceded and allowed me to keep the puppy. Storm was my hero, once again.

From that day on, my parents encouraged me to be an attorney. They were so surprised that I had such great reasoning skills at such a young age. If only they knew.

Nonetheless, thanks to Storm I had a new puppy. I named her...well actually my grandmother helped me choose her name. We called her “Good Little Karma,” but shortened her name to simply “Karma.” Her name was very apropos to how she became a new member of our family.

Storm, Karma and I were like the
Three Musketeers
from that day forward. We shared so many happy times together. I really loved to have Storm around when I was a kid; he was my best friend. We would play Barbies together. I was Suntan Barbie, and he was the voice of Ken and Karma was their baby. I know that pretending Karma was our baby sounds strange, but I had a vivid imagination. Heck, if anyone aside from my grandmother had known I had a voice in my head they would’ve been convinced Storm was just a part of my imagination. Or thought that I was a bit “tetched,” as in having a screw loose. But, I knew differently. Storm was all too real.

Prior to the kidnapping attempt, I was certain there was a bogeyman that lived under my bed. After the incident, I was sure of it. Not only was I worried about the bogeyman; it took months to realize the bad man in the car wasn’t coming back after me, either. Storm promised he’d keep me safe from things that went bump in the night. I knew he was just a hello away. He was my trusted security blanket when I would wake in the middle of the night.

His sonorous yet gentle voice was very comforting to me. I felt secure knowing Storm was near, especially after he had saved me from the man in the car. My mother was legitimately happy about their decision in allowing me to keep Karma. She gave credit to Karma for helping me to get over the botched kidnapping attempt. Secretly, I knew it was Storm who helped me recover from the incident.

Storm used to tell me bedtime stories about faraway lands to help me fall asleep. The one I loved the most was about a beautiful girl that traveled the world to find her prince. It was the best story of them all, complete with a happy ending.

Years later, I asked Storm if he had carried me that day in the park. His answer was
no;
he explained that the best he could ever do was warn me when danger was lurking. I wondered how much of that was true.

-6-

Spring What?

Where am I now—oh, here I am...still stuck in a time warp of yesterday’s memories. God, the drug had me spinning from year to year. My memories were out of order, random, making me feel out of control of my own thoughts.

I wanted to tell Dr. Tagorski that I’d had enough of peeling back the memories. And so I did and said, “I’d like to deal with the present time—and the memories that I lost. I don’t see the point of rehashing the past.”

“It’s all relevant Brielle...your childhood memories are quite interesting...I’m hoping it will provide insight to why you can’t remember the last year or so. Besides, I can’t discharge you until we figure out why you’ve lost your memory in the first place.”

“
Yeah, but why can’t I just talk about Paris, and what happened three weeks ago?”

“
So, you remember that now?”

“
No. I was hoping the drugs you gave me would help? Maybe you could hypnotize me to hurry this along.” It was only a suggestion. I doubted it was even possible.

“
We don’t do that sort of thing here.” Dr. Tagorski’s lips thinned to a tight line. “It’s all a process, and I thought if we started with memories that come easily to you—we don’t want to force things—eventually it’s my hope your memory will come rushing back.”

“
I suppose that makes sense. Do you think I’m crazy?”

“
I think well...” He cleared his throat. “I’m enlightened. Let’s please continue.”

An Unknown Time

Meanwhile, Nuilley Lambert pulled out the last purse from her closet. She held her breath as she searched through a plethora of loose coins at the bottom of the purse for Brielle’s apartment key. What a sticky mess! Cigarette tobacco and other debris stuck to everything. An old lipstick tube had melted, and a broken blush compact had exploded onto the lining of the purse. After sorting through the contents of her 75+ purses, she came up empty handed. Determined to not give up, she’d have to attack the pile of purses again. Exasperated with herself, she was certain she had put the key in one of them for safekeeping.

As she knelt down do begin the task again, her phone rang. For a nanosecond she figured it was Brielle calling her, finally.

Jack Langley’s name registered on the faceplate. Jack was Brielle’s publishing agent and a mutual friend.

“Hello, Jack...” she spat out before he could even speak.

“
Hey Doll, are you okay?” Jack detected desperation in her tone.

“
No. I’m really not.” She sighed.

“
Sorry to hear that, what’s up?”

Nuilley inhaled and exhaled, hard. “It’s Breezy, I haven’t heard from her in days—in over a week more like it.”