Cimarron, Denver Cereal Volume 4 (32 page)

He stopped talking. Molly looked up into his
face.

“
And?” Molly
asked.

“
Me,” Pete said. “I finally
understood how much you loved me. I don’t know why it took so long.
I don’t but… “

Molly clasped him to her.

“
I want to be the man you
need me to be,” Pete said. “I can be loving. I can be strong. I can
build things. I can be loyal, dependable, even reliable. Whatever
you need, that’s who I’m going to be.”

Molly held him close.

“
Well, as much as an
asshole like me can be,” Pete said. “I can’t really change
that.”

Molly laughed.

“
Come on,” Pete said. “I’ll
show you my incredible Chinese food ordering skills.”

With a nod, Molly followed him back into the
salon.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED and
NINE

Cycle

Monday evening — 6:45 P.M.

“
You’re his…” the Emergency
Room resident said.

Sandy, Jill and Jill’s mother, Anjelika,
were sitting in a family waiting area at Denver Health when the
resident approached. He was looking for Charlie’s mother. Sandy
jumped to her feet to speak with the resident but he recognized her
from the newspaper stories about her father. The resident didn’t
want anything to do with her. Sandy wrapped her arms around herself
for comfort.

“
Sister,” Sandy
said.

“
Where is his mother?” the
resident asked.

“
She’s out of the picture,”
Sandy said. “I’m all he has.”

“
I don’t think I can give
you an update. I…” the resident started.

“
Listen,” Anjelika smiled
her beautiful smile. “The mother doesn’t want her children. And we
are paying your bill. In order to pay that bill, we need
information to make decisions.”

Taken back by Angelika’s beauty and
elegance, the resident stumbled over words.

“
Uh… We could get into real
trouble. We’re only supposed to release information to legal
guardians or…”

“
I see,” Anjelika smiled
again. “May I speak with your supervisor? We were told that we
needed to make decisions right away. That is, of course, after my
daughter guaranteed payment.”

“
He’s sixteen,” Seth’s deep
voice came from the door. “You don’t need a guardian to make his
medical decisions. Since I assume he’s unconscious, his next of kin
will have to decide for him.”

“
Seth!” Sandy
said.

Seth hugged her.

“
How is Charlie?” he
asked.

“
We don’t know,” Sandy
said. “This… doctor won’t tell us.”

“
Detective O’Malley, Denver
PD,” Seth said to the resident. “The nurse told me there was a
family meeting going on. There is a police investigation into this
matter. Will you give me the information?”

“
Uh,” the resident blushed
then nodded. “The boy’s in pretty bad shape.”

“
Can you be more
specific?”

“
He’s been injecting
methamphetamines for some time,” the resident said. “He’s
dehydrated and malnourished. He was badly beaten by multiple
assailants. His organs are bruised. His spleen needs to come out
and possibly a portion of his intestines. His liver is bruised. We
won’t know his virus status until tomorrow.”

“
What about his head?”
Sandy asked.

“
He seems to have protected
his head,” the resident said. “He has some cracked ribs, one
broken.”

“
Is that why he has a
cough? Was spitting up blood?”

“
He has pneumonia,” the
doctor said. “His lungs are inflamed from smoking meth. He probably
has a bleeding ulcer. Most meth addicts do. We won’t know until we
do more tests.”

“
Does he need surgery?”
Anjelika asked.

“
We can’t do anything until
he’s stable,” the resident said. “His biggest problem right now is
that he’s coming off the meth.”

“
Broken bones?” Anjelika
said.

“
Except for the rib,
cracked,” the resident said. “Right humerus, femur, malleolus,
couple of spinous processes. His right side saw the worst of the
beating. Listen, we see these kids all the time. They get high and
beat on each other. They think it’s fun.”

“
For fun?” Sandy’s face
reflected the horror she felt.

“
They come in beaten up,
leave and come back again. It’s like a revolving door.”

“
Have you seen this kid
before?” Seth asked.

“
I haven’t but he’s been
here before,” the resident said. “About six weeks ago. High on
meth, of course. He’d broken a clavicle, his collar bone. His
mother filled out the paper work and left him here. Skipped out on
the bill.”

“
We’ve already agreed to
pay all the bills,” Jill said.

“
His collar bone never
healed so he’ll need to get that set.”

“
We’d like you to take good
care of the boy,” Anjelika said.

“
Right now, he has to
stabilize,” the resident said. “But he doesn’t have much of a
chance. He’s a street kid, a meth head no less. You need to face
the facts. These kids don’t get better. They only get
dead.”

“
My boyfriend, uh, husband
was a street kid,” Sandy said. “He’s the CEO of Lipson Construction
now.”

“
That was then. You
probably don’t have AIDs either,” the resident sniffed at Sandy.
“Life on the streets is meaner, harder, and more severe now. Most
kids die. We see families here all the time. They get their kid
better and a month later the kid is back on the
streets.”

“
Why do you think that is?”
Seth asked.

“
It runs in families,” the
resident said. “Child prostitutes, street kids. What do you expect?
People like him… and you are throw aways, garbage.”

Sandy recoiled as if she’d been hit. As if
to protect her, Anjelika pulled her into a hug.

“
I think we’d like another
doctor,” Jill said. “In fact, since I’m paying this bill, let’s see
what your attending doctor has to say. Better yet…”

Jill was about to dial her cell phone when a
familiar Englishman stuck his head in the room. Jill smiled at Dr.
John Drayson. He was their friend Alex Hargreaves’s husband, and a
vascular surgeon. He worked at Denver Health.

“
I just heard about
Charlie,” Dr. Drayson said in a clipped British accent. He looked
at Jill and Sandy. “What’s going on here?”

“
This creature just told us
that Charlie was a throw away,” Jill said. “Like Sandy.”

“
He did?” Dr Drayson gave
the resident a hard look.

“
Doctor, he…”

“
Why don’t you give me a
minute?” Dr. Drayson asked. “I’ll check in on Charlie and get you
another doctor.”

Grabbing the back of the resident’s jacket,
Dr. Drayson pulled him out of the room. They could hear their terse
conversation as they walked down the hall.

“
What do we do?” Sandy
asked.

“
We trust our friends to
help us,” Anjelika said.

“
And we wait,” Seth said.
“Can I bring anyone coffee?”

“
Please,” Anjelika said.
“For everyone.”

Seth nodded.

“
It’s going to be a long
night,” Anjelika said.

Jill, Sandy and Anjelika settled in to
wait.

~~~~~~~~

Monday evening — 7:30 P.M. PDT

Hollywood, CA

Expecting to find Mike on the other side of
the door, Valerie came out of the bathroom without a towel. She’d
just taken a quick post-set shower. His eyes were full of promise
when she laughed and closed the bathroom door on his face. He’d
promised to order dinner while she showered.

And she was starving.

They were staying in a six hundred square
foot garden cottage at the Chateau Marmont. Puzzled, she peeked
into the bedroom.

No Mike.

Her bare feet left moisture marks on the
dark wood floors as she padded around the little cottage. He wasn’t
in the living room watching hockey. She knew he wasn’t in the
kitchen. Turning in place, she trotted back to the bedroom for her
clothes. She grabbed a pair of jeans. Unable to button them, she
grabbed a pair of workout pants and a T-shirt.

Mike had spent the day painting in the
hotel’s gardens. Maybe he’d returned to see the gardens. She was
about to leave the cottage when she saw Mike’s art supplies tucked
away in his usual neat military stack.

Not sure what to do, she sat down on the
couch and waited. She was just about to call home when she heard
Mike’s key in the door.

“
Oh you got dressed,” he
said. He looked genuinely disappointed. “Sorry.”

“
I was worried.” She ran to
his arms.

“
Yeah, sorry,” he said. “I
heard Wes was in the bar here and decided to go have it out with
him.”

“
How did that
go?”

“
He’s on his way to the
hospital,” he said. “I guess the police will be here
soon.”

She pulled back to look at him and he
laughed. She slapped at him until he pulled her back into his
arms.

“
I went to call for dinner
and I realized there was a message,” he said. “I wasn’t in the room
all day. After you called, I dropped my painting supplies and went
to get you. Anyway, the front desk said they signed for a letter
for me. It was in their safe.”

“
Safe?”

“
Right,” Mike said. “I
should have realized it would be a cluster fuck. I did see Wes on
the television while I was waiting. That guy is a real tool. What
did you see in him?”

“
He wasn’t you?”

“
Ah,” Mike laughed. “I was
waiting at the desk so long that they’re going to serve us dinner
on the porch. It’s not sushi though. Do you mind?”

“
What are we
having?”

“
Burgers,” Mike
said.

“
I was just craving a
burger,” Valerie said.

“
I know,” Mike
said.

“
Mind reading?” Valerie
asked.

“
Listening to you talk to
yourself in the bathroom,” he said. Mimicking her voice, he said,
“Now Valerie, you cannot have a burger or you’ll never fit those
pants.”

“
Well I won’t!” she
laughed.

“
You’re pregnant, Val,”
Mike said. “At some point, you’re going to look
pregnant.”

“
Hmm,” Valerie said. Trying
to avoid talking about her expanding size, she said, “What did you
get?”

“
Burgers,” Mike said.
“Fries, beer for me.”

“
You got burgers from the
hotel safe?” Valerie asked.

“
Oh, I got the check from
the Denver Art Museum,” Mike said. “Wanna see all the
zeros?”

Valerie nodded. Mike pulled the check out of
his back pocket. They ogled at the amount.

“
They took twenty percent,”
Mike said. “I thought that was worth it.”

“
Totally worth it,” Valerie
said. “What are we going to do with it?”

“
Well…” Mike looked away
from her and shoved the check back into his pocket.

“
What?” she
asked.

“
Since we don’t really need
the money,” he said. “I mean, you’re making great money, and we
live in the Castle, and with the sale of Lipson Construction, and
the increase in rehab business work and…”

“
We have plenty of money,”
Valerie stepped back from him. “What’s going on Mike?”

“
I was thinking of giving
the check to Otis, my grandfather,” Mike said.

“
Why?” Valerie
asked.

“
My step-dad took all that
money from him,” Mike said. “Even though this is only a fraction of
what he stole, I thought maybe if he had some of it, he wouldn’t be
so mad at Mom.”

“
He doesn’t seem mad at
Anjelika,” Valerie said.

“
Mom says that the money is
a big issue in their relationship,” Mike said. “It’s not like he
blames her. He’s still trying to make up the loss to his
partners.”

“
His mafia
partners.”

“
I guess it’s dumb,” Mike
said. “I want Mama to feel free, happy. That’s all. I know she
feels bad.”

“
You’re a very sweet man,”
Valerie said.

“
Otis is coming to Denver
to see us before the baby is born,” Mike said. “I thought we could
give it to him then.”

“
Sure,” Valerie
said.

“
Sure?”

“
Sure,” she
said.

“
You think it’s dumb,” Mike
said.

“
I think you’re a very
sweet man. If you want to give this money or all of our money to
your grandfather, I don’t really care.”

“
What do you care about?”
Mike asked.

“
Food,” Valerie and Mike
said together. They laughed.

“
When did you say dinner
was coming?” she asked.

As if to answer her call, there was a knock
at the door. Room service had set up dinner on their private patio.
Surrounded by blooming flowers, their conversation about money
disappeared in a pregnant woman’s delight for a well-cooked burger
and the pleasure of each other’s company.