Forever (19 page)

“
Roni, lay on your back. Someone get me a dry, clean towel.”

One of the waitressed handed him one. He soaked it with the sterile water, folded it and rested it across her eyes. “Baby, do not move, OK? I’m going to check on Amanda.”

He jumped over the bar and ran to where Todd was working on Amanda. She was a mess. A huge gash gushed blood under her left eye and even with the swelling, it looked like her orbit bone was broken.

“Doug! We’re
gonna need a bus.”

“It’s on the way, Doc!
Two of them!”

Todd was shaking. “I got this, Mitch!”

“Go check on Roni, Marquis. I’ll take her.”

“No, I’ll…”

“That’s an order!” Scott didn’t really outrank him but it worked. Todd squeezed Amanda’s hand and then headed toward the bar.

“Footer?
It really hurts, man.”

“I know, Mandy, I’m going to give you something.”

Scott opened the bag and grabbed a pre-loaded syringe with a quarter-grain of morphine. He rolled her part way toward him, pulled her shorts down slightly and jammed the needle into her butt. “This should help.”

He packed the gash under her eye, but had to be careful because of the fracture. Just then, two Riley County EMS crews charged through the doors. Doug pointed one toward Scott and directed the other behind the bar.

“Gimme the bullet, Doc,” said a female EMT who knelt next to Amanda.

“20-year old, white female, punched with a fist. Has a four-inch cut below left eye, possible orbital
fracture. BP is 88/52, pulse 140, respirations 22. She just had a quarter-grain of morphine. Slightly shocky.  Her name is Amanda.”

The Riley County crew took over and Scott returned to Roni. “Probable corneal abrasions, minor cuts to the face and arms. BP 112/72, pulse 68, respirations 16. I gave her a quarter-grain,” Todd told his crew.

They brought in two gurneys and loaded up the girls. Todd and Scott followed them out the door. As Scott started to climb in with them, one of the other EMTs tried to stop him.

“Sorry, Doc,” he said. “You can’t ride with us.”

“Sorry, Doc, but that’s my fiancé and the other girl is my partner’s girlfriend.”

The other EMT waved Scott in with Roni while Todd jumped in with Amanda.

“ Mercy ER,” shouted the driver.

Scott grabbed Roni’s hand. Both of her eyes were bandaged. “I’m here baby,” he said tenderly.

“Hey, Footer?”

“If I promise to quit at the Apple, can I still work at Kite’s?”

“We’ll talk about it later.”

It was just after 0200. Scott and Todd sat in the waiting room of the surgical ward. Roni was going to OK; they were keeping her overnight for observation and she was sound asleep. Amanda was in surgery. They were trying to stabilize the break under her eye.

“Well, we sure know how to show the girls a good time, don’t we?” Todd said warily.

“Yeah. We’re just fucking awesome, aren’t we?” Scott answered.

“Guess you were right about tonight.”

“You know, I love being an EMT. Between Fort Sam and here, it’s been a rush. But God, tonight I felt like a fucking amateur. I panicked. I saw Roni bleeding and I panicked.”

“Are you kidding? You were Hawkeye motherfucking Pierce out there, Mitch. You cleaned Roni’s eyes out and stabilized Amanda. I’ve been at this six months longer than you, dude. You were a fucking machine out there.”

Across the waiting area a set of elevator doors opened and four figures stepped out – an MP captain, along with three people in street clothes. A large man with red hair stepped out first. Scott immediately recognized him as Col. Thomas Ledford, the Irwin Army Hospital commander. Spending as much time around the hospital as they did, Scott and Todd knew him well. He even came in and helped out in the ER sometimes.

Scott kicked Todd’s foot. “Attention.” They both came to their feet.

“Here are the men, sir,” the MP captain said.

“Thank you captain.
That will be all,” said Col. Ledford. “Specialist Mitchell, Specialist Marquis, at ease. These are Amanda’s parents, Col. and Mrs. Griffith. They just came in from Wichita.”

Scott and Todd saluted. “Pleased to meet you both, sir,” Todd said.

“I understand you two took care of our daughter tonight,” Col. Griffith said. “I just wanted to thank you.”

“Just doing our jobs, sir,” Scott said. “It’s why they pay us.”

“You’re her neighbor, aren’t you, Scott?” asked Mrs. Griffith.

“Yes ma’am.”

“And it’s your fiancé who was also hurt?”

“Yes ma’am, but she’s OK. She’ll go home in the morning.”

“And, Todd, I understand you’ve become friends with our daughter, too?” asked the colonel.

“Yes sir.”

“Well, she doesn’t always make the best friends, but it looks like she chose well this time,” he said. “We are in your debt, both of you.”

“We take care of each other, sir,” Scott said.

The colonel shook both of their hands and Mrs. Griffith hugged them both.

“Gentlemen,” Col. Ledford said. “Why don’t you get out of here? You’ve had a long day. And by the way, you both also have three additional days off.”

“Thank you, sir,” Todd said, “but we’d at least like to stay until Amanda gets out of surgery. Besides, we don’t have a ride. My car is back at Manhattan High School.”

“Tell you what, Mitchell,” the Colonel said. “I’ll run you over to get Marquis’ car. He can stay here with the Griffiths. When Amanda’s out of surgery, you guys can go get some sleep. And that’s an order.”

“Yes sir,” Scott said.

****

CHAPTER 23

“OK Footer, we’re here. What was the big fucking hurry?”

Roni and Amanda stood in the middle of the living room, dressed in jeans and sweaters, looking ready for a casual night out. Scott wore his favorite jeans and a burgundy and gold rugby shirt; and Todd jeans and a long-sleeved K-State sweatshirt.

They were all ready for a night out. But it was only 3:00 PM, on the afternoon of Nov. 9.

“Ladies, out to the Sky Bird,” Scott said, as he fished the car keys out of Roni’s big purse. “We have plans for the evening.”

“Evening?
It’s 3:00, Scott,” Amanda said. “Define evening.”

“Load it up babe,” Todd said. “We have things to do,
places to go, people to see.”

Out in the carport, they loaded their coats into the trunk and piled into the car. Scott actually had it washed and detailed. In the back seat with Todd and Amanda
was a cooler of Coors, and six neatly rolled joints of some sweet Hawaiian that Todd scored sat in Scott’s silver cigarette case.

“OK, so where are we going, Footer?” Roni asked, looking somewhat skeptically at him as they pulled off of K-177 toward I-70. “It’s a Wednesday night, I have work, Amanda has school; what’s the fucking deal?”

“You ask too many questions, baby,” he answered with a wry smile, lighting one of the joints. “Can’t two guys take their best girls out for an evening?”

“OK,” Amanda said. “But what’s the occasion?”

“Oh,” Todd said, “we just thought you deserved it.”

They did.

The weeks since that night at the Poison Apple had been rough on all of them. Amanda spent four days in Mercy in Manhattan, then as soon as she was released, her parents took her back to Wichita so she could see a plastic surgeon. She didn’t come back for nearly three weeks. They visited a couple of times, but she was glad to get back to Manhattan. And Todd.

Roni’s cuts weren’t too bad and after six weeks, the scars barely showed. But she also still couldn’t tolerate her contacts, so she was wearing her glasses, which she didn’t like a bit.

“I look like a dork in these,” she told Scott more than once.

“I think you look beautiful anyway,” he told her. But she’d get pissed. It wasn’t the glasses, really.

Like the lingering scar on Amanda’s face, the glasses were a reminder of that night.

Neither of the girls had slept well since then and they both were having nightmares. A lot of mornings when Scott worked an overnight, he’d come home and the girls would be asleep upstairs in Scott and Roni’s big bed. And judging by the Kleenexes, cigarette butts in the ashtray, sweet smell of pot smoke and TV still on, they had probably talked more than slept.

They both quit at the Poison Apple, but still worked a couple of nights a week and home football Saturdays at Kite’s, which was much more tame. They went out as either couples or as a group quite a bit, but they hadn’t really ventured very far out of Manhattan.

“OK, we’re going to Topeka?” Amanda was asking Todd as they made their way toward the downtown area of the state capital.

“Going through Topeka,” Todd said, popping open a beer. “We still have a ways to go.”

Roni smiled and lit a cigarette. “OK Footer, what are you up to? Are we going to KC?”

“Well, we could be going to KC.”

Todd and Amanda were pretty much a couple. On his and Scott’s days off, he usually stayed with her. There was sex and all the fun stuff, but emotionally, Amanda kept him at arm’s length. Roni told Scott that Amanda was still having flashbacks to that night and – at times – Todd was too much of a reminder of it.

Roni had been busy since that night working on wedding plans. It was going to be very formal; the girls all in elegant black evening dresses with long white evening gloves. The guys were all wearing black tuxes with red ties. Scott would be in tails with a white bow tie.

They had almost quit cigarettes before that night, but that went by the wayside. Roni was back up to almost a pack a day. Scott tried to say something, but it didn’t go well.

“After everything that’s happened, you’re fucking worried about THAT?” she screamed at him at Kite’s one night. “Look at my scars, Scott! You’re really telling me I can’t have a fucking cigarette?”

He dropped it and he even started smoking more again. It had been a trying six weeks.

Scott guided the Sky Bird toward downtown Kansas City, picking the right time of day to be headed eastbound on I-70 toward the skyline of the city. It was bumper-to-bumper at 5:00 headed westbound. Just as they crossed the state line, he pulled off on the exit that read “Kemper Arena/Stockyards/Gennessee Avenue.”

“What’s going on at Kemper?
A Kings’ game?” Roni asked. “We’re going to a basketball game?”

“Nope,” Scott answered.
“Maybe next time.”

Kemper Arena loomed in front of them, dark and deserted. Just before they reached it, he turned into a parking lot.

“Oh, shit! Roni, they’re taking us to the Golden Ox!”

The Golden Ox was one of the oldest and most famous steak houses west of the Mississippi and it was the centerpiece of the Kansas City Stockyards. And it was expensive.

“Footer,” Roni whispered, “we can’t afford this right now.”

“Yeah we can,” he answered. He kissed her and looked at her with both love and assurance. “We’re here to have fun tonight. Please have fun. Money is no object for once.”

“OK, baby, if you say so,” she said, then turned to Amanda. “Lobster and martinis, baby girl!!!”

Dinner was divine. The girls indeed both ordered huge lobster dinners, and doggie bags to go with them. Todd had a T-bone and Scott ordered prime rib. It was a feast like none of them had enjoyed in months.

After dessert, they walked back outside. Scott handed the ticket to the valet parking attendant and as they waited, the girls both hugged their guys. Roni and Scott both smiled when they heard Amanda quietly said “I love you” to Todd.

“This has been wonderful,” Roni said. “I can’t believe you guys drove us 130 miles for dinner. You’re amazing.”

“Well, we’re not quite done with the night, just yet,” Scott said.

Back in the Sky Bird on I-70, it seemed as if they were headed back to Manhattan, when Scott abruptly pulled off onto the Seventh Street exit in Kansas City, Kan., and into a literal combat zone.

“OK, you’re taking us on a date to the ghetto?” Amanda asked. “You realize Roni and I have purses and vaginas and everything, right?”

“
Shhhh,” Scott said. “Just pay attention.”

Within minutes, they pulled up toward a large brick building with formal white columns in front. The marquee read “Memorial Hall welcomes ‘The Stranger!’

“Oh. My. God.” Roni stammered. “You landed Billy Joel tickets? FOOTER, I love you!”

“No shit?” Amanda asked Todd.

“No shit. Scott, here’s that parking pass.”

Doug the cop had a friend on the KCK police force secure them a security pass. Scott flashed it and they were directed to a lot right next to the building, about 30 feet from Billy Joel’s tour bus.

“This has been sold out for two months! How did you get these?” Amanda wondered.

“Well, there’s this girl who works in the hospital lab, Trish Lewis. She broke up with her boyfriend two weeks ago and the other people going with them backed out, so she just put them up for grabs,” Todd said.