Never Close Enough (23 page)

   “Ma’a
m?  Do you have any spare change?”

   Ella exhaled loudly.  Transients were part of the territory in Portland.  There were people begging for money on most busy streets and as a Portlander you just learned how to deal with it.  She took a step closer to th
e glass door and shouted to him.

   “I don’t have any money.  I’m sorry.”

   “Do you have any food? I’m hungry.”

   “No, I’m sorry.  There isn’t any food here.”  The man started looking from side to side.  He finally raised his head far enough up that she
could see his face.  Before she could get a good look at him though, he pulled something out of his pocket and pointed it at her.  She heard glass shattering and something pushed her shoulder back with brutal force.  She was stumbling backwards and then she felt herself falling.  Then everything went black.

Porter

   Porter drove as fast as his truck could carry him safely.  He managed to make it more than halfway and he started to calm down a little.  He was no longer shaking and his heart rate seemed t
o be back to normal.  But his thoughts kept wandering to Ella and he knew the closer he got to her, the more worried he was going to get.

   He saw the sky scrapers of the Portland skyline come into view and he knew he was getting close.  He was able to sh
ave about twenty minutes off the commute just by driving way too fast.  His GPS gave him direct instructions to her store, but he was still a little confused by all the one-way streets.  It was obvious that his big construction truck wasn’t made to navigate the streets of downtown Portland.

   He came upon the last turn until he reached her store, but there were barricades up and police men redirecting traffic.  He continued down the street while the GPS recalculated his directions and it led him to the sam
e street, just a few blocks down.  Again, when he came up to the street he was supposed to turn on, it was blocked off by police.  He suddenly got a terrible feeling in his gut.  He pulled off to the side of the road, not really caring if he was parked in a legitimate spot or not.  He got out his phone and dialed Ella.  It rang a few times and then went to her voicemail.  He heard her sweet voice asking him to leave a message.

   “Hey, Babe, I’m trying to get to your store, but all the streets are blocked o
ff.  I don’t know what’s going on, but I can’t get to you and it’s making me nervous.  Call me when you get this.  Love you.”

   Just as he finished his message he saw an ambulance pull through the barricades, sirens blaring.  Something in him snapped.  He
got out of his truck and jogged towards the police officer manning the barricade.

   “Sir, this street’s blocked off right now.  No vehicle or pedestrian traffic allowed through.”

   “Listen, Officer, I’m supposed to pick up my girlfriend at her store just down this street.  Can I just walk there?  We’ll leave right away.  I just want to go get her.”

   “Which store is she at?”  The officer asked.

   “Poppy.  It should be just up one block on the left.”  The cop turned around to look down the block and when he turned around his face had gone from all business to regretful.

   “Listen, Sir.  We had a robbery down this block about twenty minutes ago.  A suspect broke into a place of business and the owner was present.  She suffered some injuries and she is
being taken to the hospital right now.”

   Porter heard the words he had said, but couldn’t understand what they meant.  He shook his head a few times and looked past the officer towards where most of the commotion was happening.  There were at least seve
n police cars parked along the street, another ambulance and a fire truck.  Police officers were scattered around the street.

   “What do you mean?  Which store was robbed?”

   “I’m sorry to tell you it was Poppy.”

   Porter stumbled back a step.

   “No,” Porter demanded, hoping the officer was mistaken.

   “I’m terribly sorry.  They took her to the hospital just a few minutes ago.”

   “What happened to her?!”

   “Sir, I’m really sorry but I cannot give you any specific information.  I can tell you she was
taken to OHSU up on the hill.”  The officer pointed behind Porter and vaguely motioned towards a foothill on the other side of the sky scrapers.

   “Was she hurt?  Are you sure it was Ella?”

   “Sir, there was only one person there, a female, about thirty years old.  I can’t give you any more information.”

   Porter turned around and made his way back to the truck.  Once he got in he picked up his phone and tried to plug the hospital name into his GPS.  His fingers were shaky and he kept hitting the wrong k
ey.

   “Shit!” he yelled as he threw his phone down on his seat.  He breathed heavy and his hands shook.  He raked his hands through his hair and forced himself to take deep breaths in through his nose and out of his mouth.  With his eyes closed, he tried
to picture Ella as he last saw her.  She was up against her car with her arms wrapped around his neck, smiling up at him with more love in her eyes than he ever hoped he would see reflected back at him.  He was so close to losing his mind but he needed to get to Ella.  He would find time to process these feelings later.  Right now he needed to find this elusive hospital “on the hill”.

   As he pulled into the emergency room parking lot, he prayed he wouldn’t have to find his way here again because it would
be useless. He threw the truck in park and made his way to the admittance desk at the emergency room.  A woman behind the desk smiled politely at him.

   “Can I help you, Sir?”

   “Yes.  My girlfriend was brought here by ambulance a few minutes ago.  I need to see her.  Can you tell me where she is?”

   “What is her name?”

   “Ella.  Ella Sinclair.”  The woman behind the desk typed furiously, and when she stopped typing, she looked back up at him with strained eyes.

   “Ok, Miss Sinclair was taken into emer
gency surgery.  You can take the elevator up to level 8 and you will see the surgical waiting room.  Wait there and I will notate that she has visitors waiting.  The surgeon will update you when they get a chance.”

   “Surgery?  What happened to her?  What
are her injuries?”

   “Sir, I cannot tell you any more information.  You will have to wait until the doctor updates you.  I am sorry.”

   Porter felt like a mouse in a maze.  All he wanted was to get to Ella, but every road was a dead end.  His hands gripped the woman’s desk so hard he began to feel tingling in his fingers.  He bent down so that his head level with the counter, trying to reign in the frustration that was slowly taking over.  He took a few deep breaths and then pushed off the desk and headed towards the elevators.

   Once he was in the waiting room, he couldn’t sit still.  The room was empty but for some chairs and a few magazines.  A television was hanging from the ceiling in the corner of the room, but it was turned down low and Porter cou
ldn’t concentrate on anything except watching the door, waiting for someone to come and tell him that Ella would be fine.  That she would be released shortly and that her injuries were minimal.  He would go to see her and she would smile at him and he would kiss her forehead and hold her hand while she slept.

  He heard the door open and his head snapped up hoping to talk to a doctor about Ella, but the only person who came in the room was another man who was obviously waiting for someone as well.  He looke
d like he’d had better days.  His nose looked broken and Porter assumed he’d been in some sort of car accident and was waiting for someone, just like he was.  The two men made eye contact and exchanged small smiles of commiseration. 

   Porter sat until h
e felt like he was going to explode.  He started to pace around the room but nothing seemed to help.  All he kept thinking about was how he might be losing Ella that very moment and how he would never be able to tell her he loved her again, or feel the warmth of her hand in his.  He would give anything just to hold her and know everything was going to be ok.

   Suddenly, the door opened again and Porter hopefully looked towards the door and let out a sigh when he saw Megan come through the doors.  Megan loo
ked at him with a confused look.  Then her eyes moved to the other man in the room and he saw a panic come over her.

   “Porter?  What are you doing here?”  Megan walked towards him.

   “Ella called me and asked me to pick her up from her store, but when I got there the police told me she had been taken here.”

   Megan’s eyes darted to the other man in the room again.  He was sitting in his chair watching Porter and Megan.

   “Have you heard anything about her condition?” Porter asked Megan.

   “How do you
know Ella?”  The man asked as he slowly stood from his chair.  Porter turned towards the man.

   “Excuse me?”

   “I said,” his voice sounding serious all of a sudden, “How you know Ella?”

   Porter didn’t exactly know how to answer that question.  He told
the woman at the admittance desk that Ella was his girlfriend, but the labels of boyfriend and girlfriend seemed to pale in significance for what he felt towards her.  He hated to cheapen their relationship by calling her a girlfriend when he felt like she mattered so much more than the word implied.

   “She’s my girlfriend.”

   “Oh, really?”  The man said with a smile on his face that looked more menacing than friendly.

   “Kyle, calm down,” Megan said.  “Why are you even here?”

   “I’m Ella’s in-case-of-emergency person.  The hospital called me when she was brought in.”

   Realization dawned on Porter and he saw red.  He lunged across the room at Kyle and his fist instantly connected with his jaw.  Kyle reeled backwards from the blow but stayed
on his feet.  He heard Megan scream in the back of his mind, but continued towards Kyle.  He wrapped both of his hands around his neck and slammed his head up against the wall, bringing his face just inches from Kyle’s.

   “What the hell did you do to her
?”  Kyle sputtered and coughed, not able to get enough air into his system to speak clearly.  “I’ll kill you for putting your hands on her,” Porter growled.  He removed one hand from Kyle’s neck and slammed his fist into his stomach.  Kyle fell to his knees, one hand one the ground the other hand clenching his stomach.  He raised his head and looked at Porter.

   “You must be the rebound fuck Ella found at the beach,” Kyle said, spitting blood onto the floor.  “I didn’t do this to Ella.  She was fine when s
he left the apartment.  I don’t know what happened after she left, but I had nothing to do with it.”

   “Kyle, you better get the hell out of here before security comes and before Porter kicks your ass,” Megan said.

   “I’m going to kick his ass regardless of whether or not he leaves.  But if he leaves now I might let his nose heal before I break it again,” Porter said, then pulled a foot back and plowed it into Kyle’s stomach.  Kyle let out a groan when Porter’s booted foot connected with his stomach and he rolled onto his side.

   “Fuck you and fuck her, man.  She isn’t even worth this shit,” Kyle mumbled from the floor.  “You can have her.”

   Porter lost every ounce of restraint he was holding on to and leapt at him again, but was stopped cold when Megan stepped in between them and placed her hands on Porter’s shoulders trying to hold him back.  Megan was no match for Porter and she couldn’t have held him back if she tried, but Porter wasn’t about to hurt Megan to get to Kyle; that wasn’t his style.

   “P
orter, you have to calm down.  They’re going to kick you out of here and then who will be here for Ella?  She needs you to be here when she gets out of surgery.”  Porter took a few deep breaths and knew Megan was right.  Porter looked at Kyle over Megan’s shoulder.

   “Take your sorry ass out of this hospital right now.  Go back to Ella’s house and pack up.  You have twelve hours to move your shit out of her apartment and then you will never see her again.  Do you understand me?  If you ever so much as spea
k her name I will find you and beat the living shit out of you.  Are we clear?”

   “Fuck you.”

   “Kyle, shut the hell up and go,” Megan intervened.  “I will call on the cops on both of you if you don’t leave.  Now.” Kyle struggled to get to his feet, but eventually made his way towards the door.  He opened the door but before he walked through it he turned his head towards Porter.

   “Have fun with that frigid bitch.  She’s as cold as they come, and you’d be smart to just walk away now,” Kyle spat the word
s out.

   “Get. The. Fuck. Out. Now.”  Porter’s body shook and did everything he could to hold himself together.  Kyle left the waiting room and Porter remained standing in front of Megan.  She left her hands on his shoulders and looked as though she was a
fraid that if she removed them he’d go running after Kyle to finish what he’d started.  Porter took a deep breath in and it came out in a rush and he felt a wave of tension flow through him and finally leave his body.  He was suddenly very tired and really wanted to sit down.

   “I’m fine now, Megan.  Thank you for stepping in and stopping me.  I’m not sure I would have stopped on my own.”  Porter ran his hands through his hair as he collapsed into a chair.

   “I suggest you pull yourself together.  My parents are on their way here and I’m sure they’ll be surprised to meet you under these circumstances.”

   Porter stood up and left the room.  He walked down the hall until he found a restroom.  He shoved the door open with so much force it bounced back agains
t the wall.  He walked to the sink and splashed water on his face, trying to bring himself out of the haze of rage.  Fighting was not something he was used to and it wasn’t something he enjoyed doing.  But knowing that Kyle had caused the panic he heard in Ella’s voice the last time he spoke to her was more than enough ammunition to kick his deep-rooted protector role into action.  Kyle’s hateful words about her only pushed him farther past the point of no return.  Porter rested his face in his hands and tried taking deep breaths, but the adrenaline was coursing through his system and making breathing regularly a chore.