33. Zeke
Zeke
We don’t waste a second rushing into the emergency room, our eyes frantically roaming around the room. Then we see him sitting in the chair, arms resting on his lap, eyes focused straight ahead. Just like us, he’s still in his gear.
As much as we wanted to leave, we knew we had a job to do.
Jay was with her and would keep us updated.
We still had a fire to manage and people to save.
Once the fire was under control and we were back at the firehouse, Captain let us go.
He knew we’d be of no use to him with our minds somewhere else.
“Jay,” I call out loudly as Eli and I rush over to him.
“How is she?” Eli asks him, as we take a seat on either side of him, As I sit down, I have to pick up the picture in the seat he’s left there. Jay reaches over, taking it from me. It’s one I’ve looked at many times from Selena’s apartment; the one of her and her dad sitting in the porch swing.
“I don’t know. They took her back, and I haven’t heard anything since.” His voice soft and broken.
“Do they know we’re family?” I ask.
“Yeah. I told them I was her stepbrother. I figured it would get me back to see her.”
“She’s going to be okay.” I say it more for myself than them. She has to be. If only we’d been more forceful about her not staying in that death trap. “Captain says some of the residents reported that no fire alarms went off to alert them.”
Another regret. If we only talked to the captain sooner about the inspection, just maybe he would’ve had a chance to check on the reports.
Now she’s not going to have a place to go home to. All her belongings are lost. Damaged in the destruction. The thought sits heavy in my chest. The only bright side is maybe this is just the push we need to have her move in with us. I know there’s no way in hell she’ll want to stay with her mom.
The waiting room is full of people, yet it feels empty.
It’s as if there’s a bubble around us, holding us in some type of time freeze.
The harsh fluorescent lights buzz overhead, causing my head to ache.
The chairs are uncomfortable, but I barely notice anymore.
My eyes stay locked on the double doors leading back into the emergency department where all the patients are.
Every time they swing open, my heart jumps, hoping that the person coming out has news on Selena. But every time it does, it’s never about her.
There’s nothing for us to do but sit and wait.
"Have they been out at all?" I finally ask, rubbing my sweaty hands down my pants.
Jay doesn't take his eyes off the doors, just shakes his head. I let out a deep sigh and slouch in my chair.
Silence settles over us again. I rub my fingers along my forehead, trying to ease the building headache. Why can’t someone give us a fucking update?
"Should we call her mom?" Eli asks after a few minutes. "She should know.”
I let out a groan and drag a hand down my face.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Jay replies as his body shifts in the chair, as his fingers grip the photo tighter.
"Trust me, I know. But she’s Selena’s mom. If they need any medical information, she’d be able to give it to them. We don’t know anything.” The bitterness slips out before I can stop it.
Jay sighs. "We should. But let's wait until we find out something first. The docs may not need anything. No need to have her upset, especially when we tell her she’s coming home with us."
“Fuck yeah, she is,” I mumble.
"I made sure Sanchez knew that she’s been sick and not keeping anything down.”
God knows how long she'd been trapped in there. Fighting to breathe. Wondering if this was it. Even with all that, she somehow managed to help her neighbor, when no one else could, or would.
She’s a fighter. It’s why I know she’s going to be okay.
"What about her boyfriend?" I don't even have to look at Eli or Jay to know they’re now both ready to gouge their eyes out at my suggestion. "Should we try to let him know?"
"How?" Jay asks.
I hesitate for a second, then I reach into my pocket and pull out her phone.
"While you were saving her most treasured memory, I may have picked up her phone," I confess. "It just needs to be charged."
Both their heads turn toward me, and I just give an awkward half smile.
"What kind of charger?" Eli asks immediately, standing up his eyes quickly scanning the lobby.
I flip it over and check the port. "C charger."
Without another word, Eli stands and heads toward the nurses' station. A couple minutes later he returns holding a charging cable.
"Give me the phone,” he orders and I hand it over to him. He checks behind our chairs then looks over to the corner and heads in that direction. He plugs it in and sits down in the empty chair holding it in his hand like it’s precious cargo.
Then we're back to waiting. Only now we're watching two things. The hospital doors and the phone.
When we’re sure it has enough charge, we turn the screen on.
Five percent.
Not enough. We need more. I just hope she has his name programmed in the phone and not some silly nickname.
My knee starts to bounce, and Eli begins pacing the floor in front of us. None of us want to call Sam, but we’re doing it for Selena. If Sam’s not being here to provide her comfort and medical information to the doctors, that may cause her condition to worsen, then we’d hate ourselves.
For a second, guilt twists in my stomach. It feels wrong going through her phone. It’s a violation of her privacy. It’s not like we’ll be snooping, just looking for one number. If something happened to me, I'd want someone to call the people who cared about me.
I’m thankful she doesn’t have a password on her phone and open her contacts.
“It has enough charge,” I rush out, picking up the phone and opening her contact list. There are more names than I expected. My thumb hovers over several entries before landing on one.
Sam.
I stare at it.
Praying it's the right one.
"Call him," Eli suggests. “This news shouldn’t come through a text and we want to make sure he gets here as fast as he can.”
I hit call.
The phone rings.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then someone answers.
"Selly?" A deep voice asks groggily before becoming frantic. "Are you okay? How is—"
"This isn't Selena."
"Who the fuck is this and what are you doing with her phone?"
"This is Zeke. Her..." I swallow hard. "Her stepbrother." The words taste bitter and it kills me to say them. It should be me saying I’m her boyfriend. One of them.
"What's going on? Why do you have her phone?” I hear a rustling noise in the background, and the mumbled sounds of someone speaking.
I take a breath.
"There was a fire in her building." The waiting room suddenly feels small, as if everyone can hear what I’m saying. "She was found unconscious."
I hear him suck in a sharp breath.
"She's currently at the hospital," I add.
The panic on the other end is instant.
"What hospital?" I give him the name. "I'm coming. I'm booking the next flight out."
I glance at Jay and Eli.
“What have they told you? Is she okay?”
"The doctor hasn’t been out to tell us anything," I say. "We're still waiting."
"Okay." His breathing is uneven. "Okay."
He repeats it like he's trying to convince himself.
“Can you get me the number to the hospital, to the emergency room?”
“Yeah. I can text it to you.”
"Thank you." The line disconnects. Just like that.
I lower the phone as the screen goes dark in my hand.
Eli goes back to the nurses’ station and gets a number for Sam to contact. When he comes back with the tiny slip of paper, I quickly text it to him. Then we go back to waiting. The television mounted in the corner drones on about weather and traffic, but nobody’s paying attention.
A nurse laughs somewhere down the hall. A phone rings at the reception desk. Life keeps moving while we sit and do nothing.
I lean forward, clasping my hands together, staring at those double doors again.
Come on, somebody come give us some news.