Undermind: Nine Stories by Edward M Wolfe Page B

one,” Dave said, pointing at yet another house
with a white truck in the driveway.
    “No problem,” Danny replied, and fired off
another four rounds.
    ***
    When he got out of the SUV at the hospital, Dave
was shaking like crazy. His ears were still ringing and everything
felt unreal. The same parking lot he was in thirty minutes ago
looked completely different to him now. Even the hospital looked
different. So did the sky. Everything had changed.
    He went back in the rear exit on wooden legs and
tried to clear the ringing in his ears by forcing himself to yawn
and wiggling his jaw around. The fluorescent lights in the hallway
seemed unnecessarily bright as he made his way back to the
restroom. He entered and bumped into a man on his way out. He was
old and looked morose. Dave stammered an apology as he brushed past
him. The man left without saying a word or looking back at him.
    No one else was in the room so he got down and
slid under the stall. His phone and shoes were still there. He
quickly put his shoes on with his still shaking hands, slipped his
phone into his pocket, then went out and rinsed his face several
times before leaving the restroom and heading back to the waiting
area.
    Sometime later, he had no clue how much later
since time had both stopped and seemed to have gone sideways, a
nurse approached him.
    “Mr. Parsons?” she asked.
    Dave jumped up. “Yes?”
    “Your wife is out of surgery and she’s going to
be just fine. I’ll come back and let you know when you can see her.
She’s still sedated and will need some time. Okay, sweetie?”
    “Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much.”
    Dave went outside through the emergency doors
and was glad to find someone out there smoking a cigarette. He
offered the man a dollar for a cigarette. The man declined the
offer and gave him one for free.
    Dave stood next to the man, silently taking deep
drags and blowing the smoke up into the sky slowly, wondering if
his plan was going to work, or if it would backfire and turn Ron
into a raging maniac.
    He laughed out loud, thinking that Ron was
already a raging maniac before he’d had the holy misfortune of ever
running into the evil bastard. Things couldn’t possibly get any
worse. Could they?
    ***
    When a nurse informed him that it was time to
end his visit with Nikki because she needed her rest, he didn’t
argue, even though there was nowhere else in the world he wanted to
be than beside his wife. Nikki insisted that he go home and get
some decent rest.
    Dave couldn’t stand the way she sounded with her
face all bandaged and swollen. The whole time he’d spent talking to
her, looking at her, and listening to her, all he could think was, I’m going to kill him. I’m going to kill him.
    He kissed her on her forehead and fought back
tears when he said, “I love you, Nikki. I’ll be back in the
morning.” He turned away quickly so she wouldn’t see that he was
crying and left the room.

    The next morning he awoke to the sound of
circular saws and hammers. Then someone knocked on his bedroom
door. It was one of the construction crew who was there working on
Jake’s room.
    “Sorry to bother you, man, but you got cops
bangin’ on your front door.”
    Thoughts rushed around Dave’s mind as he
recalled the night before. The drive with Danny. Seeing Nikki’s
face wrapped up like a mummy. Not able to face Joy and Jake just
yet. Needing be alone; to sleep in his own bed. To feel like
something – anything – in his completely off-kilter world was
normal and familiar.
    Now he could distinguish the rapping at his
front door from the sound of the pneumatic hammers in Jake’s room. Cops. Shit. But maybe they’re just here to give me a status
update on Nikki’s assault.
    He needed coffee before talking to the police,
but he couldn’t just leave them out there knocking, so he went to
let them in.
    “Mr. Parsons, may we have a moment with you?”
one of them asked as soon as he opened the door.
    “Yeah. Come in.