In Your Dreams Bobby Anderson (13 page)

“It’s
Susan,” he said again. “I have to see her. Call her, please.” Bobby was desperate.

“But you said your girlfriend was called Maggie,” Emily reminded him
.

It was true. “I don’t understand it either,” he
admitted. “I just know that Susan, the girl in this picture, is the girl. She has to be. I don’t know who this other girl, Maggie, is.”

“I told you, Maggie is her sister. She’s been in a coma for months.
But how do you know either of them?”

Bobby told Emily the
whole story, and what a relief! Now there were two people in the world who knew what was happening to him, except now he knew for sure that he wasn’t crazy. Hooray, he wasn’t crazy!

“But what about Maggie?”
Emily said.

“I don’t know, but she’s not the girl in my dream. It’s Susan.”

“Well, I’m calling Susan. You have to get to the hospital. If Maggie’s communicating with you somehow, the family should know.”

“But she’s not,” Bobby insisted. “I keep telling you, it’s Susan. Susan!”

“If what you say is true, why hasn’t Susan mentioned you? Bobby, she’s my friend. If she was dreaming about you, or even fancied you a little, she would have told me.”

“You have a point.
” Bobby was pensive. “But I haven’t told
my
best friends.”

“Well, Susan
doesn’t keep any secrets from me, so I’m sure she would have mentioned it if she had a crush on you.”

“Well, call her. Let’s get this out in the open and find out what’s really going on
, because I’ve been going crazy these past few months. I even changed my State. I moved here to work on Marionettes, for crying out loud. I hired a private detective. I live at The Dakota! I need to know what’s going on.”

Bobby watched as Emily hit speed dial and got Susan on the phone.
His
Susan.

After a brief explanation
, Emily hung up and turned to Bobby with one eyebrow raised, as if to say,
I told you so
.

“What?” Bobby
practically yelled.

“
Okay, this is how it’s going to work. I can help you, but you have to help me. Is that understood?”

“Help you?
How? Like buy an apartment at The Dakota?”

Emily laughed. “No
sweetie. I don’t mean, “like buy an apartment at The Dakota”. I don’t want you to buy anything. Here’s the deal: I want to be a movie star and I want you to help me. If you promise to get me connected, I’ll bring you to your girl.”

Bobby wante
d to laugh. Emily had to be joking. But no. One look at her face and Bobby could tell that Emily was dead serious. He couldn’t believe that she was actually holding his relationship hostage. How dare she? He didn’t feel like laughing anymore.  He was angry. “You better tell me how to find Susan or you’ll never work in Hollywood, ever!”

“Nice try
, Bobby, but I am a thirty-year-old bitch and you are not going to intimidate me. Now, just promise and we’re all set. All right?”

What was a promise? It was just a verbal contract, after all. Verbal contracts didn’t count. He would promise. And promise
what
exactly? That he would get her connected? Why, a meeting with Patrick would accomplish that. Emily would be on her own from there, and if she didn’t make it, that wouldn’t be his fault. “I promise,” he said, and he didn’t even bother pretending that he meant it.

             
Not wasting time, for she had wasted enough of her years already, Emily grabbed her handbag and Bobby’s arm and led him out of her apartment and back down to the street.

“Where are we going?” Bobby asked.

“The Presbyterian Hospital, where Maggie—”

“
I told you, it’s not Maggie!”

“
It doesn’t matter! We’ll find out soon enough. Maggie’s in trouble. The family needs you.”

Bobby’s cell
phone rang. It was Judge. “I found her,” Judge said quickly. “She’s at the Presbyterian.”

“
Yeah, I know. I’m on my way there now.”

“Um,
it’s a burn center. Did you know that?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard. But she’s not the girl. She’s the girl’s siste
r. It’s confusing.”

“
I’m there now. Do you want me to wait for you?”

“Sure,
just stay where you are. We’re looking for a cab now.”

“
We?”

“M
e and my… friend.”

Silence.

Bobby hung up and waited for Emily to hail down a cab. It didn’t take long. Checking his watch, he saw that it was one o’clock in the morning. There weren’t a lot of people demanding cabs at this hour.  Were there even proper hospital visiting hours at this time?

“The Presbyterian,” Emily demanded. “”And make it quick. We have an emergency.”

Emergency? Bobby was too excited about finding Susan to fully understand the urgency in Emily’s tone earlier. Now it started to sink in. “Emily, what’s going on?”

“
Susan told me to hurry. She says if you can communicate with Maggie you have to do it now. The family is going to take her off of her life support system. The doctors say she’s taken a turn for the worse. Susan is there now watching over her."

Even with
this bad news, all Bobby could think about was Susan sitting in a hospital room waiting for him. He was so relieved to find out that it wasn’t her who was sick, that he just couldn’t allow Maggie’s situation to get him down. He wanted to be just as morose as Emily was, but he was too happy. Instead he focused on the beautiful city lights and what he would say to Susan when they finally met. Maybe something along the lines of, “Susan, my love, I finally found you” or “Oh, how I’ve been looking for you” or “I found the perfect apartment in the East Village where we can make coffee and read the
weekend paper”—which reminded him… “Emily…”

“Yes Bobby.”

“I have a proposition for
you
.”

“
I’m all ears.”

“You want to live in California, right?”

“Right.”

“And I think I want to live in Manhattan.”

“And you want to house swap.”

How did she know? Bobby coughed. “Well, quite frankly, yes. I think it would be a nice change to be in your place, and I’m sure you wo
uldn’t find my place inadequate. Plus, I have a butler.”

“Do you
, now? How quaint.”

Quaint? Who was she calling quaint? “If you’re not interested
—”

“No, I’m interested.” And she
was. Many a night she had dreamed of just such a scenario: cocktails by the pool, mansion in the background. She’d seen pictures of Bobby’s house on the Internet, and of course she already knew that he had a butler; she even knew what he looked like and that his name was Lester. Whether she wanted Bobby in her apartment was another matter. Of course, she could find him someplace else in Manhattan, but there was that dream factor again. Her apartment had got Bobby dreaming, so she would have to sell him the dream. And she too could find a fantastic location in Beverly hills all on her own, but what she wanted was Bobby’s life; that was
her
dream.

As the taxi drove along, Emily thought about
Bobby’s offer. The acting was something she was sure she could do. She wasn’t a little awkward schoolgirl anymore. And now she would have the lifestyle to match. Giving up her place was surely not such a hard sacrifice.

“All right, Bobby. Let’s do it.”

Bobby smiled. His plan was coming together nicely. He had his girl and she was gorgeous, and now he would have his Bohemian lifestyle, which included Broadway. For the first time in a long time, Bobby actually felt rather excited.

CHAPTER 27

They
arrived in front of a deserted hospital at exactly two a.m. Bobby paid for the cab while Emily rushed ahead to talk to the receptionist. After a brief chat with an exhausted looking nurse, they were taken down halls and more halls, under blazing bright lights, through swinging doors and everyone in a rush. It was late, but there was enough activity inside the hospital to sober Bobby up.

At last t
hey arrived at a waiting room that was deserted except for Judge sitting by himself with an empty paper coffee cup in his hand. Bobby couldn’t quite believe it was him. All this time Judge had been stationed in Manhattan with one goal: to find the girl of Bobby’s dreams; and tonight it was really happening. They had done it.

“Judge! He greeted him, and went to e
mbrace his comrade in arms.

Judge was equally happy to see Bobby. It had been a lonely business
staying in the Big Apple for so many weeks by himself. Of course, he was used to the solitary life of a private detective, and he had become closely acquainted with all those sweet girls at the Hard Land Bar; but he didn’t have a single friend here. True, he did know every receptionist in every stinking hospital in Manhattan and Brooklyn, but he was sure that didn’t count.

Oh, how he had hated this assignment with nothing to go on but go
od pay. Money can never be a sole motivator for too long, he realized, and the clock had been ticking at the time Bobby had called him with the new name. After that, it was easy to find the girl; but Bobby wouldn’t like the condition she was in. Judge had convinced one of the nurses earlier that he was investigating Maggie’s case and had to verify the condition of the victim. The nurse, being new at her job and not knowing the condition so well herself, had led Judge to the room.

It didn’t take
the warden long to kick him out and give a lecture to the young nurse about scam artists, rapists, and murderers―how was Judge to explain that he was none of the above? But before being kicked out, he had seen the condition of the girl in question, and it didn’t look good at all. He wanted to warn Bobby, but realized that sometimes you just have to keep quiet. He would let Bobby discover the girl himself.

Judge didn’t
know that Bobby already felt he had fully and all on his own discovered the girl himself. He would pay Judge for his time, of course, but he would let the man know that he wasn’t impressed. Of course, extreme luck would be something he would have to consider later when taking all the credit.

“This way,” Emily directed, famili
ar with the hospital. The nurses had all been informed by the family that Mr. Bobby Anderson was visiting, and that they were to give him full clearance.

Judge trudged along behind, curious about the woman leading them. Who was she? How and when
had she come into the picture? She was tall and seemed to take over the entire corridor as they sped past doors and more doors.

Judge
already knew the way. He had only been inside this particular hospital once, but he had a photographic memory.

He liked following this
Emily person, though. He even liked her looks. She seemed strong, and Judge did like his women strong, but it had proven difficult finding the right one. In other words, he hadn’t. It wasn’t that he was picky (not being much of a stud himself) but for some reason finding a woman who was both physically strong, mentally strong, and sexy all at the same time, had turned out to be a challenge. The way that Emily woman was swaying her hips now, though, as she marched ahead, that was definitely sexy.
Yes, siree
,
this was one hell of an interesting day
.

Nothing
could have prepared Bobby for what he saw when those two doors to Maggie’s room opened. It was all a bit like a slow motion scene from a bad movie. The first thing Bobby spotted, of course, was Susan. Beautiful Susan.

She was sitting
in a chair next to a figure in the only bed in the room; but as soon as they entered she jumped to her feet and ran over the greet them. She was smiling and appeared to be running into his arms. He opened them for her and leaned in for a kiss, but nothing happened. Susan was hugging Emily.

Bobby could tell that she was trembling
. He yearned to reach out for her, touch her, help her as he had done on the island; but she hadn’t seemed to even notice him. He felt that he knew Susan already, and it was strange to be ignored like that.

“Susan?” he asked
, to both the girl of his dreams and Emily, since they were both locked together and eying him like some sort of fresh and unexplored specimen.

“This is the Bobby Anderson I told you about,” Emily
explained, which was even more bizarre, because, of course Susan already knew who he was!

“Yes, I’ve seen you in a couple of movies.
Thank you so much for coming. Emily tried to explain to me on the phone the how’s and why’s of you knowing my sister, but to tell you the truth, I didn’t understand much of it. I’m just hoping that hearing your voice might bring Maggie back. You know, she’s a huge fan of yours. And now that she’s taken a turn for the worse, I’m sort of trying everything I can. I’m really lucky that you were dining with Emily tonight.”

Emily gave Bobby that
look again that said,
I told you so.

Bobby’s
jaw involuntarily dropped open. Judge contemplated shoving his hand under there and setting it back into place, but thankfully he restrained himself.

What Judge didn’t realize was that
it wasn’t the site of Susan that had caused Bobby’s jaw to drop, nor the fact that she didn’t seem to recognize him, but that Susan’s voice did not match Bobby’s dream in the least. Yes, it was similar to the Susan of his dreams, but nowhere near the same. And her eyes: they were green, true, and the shape was similar as well, or perhaps exactly the same as his dreams, but they didn’t look at him the same way. And it dawned on him. The girl in the bed. Was the girl of his dreams.

“Are you all right?” Emily asked him. “You
—” Emily pointed to Judge. “Is he all right?”

Judge shrugged. This woman probabl
y knew Bobby better than he did. What was she asking him for? Maybe it was an excuse to talk to him, Judge hoped.

“Is he going to fa
int again?” Emily asked Judge, as if he was the sudden expert on Bobby Anderson.

“
Look lady, with all due respect, I’ve met this guy once and only talked on the phone with him for a few minutes at a time. We aren’t buddies.”

Bobby wasn’t listening to any of them. He started walking towards the bed. The cold ho
spital bed whose wires and buttons and steel frame could not be disguised with vases of flowers and get-well cards.

“Do you know her?” Susan
asked. “Do you know my sister?”

Bobby looked down at the unfamiliar face and nodded. “Yes,” he chocked. “
I know her.” He started to cry. The tears fell so easily; dripping down his cheeks with an ease he hadn’t experience since he was a boy. He had finally found her. It was a relief and a disaster at the same time. “I’m here,” he whispered to the girl. “I’m here. Think of me. Take me to you.”

Bobby knelt next to the bed and searched for Maggie’s hand
, but he couldn’t find it under all the linen. He wanted to touch her at last. He had made love to this woman. He had walked an island with her. He had promised her things and she had trusted him. Bobby picked up the sheet that covered her and saw that Maggie’s arms and hands were wrapped in gauze. Her entire body was wrapped in the same gauze. Only her head and face were left untouched.

“What happened?” he asked at last.

Susan stepped forward and touched Bobby’s arm. “Maggie was at a party in a night club in Brooklyn. There was a fire and the kids were all up dancing on the third floor. They panicked; but Maggie was smart, or she thought she was.”

Susan paused to clear her throat. It was hard for her to tell the story of her sister.
“You see, Maggie was wearing a cotton shirt. She’s so boring. Even to a club she wears cotton. If it had been me, I would have had on some shiny number, but not my sister. Anyway, she takes off her shirt and wraps it over her head and tries to run up the stairs from the dance floor. And she’s running like that, you know, to protect her face.”

Bobby nodded to show that he did know.

Susan sniffed and looked at her beautiful sister. “I don’t know why she did that, you know? I guess, and I’m just guessing, she did it so that she wouldn’t breathe in the smoke. She was just thinking about saving her life. I’m sure that was why.

Bobby didn’t
quite understand the disappointment in Susan’s voice. If it were he, he would have done the same. Saving his face would have been his number one priority. It was nothing to be ashamed of. Why was Susan acting like it was so bad, or pretending that that wasn’t what Maggie had tried to do and that she was in fact trying to stop the smoke? But he didn’t want to interrupt, so he just nodded again.

“
She was running up the stairs,” Susan continued, “but the crowd panicked and she fell, and they just ran over her.”

“A stampede,
” Bobby said.

“Exactly
. They just ran over her and left her there. They left her to burn!” Susan felt the anger well up in her again. She didn’t even bother to push it down this time. “She was burning to death, and every one of her so called friends made it out of there.” Her voice started to shake. “They are all fine now, lucky them. Do you know how
she
got out?” Susan asked Bobby, but looking directly at her sister. “She crawled to a window and jumped. That’s how she got out of that damn club; that’s why she’s in a coma now; and that’s why she’s like this.” Susan gestured to the body lying on the bed. “She’ll never play the violin or cello again. If she wakes up and finds out, it will kill her.”

Bobby understood the story at last. Maggie had sacrificed her body for her face
, and had lost the use of her hands in the process. That was why Susan was so upset. She actually blamed Maggie.

“If she hadn’t put that damn shirt on her face,” Susan
continued, “she’d have made it out of there. She would have survived. But she couldn’t see!”

Bobby felt compelled to say something to comfort Susan, but what he really wanted was to be left alone with Maggie. He wished they’d all just get out so that he could look at her in his own time and get to know this ne
w face. It was a beautiful face: more beautiful than Susan’s. Susan was pretty, there was no doubt about it, and if Maggie had been her he would not have been disappointed, but Maggie was like an angel. How did he get so lucky that this girl would dream of him?

And this is where
we pause and realize that Bobby really was in love, because Maggie, although pretty in her own right, was no angel. She was just a nice looking twenty-year old with smooth pale skin, elegant cherry lips, long red hair, and eyebrows to die for. But no Grace Kelly, or even a Michelle Pfeiffer; let’s be clear on that.

“So, how do you know her
?’ Susan asked, wiping her teary eyes. “She never mentioned that she’d met you before…before the accident.” Susan choked out the last words.

Bobby touched Maggie’s forehead and r
emembered the last time he had seen her. “Emily said Maggie had worsened, and it’s true. I was with her a few hours ago and she was…” Bobby couldn’t say the word “dying”.

“What do you mean you were
with her
? How can you have been with her? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“He dreams of her,” Emily explained.

“That’s impossible.” Judge felt compelled to join the conversation, if only to get Emily’s attention.

“You’re right,” Bobby nodded. “It’s impo
ssible, but it happened. But it’s she who dreams of me, not the other way around. Susan, do you read articles about me to her?”

“W
—ell,” Susan flustered. I know she likes your movies and was—is!—a big fan; so to keep her spirits up and to have something to talk to her about, I used to read the gossip columns. B―but, with all respect, I don’t believe you. Why are you trying to get in here and tell…well, tell lies, quite frankly. You have to be lying.”

“Do you play her classical music on Wednesdays
?” Bobby asked.

“Y
es. I was told it’s good to have a routine, so on Wednesdays we have classical music days. I wasn’t sure if we should or not, considering her hands. I was hoping for a reaction. But how do you know that?”

“
She doesn’t like it. She wants something more fun. What did she say again? Paul Simon. And, who is Sheila?”

Susan
stumbled backwards. “Sheila is our mother,” She exclaimed. “Wednesdays are her days. Why would you check on that? How do you know all of this?”

“Look,” Bobby said
, with as much conviction as he could muster. “I’m not some sort of con-artist. I came to New York to find a girl who I thought was called Susan because that’s what she said her name was; although, come to think of it, I was the one who called her that because her T-shirt said Susan on it and I assumed that was her name. She didn’t really seem to know her name. I guess she was confused.” He was ranting on now, not explaining himself properly.

“Look,
” he continued. “When she hears about me, she thinks about me and brings me to this island where she’s sort of living now. She’s trying to build a shelter there. I don’t know if that means something to you? But maybe what she needs to do is get off the island instead, you know, get back to us, here.”

“It does mean something
.” Susan hunched her shoulders and looked at her sister. “When we were really young we pretended we lived on this deserted island. It was just a hump in the park, nothing special, but she said it was an island and I played along. She said she would like to build a house on it and live there forever. I think she didn’t want to go home because our parents were in the middle of a divorce and she wasn’t happy at home. Neither of us was.”

“So she doesn’t want to come home
, and that’s why she wants to build a shelter; but she’s not doing well. She has to get off that island. Can you talk to her about me now? Maybe I can get to her.” Bobby put his hand on Susan’s shoulders. “I believe I can talk her into coming home.”

“This is crazy,” Susan shook her head. “It’s just too weird.
And what did you mean about the T-shirt?”

“
I’ll explain that another time. But right now, what do you have to lose?”

“Let him at least try,”
Emily said, taking her friend’s hand and squeezing it gently. “You’ve tried everything else.”

“Give my boy a chance,” Judge added, still trying to get Emily to notice him
again.

“All right,” Susan sighed. “What do I tell her?”

“It has to be something that will really grab her attention,” Bobby said, “but not shock her.” He remembered the time Susan thought he was looking for a different girl. Considering the critical condition she was in now, it probably wasn’t a good idea to upset her.

“
Do you have any suggestions?”

“How about you tell her that Bobby hired a famous private detective to find a girl name Maggie?”
Judge suggested.

“Or that he hired one of the most exclusive
brokers in New York City?” Emily said.

“Either one is fine.
” Bobby touched Maggie’s warm cheek. “Let’s just try it. I’m going to sit on the floor, in case.” Bobby sat down close to Maggie’s bed and rested his head against the cold metal frame.

Susan sat down in the chair next to
the bed and started talking. “Hey, sis. Guess what? I just got the latest gossip on Bobby Anderson.” She stopped and shook her head, not quite believing what she was tempting.

“Go on,” Emily whispered.

Susan nodded and tried again, trying to sound as upbeat as she could. “Can you believe he’s in New York City? Well, you knew that already, and that he’s staying at The Dakota; but it says he hired this famous private detective and this well-known broker, and they are all looking for this girl called Maggie. And I thought it was probably you. It’s you, isn’t it Maggie? Bobby is looking for you. Isn’t that amazing? Your favorite star has the hots for you. You must be the luckiest girl in America right now.”

Susan stopped talking
and wiped fresh tears from her eyes. Everyone looked at Maggie for some sign, a blink, anything. They heard a soft thud. It was Bobby’s body, slunk down onto the cold hospital floor.