Just Intuition (10 page)

Head wrapped in layers of gauze, mask securely attached, Gina showed no sign of rebellion. She looked barely conscious, but her eyelids flickered open when she was spoken to and a tiny smile at the corner of her mouth hinted at amusement.

When the doctor finally appeared, it didn't take long before he ordered both women admitted to the second floor. Two porters arrived minutes later for the transfer.

"
You're lucky enough to get a shared room so you can talk about your adventure all night." The nurse paused long enough to gently squeeze Gina's shoulder before they were rolled out.

On the second floor, a
beefy looking man waited outside the door to their new room and the porters brushed past him to transfer their patients. With curt nods, they left them in the care of the nursing staff and hurried out.

The beefy man fidgeted in the doorway until the nurse had left and then slowly entered. Worry creased his brow and he literally wrung his hands together. He tentatively touched Gina
's forearm and she opened two swollen and bloodshot eyes. They wavered and then focused on his face.

"Gin…" he began.

She closed her eyes and turned away.

Beside her,
Kathy respectfully cleared her throat and rose to her feet. "I better get on home and get supper for my hubby," she said. "He'll be ordering pizza by now and that's not going to do his cholesterol any favors."

The brawny man sat in the empty chair and avoided looking at Allie. He tore his plaid jacket off, fidgeted with it and then put it back on. He sat back in his chair and then sat forward. Finally, he inched over until he was beside Gina
's bed.

"I promise you," he sputtered. "When I rebuild the store, I'm gonna get a brand new security system. State of the art alarm, fire sprinklers, the works. You're gonna get a promotion."

"Uncle Darryl," Gina mumbled. "You already gave me a promotion."

"I'm gonna give you another one." He rose to his feet so hastily that the chair clattered backwards. He grappled and managed to get it upright. "And a raise. I'm giving you a raise."

"And you promise to pay the alarm monitoring company?" The words grated over her dry tongue.

Erin grunted and narrowed her eyes at him, although he was also avoiding looking at her. She now understood why no emergency vehicles came to the scene until Kathy called it in.

"I will never let that happen again! I swear on my sister's grave!"

"You better not piss off my dead mama." Gina pointed a shaky finger at him.

"I won't! I won't! I swear to God!" Red-faced, he fumbled his way around the cockeyed chair and made his hurried escape.

"Ha." Gina closed sleep encrusted eyelids and her breathing slowed to a deep, even pattern as the oxygen supply hissed.

Allie reached over and pulled the bedcover up around Erin, who had also fallen asleep. She didn't see it, but sensed the dark shadow flit past the entrance to the hospital emergency. Cold fingers squeezed her chest and she caught her breath.

CHAPTER EIGHT

In the morning, Erin was eager to get going. Her parents had delivered her truck, but it took some coaxing to get her to agree to sit in the wheelchair for the ride out. Pride be damned, it was hospital policy, the nurse said. Her tone ensured there would be no argument on that matter.

Her mom gathered her things from the bedside stand, meticulously folding and stuffing them into a plastic bag. Allie stood at the foot of the bed, holding a brightly colored package in fidgeting hands while Erin's dad hustled to retrieve a wheelchair.

Erin gingerly tucked her fresh shirt into the front of her jeans and made her way over to say goodbye to Gina. With a serious head laceration and concussion and painful scrapes down one side of her body, Gina would stay in hospital a while longer. Erin placed a hand gently on her shoulder, and she startled awake.

"It's you," Gina said, creaking her eyes open to puffy slits. A smirk lazily wound its way to her lips. "My teeth are wearing fuzzy little sweaters and I would give my right nipple for a toothbrush right now. I also have wicked road rash, thanks to you." She paused a moment for maximum effect. "It took them four hours in Emerg last night to pick all the gravel out of my skin."

"I
'm so sorry. I'm sick to my stomach over that but I had to—"

"I
'm just messin' with ya," Gina interrupted her with an awkward wink. "I want to thank you for pulling me out of there." Her voice softened, sincerity moistening her eyes.

Erin
's neck felt hot and Gina's cracked lips widened to a toothy smile.

"I
'd be cooked like a Bavarian sausage by now if you hadn't!" Gina laughed. "What pisses me off is how much of my hair they had to cut off to get the duct tape out!" She coughed and a hoarse rattle sounded in her throat. She held up one bandaged hand to her roughly shorn locks. "Used to be past my shoulders and now I look like a diesel dyke!"

Erin involuntarily snorted at the unexpected reference and felt the heat spread to her ears. She shot an apologetic glance to her mom, who conscientiously stared at her shoes.

"You owe me a beer for the road rash," Gina rasped.

Erin
's dad returned with the wheelchair and she reluctantly sat down so her father could maneuver it out the door.

"Thanks for fixing my truck." She craned her neck around while he pushed her down the hospital hallway. Crow
's feet at the corners of his eyes seemed deeper than before and he still wore his navy coveralls with grease stains on the sleeves.

"I had to replace those two tires. Slashed right through the sidewalls. It was lucky Gus
's had them in stock." He was quiet for a moment. "Your mom and I worry about your job—"

"Dad—" Erin stopped him before they rehashed that old issue. He nodded imperceptibly.

"And I changed the oil."

"Thanks Dad."

Allie trailed behind Erin's mom, who marched ahead of them out the doors and into the parking lot. She carried the small bag with Erin's belongings and a loaf of fresh baked zucchini bread that was still warm. Wrapped in brightly colored cellophane, the baking was topped with a big red Get Well bow. It smelled divine.

Erin
's mom ran to fetch their car and her dad helped her into the passenger side of the Tacoma.

"
I'm sure I don't need to tell you to drive safe," Erin's dad said when they left.

"
Don't worry. I'll take care of her." Allie slid behind the wheel and started the engine. She took an inordinate amount of time adjusting the seat and rear view mirror.

"I can hardly wait to get home and take a shower," Erin declared. "I
'm sure I still have soot in my ears and all the little hairs in my nose burned." She held out a gauze-covered arm. "Under this, I look like a boiled chicken! All I smell is smoke and burnt hair—"

"I
'm ready to talk." Allie said.

"Oh, your car
—" Erin looked at her hands.

"I wanted to—" Allie tried again.

"Listen, I will pay for repairs. I'm sorry about parking it so close to the fire. The hood is all heat blistered by the fire, and the sign came down—"

"I
'm not worried about the paint job," Allie interrupted and then backtracked. "What? What about the sign?"

"The nightshift crew visited me last night and told me that the fire guys backed their pumper truck into the sign and it fell onto your car. The big fish crunched right through the sunroof."

"Oh."

Erin tried her lopsided grin but Allie was looking out the front windshield.

"I don't care about the car. I wanted to tell you that I'm ready to talk."

Erin
's eyes widened. "You mean
talk
talk?"

"Yes." A minute passed. "I
'll start and the rules are that you are not allowed to laugh, or make fun of me in any way, or I stop." She looked over at Erin, tension straining the corners of her mouth.

"Of course." Erin sat ramrod straight in her seat.

There was another long pause before Allie began. Her voice trembled. "For as long as I can remember, I just knew things. Not big things, just things. Like when I was little, I always knew when my mom would be home. She worked odd hours as a waitress so her shift often changed. I'd be sitting home with my babysitter, watching cartoons or something and I'd turn the TV off, put away my toys and get into my pajamas. It wasn't something I consciously thought about. There was no moment where I was like, oh mom's coming home now and I better get ready. I did it without thinking. I'd sit by the door and a couple of minutes later, she would walk in and say 'Hi sweetie. It must be time to tuck you into bed.' I assumed everyone could tell when their mom was coming home."

Allie waited tentatively for Erin to nod
encouragement. "When I grew older, I realized that sometimes I knew what was going to happen right before it did. Most of the time it was only like a two-second warning. I'd be standing there in the kitchen and my focus would totally zoom in on something and I'd think: someone is going to come in and knock that knife off the edge of the counter, right about—NOW. At the point where I got to NOW, someone would come in and knock that knife off the counter and I'd think, wow, why didn't I do something about that? Sometimes they'd get hurt and I'd feel guilty so I started my preventive strategy."

"Preventive strategy? You have a plan?"

"Not really. Yeah, sort of." Allie shrugged noncommittally. "If I feel I need to do something, I do it. If I don't, it nags at me until I do, or until I regret that I didn't. I've been doing it for so long that I don't know if everyone around me is clumsy and I like to pick up after them, or if I really am helping them avoid all those little mishaps throughout the day. Maybe it's obvious and I notice when there's an accident waiting to happen."

"I think it
's more than that. Is that what happened when you sent me to the store to buy eggs last night?"

"That was a little bit different. I usually don
't get such strong feelings. I didn't know what was happening. I felt that we needed eggs. It was absolutely imperative that you go and get them from the Stop 'N Go right away."

"Well, you were right on with that premonition," Erin said. They arrived in the driveway of their home and Allie turned off the engine but neither made any move to leave the truck.

"After you left, I don't even remember calling Kathy Banks," Allie said. "I only met her the once but I suddenly thought that she was a super nice lady and I should invite her and her husband over for dinner sometime. I needed to call her right that very minute."

Allie opened her door and Erin followed her up onto the doorstep. Fuzzy Fiona greeted them in her usual enthusiastic manner, and spent extra time sniffing Erin
's bandages before she allowed them to pass.

"Oh, so now I
'm interesting," Erin quipped to the dog. She ruffled the fingers on her good hand through Fiona's fur. The fickle cat was noticeably absent but Erin kept vigilant on her way to the kitchen. She was dying for something cool to drink, and something solid to eat. Opening the refrigerator door, she gaped at the carton of eggs staring back at her from the rear of the middle shelf. She turned a questioning look to Allie, who shrugged without explanation.

"Cheese omelets, it is!" Erin announced, retrieving the nearly full carton, and a package of cheddar. She poured herself a glass of apple
juice and downed half of it in a couple of swallows.

Later, thirst and appetite sated, Erin reclined on the couch and rested her head against the pillow. She was tired, but this story intrigued her more. Curled up on the carpet in front of her, Allie turned her back. "I can
't have you examining my every expression and interpreting my body language like an interrogator."

"I won
't."

"When I was nearly eighteen I started getting headaches," Allie told her. "A horrible pressure builds up in my head and I can barely keep my eyes open. I don
't understand what makes it come or what makes it go away. I think it happens when I'm near certain people, or places. Like they give off shock waves or something and I have to get away. If I get too close, I feel like something terrible is going to happen. I feel nausea, and sometimes there are these flashes."

"Flashes? Like visions? Like the day I took you past the bog to Dolores Johnson
's house?"

"Yeah, like that, but usually not so intense." Allie took a deep breath. "I wouldn
't use the term visions. That's way too dramatic for me. It's more like a flash of lightning with an image. Kind of a quick snapshot."

"Okay, flashes."

"This is so hard to talk about." Allie's voice cracked. She drew her knees up to her chest and buried her face. "I've never spoken these words aloud to anyone in my life."

"It
's all right," Erin said. She reached over and laid her bandage-wrapped hand over Allie's. There was warmth in her touch. Allie unwound herself but her body remained tense.

"It
's usually not so severe. It's mostly an aversion to a certain person or place. Like magnets with similar poles repelling each other. If I don't get away, it becomes a physical pain spreading through my whole body and it makes me want to throw up, so I am motivated to avoid the situation."

Erin threaded her fingers through Allie
's and she breathed a long sigh.

"I guess that
's why I like animals so much," she said. "I never feel anything weird. They are what they are. If I close my eyes, I imagine I see their energy. They travel around like little glowing fuzz balls of warmth."

"Glowing fuzz balls?"

"I don't have a better description for it," Allie said. "You promised not to laugh at me."

"I
'm not laughing. I'm trying to picture what's in your head."

"Fiona is special. She has the warmest glow I
've ever known. I had recently gone through a breakup and needed company so I drove down to the Toronto Animal Shelter. This overweight golden retriever with a big plume of a tail nuzzled my hand. She was only six years old but they told me the dog was too old and blind to be adoptable. Her owner had passed away and no one had come forward to take her. As soon as I touched her, I could feel her energy. So open, so trusting, and so happy to be alive. I knew right away that we needed each other. The staff at the shelter didn't know her name, so I called her Fuzzy Fiona."

"You pick interesting names."

"That's a whole other story," Allie grinned like a Cheshire cat and Erin felt her eyelid twitch.

"What about people?"

"People are not so easy. Their energy is so convoluted and frankly, confusing at times." She looked directly into Erin's eyes, stripping her heart bare. "That's what I liked about you when we first met. You were straightforward, honest with your emotions, self confident. You were so terrible at the suave sophisticated approach and it was easy to tell it had never been your thing."

"Yes, I totally embarrassed myself."

"It was adorable how bad you were at it." Allie laughed and Erin returned a sheepish grin. "When I closed my eyes, I imagined you shining like the sun's reflection across water. I knew how you really were inside. I trusted you right from the beginning. There was no deception between us until that day at the bog."

"Until that day." Shame rose like putrid lava from Erin
's core. Allie may have forgiven her, but it would be a long time before she forgave herself. This was a solid reminder to make good on her promise.

"You grew up without talking to a single soul about this?" Erin gave a low whistle and Fiona, sprawled
at Allie's side, perked up her ears. "That must have been a heavy burden for a kid."

"I tried not to think about it." Allie said. "My foster parents helped me but it took years. We learned that I couldn
't make the feelings go away but if I concentrated hard, or distracted myself enough, I could ignore them so they didn't bother me. I thought it was under control and had almost convinced myself I was normal. Until you came along."