The Girl With Aquamarine Eyes (26 page)

“Tommy!” His father roared from downstairs.

“I’ve got to go.” He raced for the door, but at the last
moment he slid to a stop. He turned to steal one last glance at the beautiful
girl. He was suddenly afraid he’d never see her again. Something deep inside,
something unexplainable was happening, as he watched her gaze beyond him at the
doorway.

A sense of darkness suddenly overwhelmed him. Thick,
foreboding shadows seemed to drift from the ceiling, and creep to the floor in
an all-consuming onyx fog. He’d seen it before. It was a death fog. The same
blackness which had rolled across his mother, after she fell across her easel
and lay still.

Suddenly, Heaven snapped her head toward him. She gazed at
him with deep, watery eyes. Eyes which bordered on the edge of heaven itself,
but also on the edge of hysteria.

Eyes which spoke of knowing too much, but eyes which knew
nothing. Magic and mystery. Eyes that spoke of life and death and everything
in-between.

It was no wonder she called herself Heaven. Her gaze held
the strange magic of a world he’d never seen. It was a good place, wherever it
was. It seemed as if she were trying to say something to him. Something only he
could hear. Instantly, a feeling of peace drifted over him as he gazed deeper
into her starry eyes.

An innermost sense of calmness and serenity he’d not felt
since the tragic loss of his mother overwhelmed him. The faded scent of roses
still clung heavily in the bedroom air. The same scent of roses he remembered
from her funeral.

But there was more. A gentle wind seemed to be churning the
scent of the flowers throughout the room. The fragrance was steadily growing
thicker and heavier. He hung in limbo confused, but in awe. Afraid, but at
peace.

Having no choice and already anticipating another shout of
warning from his father who by now was out the front door, he finally wrenched
himself free from the incredible girl’s gaze and raced out the bedroom door.

“The Adam’s Family?” Harmon grumbled, watching Tommy leap
into the hallway.

Bice thought for a moment, clutching both swollen shoulders
with opposite hands. “I think we’re more like the Three Stooges.” He glanced
toward Heaven. “But seriously Harmon, we have a big problem now. We need to
talk after the movie.”

“I know.” Harmon sighed as he gazed at Heaven. “God help us,
I know.”

* * *

The following morning, Dr. Killmore poured over Heaven’s medical
records, inhaling every detail from the girl’s prior visit to the hospital.

She’d been in an accident on an island not long ago. He
checked and re-checked the chart notes. She’d never come back to have the casts
removed from her mangled legs. The notes also indicated she needed further
surgery, and lengthy physical therapy.

But she’d simply disappeared, and never returned to the
facility for aftercare. Nor, were their any notes stating she’d been
transferred to another physician.

Dr. White was her attending physician during her prior stay,
but he’d retired shortly after her hospital visit. He’d check with his former
colleague soon. For now, there was extensive research to be completed.

He studied the x-rays of her wrist again. For the umpteenth
time, he compared the two films side by side. Again, the latter x-ray showed a
perfect wrist, with no sign of prior trauma. Yesterday, she’d put her hands to
the dead boy and somehow breathed life into him once again.

He walked to the window and pulled the curtains closed,
leaving his office bathed in near darkness. He shoved the video from the dead
boy’s room into the tape machine, and carefully watched Heaven as she entered.

Over and over, he rewound the tape. He watched as she put
her hands on the dead boy’s head as his mother stood stricken nearby.

It was impossible. He refused to believe what he could quite
clearly see. Once again, he rewound the tape and played it back, this time in
slow-motion.

He watched as the boy’s body jerked and convulsed under
Heaven’s hands. Thirty seconds. That’s all it had taken before she fell to the
floor in some sort of coma, and the boy sat up. The screaming mother could
easily be heard, but she too fell to the floor shortly after Heaven. At that
moment, Bice and Harmon burst in.

He pushed the volume button to its maximum level. Bice was
saying something to Harmon. To his frustration, the sound was garbled. He
pressed the volume button repeatedly. The red light on the machine blinked
madly at him, refusing to increase the sound another decibel.

He slung open his desk drawer and rummaged through its
contents. Finally, he pulled from its depths his headset. Naturally, they were
twisted amongst several other wires in the drawer.

He quickly yanked them apart, and shoved the plug into the
machine. He rewound the video once more, carefully studying Bice’s lips. His
eyes were centimeters from the monitor as he clung to each faded word.

“She did this, Harmon…”

He staggered backward in disbelief, yanking the headphones
from the video deck. The cord pulled the machine to the edge of the shelf, it
teetered momentarily in limbo only centimeters from the floor.

He leapt toward it, and caught it a millisecond before it
crashed and destroyed the only tape of the boy’s room. He laid on the cold tile
in a tangle of wires, gasping for breath and repeating the words Bice had so
softly spoken.

“She did this, Harmon…She did this, Harmon…She did this,
Harmon…”

* * *

Harmon sat by the poolside watching Heaven visit with Tommy.

He’d called Tommy and invited him for lunch and a swim. The
meal was extraordinary, and unbelievably went off without a hitch. He looked up
as Bice approached and took a took a chair near him.

“Are you ready to talk now?” Bice asked. He watched Heaven
laugh and joke with Tommy, and leap into the pool with the boy in unison.

“Her wrist.” Harmon remarked. “She is swimming as if nothing
was wrong with it two days ago. My God, it was shattered.”

“No one must know, ever.” Bice whispered.

“It’s too late.”

“The Doctor can prove nothing. He didn’t see a thing.”

Harmon studied Bice. He looked much better today compared to
yesterday. Maybe tomorrow, he’d look better than today. “Dreams asked to be
taken back to the orphanage last night.”

“Why?”

Harmon’s gaze shifted to the glittering pool. “She wouldn’t
say, so I didn’t press her. I have a suspicion she may be intimidated, or even
afraid of Heaven. I’m almost certain.”

Bice leaned close until he was touching the musician’s
elbow. “My God, she’s Heaven’s only friend.”

“I know. That’s why I called Tommy over for a visit, but
Heaven took it all in stride.”

Bice sighed in relief. “That’s good news.”

Harmon gazed at his friend. The man was always there for
him, no matter what kind of mess he’d find himself in from day to day. He didn’t
ask many favors of Bice. But things were different now. He gazed at Heaven
laughing in the pool.

“Bice, get rid of the coins. Sail out to sea as far as you
can, and as soon as you can. Get rid of them.”

Bice gazed at the musician with a knowing look, and smiled. “Consider
it done.”

* * *

Tommy was truly having the best day of his life.

Heaven made him feel alive and important. She didn’t mind he
had no friends at school, other than Ben. She understood why he was shy and
quiet. It didn’t bother her a bit when he admitted he’d never had a date for
the prom, or for that matter, a date for anything.

He embarrassingly told her how the football players found
great joy pounding him on the head with their schoolbooks, or stacking his
locker with unmentionable items. He finally admitted for the first time ever,
that he often woke up sick in the mornings, dreading the thought of going to
school.

She in turn told him about the island, and the terrible
accident which had injured her legs. She also admitted she didn’t know much
about life in the States, but Harmon and Bice were patient and understanding,
and helping her daily.

Tommy felt the skin on his backside suddenly prickle, as if
a blast of cold air had found its way from Antarctica right into Harmon’s
backyard. He realized he was being watched, and turned to look over his
shoulder.

Harmon and Bice were indeed gazing at him a little too
closely. The moment he met their stare, they each turned away. He was a
respectable teenager, and almost an adult. Heaven was in good hands with him.
He turned back to her.

“Heaven, tell me something. I know for a fact your knee was
cut the night I found you. There was blood in my car, and on my dad’s couch.
Did I imagine it all?”

“I don’t remember, Tommy...”

He leaned closer. “I saw your swollen ankle. I understand
the ice might have caused the swelling to go down, but it certainly didn’t make
that cut disappear.”

“Tommy, please…”

“Look, if you’re in trouble, let me help you. The night I
met you, I felt a strange connection to you. I can’t explain it, nor can I
explain why the cut disappeared, but I’m a phone call away if you ever need me.
Promise me you’ll call me before you leap from a wall again.”

“I can’t promise to call you.” She hung her head, and gazed
at her feet through the cellophane ripples of blue water. “I don’t have a
phone.”

“You don’t have a cell phone?”

“No. I wouldn’t know how to use one anyway.” She quickly wiped
a tear away, hoping he wouldn’t notice.

“I’ll be right back. Wait here a moment, all right?”

“All right.”

Tommy climbed from the pool and walked over to Harmon and
Bice.

Harmon smiled as the teenager approached. “What’s up Tommy?”

“Why are you staring at me? Why’d you invite me over if you
don’t trust me?”

Bice glanced at Harmon, then at Tommy. “You know very little
about her, Tommy.”

“I know enough to know I like her. Besides, what is going on
around this place? What on earth drove her to leapt from a wall in the middle
of the night?”

Bice rose from the table. “Harmon, I’ll take him into the
study for a minute, and explain. We’ll be right back.”

Tommy followed Bice through the courtyard, and what seemed
like another half mile up the steps, down a long hall and finally into the
study.

Bice drew back the curtains, watching Heaven at the
poolside. “Tommy, Heaven is not your normal everyday girl.”

“I know this. She’s an orphan, and lost her parents at sea.”

“There’s more.” Bice sighed, and sat down. “Sometimes, she
does things without thinking of the consequences.”

“That doesn’t bother me. She’s my friend, and I like her the
way she is.”

“Sometimes, she does things which are unexplainable. We don’t
yet know or understand her as much as we’d like to at this point.”

A puzzled look crossed Tommy’s face. “What do you mean?”

“There are things about her we’d rather keep private for her
own protection. I hope you understand.”

“What’s the big secret, Bice?”

“We are only trying to protect her.”

Tommy thought a minute. “Why is her cast already off? Didn’t
she break her wrist the night she jumped from the wall?”

Bice glared at the teenager. The boy was asking too many
questions. There were things about Heaven better left unsaid. He stared across
the enormous lawn. In the distance, gulls circled the choppy waves in the
horizon.

“Bice?” Tommy asked. “Why is her cast off? My dad said her
wrist was terrible broken and he ordered a cast put on.”

Bice knew the boy had him. He didn’t want to lie, but he was
left with no choice. He was slowly being backed into a corner, and he didn’t
like it. He’d brought the teenager into the study to set him straight, and now
the boy had turned the tables on him. Damn Harmon, bringing the kid here to
begin with. The teenager was intruding on their privacy, and asking too many
questions.

He finally turned from the window and stared stonily at the
teenager. “It’s best you don’t know why, Tommy. Forget about it. Forget the
accident ever happened. I’m not here to answer your questions. Also, don’t try
to get too close to Heaven. You’ll meet two roadblocks if you do.”

Tommy’s eyes grew wide, as the veins across his throbbing
temples flared and threatened to burst. “I’m her friend. I trust her, and she
trusts me. Maybe you should learn to trust her too. It’s part of life, which
you can’t control. Nor, can you control me.”

“We have our reasons. The less you know about her the better
off you are. Don’t ask questions, because their answers are of no concern to
you.”

“Bice, if you want to do something for Heaven, other than
smother her and run her life, get her a cell phone. At least that way she can
reach out to someone before she takes a flying leap off a wall again.”

He glared at Bice, shaking his head in disdain. He turned on
his heel and stomped out of the study, leaving a speechless man in his wake.

* * *

The café was situated on a busy corner on the outskirts of Los
Angeles.

Patio tables sat under colorful, sweeping umbrellas. The
city hummed with traffic and pedestrians. They dodged about, anxious to meet
their unknown deadlines.

Dr. White sat behind a crisp newspaper, at a lone table the
furthest from the busy café. He struggled to hold the paper in place, fighting
the currents of wind which threatened to rip it away. He gazed at his hands.
Apparently, it wasn’t the wind shaking the paper. It was his nerves.
Exasperated, he plopped the paper down on the table.

“Dr. White?”

“Yes?” He turned around and gazed at the man standing behind
him.

“I’m Dr. Killmore, thanks for agreeing to meet me. I hope
you’re well today.” He offered the aged physician his hand.