“CHARLIE! Please! Come to the window!”
I waited, panic started to overtake all my other senses. My heart of coal which had been engulfed in flames since he came into my life was losing oxygen, the flame dying. I couldn’t lose Charlie! As I tried to look around to see how I could get up there, I heard a cough. I looked up and a leg was sticking out the window.
Oh God.
“Come on Honey! I got you! You’re okay! I’ll catch you!” I was crying, either from the fumes getting to me or because of how scared I was, I didn’t know. Charlie got his other leg out and was hanging by his forearms and elbows. He tried to lower himselfstraight down slowly, but his strength gave out and he dropped. I swooped in and caught him as best as I could, both of us landing on the ground.
Him on top of me.
“Charlie!” I flipped him on his back, over my lap, and started patting his face. “Open your eyes, Honey. I need you to open your eyes and look at me,” I said in a full panic. I couldn’t lose him. I thought I already lost him once, I can’t go through this again.
In the background I heard David yell, “Bitch, stop squirming or I swear I’ll knock you the fuck out with my next blow like I did your husband!”
Yeah, he was pissed. But I would be too, if I got shot.
The tapping wasn’t working on Charlie’s face, so I moved to check his breathing, and looked into his mouth, which was black with soot. He was breathing but struggling. Fuck, where was the help! “Charlie, please,” I sobbed. “Please wake up. I need you to wake up, Honey. I love you. I need you.” I kissed all over his smoke covered face, not giving a shit if anyone saw anymore.
Then I heard the sirens.
I looked up the street and saw black and white police cars heading our way. Behind them a ways was a fire engine. Hopefully an ambulance was behind them. Fuck the unit, Charlie was more important.
It became chaos instantly. Neighbors were everywhere watching what was happening. None of them were getting close or tried to help. Police surrounded David and Karen with guns drawn, David and I yelled that it was her that did this. Firefighters helped move Charlie and I out of the way so they could work. Some of them stayed with me, Charlie still in my arms, to make sure he kept breathing.
After what seemed like forever, the ambulance showed up.
Jesus, where did they have to come from, Beaver Fucking County!
They swiftly took David and Charlie into the ambulance white box van, needing to put Charlie on oxygen because of the smoke inhalation and carbon dioxide he breathed in. He still hadn’t woken up, but had shallow breaths. I tried to crawl in, but they stopped me. “Sorry, sir. There’s no room. We shouldn’t even be bringing two of them with us.” Then he shut the door in my face.
I heard a muffled yell from inside say, “Jim, I’m here. I have him.”
David.
I scanned the crowd. For anyone I may know, when a hand landed on my shoulder and turned me around.
Tom.
“Let’s go. I bet I’ll beat them there,” his tone serious.
When we got to his car, Betty was also waiting. “Where did you both come from,” I questioned. Then it pinged, “Wait,” looking back and forth between the two of them, breaking my emotional turmoil.
Betty planted her hands on her hip and tapped her toe, “Do you want to talk about this, or go see your man?”
I opened the car door and got in the back without another word.
“That’s what I thought,” getting into the front after I got in.
Tom drove away like a bat out of hell, which technically was what it felt like. We got to the hospital in what felt like no time and an eternity at the same time, and Tom still beat them there.
By all of four minutes.
I was waiting by the door when they arrived. Betty placed her hand around my waist and whispered, “Asmuch as this is going to kill you, I need you to control yourself. I can not have you get arrested tonight for being who you are.” I turned and looked into her hazel eyes. They were pained. Like it hurt her just by saying that. I nodded. “Follow my lead. Tom Dear, do as you're told.” He gruffed in response.
Tom acted as his father so we could follow him. It had been well over an hour and I suffered every second, pacing a trench into the floor. I was barely able to touch him the entire time because someone was always there. It made me more emotional. My eyes were burning from unshed tears, and it hurt to breathe. The air felt like sandpaper in my lungs.
Then I saw a familiar face. The nurse that helped me when I was here over two weeks ago, Nancy. She made eye contact and rushed over, kicking the nurse out that was in here and drawing the curtain shut. “What happened?” Nancy picked up the chart and scanned it. “Oh my God.” She checked all of Charlie’s vitals again, for the umpteenth time.
“The doctor had said it was all up in the air, because of how long he was in the fire, breathing in everything he wasn’t supposed to,” I choked out, a tear finally escaping for the first time since arriving at the hospital.
