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Chapter One: Rose
I wondered what it would be like if I had more friends. I think I would just be a lot more annoyed.
Morning was peaceful; it was my favorite part of my day, going out walking my dog, Parker. He was a beautiful black Lab that pretty much walked me.
“C’mon buddy, let’s go!” I sounded way too excited to just be walking my dog. But like I said, it was the highlight of my day.
I worked very odd hours as an ER nurse, so I never got out much. I also worked the night shift and grave yard shift. I saw all the crazy stuff, and the weird too. It was true that the ER had its own seasons of the weirdest things one could see. I had been a nurse officially for five years and nothing was ever the same. Except my home life, which included frozen dinners and Parker. I had come home around five and took a power nap before getting some cleaning done, as I did every Tuesday.
I was wiping my bathroom mirror down when I almost didn’t even recognize myself. My green eyes were dull, but they had been since my senior year of college. I had permanent under-eye creases that I always managed to hide with the right foundation, but with everything off, I saw how much worse they were getting. Still, I was pretty, I guessed. I was not an overly confident person, but when pretty much every man that came into the ER hit on me—the young, the old, the hot and the not so hot—you start to think these things.
I rarely got to exercise, but running around the hospital all night was a workout, so I always had heavy hips but a slender body. I just tried to be as healthy as I could, and get my seven hours of sleep every night, or day technically, since that was how my schedule was.
I tied my dark and unruly curly hair up in a bun and finished cleaning.
It was around nine when I latched on his green leash and took the back stairway out of my apartment complex. I always stopped at little local coffee shop for a chai tea, too. There was an outdoor window, which worked for me since I had Parker.
“Hey, Rose.”
Yeah, the cashier knew my name. There was nothing wrong with having a routine and sticking to it.
“Hey Sam, the usual.” Sam was a sweet college student, and she always had a smile waiting for me.
“Coming right up!”
She had papers tucked under the register, and there was no one behind me so I asked her about it. “Are you studying?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she huffed, “I have a biology exam tomorrow.” She rolled her eyes.
“Yikes, I hated science. Good luck,” I said with a sad smile.
“Aren’t you a nurse?” She giggled.
“Yeah. But I like the practical part of my job. I never liked the exams it took to get here. What do you want to do?” I asked. There were still no customers coming in line.
“Pediatrics. I just took my MCAT, so who knows how that went.” She laughed nervously.
“Oh, well I’m sure you did great. If you need any shadowing or volunteer work, I have good contacts in the hospital.”
“Really? Thank you, that would be great.”
I stepped to the side to wait for my drink. Parker was very well behaved; he sat on his hind legs and barely blinked. My dad helped me train him…my throat closed at the memory and I pushed it aside.
My chai tea was ready, so I set off with one last wave to Sam, and headed for my usual trail. All part of the routine, I thought.
Chapter Two: Rose
I was at my favorite part of the trail. Where the road ended and curved off into a slight bend into the back side of a park. It was always quiet, peaceful, and beautiful. The trees bent over a certain part of the path like a canopy, and the leaves were changing with the fall season. Usually, nothing in New York was that pretty. But, I lucked out with where I chose to live, and it was a twenty-minute walk or a ten-minute run from that neighborhood park. This time I decided to walk, and was only in jeans and a tee shirt.
Parker suddenly went crazy as we passed the dip in the path that led towards under the bridge, and he pulled me along as he barked like a bat out of hell.
“Easy, boy!” I nearly tripped as my Converses hit a little rock trying to keep up with him.
I tightened the lease and curled it around my hand quickly and followed him. He barked and barked, then suddenly stopped. I turned down the path and peered at what he could have possibly gone this crazy for.
I nearly screamed.
I don’t know how long I stood there. A minute, maybe only twenty seconds, but it was long enough for me to see everything and remember it against my will. I had a photographic memory. It came in handy when I had twenty seconds to memorize an entire chart or a list of symptoms. Or times like this when I was obviously interrupting a heinous crime.
The man in a sharp navy-blue hoodie was huge; I would be scared if he was simply walking down the street. He was even dressed like he planned to commit a crime, with his hood up and his pants dark. He could almost blend in with the wall. I barely noticed the other guy. Just the screaming, all words that I couldn’t even pick out no matter how hard I may try to.
The heated argument and the angry flash of shiny metal was burned into my brain even as I turned the corner and ran and ran until I felt I was far enough away. Parker was well trained enough for me to let him go, and I quickly got my phone from my cross-body purse and called 911 immediately.
Maybe it was a slight disagreement between friends. Or a drug deal gone wrong. I would never know the truth, I just knew a man in a navy hoodie was waving gun at a smaller man, and that was exactly what I told the police. I thought briefly that I should mind my own business before he came after me for interrupting him, or stopping me from calling the police if he suspected me to. But it was literally in my blood and how I was trained—to help people. To do something, anything, if I was needed to.
