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Chapter 26
BRIDGET
Past
Although I didn’t want to leave Darren’s bedside, I’m glad for the chance to go out and get noodles because it feels like a normal activity. Pacing a hospital room while Darren is undergoing surgery to remove bullets from his body is not normal. Being pinned to the ground while shots are fired overhead is not normal.
“I’m just…numb,” Amy replies when I ask her how she’s doing on the drive over to the noodle house. “I’ve never been more scared in my entire life. More scared than the time I was five, and there was a minor earthquake and I thought the whole world was collapsing.”
Now that the worst is over and we’ve all survived the shooting, I would rank hearing that the cancer had returned for my grandmother as the scariest event of my life. But this is definitely a very close second.
“I’ve never had more adrenaline spike through me,” I say. “I’m still on edge.”
It’s been surreal. Fearing for my life. Worrying about Darren. Being interviewed by the police. I didn’t have anything helpful to provide, only what I heard.
“I want to call my mom,” Amy says, “but JD doesn’t think I should wake her up just to make her worry.”
“I thought about calling Aunt Coretta, but I kind of agree with JD. No need to wake them up in the middle of the night.”
“I think I still feel scared.”
I put my hand over hers and we lock fingers. I wonder if we’ll have PTSD.
“We are so lucky,” I say.
“I know, right?”
“All I’ve got is a bruised knee and scuffed arm from when Darren pushed me to the ground.”
“I couldn’t tell if JD pushed me or fell into me. I’d like to think he tried to get me out of the way.”
We arrive at the noodle house and order four bowls of noodle soup. The driver declines any food.
“I don’t know what I’d do if anything worse happened,” Amy says as she pays with the cash JD gave her. “I mean, it’s still bad what happened.”
When we arrive back at the hospital room, Cheryl and Marshall are there.
Cheryl gives me a hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
I set Darren’s bowl of noodle soup on the overbed table and ask him, “Did the police come and talk with you already?”
“They did,” he answers.
“Do they have any idea who it was or why this happened?”
“Sergeant Trawley thinks it’s either a random drive-by or we were mistaken for members of a Chinatown gang. You know, ’cause all Asians look alike.”
“Does that mean it’s not likely to happen again?”
Darren pauses for a second before replying, “Trawley didn’t think we had anything to worry about.”
“Thank God,” Amy says. “I’d feel better if they caught the guy, though. Do you think they will?”
“They might. Cheryl’s going to give the police access to whatever our video cameras outside the club might have picked up. They’ve got ballistics. They’re on the lookout for a black Accord.”
Darren turns to Cheryl. “How are the staff doing?”
“Shaken up, but they’ll be fine,” she replies. “I sent them home early after they talked with the police.”
