Chapter 4 of The Soul Survivor

Chapter 4

Madison and Caleb walked through the hallway of the hospital, leaving a trail of water behind them, heading for the Information Desk.

“I need to see Hayley Ottarson,” Madison said to the first nurse they could find at the desk.

The woman looked them both up and down, her face harboring a deep frown. Madison supposed it was because of their appearance. She didn’t say a word but typed in the name into her computer. “Don’t have a Hayley Ottarson here. I show a Jason.”

“That’s my nephew.” Madison turned to Caleb. So it was her nephew who needed help. “What’s happened to him?”

“Let me call Doctor Marino for you.” The nurse’s demeanor immediately changed, scaring Madison even more.

“I don’t understand, Caleb. I thought it would be Hayley. If it’s Jason, why didn’t she contact me herself?”

Caleb pulled her close. “I’m sure that’s what we’re about to find out.” He rubbed his hands up and down her arms, feeling goose bumps. “You’re freezing.”

“I’ll be all right. I’m not cold, I’m confused.”

The hospital hallways were packed with people. Some lay on gurneys, others sat in wheelchairs.

“What, are they out of room?” Caleb asked.

“Actually, yes,” a man answered. “Can I help you?” He wore a long white coat and a name badge. It read Doctor Anthony Marino.

Madison looked into blue eyes framed with dark eyebrows. She couldn’t guess his age with his dark brown hair, flecked with gray. “I’m here about Jason Ottarson?”

The doctor’s head bounced back in surprise. “Jason Ottarson?”

Madison pulled her brows together in confusion. “Yes, he’s my nephew. Are you his doctor?”

The doctor looked completely baffled. “I didn’t know he had an aunt.” He cleared his throat loudly. “If you’ll follow me, Miss Ottarson…,”

Madison shook her head. “It’s Montgomery. What’s the problem?”

“It’s just that no one has come to see him since he’s been here.” The doctor walked briskly following signs toward the neurology department. Madison and Caleb followed.

“Where’s Hayley?” Madison whispered to Caleb. He held her close to his body, guiding her along.

Madison raised her voice. “I’m not following what’s going on here. How long has he been here?” she asked the doctor.

“Six months,” the doctor replied.

“Six months!” Madison heard the squeal in her voice. How can that be? Why didn’t she contact me? The feeling of dread was back full force and almost knocked her to her knees.

“We’ll figure this out. Hang in there.” Caleb’s calm, soothing voice relaxed her somewhat, but her whole body began to tremble. Something was horribly wrong.

“Why are all these people out here?” Caleb asked.

“Virus hit. We are waiting for the medicine we need, but the Health Department says they are out. Hopefully we’ll get a shipment from Tampa today. We don’t have enough rooms for all of them.”

Madison watched an old woman grab Caleb’s arm. She looked up through cataract filled blue eyes. Her thinning gray hair was matted to her head and her face was pale and wrinkled, reminding Madison of a doll head made from a withering apple.

“Lange is here,” she whispered to him, clutching his hand.

“Excuse me?” Caleb tried to pull away from her vise grip. Madison watched as her nails dug into his hand and he winced in pain. Her eyes locked onto his and Caleb looked hypnotized momentarily.

The name hung in her brain like a swinging sign. She knew she had heard it. Lange. Who was he? Where had she heard that name before?

Doctor Marino turned and walked back to them, seeing the two distracted. He settled the woman back into her wheelchair. “There you go, Grace. We’ll be with you shortly.”

Caleb finally turned his head toward Madison, looking sad and confused. “That was odd. She seemed so—lost, didn’t she?” he said absently.

“There’s something about the name she said to you.” Madison searched her memory bank as the doctor continued to walk forward. The answer didn’t come.

“Lange?” Caleb asked.

Madison nodded, trying to remember.

“Doesn’t sound familiar to me at all.”

They caught up to the doctor when they reached the neurology department where machines could be heard and nurses whisked past them with surgical tables filled with medications.

Doctor Marino turned to them. “Miss Montgomery. Are you saying you just got in to town now?”

“I—I was in Brazil. I guess they didn’t know how to get a hold of me.” Madison lowered her head feeling shame burn her face. “What’s happened to him?”

“If you’ll follow me.” He ushered them to a corner a foot away. “He’s in a coma-like state.”

“What? Why?” Madison asked.

“That’s the thing. We don’t quite know why. Everything is working fine, but when we turn the breathing machines off, he won’t breathe on his own. Something is keeping him in the state that he’s in, only we haven’t figured out what it is yet. Obviously the death of his mother and brother might have something to do with…”

Madison heard no more. His handsome face narrowed. The light seemed to pull into a tiny circle and then she saw only darkness.

Obviously the death of his mother and brother…obviously the death of his mother and brother. The words bounced off the walls of her mind like a ping pong ball.

He was over her again. His warm breath against her face. Gray eyes locked onto hers and wouldn’t let go. His black hat was lowered over his eyes with his cloak spread around her.

“Madison,” he whispered. “Your sister needs you.”

“She’s dead…they’re all dead!” Madison cried. His grip on her hardened, she tried to break free but couldn’t.

“Your sister needs you.”

“She’s coming around.” She heard a voice far off in the distance. Obviously the death of his mother and brother... Madison opened her eyes, feeling her stomach cramp. She was going to throw up and leaned over to one side. Caleb held her hair back, assuming she would be sick. Instead, she swallowed the bile sitting in her throat, burning her esophagus. Your sister needs you.

That’s where she’d heard the name before! He was back, tormenting her, but why? Who was he?

Folding her arms around her chest, she rocked back in forth, gulping in air through sobs. She’d been too late. She’d killed her sister and her nephew. Oh my God! Little Joey!

Looking to her right, she saw the doctor, the horrible man who had just told her Hayley and her nephew were dead.

“Give her a minute,” the doctor said, his warm hands on her shoulders. “She didn’t know?” he asked Caleb. “My God! She didn’t know?”

She watched Caleb’s eyes fill with tears. He shook his head.

He had to be wrong, or she misunderstood. Hayley and Joey couldn’t be dead and she had imagined the man in black.

“You fainted.” Caleb moved his hand up and down her back, comforting her.

She had to be dreaming. But Caleb’s flesh on hers was real. The pungent smell of the hospital was real as ammonia mixed with odd odors wafted through her nose as she breathed in deeply. The doctor looking down at her, the nurses…they were all real.

Caleb lifted her to her feet, while she struggled to make it up on her own. “Are you all right? Aside from the obvious.”

“I’m so sorry Miss Montgomery. I was sure the police had told you.” Doctor Marino looked horrified.

She had been too late after all. How could she have been so stupid to leave Hayley all alone? It was too soon, it was plain selfish. Six months! Six fucking months! Oh my God! Madison’s head grew fuzzy and she leaned on Caleb, believing she just might faint again. She found her breathing ragged and tried to pull in long deep breaths through her nose as her stomach seized up on her, threatening to spill what little content it held.

“Come to my office, we can have some privacy.” Doctor Marino held her arm as he guided her through the hallway with Caleb following closely behind.

***
His office smelled of lemon oil. Doctor Marino liked the smell and it almost always comforted him when his days had been too long and his mind had gone soggy. His office was his only refuge.

Certificates and degrees hung on his walls, but they did nothing for him now.
Ceramic angels, his sister had sent him, sat on oak book shelves, watching over him, or so she had said. He silently prayed they’d give him strength now. Damn! I hate this part of it! Where had this woman been all this time? How could she not know about her own family?

“Have a seat,” he told them, feeling his heart thump against his ribs. He wished his sister was with him now. She’d know exactly what to say.

Madison headed for the chair but he led her to the couch.

Caleb sat in a hard, wooden chair; keeping a watchful eye on Madison as Doctor Marino sat in his large, overstuffed, leather chair.

“Again, I apologize. I was sure the police had told you.”

“I haven’t spoken with the police yet. Please tell me you didn’t just say my sister and nephew are…” He heard her gulp loudly, “Gone.”

“I wish I could.” Doctor Marino shook his head, scooping a hand through his dark hair. At forty-four, he was in relatively good health. But his mind grew weary and the last six months had haunted him.

“Oh my God.” Madison leaned her head back onto the soft couch. “We were too late. I knew it! I could feel it.” She lifted her head and looked at him. “She needed something from me right? Something that could have saved her life and I was too late.”

“Neither of them could have been saved.” He frowned.

“What happened then?” Tears began to flow down her face.

How could he tell her he had nightmares of Hayley’s death and that Jason had seemed to consume his life? And then there was Lange…God only knew what that meant. He’d have to talk to his sister about that.

Pulling out a manila folder from his desk, he tried explain what happened as he knew it. “The boy has the will to live. I know he does. I don’t understand it.”

“What happened to his mother and brother?” Caleb asked.

“You should be talking to the police. They’d have a lot more details.” Doctor Marino saw his fingers tremble over the folder, then grasped his hands together tightly.

“The police aren’t here,” Caleb said.

He breathed in deeply, letting the air out in a hiss. “This is what I know. They were driving down Immokalee Road. She swerved and their car went into a canal. The canals are deep here, some are very deep. Your sister, Hayley, she hit her head on the steering wheel. Autopsy report came back and said she died on impact. We figure it was Jason that pulled Joseph from the car since they found both boys on the bank, but it was too late for Joseph, he’d already drowned. I’m sorry, Miss Montgomery.”

“That’s it?” Madison was standing now. “My sister is dead, my nephew is dead and that’s it?”

Her reaction surprised him. “That’s all I know.” Doctor Marino shut the folder. “The police will have more information.”

“Hayley wouldn’t just drive off the road! She would never jeopardize the lives of her children.” Doctor Marino watched her pace, her pretty face slacked, her eyes already swelling from tears.

“Something is missing.” She wiped her eyes and nose with the sleeve of her shirt, shaking her head.

“I doubt she just drove off the road. Something must have run out in front of her.” Caleb turned to the doctor for confirmation.

“Could have.” Doctor Marino nodded.

“She’d have killed it. No way would she have risked the lives of her children for an animal crossing the road.” Madison was gaining momentum in her pacing. “Were there witnesses?”

“Again, you’ll have to ask the police.” Doctor Marino shrugged. She doesn’t believe it either and yet it was her sister. Doctor Marino’s dream came back to him. Hayley, driving the car, the boys arguing in the back and then a ghostly white figure standing in the road, causing her to swerve.

“Why are you jumping to conclusions about it, Maddy?” Caleb stood and pulled her back to the couch, wrapping his arm around her. “It was an accident. It happens.”

“I don’t know how to explain it. But…,” Madison wiped her swollen eyes. “It just doesn’t feel right.”

Doctor Marino studied her for a moment. Why didn’t it feel right to her, just as it hadn’t to him? Maybe he was going insane, not an uncommon disease in the Marino family.

“I need to see Jason.” Madison stood.

“Maddy, you’ve just heard that your sister and nephew are gone. Why don’t you just sit down a minute and catch your breath,” Caleb said.

The doctor saw compassion thick in his eyes. His complexion was as white as hers.

“I know this sounds crazy, Caleb.” With wild eyes she looked up to him. “But something happened on that road, just like something happened on the way here. You were there. Don’t you think it was strange that our own limo driver just turned off the road? We could have easily been killed. And then there’s…” Madison halted. “That little boy in there is the only one that might know. I’m going to find out.”

“Why would someone deliberately drive them or us, for that matter, off the road? For Christ’s sake Maddy it did happen to us. You’re right. It can’t be all that
uncommon.” Caleb and Doctor Marino followed behind her as she quickly left the office and headed for Jason’s room.

“I don’t know, but it has something to do with a man named Lange,” she blurted out.

Doctor Marino gasped behind her. She said the name, the same name that had been haunting him. He didn’t know how or why, but she knew his name.

He watched Madison crumble when she entered Jason’s room to see his thin body hooked up with tubes running through his arms, a tube down his throat. His face was pale and thin.

“Jason?” Tears welled up in her throat, making her sound like a frog.

The three stood in the room listening to the machines do their jobs. Jason didn’t move. His eyes remained closed as his chest lifted up and then fell rhythmically.

“It’s Auntie Maddy, Jase,” she whispered, grasping his limp hand.

“He’s been exactly like this for the past six months,” Doctor Marino said quietly.

“Jason, can you hear me?” Madison tried again. “I’m sorry, Jase. I didn’t know. If I’d known I’d have been here much sooner.” Madison laid her head on his belly. “You’re not alone anymore.”

After a few minutes, Madison lifted her head. Her face was patchy and
red. “Dammit! Why didn’t I make it easier for someone to find me!” she yelled, causing them both to jump back.

“We think he can hear. He seems to react to the television and he gets restless at night. Even if you had been here sooner, I don’t think it would have helped his condition,” Doctor Marino added, trying to ease her guilt as much as possible. She reeked of it.

“Can we come back tonight?” she asked him, kissing Jason on the forehead. “Is there a hotel nearby?”

Doctor Marino stared at the two young people, soaking wet in front of him. What was the pull to them? She had said Lange’s name maybe that was enough. “Christmas weekend, you won’t find anything.” He stuck his hands in his pockets, jiggling his keys, and then he decided. “Tell you what. I live pretty close to here, and I’m never home. Why don’t the two of you go there and get cleaned up. You can stay there until a hotel room opens up and it’s close to the hospital.”

“You would do that?” Madison looked at Caleb who only shrugged. “Why?”

“I’d like to talk to you a bit more, when you are up to it,” Doctor Marino said.

“But, you don’t even know us,” Madison said.

“There’re a few things I’d like to go over with you but not here—not now.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal.” Caleb shook his hand and he pulled it back with a set of keys in it.

“I’ll call a cab.” Doctor Marino went back to his office.

“We’ll be back tonight, Jason, okay?” Madison approached her nephew once again. “Everything will be all right.” But she knew it wouldn’t be. Nothing would ever be all right again.