Chapter 23

The emergency room was full of curious people, wanting to hear any bit of news that could about Javelin or Eva. I ran to the desk and told the attending nurse that I was Javelin’s girlfriend, but she wouldn’t let me see him, because I wasn’t a close relative. I sat in the waiting room, biting my nails so that I wouldn’t scream at the nurses. I understood policy, but it was hard to be patient when a person you loved was behind the curtains suffering.

Jenny, a girl from my school who was a year younger than me, was walking through the lobby and saw me. She was wearing a candy stripers outfit. “Hi Vivian. Are you hurt?” she asked. I told her my situation. She said, “I’ll be back.”

She returned with a grim expression. “It’s not good, Vivian. He’s been struck on the head with something. His skull is crushed. But his vitals are strong. His father is making arrangements to have him air lifted to a hospital in DC. That’s all I can tell you, Vivian.” She gave me a brief hug before getting back to her duties.

I felt cold inside. My mouth was dry, so I went to the water fountain. There in the hallway stood Mr. Bow-Ridge Junior. His expression of distain gave me a shiver. “You don’t need to be here, girl. My son’s going to get the best medical service available in DC. Run along back to life before he arrived. There’s no place for you in his life now.”

“Can’t I see him?” I begged. “Just for a moment.”

“No,” his cold voice robbed me of sunshine and hope. “He’s in a coma and he won’t know you‘re there. The hospital stuff has too much to do to get him ready for the journey. Now go, girl. My son won‘t be returning to Blueberry Ridge any time soon. Go back to the life you had before you met him.” He walked away without a glance back. I knew I wouldn’t win this battle much less the war. I wasn’t armed and didn’t have strategic intellect that could defeat this man.
With a weary heart, I left the emergency room and drove straight to the Bow-Ridge mansion.

One of the maids announced me. Mr. Bow-Ridge was sitting in front of Javelin’s portrait with tears in his eyes. “Mr. Bow-Ridge,” I said, “it will be okay.” I comforted myself as much as I did him. “Little James will be okay. He’s strong and too stubborn to be any other way.”

“My dear girl,” he said, taking my hand. “You’ve heard the news. Someone attacked him while he was fishing. The sheriff thinks the motivation was robbery. There was a girl killed. I don’t know the details. My son is having Little James moved to a more modern hospital in Washington, DC.”

“Yes, I saw him at the hospital. I thought you could use some company.” I couldn’t understand why Javelin’s father was so hard, while his grandfather was so kind. I stayed for as long as he allowed me. After three hours of no news, he sent me home and promised to call if there was any news on Javelin’s status.

When I arrived home, Mother greeted me with a hug. “We’ve heard the news. I’m sorry, dear. Have you eaten anything today?” She asked. Mother’s arms were warm and I broke down into tears for the first time that day. She let me cry longer than I expected. When I wiped my tears away, she suggested I go upstairs to my room and she would bring a tray up to me.

But she didn’t. Father did. He sat beside me as I nibbled at my food. “I called Tiki, as soon as we heard about your beau and your friend, Eva. Tiki couldn’t tell me much, only that someone had beaten the girl to death and had struck Javelin in the head. The sheriff thinks the motivation was robbery. That the only reason your beau lived is because some of his friends, Paul and Trent interrupted the attacker. They saw some guy running away but couldn’t get a good look at him.”

“He’s being airlifted to DC.” I said, “I hope he’ll be okay, Father. He has to be.” The crying returned. “How could things have gone so wrong, Father? Eva’s dead and Javelin is hurt. He’s been sent to Washington, DC. His father hates me. And Eva...Eva’s dead.“ He patted my arm for a while, until he could no longer bear my tears. With a kiss on my forehead, he left me alone, to cry myself to sleep.

I woke up hours later from a nightmare, where Javelin was bleeding and I couldn’t stop the flow. Sweat covered my body, so I got up and went downstairs to get a glass of water. On the fridge was a note written in Mother’s flowery handwriting that read, “Little James survived surgery and is in recovery. Mr. Bow-Ridge will call tomorrow with more news.” There were other phone messages from Mavis, Trent and Paul. I would deal with them tomorrow.

My nightmare was true. Javelin had been hurt. And Eva was dead. I drank some water, but it didn‘t quell the sweat that covered my body. I went outside and sat on the steps to the back air, letting the cool night air whisk away the sweat and fright. Night creatures continued to make their music, not realizing the tragedy that earlier had struck daylight. My mind went into rewind over the day, trying to make sense of it all.

Because I was so intent on my thoughts, I didn’t notice the change in the air at first. There was a silence so great that it froze the night creatures into silence. The hairs on my arms stood up and I knew I needed to get inside, because there was something or someone in the woods, watching me. As I stood up, I heard a crashing sound in the shadows of the woods. It sounded like someone or something had stumbled over something in the dark, causing them to fall in the bushes. I stared into the heavy brush, trying to see if it was a bear or another animal. “Who’s there?” I called, trying to pinpoint where the noise was coming from.

Whatever it was stopped all movement, as if it didn’t want to give away its location. I wasn’t brave enough to challenge it. So I ran inside and locked myself in, praying that my imagination was at work, but knowing it wasn’t. Whoever the guy was who hurt Javelin and killed Eva was still out there. I needed to remember that. No one was safe until he was caught.

Up the stairs I ran. My parents slept soundly. I stood at their door wondering if I should wake them. As distraught as I had been earlier, they might think I had imagined the noise or was paranoid because of what happened to Eva and Javelin. I went to my room, climbed in the bed and tried to go back to sleep but my mind refused to let me.

There was a phone on a small table in the hallway. When I turned 15, I begged my parents to put in a private phone line for myself. Mavis had one and as long as she talked softly and didn’t disturb anyone, her parents didn’t mind if she had calls at anytime. But my parents didn’t think it would be wise. Mother told me, “You’ll be on the phone when you should be working on homework.” She was probably right. The temptation to find other tasks to do than homework was a vice of mine. Since I didn’t have a phone, I used the one in the hallway. It had an extra long cord on it ( Father’s idea) and I could put it in my room when I didn’t have homework to do and talk away. Mother didn’t mind, as long as my chores were caught up.

I had to talk to someone and the only person I knew who had their own phone was Mavis. It was after 2 a.m. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have called but these were far from normal. I got the phone out of the hall and crawled under the covers with it. I very carefully dialed Mavis, praying the covers would muffle my voice.

She answered on the first ring. “Vivian?” Her voice was alert and full of concern.

“How did you know it was me?” I asked, surprised that she was still awake.

Mavis said, “I just knew. Girl, what took you so long to return my call? I’ve been worried sick.”
“It’s been a horrible day. Mavis, what happened? Does anyone know?” I asked.

“I’ll tell you what I’ve heard, but I don’t know how much truth there is to it. Trent and Paul went to the lake to see if Javelin had caught any fish. They saw a guy with a club or big stick in his hand striking something on the ground. When he saw them, he ran off. So they ran over to see what he was hitting and found Javelin. They saw how badly he was hurt, so one of them--I don’t know which--decided to run of help and that’s when he found Eva, under that big magnolia tree. She was dead. Someone had beaten her to death. The police assumes it was the same person. If Trent and Paul hadn‘t of shown up when they did, Javelin would probably have been beating to a pulp, like Eva.”

“Why would someone beat them? I can’t think of any crimes like this happening ever,” I said.
“None have happened. Not since that girl was killed 50 or so years ago. The founding four families had something to do with that. So it was covered up. Vivian, do you think this has something to do with the curse?” Mavis’s question gave me a shiver, because I was thinking the same thing.

“Even if it isn’t, half the people in town will say it is.” I said.

“The weird thing is this...there was more blood on the ground from Javelin’s wounds than there were from Eva’s. According to what I’ve heard, the whole lake side should have been covered with her blood. But there was little around her.”

“Mavis, people sometimes fill in the blanks when they don’t know the whole story. We’re going to have to wait and see what the Sheriff finds. Have you talked to Trent or Paul?”

“No. Jerome tried them, but was informed that neither could take calls.” Mavis cried out, “Oh my God, Dirk! He’s probably taking this hard. He loved Eva. How will he survive without her?”
I sighed. “Like everyone else. The best he can.”