CHAPTER 4
The Hispanic kid was more talkative when he wasn’t distracted by his walkie talkie. While he sat in the passenger seat of the ambulance, Jake talked to him. The driver finished paperwork for the call.
“Does this sort of thing happen a lot?” Jake asked. He stood on the curb, still breathing heavily. The kid leaned out the window.
“Oh yeah, all the time.”
“Do you get used to it?”
“I wouldn’t want to.” He squinted. Might have been thinking. Or it could have been the sun.
“Why don’t you want to get used to it?”
Jake got out his notebook and pen. He started writing it down.
“It’s good to stay nervous. It keeps you on top of your game.”
“That’s great.”
The driver said something to the kid. Jake waited and the kid buckled his seatbelt.
“We have to go. Call at the Palmstead. Nothing urgent.”
“Sometimes you just drive a loop from here to there, I bet.”
“Sometimes.”
“So is there anything else?”
“Just make sure he stays off his feet for a bit. And don’t let him exert himself again. He needs rest. But otherwise he should be fine.”
The ambulance drove away slowly. They didn’t have to turn on the siren.
As soon as the man in the red-brimmed hat told him about room 112, Jake had started running. He couldn’t stand outside any longer. He’d run into the hallway and looked left as the numbers slipped down. 118, 116, 114. When he got to 112, he stopped-the old woman was outside the door, leaning over her walker.
“If you’re here,” he asked, “who’s in there?”
“A gentleman showed up at my door. He was wheezing. And he had a heavy case around his neck, a type of case with a strap.”
“And what happened?”
“Well, the case seemed to have shifted while he was walking. I think the strap was strangling him. His face was almost purple.”
“The strap was strangling him?” He looked inside but couldn’t see past the half-shut door.
“The case was too heavy, with the strap wrapped around his neck like that. He fainted right in front of me.”
Jake pushed past the door and saw the kid and the ambulance driver crowded around a large recliner. The camera case was on the floor and Gary Novak was passed out in the chair with an attendant on each arm.
He was still sitting there when Jake came back in the building after the ambulance left. Now that he knew everyone was OK, he could look for details. None of the doors in the hall had welcome mats. But Charlotte’s condo looked like he’d expected. The living room had pictures of family members on the walls and the whole space smelled like cinnamon. It was a little dark because the blinds were closed. Charlotte was slowly wheeling her walker over to Gary’s chair while she tried to balance a glass of water on a tray. She needed help.
“Charlotte, let me get that.”
She turned and stopped.
“How did you know my name?”
“Sorry. A man outside told me.”
He stopped for a moment.
“You see, I thought the ambulance was here for you.”
She started wheeling closer to Gary. Jake pointed at him.
“Let me introduce the man passed out on your chair. That gentleman is Gary Novak.”
“You know this man?”
She handed Gary the water. He took it and rested it on the arm of the chair. He stared down at his stomach and glared angrily at the camera case. Jake shrugged.
“He’s my photographer. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’m glad he survived.”
Suddenly, Gary looked up. His white hair fluffed around his ears like ripped cotton balls, and the top of his bald head was shining with sweat.
“Jacob! I saw the white light, I am thinking! I saw that big flash bulb in the sky. The bright light!”
Charlotte eyed the water as Gary waved around his arms. With each move the water almost spilled. He reached his hand out to Jake, spreading his fingers wide.
“I saw it for a second, I think. It was after I fainted. I felt death pulling at me. It was gripping at my neck.”
“Gary, I think that was the strap on your camera case.”
“Death was gripping also. And then a tiny pin prickling of light. Then I woke up. This woman, she was slapping me in the face.”
Charlotte sat down in a wooden chair next to Gary. She leaned forward as she sat and looked like she was about to pick up a penny off the floor.
“I had to slap him,” she whispered. “That’s how we woke him up.”
“I wasn’t complaining. You saved my life!” He looked at the camera case angrily another time.
“So how did this happen?”
“Jacob, I am glad you asked.” He sipped from the water glass and rested it on the arm of the chair again. “I was here at 8:58 sharp. Two minutes earlier than you asked me to be here! But I’ve always been prompt. As a boy, sometimes the other children called me prompt. They had a nickname for it. I forget what it was.”
Charlotte coughed. Jake stood up.
“Can I get you anything?”
“I’m fine. Where is he from?”
“I don’t think he remembers.”
“Anyway,” Gary continued, “I knew I didn’t have time for two trips. No time! I couldn’t let down my reporter. But in addition to my camera, I had the special lens you said I had to bring. So I put the camera case around my neck and then held the lens with my left hand. I use my right hand for my cane.”
Charlotte looked at Jake. She was wearing a purple dress with frills around the neck. She folded her arms across her knees, like she was cold, and Gary picked up his cane.
“Have you seen my cane?”
He held it out and she looked at it.
“It’s from Ethiopia! My son had it especially made for me. My height. The tribes there love to make canes. My son, he bought it from a store in LA.”
“Anyway, Gary, you were walking…”
“And I felt the camera case start to swing around. So I lifted up my shoulder.” He jerked it up to demonstrate and the water nearly spilled. “And then I had to do the other one to balance it out.”
He jerked the other shoulder. Charlotte reached for the water glass but stopped. Gary sipped again and finished it. They all exhaled.
“But then,” he continued, “I had to keep switching my shoulders, because as soon as I relocated one I dislocated the other. So then, Jacob, I realized that each time I did it I was pulling the camera strap around my neck. By the time I reached the door of this young lady, I was being choked by it!”
Charlotte smiled and took the water glass away.
“Do you remember what happened next?”
“All I remember is everything becoming extraordinarily dizzy. Then, kaput. I was out. But I wasn’t ready to go to the light. Not yet Jacob! Not yet!”
Charlotte started to lean toward her walker. Jake stood up again.
