After the Storm (Chapter-17)

Carissa talked at length with Paul, it had become comfortable for both of them. Paul told her the police hadn’t got Richard back from Honduras yet, but all of the paperwork had been completed. They would have to send a deputy down to escort him back. Paul told Carissa that he hadn’t had any new memory recoveries. He also told her that she had become an important part of his life but he wanted to have clear memories before he made any other commitments.

Paul and Carissa talked about “them” and where, if anywhere, things were headed. They agreed there may be something there but also agreed to take it slow and try to get all of the mysteries solved before they tackle any new problems. Carissa steered the conversation back around to Paul’s memory before they said goodnight. Carissa decided to get a few chores done that had been put off while she was in Cedar Rapids.

She made a conscious decision to work on laundry and she began to separate the clothes out into their respective smaller piles. She found the pile of clothes she had cut off of Paul with the intention of throwing them away and checked again to make sure there wasn’t any reason to salvage them. Inside one of the shirt pockets she discovered an SD memory card. She took it out and checked through the remaining pockets just in case there was something important in them.

The SD card was a full size one and her phone used the smaller micro version and she didn’t have anything that could read it. She put it aside and would ask Paul about it later, although it was likely he wouldn’t have any memory of it. It made her a bit nervous, especially since someone had broken into not only her house but also Paul’s looking for something and this could be that something they searched for. She had a floor safe in the bottom of her closet under a shoe cabinet and she felt it best to put the card in there for safe keeping.

She wasn’t too fearful about her intruder because she believed it to be Richard before he left the country and when he comes back he would be in police custody. But nonetheless she placed her pistol on the table next to her pillow to make her feel more secure. She fell asleep and was in the deep stages when the crash she heard outside brought her out of the deep slumber. She had to force her eyes open, they were not yet ready to yield to the conscious state she was beckoning.

She was staring at the inside wall away from the bed and she could see the bright red and blue lights throwing their illumination against the wall. The crash had been loud and she was startled enough the adrenalin in her bloodstream would prevent her from falling asleep again for at least a while. She decided she should go and investigate and from the sounds of gathering people outside, some of her neighbors had decided the same thing.

She got up and put her robe on and decided that even though her hair was a mess and the bags under her eyes would be evident, her neighbors at least would not be in any better shape. She put on her robe and a windbreaker over that as some protection against the night air. She slipped her pistol in the pocket of the windbreaker and kept her hands in both pockets to give the illusion of just keeping her hands warm.

She took a slow but deliberate walk down her driveway in the direction where she could see the people gathering with streams of red and blue lights splashing across them. When she got farther into the road she could see some mail boxes knocked over and a sports car with the front end smashed almost all the way across. Carissa asked if anyone knew what had happened and one of the neighbors, a short older man that reminded her of her father, told her what the deputy had told him. The old man introduced himself as Carl and told her he used to visit her father often.

Carl said, “When I got down here no one was here except the crashed car and the deputy. It was the crash that startled me awake and I came to see what it was. The deputy told me that our neighbor’s son had too much to drink before heading home and took out the mail boxes trying to negotiate his driveway.”

Carissa said, “Just like everyone here, I imagine, I was startled by the crash. I knew the adrenalin in my veins would keep me awake so I decided to trek down here barely dressed in the middle of the night in hopes of catching some calamity that may have transpired. Since the boy is the son of one of our local bankers I assume this won’t make the papers so I am going to head back to bed.”

Carissa made the walk back up the driveway and into her back door before turning off her outside light that she had flipped on when she went down to investigate. She could still see the red and blue lights against the wall in her bedroom but she hoped she could still fall asleep if she lay long enough with her eyes closed. She had a twelve hour shift coming in just a few hours and it wasn’t likely she would get to add many hours of sleep to the few she had accumulated so far.

While she lay in bed hoping for slumber, staring at the wall illuminated with red and blue, she saw the lights finally stop and saw the replacement of orange lights that were obviously from the tow truck. She heard the noise of the truck bed lowering and the wench pulling the car in place. The towing bill and repairs would be expensive she thought, but then again the banker father would take care of it and no doubt falsify the documents going to the insurance company. A clear sign of small town justice, she thought.

She remembered seeing them take the kid out of the car and he appeared unharmed. He had been slumped over and probably was so drunk and relaxed the crash didn’t hurt him. It was no concern of hers and her mailbox was still standing on the other side of the drive so she really didn’t care much. The only thing she cared about at this moment was she only had about two hours before she had to get up for work. She desperately needed those two hours.

She must have dozed off because the next thing she knew there was a ringing in her ears coming from the clock perched just enough out of reach that she was forced to get up to turn it off. That was a strategy she had employed since she had been on her own. She could have just as easily used a baseball bat to turn off the alarm but she knew she needed to get up and the alarm was just performing a function she had commanded it to do.

She went in to take a shower and was startled by the image that addressed her in the mirror. She thought back to college days when she could drink half the night, get by on two hours sleep and study while she drove to class. Now with less than eight hours sleep on a work night she looked like something farmers put in the field to protect their corn. Her eyes were bloodshot, the bags under her eyes looked fully packed and her hair looked like something birds used to lay eggs in.

Before she showered, she dragged herself into the kitchen to get a cup down from the upper cabinet. Coffee was needed now before anything else and then maybe the shower would help to revive the rest. Her belief was that the coffee woke the mind and the shower woke the body. She poured her coffee in the giant Yeti tumbler and pushed the lid on it. She drank some in the kitchen and took the rest with her to the shower. She took one more look at her reflection before closing her eyes and rushing into the stream of hot water that cascaded over her skin.

When she got out her reflection had certainly changed. Her hair now looked like a drowned rat and she knew she had some work to do. Blow dryers, curling irons and an arsenal of tools that would make a carpenter jealous would be employed. She dried, shaped and moved hair into something that finally looked like her. She sipped coffee while working on her masterpiece and little by little she began to look like an alert young nurse. She knew all too well, looks can be deceiving.

The makeup phase was just as critical as the hair and she worked just as painstakingly as she had on the hair. She got it completed and was ready for work. There would not be time for breakfast at home but the cafeteria had breakfast and she needed to leave now to make it on time. It was clear to her she may have to settle on something easily consumed while on the run.