Touch of Death(12)

"What?" I asked. "Does it have a disease or something?"

He turned and looked at me. "No, it's not sick. It's dead."

"It isn't dead," Mike argued. "It attacked Jake. Ripped the back of his neck right off."

I felt the two bites of waffle I'd eaten for breakfast coming back up.

Dr. Hemshaw took a syringe from his bag. "I'm going to sedate it and show you what I mean."

Sedate it? He just said it was dead. Melodie looped her arm through mine, squeezing me in fear. I watched Dr. Hemshaw open the toolbox just enough to stick the needle inside. After a few seconds, he pulled the needle out and put a latex glove on his hand. He reached into the toolbox and pulled out the squirrel. It was covered in blood, Jake's blood. Dr. Hemshaw turned the squirrel over in his hand. "Have a look." No one wanted a better look at the thing. We stood still. Finally, Dr. Hemshaw stepped forward and showed us the squirrel. The back of its head was smashed in from where my hammer had hit it, and its brains were leaking out.

Melodie covered her mouth and ran from the room. Mike wasn't far behind her. I was frozen in place, not able to move or talk.

"There's no possible way this animal is alive." Dr. Hemshaw shook his head. "Yet, it attacked someone, and I had to sedate it." He sighed, unable to make sense of it.

"What are you-?" I gagged, my throat constricting from the sight of the squirrel.

"Sorry." He covered the squirrel's head with his other hand so I couldn't see its brains anymore.

"What are you going to do with it?"

"The only humane thing to do is euthanize it. It's clearly in pain, and it can't survive like this. Another animal would pick it off in a matter of minutes."

I wasn't so sure about that. I'd seen what the squirrel could do, even with the contents of its head spilling out.

Dr. Hemshaw took another syringe from his bag. Taking one last look at the squirrel, he euthanized it. "I'm going to take this to my office, check it for rabies and other diseases so I can let the hospital know how to treat …  Jake, is it?"

I nodded as Dr. Hemshaw walked to the door. I was still in a daze. My life couldn't get more bizarre.

"You should really go get that hand looked at," Mike said after Dr. Hemshaw had left. He was writing on his clipboard.

"Yeah, I'll go now. I just need to find a ride. I walked here because my car is in the shop." I thought about the deer and how it had looked dead, but then it got up and ran off. Ran off and terrorized a farm, killing two sheep. The reporter said the deer was probably rabid. Images of the deer popped into my head. It had looked …  well, like the squirrel did. Diseased. Dead. What was going on in this town? And why did I always seem to be around when it happened?

"Want me to get one of the guys to drive you?" Mike asked.

"No, that's okay." I didn't know these guys. They seemed nice enough, but Mom would kill me if I got in a car with a strange guy like that. It wasn't like my injury was life-threatening.

"Come on, let's go home." Melodie still looked green.

"I have to get my hand checked out and make sure my tetanus shot is up to date."

"My car's at home. How are you going to get there?"

It was too far to walk to the clinic. "Mom left me her car, but I'm not good at driving stick. I hate to ask, but could we walk to your house and you maybe drive me? You can drop me off if you don't want to wait around for me. I'll call Matt or someone for a ride home."

"Yeah, okay. Maybe the doctor will have something to settle my stomach."

We walked back to Melodie's house, and she ran inside to get the keys to her car. I leaned against the passenger side door. The sun was bright, and it felt good. My entire body was chilled to the core, and not because of the February weather. I heard a noise in the bushes and jolted upright. Dirty blonde hair stuck out from the top of the closest bush.

"Alex?" Normally, I would've been freaked out, but I had had enough for one day. "I can see you. Enough with the games. I'm not in the mood."

He stepped into the open. Finally, we could get this over with. But Melodie came rushing out of the house with the car keys. "Sorry that took so long, I-" She stopped when she saw Alex.

"Melodie, this is Alex, my personal stalker."

He glared at me, not even glancing at Melodie. "Another time." He turned and disappeared behind the bushes.

Melodie unlocked the car. "Get in. Let's get out of here before he comes back."

"He's not coming back." At least not now. He wanted me alone.

We drove to the clinic. Melodie insisted on waiting for me while the doctor examined my finger and checked my files. "It will give me a chance to catch up on all these ancient issues of magazines no one but a doctor would ever subscribe to."

I smiled at her and followed Nurse Bennett into one of the back rooms. I'd known her all my life, which was the only reason she took me in despite the fact that the clinic was closing for the day. She took my blood pressure and then un-bandaged my finger. The cut was deep and embedded with flecks of rust. That couldn't be healthy.

"Jodi, you cut yourself on a rusty nail, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I was helping rebuild the community center this morning."

She put on a pair of gloves, sat down on a swivel chair, and wheeled herself over to me. "Rebuilding the community center, huh?" She took my hand in hers. "Let me guess, college application time is coming up and you're lacking in community service?"

If it hadn't been true, I would've gotten offended. It's not like I was against doing community service. It's just I spent my free time helping Mom around the house. She worked so much. It wasn't easy for her to support the both of us and keep the house clean.

I turned away, not wanting to watch Nurse Bennett remove the rust. Warm blood ran down my finger. She pressed a piece of gauze on the cut and applied pressure. I winced. "Hold this for a second." I took over, not putting anywhere near as much pressure on my hand. The cut on my left finger stung. The stupid thing wouldn't heal. It was bleeding through the Band-Aid again. Now I had a matching pair. Nurse Bennett came back with a tray at the same time Dr. Alvarez came in. She filled him in on my situation.

Dr. Alvarez sat in front of me. "Okay, I'm going to put some dissolving sutures on this finger. It's not that bad, but since you're probably going to want to use your hand in the next few weeks, this will help it heal quicker."

"Thanks," I said.

He worked quickly. "There, that should do." He put his instruments down on the tray, and Nurse Bennett carried them out of the room. As Dr. Alvarez removed his gloves, his eyes fell on the bloody Band-Aid on my left finger. "Another cut? Let's get a fresh Band-Aid for that." He changed the bandage, getting some of my blood on him in the process.                       
       
           



       

"Sorry," I said.

"No worries. We have disinfectant soap, and exposure like that is pretty low risk. It happens a lot." He went to the sink. "We don't need to worry about-" He gagged, like he was choking on water.

I hopped down from the examination table. "Dr. Alvarez, are you okay?"

He reached a soapy hand to his chest and fell to the floor, his head landing at my feet. I jumped back, knocking over the tray and the chair. Nurse Bennett knocked on the door and peeked her head in. "Is everything-" her eyes darted from the mess to me to Dr. Alvarez. "What happened?" She rushed to him, but looked surprisingly calm.

"I-I don't know. He was washing his hands." I pointed to the faucet, which was still running. "And then he started choking like he was having trouble breathing. I asked him if he was okay, but he clutched his chest and collapsed."

Nurse Bennett bent down and listened for sounds of breathing. She pressed two fingers to the side of his neck. "Call 911 and have Helen get me the AED now." I grabbed my cell from my back pocket, but Nurse Bennett pointed to the phone on the wall. "Use the landline." I grabbed it and dialed.

"911. What is your emergency?"

"Dr. Alvarez collapsed. I think he had a heart attack. We're at the clinic on Seventh Street. Nurse Bennett said they're going to use something called an AED." I had no idea what that was.

"Foxmoor Clinic on Seventh Street?"

"Yes. Please, send someone," I pleaded before hanging up the phone.

"What can I do?" I asked.

"Jodi, please go in the waiting room. I need room to operate the AED." Her voice was calm and composed, as Helen rushed in with what looked like a black box in both hands. She must have overheard Nurse Bennett ask for the AED.

I nodded and stepped around her. Melodie was reading a magazine, completely oblivious to what was going on. "Hey, did you know eating corn makes your stomach look fat?" she blurted the second she saw me. She flipped the page before doing a double take in my direction.

I broke down, tears streaming down my face.

Melodie put the magazine aside. "What happened? Do you have to get rabies shots? They don't have to amputate your hand or anything, do they?"