Touch of Death(13)

I grabbed a tissue from the receptionist desk. "It's Dr. Alvarez. He collapsed. I think he had a heart attack."

"Seriously?" Melodie asked. "Like an actual heart attack?"

I nodded and threw my tissue in the garbage. "I called 911. Nurse Bennett is trying to help him."

"Come, sit down." Melodie patted the seat next to her. I didn't want to talk anymore. It was way too scary. Melodie seemed to sense that because, for once, she wasn't grilling me with questions.

We sat there in silence, watching the paramedics rush into the waiting room. I pointed to the examination room. "He's back there." Two of them went on ahead while the third, a guy in his twenties, held back for a minute.

"Everyone okay out here?"

"Yeah. Shaken up, but okay. I was with him when it happened."

"Can you tell me exactly what happened? How he acted? What he did?"

More questions. Everyone kept asking me to relive the scariest moments in my life.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I know this is tough, but anything you can tell me may help save his life."

I took at deep breath and swallowed hard. "He was putting a new bandage on my finger and I bled on him, so he went to the sink to clean it off, and then he started to choke. He reached for his chest and fell to the floor." I was breathing heavily, but managed to hold back the tears.

The paramedic nodded. "Thank you." He stood up, probably to join the others in the back room, but Helen came into the waiting room. Her face was blank. We stared at her, waiting for the word on Dr. Alvarez. She shook her head and stepped aside as the paramedics wheeled a stretcher into the back room. The silence was deafening. A few minutes later, the paramedics brought the bed back out, but this time there was a covered body lying on it.

"He's dead." I barely recognized my own voice.





Chapter 9

The paramedic we'd been talking to practically pushed us out the door. If he was worried about us being traumatized at the sight of a dead body, he was a little late. I'd seen more dead bodies in the past couple days than a mortician. The deer-I still swore he'd been dead-the rat, the squirrel, and now Dr. Alvarez. But I still let him usher us outside. I had to practically beg him to let us go home on our own. He wanted us to call a cab or one of our parents, but neither Mel nor I had money on us and our parents were working. I didn't want to give the paramedic time to change his mind, so we hopped into Melodie's car and got out of there.

Melodie was in a daze and not paying much attention to anything. I didn't have the heart to tell her she was only doing twenty-five miles an hour in a fifty zone. I left her to her thoughts, letting her deal with Dr. Alvarez's death in her own way.

I stared out the window, watching the scenery crawl past. We came to an intersection, and the light turned red. Melodie didn't seem to notice. Traffic was coming from both sides of us. "Mel, the light!" I yelled. She slammed her foot on the brake, tires screeching as the car came to a stop inches from a white pickup truck. It had come so close to barreling into us. My hands were pushing against the glove compartment. It was a knee-jerk reaction to our almost collision. One of those stupid things you do even though you know it won't help. All it did was hurt my cut-up fingers.

Melodie leaned her head back on the seat and cried. "I'm so sorry. I was completely zoned out. I didn't even see the light change."

I doubted she'd seen the light at all. "It's okay. No one was hurt. And after the day we've had, it's a miracle we're both still sane."

The light turned green, but Melodie didn't move. "Hey, would you mind driving? I'm not feeling all that great."

Cars honked behind us. They were not going to be happy about us getting out and switching seats, but I didn't think Melodie should drive anymore. "Sure. No problem." We changed seats to the sound of more honks and a few choice words from the SUV behind us. I smiled and waved at the driver. Mom always said nothing annoys a jerk more than you being nice to him. Apparently, it was true. He started yelling comments that didn't make much sense at all. I guessed I'd confused him with my reaction.

I put the car in drive and got through the light just before it turned red again. The driver of the SUV waved his fist out the window at us. Even with everything going on, I was able to find some humor in that. I drove down Fifth Street and decided to take the back roads the rest of the way home. I was halfway down Willow Drive when I saw the deer. My deer. Or at least the one I'd hit. No doubt about it. It looked …  well, dead. I pulled over and jumped out of the car.

"Jodi!" Melodie yelled, lowering her window as I ran to her side of the car. "What are you doing?"

"The deer. The one I hit. It's right there." I pointed to the trees. The deer stood still, watching me.

"So? What are you going to do, ask it to hop in the car so we can take it to the vet?" Melodie squinted at it. "Ugh, that thing is nasty. What's wrong with it?"                       
       
           



       

"It was hit by a car, remember?"

"Yeah, but look at it. Its skin is practically falling off." She leaned out the window and threw up all over the side of the road. I turned away. I never could stomach the sight of someone else puking.

The deer stepped closer to me, and I saw that Melodie was right. Its skin was sagging, and its fur was falling out in clumps. I didn't know much about rabies, but I had a feeling this deer's problem made rabies look like a jog in the park.

Melodie moaned and pulled her head back through the window. "Can we please go?"

"Yeah." I headed back to the car, keeping my eyes on the deer. It watched me, creeping closer with every step I took toward the car. "Sorry, buddy, but I already have a stalker, and one's all I can take right now." I got in the car and slammed the door shut. The deer kept coming.

"Go!" Melodie screamed.

I threw the car into drive and floored the gas. In the rearview mirror, I saw the deer dash into the road and stand there, staring after us. "Now, that was really creepy."

"Don't talk about it. I have to get the image of that thing out of my head before I throw up again."

I sped the rest of the way home. I didn't even care if I got pulled over. I wanted to get away from the deer. I wished I could get away from all the awful stuff that was happening in my life, but for right now I'd settle for losing the deer. I pulled into the driveway and turned off the engine. I leaned forward, resting my head on the steering wheel. Melodie wasn't in any shape to drive home, so we just sat.

The silence was interrupted by the buzzing of my cell phone in my pocket. I pulled it out. A text from Matt read, "Be by at five to pick you up." It was three-fifteen already. I wasn't sure how that had happened.

"Is that Matt?" Melodie asked, her eyes still closed.

"Yeah. We're supposed to go out tonight. He said he'd pick me up at five."

Melodie leaned forward and opened her eyes. "Are you really going out with him after everything that's happened today?"

She had a point, but my other option was to sit at home and think about all the awful things I'd been through today. "I need to clear my head. Forget about …  everything."

"And what better way than by making out with the boy you like?" Melodie said, sounding more like herself.

I laughed, and it felt really good. "Yeah, that would cheer me up."

We laughed until our stomachs hurt. Not because what I'd said was funny, but because we needed to laugh. When I finally stopped, I flipped open my phone. "I should call him and tell him I'm running a little late." Melodie continued to giggle in her seat.

"Hey," Matt answered. "I wasn't expecting a call back. I thought you might still be doing your community service gig."

Did everyone but me remember I'd signed up for that? "No, we got out early. It's kind of a long story."

"Well, then you're in luck. It takes surprisingly little time for me to look amazing."

I laughed. "Is that so?"

"Yup. Good genes I guess. So, tell me what happened."

I sighed, not sure if Melodie could handle listening to me recount the events of the day. "Um-"

"Oh just tell him." Melodie sighed. "If you don't, he'll ask me, and I can't handle talking about it."

"There was an incident at the community center. A squirrel got in the building, and it kind of freaked out. Someone yelled to watch out, and I thought I was about to get clobbered with a board or something, so I dropped my hammer and covered my head."

"Seems like a smart thing to do," he said. "Unless you dropped the hammer on your foot."

"No, not on my foot. On the squirrel."

"Ouch, that had to hurt it."

"You could say that. We all thought it was dead, but then it attacked a guy."

"Attacked him? Like starting clawing at him?"

"More like ripping his neck to shreds with its teeth." My stomach churned, and I was grateful I'd missed lunch. I wasn't eating much at all these days.

"Are you pranking me?"

"I wish. The thing went ballistic. But we trapped the squirrel, and the vet came and …  put it to sleep."