I remember that the pain had been unbearable. The pulling, twisting pain in my lower abdomen made lights flash behind my eyes every time it hit me. It was worse than my leg, or my arm and I struggled to move away from the smell of smoke, only to reignite a fresh round of agony. All around I could hear people yelling and I tried to talk but the only thing that came out was a groan. The steering wheel was angled weird. It was wedged down on my stomach and I felt burning on my face. The airbag hung ragged and limp on the steering wheel.
I tried to look around. A white sedan to my left, its front end crumpled and bent, spewed steam from under its hood. It registered that I was in the middle of an intersection. I’d been driving home from the bookstore. The bag with my books sat in the passenger foot well and I could see the picture of the stork and basinet on the cover.
Panic pulsed and I tried to move again, to reach my phone and call for help, but my insides tore open with more pain. I screamed, trying to ride out the agony. I forced myself to breath, though every time I inhaled my side flared white hot. I tried to push on the steering wheel. I knew it was already too late. I gasped at the force of the spasm that squeezed me like a spiked belt around my middle. Another pulling pain and I heard the sirens start to fade in the background. Then the sorrow hit me, the wave of darkness that held me down until I didn’t want to come back up.
“Rain, wake up, ma chér.” Jimmy stroked my hair and spoke softly.
My eyes fluttered open and I was in his SUV. The afternoon sun lit up his eyes and he smiled at me. “I’m sorry. I fell asleep.” I jerked a hand away from my middle, as if it would give away what I’d been dreaming about.
“Are you OK? You were groaning.”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just…” I shrugged. “It’s been a hard week.” I sat up and rubbed my eyes, took a deep breath and forced a smile.
“We’re at Warren’s house.”
“Warren?”
Jimmy got out of the car.
I undid the seatbelt and followed him out onto the sidewalk. We were in front of a beautiful mission style home. Someone had taken time and money and restored the rambling grandeur of the building with care. I whistled in appreciation.
“Warren Conrad. He’s my friend from law school. See.”
Jimmy pointed to the wood shingle suspended over the front door. It read Warren Conrad – Family Law, and had three little bells hanging off the bottom of it. I nodded towards it.
“The sign says he’s closed on Mondays. You think he’ll mind?”
“Nope,” Jimmy said with a twinkle in his eye. “But I kind of promised we’d do something while we’re here.”
I started to ask what he meant, but Jimmy hopped the porch steps ahead of me and rang the doorbell. I heard voices from inside as I climbed up to the porch. Music blared and I smelled barbeque smoke.
Warren answered the door in faded jeans and a ripped t-shirt. He was Jimmy’s age, but with none of the height or muscle. In fact, Warren was a little on the soft, round side. He smiled broadly and reached out to give Jimmy a bear hug.
“Jimmy, boy!”
Jimmy laughed and shook Warren’s hand and then motioned toward me.
“This must be the beautiful Rain I’d always heard so much about!”
“Nice to meet you, Warren,” I said and extended my hand.
“Nice to meet…come here!”
Warren pulled me into a crushing bear-hug and lifted me off my feet. Then he dragged me by the hand into his living room where six other men stood holding various cans of soda and plates of chips.
“Guys, its Jimmy! He brought his girlfriend, Rain.”
“Rain!” They all bellowed at once and lifted their sodas in a toast.
“Warren is a gamer.” Jimmy leaned in and whispered in my ear.
“A what?” I saw a giant flat screen television mounted on the wall and noticed that Warren and the rest of the guys had on headsets with microphones. A video game on the screen stood frozen on pause.
“He has these crazy marathon parties and they play people all around the world.”
“Not parties, tournaments. Did Jimmy ever tell you about that fourteen hour game we played against the Chinese team?” Warren dropped a soda and a plate of four different kinds of chips in my hand. He motioned for me to sit in a wing chair set off to the right of the room. He started laughing and a few of the other gamers nodded appreciatively.
“That was a monster,” Jimmy agreed.
Warren grabbed his controller and sat on the chair facing the screen.
“Let me just finish off this round and we can go outside.”
Jimmy nodded and wandered over to talk to a man at the snack table. I put the soda between my knees and nibbled on a chip while I watched Warren play. He and three other guys spoke to each other on their headsets even though they weren’t more than two feet from each other. They all controlled a monster version of themselves on screen in some sort of coordinated attack of other monsters in a nearby ravine. It took me a few minutes to realize that Warren’s army had over twelve monsters and that he was actually talking to people who weren’t even in the room. The action was fast and the others in the room shouted to one another to watch out for flaming rings, and color burst bombs.
Jimmy sat down on the floor next to me. He had a headset and was listening in on the commands. I tried to picture him getting into the fray, shouting between mouthfuls of chips, and cheering for his monster.
“It’s your right flank, Warren. They’re opening up way too soon. The goblins are going to massacre your point men!” Jimmy shouted to Warren.
“I told you guys!” Warren shouted.
One of the players in the room muttered under his breath and shot a look at Jimmy. Then everyone, including Jimmy, groaned and shook their heads. Warren let his controller drop and his head hung down for a few seconds. Then he snapped back to happy and pulled off his headset. “Next time guys, next time.”
The other players wandered over to the snack table and started talking.
“Those kids were good.” Jimmy took off his headset and smiled.
“Kids?”
“Yeah, the other uhm…horde of monsters. They’re a team of twelve-year-olds who are training to compete in the next Global Battle Games.”
“There’s competitions?”
“Oh yeah, there’s international meets and prizes and everything.” Jimmy stood up. He put his hand out and helped me to my feet.
“And Warren does this?”
I followed Jimmy out onto the back deck.
“No, Warren doesn’t compete anymore. He sponsors teams from inner cities. Gets them the equipment and practice space they need to be able to compete with the other teams.”
“Oh…that’s nice.”
Warren didn’t seem like such a geek to me after hearing that. He was kind of like a big brother, mentor-type, in a non-sport, sedentary way.
“Hey guys,” Warren said happily. He motioned with the barbecue fork for us to join him at the table under the umbrella. I sat down and he put a plate with a gorgeous steak and roasted baby onions in front of me. I was liking Warren more and more.
“This looks great, Warren. I’m sorry we crashed your party, though.”
“Nonsense! We’re always happy to have fresh eyes on the game.” Warren smiled at me.
“Really, Warren, thanks.” Jimmy accepted a plate from him and sat down next to me.
Warren made a plate for himself and sat down with us. He took a bite out of his onions and chewed slowly with his eyes closed. When he was finished, he looked back at Jimmy, all business. “So your guy, Parker, he might have a case.”
“You’re kidding!” My stomach fell despite my lunch’s alluring smell.
“Well, it does depend on the records.” Warren said.
Jimmy sliced a piece of his steak, shoved it in his mouth, and shook his head.
“What records is he talking about?” I decided to try my meal anyway, to be polite. It was awesome.
“You see, the crux of the problem is this. If Parker can prove that Summer was legally dead before the baby was delivered,” he shot a worried look at Jimmy, but continued. “Well, then depending on the type of judge he gets, he could get the codicil thrown out.” Warren gestured with his fork as he spoke.
“That’s a long shot, though.” Jimmy leaned back in his chair.
“I agree,” Warren said and took a pull from his soda bottle. “But it’s still a shot worth taking considering the amount of money involved. I’d make sure to get a good probate attorney lined up.”
“Do you know anyone?” Jimmy chopped up his steak with his knife and fork but didn’t eat a bite.
Warren watched him and I realized that he was probably a very shrewd guy.
“I can recommend someone, but I’d rather you not contact them just yet.”
Jimmy nodded, but I didn’t understand.
“Why not?”
“Because if you contact a lawyer before Parker even contests the codicil it’ll be obvious you both knew about the codicil, and were anticipating his move. That leaves you open to a lot…considering.”
“Considering what?”
I looked at Jimmy and his face was hard. When he spoke it was in a whisper. I’d never seen him look so angry.
“Considering Summer named you and I co-executors of Autumn’s estate.”
“What?” I dropped my fork.
“It was in the report, Rain. The last page listed co-defendants in the challenge. That our names are there means we’re on the codicil.”
“But…what do you mean considering? What’s to consider? What are we considering?” I sounded like an idiot but it was all that I had at the moment.
“It would, how should I put this, tarnish your character if it came out that you signed the papers that effectively kept Summer alive only long enough to deliver the baby.” Warren looked at Jimmy and then back at me.
“But that’s not what happened!” I yelled.
“I’m saying, from what Jimmy told me, Parker plans on accusing you of something like that at trial.” Warren’s concerned gaze was scaring me.
“Trial! I thought I was just giving a deposition tomorrow.”
My voice cracked my eyes were stinging with tears.
“Hey, don’t get ahead of things. I just wanted Warren’s worst case scenario prediction. We don’t know what the hospital records say exactly. We don’t know that Parker really has anything.” Jimmy reached out and rubbed my back.
“I didn’t mean to scare you.” Warren nodded.
“Warren is kind of like a trouble barometer, Rain. He can tell you the worst possible outcome and then we can strategize against it. That’s it.”
I glanced at Warren’s placid face. He didn’t seem all that alarmed.
Jimmy also looked calm.
“So this was a consultation of possible doom, not actual doom…yet?”
“That’s exactly right.” Warren laughed. He sounded like he truly found me amusing. He tapped his temple with his forefinger. “Like the enemy, you must think,” he said in a creepy monster voice.