Déjà vu. It felt like a re-run. Here I was again in a hospital, sitting by Andrea’s bed, waiting for her to wake up. I had dozed in the chair for a while until I heard her groan.
She blinked, trying to open her eyes, frowned, and closed them again. She took a deep breath and raised her eyebrows in an effort to open her eyes and try to get her bearings. “Where …? Wha … happened?”
Relief flooded through me. Oh, thank God she’s awake. I leapt up and took her hand. “Andrea, how are you feeling? Do you hurt anywhere? I was so worried about you.” I was aware I was squeezing her hand too tightly, but I was so glad to see her awake. I blinked back the tears I felt building behind my eyes.
She propped herself up on her elbows and looked around the room before focusing on me again. “Jim! Oh … Jim, you’re … here.”
I put my arms around her and pulled her to me tightly. She felt small and frail. I had an overwhelming urge and responsibility to protect her. “I’m so glad you’re okay.” I kissed her forehead. “How are you feeling?”
“Fuzzy. Wha … happened?”
“Seems you were right after all. Robert was following you and grabbed you at Ricky’s Restaurant.” Her brow furrowed and she looked puzzled. “Andrea? Does that ring a bell?”
I helped her sit up and adjusted the pillow behind her back. “I ’member bein’ in Ricky’s with Rober’. Affer ’at iss all a bit fuzzy.” She looked around the room. “Feel sick.” I handed her the pan from the night table. She turned on her side and retched, poor thing. I grabbed a tissue and helped dab her mouth clean. “Water?” she whispered, eyes brimming with tears.
I brought her a glass of water and held it to her mouth. “Look. Let’s not talk about it until you’re feeling better.”
“Yeah. Good idea.” Her eyes were closing already as she laid her head back on the pillow.
*****
I slept in the chair by her bed that night. If Robert was released from custody I wanted to be sure he didn’t try again to nab Andrea. Man! What had I let myself in for? All this drama. My life was humming along just fine until Andrea came along. Not her fault, of course, all this trouble with Robert. Guy’s a nutcase! And I wanted Andrea every bit as much as he did but for different reasons. I loved her. To him, she was an obsession. He couldn’t take no for an answer.
I looked over at her sleeping in the hospital bed. So helpless and vulnerable. She really had no one to go to bat for her except me. Whether I wanted it or not, I was the one who was dragged into this nightmare with her. I could just walk away, find someone else. But then she’d have no one, and worse yet, I would lose the best thing that had ever happened to me. No. I couldn’t walk away, no matter how difficult things might become. I loved her too much. If she was in a messy situation, I was in it with her up to my neck. No way I could leave her. No way I ever would.
I felt sick at the recriminations I’d made, accusing her of hiding my jeans, and thinking she had cut the pockets out of them. It was all Robert’s doing. His plan to drive us apart had almost worked.
If only she would bounce back from this, I promised myself I’d do better by her.
*****
The next two days, I took care of Andrea at home. She regained most of her memory up to the point where Robert had given her the pills. We sat on the sofa in the living room with a cup of tea and gradually, the story came out.
“He said if I wanted it to end—his stalking—we should go settle things in the restaurant. I didn’t want to go but I did want it to end. So I went. I thought I’d be safe with other people around. Later, I tried to leave and he took hold of my arm and dragged me out of the restaurant. People just stood there, watching and doing nothing. I remember looking at them, calling to them to help me, but they looked as terrified as I felt. Robert threw me into the back of his truck. Later he parked someplace and came into the back of the truck with me. He said I could either take the sleeping pill or he could knock me out with his fist. I took the pill. That’s all I remember.”
“The doctor said they’ve done some tests and that wasn’t a sleeping pill. It was Rohypnol.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
“It’s like Valium only stronger. They call it the date-rape drug because it knocks you out in about 30 minutes and then when you wake up you don’t remember anything.”
She slapped a hand over her mouth and groaned. “Oh God! I hope he didn’t....”
“The doctor said you were not raped.”
Her shoulders slumped. “Oh, thank God.” She looked up quickly. “Do you know where Robert is now?”
“Don’t worry. The police took him away.” I looked down at her hands. The fists had relaxed. I took her fingers and played with them. “I’m sorry I doubted you about Robert.” I put my arms around her and rubbed her back. “I’ll never doubt you again.”
She reached up and stroked my cheek. Her eyes were brimming over with tears. “What would I do without you?”
“You don’t have to do without me. I’m going to keep you safe from that crazy, disturbed man.”
“I hope they keep him in jail.”
“I hope so too. At least for a while,” I added, but it reminded me that I should go see the police and find out what was happening to Robert.
*****
I lay awake for a long time that night. We were both tired and stressed out from the Robert situation. In the morning, I ran the idea by Andrea.
“I’ve been thinking, and I have an idea.”
“Yeah?” She waited for me to go on, making impatient rolling motions with her hands.
“I think it would be good for us to get away from all this Robert trouble. Why don’t we close up the house and go to Hawaii for a while?”
“Really!?” Her eyes were wide and so was her smile. “You mean it?”
“Of course. We won’t have to think about him and we can try to get our lives back to some kind of normal.” I smiled to think she was eager for the holiday.
“I’ve never been to Hawaii,” she said, “and I sure would love to be there just with you.”
“Great! I figure we have two choices. We can go for two weeks and stay in a condo or some such accommodation. Or we can go for much longer, say two or three months … or more, and camp instead.”
“Camping and long term! No contest,” she said.
“Wonderful. I’ll start making plans.” It would be so good to get away from that leech. I was tired of having him suck the life out of us.