This time, I woke up in a curtained-off section of Bridgton Hospital’s emergency room. There was an IV in my arm and a cannula under my nose. Candy jumped from the chair beside my bed and brushed the hair from my forehead.
“Oh, thank God,” she said. “I was so worried.”
My head was groggy. There must have been some kind of sedative in the IV.
“What happened?” I said.
“You had a seizure. I called the ambulance. You were still seizing when they got you here. When it stopped, you passed out.”
I tried to lift my head from the pillow. That wasn’t happening.
“What time is it?” I asked.
She checked her watch. “Almost ten.”
“At least I wasn’t out long,” I said, attempting to muster a smile.
“It’s ten at night,” she said.
“I’ve been unconscious for over twelve hours?”
“Yes.”
“Where’s Katie?”
“She’s with Huey and Anne next door. I just checked on her half an hour ago. She’s asleep on their couch.”
“Did…did she see what happened?”
Candy’s eyes shimmered. “She did. She was scared, but I was able to calm her down. When I told her you were all right, she said she was going to make you some get well soon cards.”
I felt like I was made of oatmeal. I didn’t think I had the strength to lift a soda can.
“Did the doctors say what happened?”
“They think you have a viral infection,” Candy said. “You were burning up when you got here, just like yesterday.”
“Did they take a CAT scan or anything?”
I thought, maybe I had a brain infection or a tumor. That would explain the whole AO delusion and my violent behavior. There was a glimmer of hope that even when I told the cops what I did, I could still be free if I was a victim of a debilitating illness. I could have my life back, if the illness didn’t kill me. It was disheartening to realize that this was my best case scenario.
“I don’t know. They’ve been taking you in and out for all kinds of tests. I’m going to get a nurse and let her know you’re up.”
Candy pulled the curtain aside. I could see a corner of the nurse’s station. The loudspeaker beeped, and a female voice called out for a Dr. Fass.
My wife disappeared from view. I felt as if I were melting into the hospital bed. I had only been awake for a few minutes and already I wanted to go back to sleep.
My eyes were just starting to close when I heard a door slam open, followed by hurried footsteps and a lot of urgent chatter.
“We have a code blue!” a man shouted.
I heard a stretcher being wheeled next to me, but I couldn’t see what was going on because of the curtain. Controlled bedlam was the best way to describe it. Doctors and nurses rushed into the space, making the curtain billow in and out. The person next to me was in a bad way. Recalling my days of watching ER on TV, I was pretty sure code blue meant the person next to me had stopped breathing.
“Heparin, now!” a doctor ordered.
Machines were plugged in, beeping to chaotic life.
“Who is he?” I heard a nurse ask someone just outside where I lay.
“The guy who they say murdered that man behind his house,” a male voice said.
My own heart seized.
The man continued, “He was attacked by a relative of the man outside the gas station. Stabbed him with a butcher knife. He coded the moment we got him in the truck.”
Where was Candy? I needed her with me, to hold my hand, to tether me to the dwindling parts of my life that were sane.
A woman shouted, “Where’s my Eddie?”
“Miss, I need you to stay right there. The doctors are working on your husband right now.”
“I want to see him!”
“Clear!” someone blurted next to me. There was a high-pitched whine. I didn’t need to see to know what was happening.
“Oh my God, is he in there?”
“Please, come with me. We have to let the doctors do their job.”
“Eddie!”
A fresh wave of voices swept into the emergency room. What the hell was going on? Candy rushed back to my side.
“What’s happening?” I said.
“I don’t know. It’s crazy. They brought a man in with a knife sticking out of his stomach. That’s his wife outside. I snuck past the nurses when a bunch of guys came in. They look mad as hell.”
“Where the hell is security?” a woman cried out.
This was Bridgton. I doubted very much they had much call for more than one security guard. Only hospitals in big cities would have the personnel to quell this madness.
“You!” the dying man’s wife shrieked.
“I came to see if Eddie was all right,” a man said.
“So you can gloat to your brother that he killed my husband?”
Candy grabbed my hand. I wished to hell I could see through the curtain, but on the other hand, I hoped it was enough to shield us from the escalating insanity.
“You goddamn son of a bitch! You took my husband from me! Aaaiiieeeee!”
Something crashed to the floor and a rugby scrum erupted outside the curtains. A man yelped in pain. The woman screamed that someone had stabbed her.
I lifted myself off the pillows, gripping Candy’s hand. If the fight spilled into here, there was nothing I could do to defend her.
Everyone was shouting, bodies smashing into walls. A man with long hair and glasses collapsed. From under the curtain, I saw blood oozing from his ear. Candy scrabbled back as far as she could go without releasing her hold on me. The man’s eyes rolled up in his head. A white hospital shoe stepped on his face as a nurse ran away.
Suddenly, a gun went off, bringing a merciful silence to the riot.