As soon as I felt the impact on my back, I also felt heavy impacts land on my right side. Someone was kicking me mercilessly right in my kidney and liver. Still unable to see, and now even more disoriented than before, I just rolled onto my side and went into a fetal position. The next few impacts hit my forearms that I used to shield my face, but the barrage suddenly stopped and I heard a grunting noise, followed by the sounds of struggling. When I lowered my arms, blinked the tears out of my eyes, and finally looked around, I saw Paul pinning someone to the ground. It was the guy who had stabbed me! Apparently, he was out of jail and wanted revenge. Thank god he didn’t bring a gun!
Paul was anything but gentle with the guy, even after he had stopped making noises all together. I honestly didn’t care. I didn’t even care where the hell Paul had come from, since I hadn’t seen his car when I parked. I was just thankful he showed up when he did. When he himself noticed that the guy was reliably out of commission, he checked me over.
“Wow. Dude. Just when I thought your face had already hit rock bottom, you pull a stunt like this and prove me wrong.” he grinned, though I could see concern in his eyes. I must’ve looked bad.
“Thanks. You always say the sweetest things.” I replied, feeling pain in my upper lip, and noticing my voice sounding like I was at the pinnacle of a massive cold.
I had just started to assess the damage on my body when I heard a patrol car’s siren approach. Explaining to the officers what had happened took longer than at the Walmart parking lot, since, this time, there were no cameras filming the whole thing, and I was still somewhat hazy on how it even started.
Truth was, the thought of installing a surveillance system in that house never even occurred to me, despite planning and installing surveillance systems being a big part of my job. My mind was constantly occupied by getting out of that house, so why would I concern myself with securing it?
I recounted my story to the officer and listened to Paul’s additions until the ambulances arrived and whisked me away. In the ER, the doctor took a look at my face. Though my nose was bleeding, most of the blood he found had come out of my split eyebrow and a cut in my lip. He announced I would get a nice shiner under both of my eyes for a few days, but the nasal bone itself was intact. Then came the bruises along my right side, where he had kicked me repeatedly in the liver and kidney.
The Doc made me move around in specific ways and, when he noticed the pain in my face, ordered an ultrasound that thankfully came back unremarkable, though he warned me to keep an eye on it and come back in should my urine look red-ish, brown-ish, or too dark. He also took a quick look at my chest to make sure the old wounds hadn’t opened up again. Roughly an hour later, an officer came in to take my statement again, since the on-scene officer had to allow the ambulance to take me away prematurely.
“So, Mr. Brown, you told the officer on scene you already know that man?”
“Not by name, but he stabbed me the week before Thanksgiving. You guys took him in. I had no idea he was out already.”
“It seems he made bail yesterday.”
“And none of you thought it would be appropriate to warn me!?”
“He was already in county jail. They should’ve informed the coordinator, who should’ve informed you. If the release happened outside the coordinator’s business hours, you will get that notification when their office opens on Monday again.”
The officer explained this in a deadpan voice, like this wasn’t the most hilarious thing I had ever heard.
“Well, good to know. I’ll thank them for their diligent work when that happens.” I said, as he took photos of my injuries.
Another hour later, I was on my way back from the hospital to enjoy being done with Logan’s shit. I was physically and mentally exhausted, but when my taxi finally pulled up in front of the house, I noticed my groceries being ruined. I dropped my shopping bags when the guy grabbed me, causing the contents to be first trampled in the struggle, then by the police, and finally by the paramedics. So, I didn’t even get out of the car and just told the driver to get me to the nearest ‘Walmart or something’. I also informed Paul that I was okay, though I wouldn’t get any drinks that day.
For some reason, every person in the store gave me strange looks, but I was too out of it to care. I did, however, come across a mini instant-print camera, which made me think of Ava’s newest hobby to plaster her walls with printed photos of her friends. That, in turn, made me remember that today was Ava’s birthday, so I dropped the camera into my cart. I also picked up a little aluminum box labeled “Development Aid”, that I was supposed to put money in, and a gift-bag.
