The first thing Donna Estelle Brazile could remember was the series of beeps that cycled monotonously and the pungent smell of disinfectant that hit her with a wave of nausea. She tried several times and finally opened her eyes to a dim light coming from somewhere behind her head. She took a deep breath, and a sharp pang flashed across her chest and dissipated. She wanted to touch her nose, which itched enough to demand attention. The panic gripped her because she could move neither hand.
“What? What happened to me?”
She raised her head enough to see that an IV bag hanging on a metal stand and tubing ran from there to her right arm, fastened to a bed railing.
“What the hell? Where am I?”
A door opened to her left, and a nurse rushed into the room.
“Hey, there, sugar. Take it easy. You’re okay. You’re safe and sound. Just relax.”
“What happened to me? Where am I? Where’s John and Cleo?”
“Take it easy, sugar. You’re okay. Just relax and don’t panic and get too excited. You will be fine and back to 100% very soon.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m a nurse in the Stokers General Hospital. My name is Andrea. What’s your name? Do you remember?”
“I’m Donna Brazile, but I don’t remember visiting the hospital or being brought here. What happened to me?”
“What’s your middle name?”
“Estelle. Will you answer my question or make me angry and slow my healing?”
“I’m a nurse, and I can’t talk to you. That’s Dr. McCoy’s responsibility. I’ll let him know you're awake and aware now. If he can’t make it within a reasonable time, he’ll send someone on the ICU staff to check you out.”
“Thanks. Why can’t I move my hands? My nose needs squeezing a little. It’s itching something fierce.”
Andrea squeezed and wiggled her nose. “Feel better?”
“Oh, yes. Thanks so much.”
“You can’t move because Dr. McCoy had the ICU staff immobilize you for the time being. Now that you’re awake, that should come back to you slowly.”
“Okay. I understand your position, but can you tell me if it was so bad that being paralyzed was a good option?”
“Yes, Mrs. Brazile. In all other circumstances and instances, you would be DOA, but Fate or Heaven has a different plan for you. Therefore, this conversation should not happen, and you should be chilling in the basement morgue. Now, relax and try to sleep so your body can get a jump start on healing. Dr. McCoy or someone in charge will be with you soon. And thanks for beating the odds on this one. I’ll be back shortly.”
She scarcely had time to breathe before Andrea was replaced by Nurse Francis to check her pulse and blood pressure, draw blood for testing, and check her eyes for dilation response.
“Are you always this quiet?” Donna asked.
“Yes, Ma’am. I work the grave shift from midnight to seven o’clock in the morning. I try to be quiet to avoid irritating the patients more than necessary by taking their blood and disturbing their sleep.”
“Good for you. So far as I can remember, that was the smoothest blood drawing of my life.”
“Thanks. I try.”
“Do you know what happened to me?”
“No, Ma’am. I show up at 11:30 p.m. and do my job until morning. So I try not to get involved in patients’ lives or problems.”
“I understand that one. Thanks anyway. Will you come back soon?”
“No. Shelly will visit you on your next scheduled lab work. If you’re still here tonight, I’ll probably see you again. Vampires love return hits on good people, and we don’t often have people of your caliber in the ICU. Rest easy, heal swiftly, and get back into life.”
“Rest easy and heal. Good advice, I guess.”
*
The next time she awakened, Dr. McCoy stood by her bedside, reviewing her chart.
“Hello, doctor. I’m ready to go home now, I think.”
“Hello, Mrs. Brazile. It’s good to see you awake and alive. How do you feel?”
“I feel as well as could be expected. The only thing that’s annoying is why I’m in a hospital that I have never heard of until now. Would you care to enlighten me and help my healing process?”
“You don’t remember? Well, sometimes, amnesia is a side effect of head trauma. So you remember nothing at all of that night?”
“What night? How long have I been here and immobilized for my protection and healing?”
“This is day number six. And immobilizing was necessary due to the spontaneous and strong muscle spasms you experienced. We did that versus giving you medication for epilepsy because you do not have that problem. However, what we did worked, stopping the nerve and brain damage from the Sarin gas inhalation. It’s a miracle that you survived at all. Not many persons would walk away from that without severe and lifelong problems. Ninety-nine percent die within minutes.”
“Sarin? That’s a chemical warfare nerve agent, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Does that bring back a memory?”
“Not really. Where did that happen?”
“Um, this will take some time, I see.”
“Will you answer the question? This is stupid if you could see it from my side! I’m here, hurt, dazed, confused, and people like you want me to remember when it hurts to even think.”
“Well, since you put it that way, you were in a traffic accident thirty-seven miles east of Alamogordo, New Mexico, on Route 82, near High Rolls. You traveled at 120 mph and had no way to stop if you ever wanted to, and you cursed because you couldn’t drive faster. That’s what the police and rescue people reported.”
Donna jerked and closed her eyes with a scream as the few tidbits opened the door, and a parade began of all the painful and horrific memories. Each one exposed itself, and some rubbed their pain in her face.
*
It started with a phone call at 3:22 in the morning.
She grasped her cell phone and pulled it under the blankets to answer without opening her eyes. At the same time, she heard her front doorbell ring and looked at the time on her cell phone.
She answered the phone and sat on the edge of her bed to talk and search for her robe with her other hand.
“Hello, Donna. Are you awake now? This is Colonel Torrent from Holloman. Will you open the door? We, I need to talk with you.”
“You’re here? At my house? At this time of the morning?”
She screamed, tossed the cell phone on the bed, and donned her robe as she rushed to unlock the front door. She yanked it open to find Lieutenant Colonel Chad Torrent with another man she recognized from Holloman AFB Chapel, dressed in black and looking sad.
She tossed her hands up defensively. “NO! Please, no! Go away! I can’t deal with that! Just shut up and go away!”
“May we come in, Donna?” asked Pastor Clements.
“NO! Go to hell and save the eternally condemned. I’ve done nothing wrong! Don’t tell me! I don’t want to hear it! He’s coming home! I know it! You’ve got the wrong address, and I'm not the right person! Please be wrong! I can’t deal with it!”
“Donna, may we come in for a few moments?” asked Chad.
She turned her back to them and headed to the kitchen. She did not have to look to know they followed her. She kept her silence until she had the coffee started.
“Do you think you’ll need that?” Her flippant reaction annoyed Chad.
“Do you think I’ll be able to sleep now?”
She turned to face them. “Get it over with. Just tell me, and let me die where I stand.”
“I’m sorry, Donna,” said Pastor Clements. “We’re here to tell you that Captain Jacob Brazile died in a plane crash around midnight.”
She grabbed a dishrag from the sink spout and blew her nose. “How?”
“We’ve not worked out all the details yet, but the jet he flew crashed into a commercial plane, and both planes were destroyed. Debris is scattered over a two-mile area. There were 217 passengers and 7 crew on the other plane. With your husband, that makes 225 people dead. I’m sorry. I don’t like telling people that news, but it’s necessary sometimes.” Pastor Clements shook his head.
“Wonderful news. That makes things SO much better for me.”
Chad took over the following few questions. “Did you and Jacob have marital problems?”
“That’s a stupid question, Colonel. You know we have, or we had a fairytale marriage. Any stupid arguing we did lasted all of five minutes. So why did you even ask that question?”
“Because of the last verbal transmission before both planes disappeared from the sky. Jacob made a comment that sounded like he talked to a woman, and you’re the only woman in his life we know.”
“That’s the way it should be. What did he say?”
“He said, ‘I’m sorry, honey. I love you, but I didn’t know, and life was getting too difficult for me.’ Then it was silence until the phones lit up about a plane crash.”
“I’m sorry, gentlemen. I have no clue what he meant. We had a wild afternoon sexual encounter because he knew he would fly some night sorties, and then he slept until I had dinner ready. He was happy and upbeat when he left the house last night.
Now he’s gone. That sucks! Are you sure he’s not accounted for yet and will be found alive?”
“No. He ejected during the explosion. We don’t know why. We found the seat and his remains about 500 feet from the jet. I’m sorry, Donna. I wish I could give you the news you want to hear, but I can’t.”
“I know that. Will you go? I can’t deal with anything else now.”
“Would you consider having some fellow wife from the Mercy Corps help you through the next few days? I’ll arrange it for you,” asked Pastor Clements.
“I guess so if I’m still here.”
The comment concerned Chad enough to question, "What do you mean by that?”
“It means what I said. I might be driving into eternity to find Jacob and make things right.”
*
Donna cried, paced the floor, and drank coffee until she felt she would drown in caffeine. She prayed, asked God many times why, and demanded an answer even if he never answered her. Finally, she forced herself to eat a snack for breakfast, and at noon, Erma Gunner showed up with boxed lunches. As much as she disliked outside interference, she succumbed to Erma’s quiet grace.
Erma stopped her after four minutes. “Please eat, Donna. You can talk and eat at the same time. Manners are quite overlooked at these moments. Please eat to keep your body healthy and discuss your mental health.”
Donna smiled faintly and did as requested.
“Where are John and Cleo? Seems I have forgotten them, and no one has told me.
They look at me funny, like poor Donna. I want to remember, but I can’t, and that bothers me greatly.”
“If you mean children, you’ve had none so far. If you’re talking about the two dogs you used to have, John was killed by a car over on Cherry Street, and Cleo died from getting into a neighbor’s rat poison box. Nancy Wilson was very careless in that incident.”
“Oh. I remember that now. Very stupid endings for beautiful dogs. A stupid end for Jacob, a beautiful husband.”
“Do you know who he might have been talking about? You know, right at the last.”
“What? It sure doesn’t take long for rumors to get around. I had no clue about that since I was his only woman. We’ve had no major arguments, ever. We were great the afternoon before he left for the base. We made love, he slept quite a bit, we had dinner, kissed me goodbye, squeezed my butt like always, and left me. If I’d only known this would happen, I’d have tied him up while he slept, and we’d be okay now instead of me living with a crushed heart.”
“I understand that one. Every time Charles’ plane lifts off the ground, I dread that happening. I’m nervous until I see him walk back into the house, and I know he’s safe.”
“Well, let’s hope you don’t have to hear a knock on the door early in the morning and see the commander and a pastor standing there with bad news.”
By the time Erma left, Donna was fed up with the support given. It was okay, but not what she wanted. She wished for peace and quiet and to be allowed to grieve alone. She packed a bag, and by 6:45 p.m., she was on the road headed east and away from Alamogordo and the Air Force Base. At 7:15 p.m., she cried and drove too fast, and her vision was impaired by tears to the point that she failed to see the warning signs of the road being closed due to a chemical spill; therefore, she did not follow the posted detours. Instead, she accelerated and experienced a thrill before her world collapsed in a fiery explosion when she hit a truck transporting a quantity of Sarin, a nerve gas, to a secure storage and testing facility. After that, she felt nothing until she woke up in the hospital.
*
Lieutenant Colonel Chad Torrent sat in the Base Commander’s office and discussed the crash details with General Harman. His phone rang, and he hoped it would give him a respite from Harman’s strict attention to minor points over the crash and Jacob’s private life.
He excused himself and answered the call to listen before becoming too angry to be quiet.
“What the hell, man? What are you telling me? Then I’d suggest you find out who screwed up on something important like that! Then who the hell is he? He had a beard?
Well, that eliminates him as one of our airmen. Do you have no clue? Well, I’d suggest you shit an answer if everything else fails, Major! At three o’clock this morning, we told
his wife he was dead, and now you want to tell me it’s not him? Someone will be fucking roasted over that fiasco, and it won’t be me! Do you hear me, Major? You’d better come up with some satisfactory answers, and it had better be like last week! What the hell?”
He disconnected the call and stared at Harman’s impassive face. “I guess you heard my end of that, huh?”
“That was too stupid to even speak. Fill me in.”
“The pilot in the seat of our jet was not Captain Brazile. The man had a beard, and the OSI has his prints off to Washington for a match, but a cursory check on the base says it’s not the remains of Captain Brazile, Sir.”
“Did the plane take off from Holloman AFB?”
“Yes, Sir. It was airborne at the exact moment it was scheduled.”
“And the pilot was not Captain Brazile?”
“Apparently not, Sir.”
“Then where is Captain Brazile, Colonel? If he’s not dead on the scene, where is he?”
“We don’t know, Sir. But we’ll find him, Sir.”
“To quote you earlier, Colonel, I’d suggest you shit a satisfactory answer to explain it to his wife when the word gets out, or would you guarantee that nothing like that will ever be leaked to the press and the public? Do you think we can keep it our dirty little secret forever?”
“No, Sir. We will uncover all the facts and discover what happened, Sir.”
*
Angel Poppy Carter, nicknamed Willow by the love of her life, was in the Breton Gay Millhouse Memorial Hospital on the north side of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She lay in a coma caused by an overdose of oxycodone pills that she consumed over the pain of losing her lifelong friend Jacob Brazile. His parents disliked her because she came from poor resources, and her parents disliked him and his parents because they were too arrogant and snobbish to be considered real people. Both sets of parents picked at her like chickens do when one of their own is diseased or different. It caused her so much grief that she chose death to stop the hurt after Jacob left the state to escape their insanity.
Each day, her mother, Nadine Carter, visited her daughter, held her hand, and talked about life, family, and the world. She talked about everything except Jacob and what had happened to him. To Nadine and her father, Jerry Carter, Angel was brain-dead.
Angel was far from what everyone saw, thought, and deduced from testing. The induced coma misrouted many nerve responses and kept her secluded, but her mind was keenly active and aware of the world. At first, she could not believe the number of visitors she received while the doting human nurses tended to her body and machinery to keep her heart beating and her lungs breathing.
However, it did not take long for her to understand that she should not fear what was happening inside her mind and unresponsive body. She listened to lectures from the angels and spirits that came to her and instructed her to keep herself mentally alert and wait for a deciding factor that she could not fathom or even try to understand. She complied with their directions, and the ability to leave her body and hospital behind for brief periods went unnoticed. The doctors pitied her continual vegetative state, and
increasing pressure was applied on her parents to end her suffering by disconnecting her life support.
While that happened, she accepted the help to focus on whatever mission was assigned to her by the spirits. One of her side missions was to find Jacob and see what had happened to the only man on the earth who could call her Willow and get a massive smile from her, no matter how weary, hurt, or sad she felt.
She tried until she learned to fine-tune her control and found him. Then her heart grew heavy and, without the life support shocks, would have stopped beating when she realized he was married and living a wonderful, happy life as an Air Force Pilot.
And so, her life went on until the night she saw him flying a mock dogfight and avoiding a ground attack. She saw the airliner and could clearly see the collision course, and both pilots were unaware of the pending disaster. And in a moment of panic, she ignored an essential directive: you are forbidden to interfere with anything you witness.
But, the love and turmoil in her heart overrode that command. She located a homeless man on the spot where the debris would fall and entered the cockpit to eject Jacob at the last moment to save his life and let the seat hit the homeless man to have it appear to be Jacob and confuse the authorities.
*
Angel felt the warmth of her mother’s hand holding her and wished she could communicate and console her.
Nadine screamed in agony when the hospital was plunged into darkness. The external power failed, and the emergency power units took too long to start and take over the kilowatt load. Later, satellite photos of Lancaster would show the hospital a near-perfect bull’s eye with four dark and three light rings surrounding it.
Angel’s body spasmed on the bed, and she wanted to scream like her mother, but the tubing in her mouth and throat prevented verbal communication. It did not stop her pain, and her vital signs registered the physical hurt with the beeps and wailing of local sirens. Her vitals rose and fell until they announced she was in cardiac arrest, and the emergency power turned on simultaneously.
Dr. McCoy and his team rushed into the room and, using their proven procedures, restored her heartbeat to normal, and the machine took over its task.
Her mother profusely cried until she fainted and had to be laid on a bed of her own and taken to the ER to recover.
*
Jacob Brazile did not know what happened, but he saw the passenger plane from a glance to his left and knew salvation was impossible at their speed. So he said a hasty prayer and did the only sure thing he could think of doing to possibly stop the disaster.
He shoved the stick forward, ran the flaps fully down, and felt sick as the stall warning alerts went off in the headset.
A thought of Donna flashed through his mind, followed by many of Angel ‘Willow’
Carter, and he finally spoke into the mouthpiece, “I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t know, and life was getting too difficult for me.”
He prepared for death, and suddenly, the cockpit filled with warmth, and his worry turned to peace as he felt and smelled an unmistakable long-forgotten odor. It was her.
Willow was there. He moved his mouthpiece away, breathed deeply through his nose, and sighed.
“Willow. How could you find me? Where are you?”
Then he felt the ejection handle jerk upward, the canopy blew off with a horrible wrenching sound, and he and the seat shot into the cool, dark air. He briefly glimpsed the willow tree and saw it falling to crush her in Room Eight. He shouted against the wind, “No! Run, Angel! Please, god, don’t let that happen!”
The next thing he knew, seven cows surrounded and sniffed him, and he was happy they were not carnivores. But, then, he heard shouting, some female voice, and vaguely saw her standing over him with a rifle pointed at his chest, and he lost consciousness again as the chute settled around him and her.
He convinced the woman not to call the police, but she let him inside her house to contact Holloman AFB and let them know he was okay, but did not know his location.
The woman gave that information, and his next call was to a taxi company. “I can’t believe the luck of it all. I don’t know how I got here, but know where to go.”
His request for a taxi to Grub Hotel near Lancaster was denied. The dispatcher said no such hotel existed. He thought hard and remembered his lucky number, 37.
“Will you send Taxi 37 to take me? He did that before when I needed help, and I know he will again.”
“Look, buddy. No, never mind. I’ll send Taxi 37 if he will, but I won’t demand he does it.”
The woman, now known as Marsha, answered the phone several times and passed it to him as he took care of important military matters while she watched him silently until the taxi arrived. Then she wished him well and refused any money for her time.
The taxi driver watched him in the mirror and asked why Grub Hotel.
“Because that’s where I left her, and I need to go back and find her. She’s hurt, or she’s going to be. I know it, but I can’t explain it.”
“I remember you before. You and a girl, a very pretty young girl, were both smoochy in the back seat.”
“Wow, you remember that? That’s me. Well, it was me. I know I sound crazy, and it’s a long shot, but I need to find her.”
The driver shook his head. “You won’t find her there. I’ve had several fares to that hotel, and they all end up in Room Eight, and most never leave. They disappear. But her? I remember her, and I thought it was a shame. It was the weirdest damned accident I ever saw. The willow tree was tall and big enough to wipe out three rooms, but it only demolished Room Eight to the point that it had to be completely rebuilt. The woman is in a coma in Breton Gay Millhouse Memorial Hospital. She has been there for four years. And the hotel owner planted a sycamore tree in the willow’s place.”
“Then redirect the destination to the hospital if you please.”
*
Jacob’s phone call to Holloman set a large group of military people into a frenzy.
General Harmon used his power and authority to arrange Donna's “back seat” ride to the Harrisburg airport and an Air Force limousine ride to the hospital.
She remained nervous and bit her nails until she left the limousine and entered the lobby simultaneously with Jacob.
She tapped his arm. “Hey, stranger. Fancy meeting you here.”
He whirled and grabbed her. “Donna, honey, sweetheart! Damn, I’m glad to see you.
How are you? How did you get here?”
“That’s my question, dear. You have a lot of people scratching their heads and going,
‘Huh?’ This has been a strange night and day.
“I can imagine. Did the planes crash?”
“They did, and you’re one of the first to be declared dead, and that killed me until you called.”
“I’m sorry, but I’d have been dead if not for an angel.”
“Why are you here? How did you get here?”
“I don’t know how I got to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. But I know why I’m here. I’m here to find that angel and set her free. She’s been here too long.”
“And she saved you in New Mexico?”
“She sure did. It could have only been her that did it. I was too confused to think straight. I could only imagine hundreds of bodies flying when we collided. Whatever happened in that cockpit, it happened because of her presence. Join me, and I’ll explain the rest later.”
She held him and enjoyed his body comfort as the elevator carried them to the 4th floor.
“Willow was my first love. Her family hated me, and my family hated her. We got fed up and decided to elope. We made it to Grub Hotel in Lancaster and spent three days in Room Eight. It was wonderful, relaxing, and revealing. And the last night we spent there was like a bitter night from hell that surfaced in that room. I couldn’t believe her and couldn’t imagine living with her for the rest of my life. I left, and two hours after I did, the willow tree at the hotel got uprooted in a freak storm and demolished Room Eight. She’s been in a coma since, but she was in the cockpit last night to save me. Now it’s my turn to set her free.”
“Do you still love her?”
“I do, but not the way I love you. At first, I thought that the demon she became that night was all her, but over the years, I learned it was not her but a game of chess that demons like to play if you’re unaware of their presence. I wasn’t then, but I am now.”
The elevator stopped, and the door opened.
“So, you’re still my husband and will be after tonight?”
“Of course I will. Don’t get paranoid about me. Angel was, but no longer is, my woman. She needs me for a few minutes right now. Suck up the jealousy so we can finish here and find a good hotel for the night.”
“How about Grub Hotel, Room Eight?”
“You’re not funny.”
*
As soon as he entered the room, Angel’s father became hostile.
“What the hell are you doing here? Get out! Doc, call security and get him away from her!”
Jacob said nothing but struck him in the mouth with a fist and sent him stumbling back to hit the wall.
“Shut your mouth unless you have something important to say. If you love your daughter as much as you say you do, you should have driven to New Mexico and begged me to come back before now. Your pride and stupidity are disgusting, creepy asshole!”
He turned to view Nadine’s open-mouth stare at him. “Will you control him or get him out of the way? I want to save her and get her out of this condition. Please help me to help her.”
Nadine offered a faint smile and walked to sit on the floor beside Jerry, who nursed his bleeding lips.
“Let it go, honey. I’m sorry you have such a problem with other people loving your daughter. It should make you happy. Right now, be silent and listen to him. I want my daughter back.”
Jacob focused on Angel. “Doctor, how do we unhook her? Her heart will work on its own now. Can we do that and then get the breathing tube out of her?”
“You know what, smart ass, I will listen to you. If she dies, it’s on you, not me or the hospital.”
“I can live with that. I know she’s okay now, and she’ll only get better when she’s not assisted. There’s a lot of brain activity that you can’t monitor or gauge and never will.
Just do it.”
Angel’s eyes snapped open when Dr. McCoy flipped off the heart switch, and when he had the breathing tube clear, she drew a deep breath. She watched Jacob smiling and felt his fingers stroking her cheeks.
“How are you doing, Willow?”
She coughed a few times and then returned the smile. “I’m doing okay now that you’re touching me.”
“You’re amazing. I don’t know how you did it, but I need to thank you for that dramatic rescue. Without your interference, I’d not be here now.”
“I know that. That was a little selfish behavior, and I hurt several other people to get you out of danger.”
“But you lived, and that’s important to the world.”
She looked behind him at a worried woman. “Relax, uh, Donna, I think. It bothered me to see him married, but I saw happiness in both of you, and I’ll do nothing to separate you two. He loves you, and he’s your husband, not mine.”
*
Jacob and Donna left the hospital and a recovering Angel behind them. She fussed and pestered him until he relented and told the taxi driver to take them to Grub Hotel.
“And don’t try to talk her out of it. Just pray for us and come and get us tomorrow at 11:00 in the morning when we check out from Room Eight.”