I feel like someone is watching us and immediately look around to see if I can spot Jimmy. I can’t believe he isn’t in jail for longer periods of time. He literally gets arrested and starts stalking her again. I want to protect her but I haven’t been able to bring myself to buy a gun. Now in the dark parking lot feeling eyes on me I really wish I had one. I don’t want to spook her so I don’t act like anything is wrong.
I grab her hand and we start walking towards the car together. I move a little faster than usual and just want to get her safely out of the situation. The next few minutes seem to slow time down. Someone jumps out from behind my car and rushes at us. There’s a loud noise I don’t quite understand. Ada screams and turns to run trying to pull me with her. For some reason, I can’t move. I feel like I’m falling backward.
It feels like someone just punched me really hard in the shoulder. When I look down I see blood. Until right now I didn’t register that sound I heard was related to the punch. Now the person is moving towards us faster and he has his hand up. I can see now there’s a gun in it, the moonlight is shining off of it. I feel myself falling to the ground and I can’t stop. I can’t see Ada and I start to panic. Is she hurt too?
I twist as I fall to try and see her meaning I land on my shoulder in the parking lot. It sends a wave of pain so intense through my arm that I black out for a minute. When I come to it’s because another loud noise happened. My vision is blurry and there’s a lot of pain. I feel it throughout my whole body.
“Charlie.” I hear Ada scream. It’s all going in slow motion now. It feels like the fall to the ground took forever. Now I’m lying on my side and things sound very far away.
“Charlie,” a male voice yells and I briefly see a figure fly by and lunge at the guy with the gun who has almost made it to me. The two wrestle on the ground and a burning sensation sets in on my shoulder and shoots down my arm. I’m shot, I realize. I’ve not been punched I’ve been shot.
I feel myself getting weaker as I see George. He’s on top of the guy with the gun and I realize it’s not Jimmy or Ada’s dad. This is related to George. This is all because of the stupid drugs. George, my good friend, has managed to get me killed outside my own studio.
“I’m sorry Charlie,” he says, “I followed them here. I promise this wasn’t me. They were mad about the day the gun jammed.” For the first time, I notice the vehicles nearby. They’re across the road so I didn’t see them when we first walked out.
“Hey man,” I say and feel myself go in and out of consciousness. The pain is causing me to black out and I can feel the blood soaking through my shirt.
Ada is right beside me squeezing my hand and screaming. I try to tell her it’s okay but my eyes don’t seem to want to work. I hear sirens and think George needs to run before everything goes black and I don’t think about anything.
Chapter Twenty-Three: Charlie
Opening my eyes in the ambulance, the siren sounds pretty distant. Ada is holding my hand and there’s a police officer sitting in front of me. I feel an iv in my arm and some pretty intense pressure where the paramedic is holding something down on my shoulder.
“Mr. Maxwell are you able to identify your attacker?”
“I open my mouth to speak and find I can’t. Maybe I’ve lost a lot of blood or maybe I’m in shock but I can’t tell him anything.”
“He knew the second guy,” Ada says quietly. “The guy who tackled him. The one you actually have in custody, he knew him. I think they are friends.”
“You didn’t know the person who shot him?”
“No, I didn’t get a good luck at him. I just know someone drove him off. He ran to a car parked across the street and it left.”
As Ada describes the car to the officer I think about George and hope he’s okay. My brain is having a hard time figuring out what all is going on, but I heard they have George in custody. I fade out before any more conversation happens.
I wake up in the hospital for the second time. The first time I was in a lot of pain and in surgery. No one could come in and see me and then they drugged me out of my mind. The whole thing seems like a hazy dream. It took me a while to remember why I was in the hospital in the first place.
I had been aware Ada was nearby but was in and out so much I couldn’t really reach out to her. She had been there, Thomas had been there, Paulie had been there, but my father had not. It was in the papers that I’d been shot. If he cared, he’d have come to visit me.
Now there’s no one in the room with me and I wonder how long I’ve been out. Has Ada given up on me, did I go into some kind of coma. I panic thinking I’ve been out for years and she’s remarried and long gone.
“Hey, you’re up,” a nurse says as she comes in the room. “Was wondering if you’d wake up today.”
“How long have I been here?”
“Just two days, but I’m sure it seems a lot longer. Getting shot is no joke.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot I’d been shot.” I laugh and realize I’m still on some painkillers.
She checks my vitals and adjusts my pillows. I thank her and tell her I’ll write a song about nice nurses fluffing pillows. I realize I’m more screwed up than I thought I was as I start snapping. She laughs and I fall back into a deep sleep. When I wake again it’s dark and Ada is standing next to the bed.
“I heard you woke up earlier,” she smiles. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here. They convinced me to go home and shower. I knew that was going to happen.”
She comes over and kisses me gently and I’ve never been happier to see anyone. I try to sit up and wince in pain. Like I triggered a switch the nurse comes in and gives me more pain medication. I gladly take it.
“I’m so sorry you got shot, Charlie. And you almost got shot before that by Jimmy.”
“Hey, think about it. Now, I have street cred. I may be a rich boy, but I’ve been shot.” I laugh and then realize it hurts to laugh but she’s smiling at me and that’s really all that matters.