“She just couldn’t hear me,” I told him.
“Of course,” he said, but his glassy eyes betrayed his words.
“Don’t,” I pleaded. “She’s here. She’s here.”
“Tom,” he said quietly, placing his hand on my shoulder.
“No!” I said, throwing it off, but my body shut down and I was forced to drop to my knees. “She’s here. She’s got to be. She’s got to be.”
An ambulance blew by and the hope that’d been dying in my chest roared back to life.
“The hospital,” I told the ground.
“Come on,” Jason said, dragging me to my feet.
We ran up the block and hailed a passing cab. Jason told the driver to take us to the nearest hospital using his pocket translator. I was relieved we were moving but no matter how fast we were moving, it still wasn’t fast enough for me and I sat at the edge of my seat, hunched over the window, staring at the traffic ahead. My knee bounced at an ungodly pace.
I examined Jason’s face quickly, noting that neither of us seemed to have inhaled any smoke. Our mouths and noses were clear of black unlike a few I saw back at the club. I thanked God for small favors.
“She’s going to be there,” Jason said, reassuring me.
“I know,” I said, but not as confidently as I’d have liked.
I rubbed the palms of my hands together quickly and silently prayed that she would be there. We pulled up to the entrance of the hospital and jumped from the cab, leaving Jason to handle the transaction. I ran through the emergency doors and frantically searched the blackened faces of those who’d already arrived, but none of them matched my January’s. My heart flipped in my chest.
I ran up to a nurse. “I’m sorry. Do you speak English?”
She gave me a sympathetic smile and searched around the desk around her, finding a girl sitting at a desk nearby. She grabbed the girl’s sleeve and said something in French. The girl jumped up and took in my sooty clothing.
“Yes? I speak English.”
“Oh, thank God! I’m looking for a girl. She was in the fire.”
“What is her name?”
“January MacLochlainn,” I told her.
The girl typed on her keyboard and began shaking her head. “I’m sorry but there is no one here by that name.”
“What?” I asked in disbelief. “Are you sure? Can you check again?” I asked, my body back to trembling status but this time in exponential form.
“Of course,” she said and typed yet again. The expression on her face told me she’d gotten the same result.
“No, I’m sorry, sir. I have no one by that name. Can you describe her for me? There were several patients who couldn't be identified.”
“Uh, she was wearing a black dress,” I told the nurse. “She’s about five ten, or, uh, two meters tall, long brown hair, green eyes.” She’s amazing, unselfish, intelligent, sexy as hell. Her mere existence justifies mine.
“Just a moment,” she said and ran to the back.
Jason came up to me, his eyes asking me the news.
“They don’t have anyone in their system with January’s name,” I explained, feeling like my body was on autopilot. “She’s checking the patients who couldn’t be identified.”
Jason nodded.
I nervously paced the length of the receiving desk, running my fingers through the length of my hair over and over. Jason sat in a nearby chair, his thumbs drumming his thighs. Both our gazes were riveted by the doors for what felt like hours before the nurse came through with a smile on her face.
“She’s here,” she told us.