Midnight Caller

Erin blinked hard to hold back tears. “I can’t. I want to but…I just can’t.”

After several minutes, Carol said, “Sometimes that baggage you carry around gets pretty heavy, doesn’t it?”

“Baggage? It wasn’t me who broke my marriage vows and cheated with every cute skirt in town. I’m not the one who deserted my son when he was born less than perfect. And it won’t be me who lets another man hurt me again—or my son. I just can’t take the chance.” Erin ducked her head.

Silence stretched between them.

“Well, if you can’t, you can’t. Come on.” Carol jumped up and pulled Erin from her seat. “No ambulance sirens. The board’s cleared. Ride up to the fourth floor with me. Sue Branson’s babysitting Amy and they stopped to see the clown. Maybe we’ll meet Mr. Right in the elevator. Who knows?”

“Wait a minute.” Erin followed Carol onto the elevator. “I thought you said Mr. Cop was my Mr. Right.”

“He is,” Carol said. The elevator doors slid shut. “Just not Mr. Right Now.”

“Since when does the hospital pay for entertainment for the pediatric floor?” she asked as they exited the elevator and elbowed their way through the crowd.

“Since they can get two for the price of one,” Carol said. “That’s Jim Peters. Sanitation engineer by day. Clown on the side. He loves the kids. He used to come and entertain them after work. The parents and kids loved him so much that Dottie, in Personnel, told me they decided to throw him a couple of extra bucks to do it officially once a month.”

A white-faced clown with orange hair, a big nose, a red outlined mouth and a single black tear painted beneath his left eye scooted among the children. He pulled coins from behind their ears. He made tiny action figures mysteriously appear in the pockets of their pajamas.

The clown selected one child, sitting in a wheelchair, and crouched beside him. Pointing to the tear on his cheek, the clown pretended to be sad, bent down closer still, and squirted water at the boy from a flower on his lapel. The boy hit the clown with his balloon. Both child and clown laughed and the clown fell back on the floor. Within moments all the children jumped on the clown, hitting him with their balloons, laughing and rolling over his flattened body.

Erin joined in the laughter. “He is great with the kids.”

“I know. Amy and I found out about him accidentally. You know how hard it is to get a doctor on weekends. A couple of months ago, Amy had an ear infection. Robert Stone promised he’d take a look after his rounds if I brought her here. We discovered the clown while we were waiting.”

“That sounds like something Robert might do.”

Carol raised an eyebrow. “I thought it was over between the two of you.” She tilted her head. “It is, isn’t it?”

“Of course, it’s been over for ages.”

“That’s what I thought you told me. Why did you dump him, anyway?” Carol grinned. “He’s not a cop.”

Erin shook her head from side to side in mock exasperation at her friend’s teasing. “No, he’s not a cop. Truthfully, he’s really a nice guy.”

“I’m beginning to think nice guys don’t stand a chance with you, O’Malley.”

Erin ignored her.

“So? What did the nice guy do to get dumped?”

Erin shrugged. “I was looking for light and casual. He wasn’t. So, I broke it off. When I realized how much I hurt him, I decided to stop dating period. I’m not interested in a relationship with any man. I only dated him to get out and have a little fun with someone I liked and respected. It hadn’t dawned on me that it had the potential to turn into something deeper for the other person. I hated that I hurt him. I won’t do that again to somebody else.”

“Mama.”

Carol scooped three-year-old Amy up into her arms and hugged her tight.

Sue Branson followed closely on Amy’s heels, whispered a few words in Carol’s ear and stepped away.

“Don’t know what I’d do without Sue,” Carol said. “She babysat Amy for the last three Friday nights for me.”

Erin glanced at her friend. “Are you dating again? Why didn’t you tell me? I’d watch Amy for you. Who’s the lucky guy?”

Carol’s face flushed. Before she could reply, a male voice interrupted.

“I thought I saw the three of you over here.”

“Hello, Robert.” Erin smiled at the six-foot-tall man and watched in amusement as Amy reached out her arms to him. He lifted the child, held her in the crook of his arm and didn’t offer a word of protest as she tousled his hair with her hands, laughed and did it again, entertaining herself as if she had invented the game.

“Good to see you, Erin. How have you been?” he asked.

“Just fine, Robert, and you?”

“Good.” His eyes no longer held the traces of hurt and anger she had seen after their breakup. With a sense of relief, she realized something else, a sparkle, a genuine happiness seemed to reside there now.

“We’re watching the clown show,” Carol said. “Or, at least, we were.”

The show was over and the clown gone.

Erin glanced at her watch. “No wonder. Look at the time. I have to get back downstairs. It’s almost time for shift report. I want to get home before Tess puts Jack to bed.”

“I’ll be down in a minute,” Carol said. “I have to wait for Sue to come back from the restroom.”

Erin nodded and slipped away from the group. The elevator was packed to capacity and a second group waited to board. Not wanting to wait, Erin slipped into the stairwell and took the steps two at a time. She had just cleared the second landing when she heard the heavy metal door slam behind her. She smiled. She wasn’t the only one too impatient to wait.

Erin exited on the ground floor. A quick glance at her watch made her increase her pace. Her fifteen-minute break had quickly stretched into twenty minutes. Erin needed to hustle and get back to the ER.

The hospital was in the process of building a new facility out near the interstate. The grand opening was set for this summer, but some offices had already been moved and a couple wings of this building already closed. Erin rushed past a door leading to one of the empty wings and then turned around and went back. This wing cut right across the middle of the ground floor. If she took this shortcut, it could save her valuable time she would otherwise spend racing like a rat in a maze through the other corridors. She’d end up in the same place anyway, but this route would get her there in half the time.

Erin warred with herself. She was the kind of person who followed the rules. She didn’t claim to be sick when she wasn’t. She didn’t cheat on her taxes. She stopped at red lights. She did her best to live a good, clean, socially obedient life.

Except for her love of speed. Erin could almost feel an accelerator pedal beneath her foot and grinned.

Ignoring the Caution—Do Not Enter sign, she glanced both ways to make sure she wouldn’t be observed breaking the rules and slipped inside. It took her eyes a second to adjust. Instead of the bright fluorescent bulbs throughout the hospital, this area was lit by single bulbs placed strategically along the way. Erin began walking down the dimly lit corridor.

Furniture, file cabinets and medical equipment waiting for transfer to the new facility loomed on all sides of a small walkway and cast monstrous shadows on the floor. The silence made Erin uneasy. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea. She increased her pace. A rustling sound behind her made Erin pause. Was someone else in this deserted part of the hospital? She stood still and listened.

Nothing.

She continued moving toward the exit.

Bang. The sound of metal hitting the concrete floor echoed through the room. Erin’s heart slammed against her chest. Someone was in here with her.

“Hello. Is anybody there?”

Silence.

Why didn’t they show themselves? Her breathing quickened and her pulse raced.