Excerpt: The Hope That Follows

“Bye Sammy!” Maggie said, giving Sammy a kiss. “Love ya. I’ll call you when I get home.” Smiling, she waved to Sammy and bounded down the steps of the house. She had once again gone to Sammy’s house for dinner, because Sammy’s mom made great meals, and Maggie didn’t feel like sitting with her dad, alone, again when he was obviously in a depressed mood. She was going to talk with him when she got home, let him pull her into his lap and hug her. He usually only did that when he was missing her mom.

Humming slightly, she walked down the street. Sammy lived in a better neighborhood than Maggie did, so there were plenty of lamps along the sidewalk that kept Maggie illuminated even in between the lampposts. As she got closer to the area she lived in, the lampposts were farther spread apart, prone to leaving shadowed areas. At the moment she was in the safety of the light. This meant she could drift off into thought about Monday when she and Sammy would go to school together and sit in homeroom next to each other, holding hands in a way that most people couldn’t see; it was what she lived for.

Then life has a funny way of throwing a person into a situation, and expecting a miraculous escape scene. Houdini was great at escaping, or at least at making it look like he escaped something spectacular. All of his escapes were for show though, what about the people in real life, the people who had no way to escape horrible events? Surely nothing as hard as escaping a glass case filled with water and being tied up, but events that would scar and change someone’s life. One event led to altering a girl’s life forever.

Maggie was a normal enough girl. Her grades were good, she had a few friends, and she had Sammy. Not so normal, but they loved each other quite a bit. There were the people who were rude about it and would make rude comments and sometimes push or bump into them in the hallway because they thought it inappropriate for two girls to like each other, but it didn’t change how Maggie felt about Sammy. She was firm in her resolve that she loved Sammy, and always told her that their classmates would not change the fact.

It wasn’t her classmates who happened to make Maggie’s life change. Perhaps they had thought of pulling tricks on the two girls, but they had never gone so far as to arrange anything. The two always seemed to be together, which made it difficult to try and pull something on one of them, and not the other. Sammy tended to be disliked around the school; she had a way of being in a room and expecting everyone to like her that got the other students annoyed with her. Maggie was the type of person that simply wanted people to like her, and would be nice to everyone instead of yelling, screaming, or acting as if she were high and mighty. When they were together, they seemed to balance out and create a happy equilibrium.

The lampposts were now getting farther and farther apart, leaving many spaces that would make anyone uncomfortable walking in them at night and Maggie was not an exception. The dark spaces always made her worry about whom or what might be hiding there to try and get her to do something. Normally she wasn’t afraid of the dark, but she always became afraid of those spaces at night. Maggie never actually thought anything horrible would happen to her mere blocks from her house though, just out of reach of help.

From behind, she heard a few rustling noises, as if someone was following, and trying to keep quiet. “Sammy, don’t try and follow me. I’m going to get home perfectly safe.” She said, not even glancing back. Sammy always seemed to think that Maggie couldn’t get to her house safely if it was after dark. Usually Sammy would then give her a hug and continue to walk Maggie to her house, but it didn’t happen this time. “Sammy, really. Just go back home.”

Curiosity got the best of her. Turning around, she thought she saw someone hiding in the shadows, but she knew it couldn’t have been Sammy, because she would have come out by now. Her heart was starting to beat quicker. This would have been a good night to have Sammy walk her home. Maggie had had to dissuade Sammy from walking her to her house, and now she was regretting doing that. If Sammy were there then Maggie would not be so frightened of the figure lurking in the shadows of the street lamps.

It was a few seconds of looking at the figure that she realized her best bet was to start running away. If she was just going to stand there, then obviously bad things were going to happen, but if she ran, she had a chance to get away, possibly duck out of sight and use the shadows to her own benefit as well. The last thing she remembers before waking up in the hospital is turning around and running.

“Maggie, wake up. Please Maggie. Don’t do this to me.” The near angelic voice of Sammy came through the dark and cold. “Maggie, come on. Wake up.” It was clear in the way her voice trembled that she was upset, possibly crying. And Sammy was known for never crying. “I’ll get you ice cream, and a big teddy bear. All you have to do is wake up.” Slowly, background noises came into her hearing, and Maggie could hear the beeping of a machine that obviously was keeping track of her heart beat. There was murmuring coming from familiar voices behind Sammy’s wonderful voice. Why was opening her eyes so hard? As a matter of fact, why was she in a hospital?

It took a great amount of effort, but Maggie opened her eyes. Sammy was holding onto Maggie’s hand, and had her head down when her eyes did open. Smiling some, she carefully reached over and placed her hand on Sammy’s head. “Sammy, what are you doing?” Her voice was quiet, and a touch hoarse from not being used. “And did I hear you mention ice cream?”

The head popped up, and Sammy looked at Maggie. Her normally green eyes were now surrounded by red, and she obviously had not been getting a lot of sleep. “Maggie! Oh gosh, you’re all right!” Maggie spotted her father in the back of the room. It always seemed as if he was a different person since her mother died. Much stricter about things and was always going to church, not to mention he thought that Sammy was merely Maggie’s best friend. Maggie had simply omitted the fact that she was dating Sammy. Her father didn’t seem to like homosexuality, and she didn’t want to test what he would do.

“What am I doing here?” Maggie asked, taking her hand off of Sammy’s head and laying it next to her again. There was an IV in the arm nearest Sammy, and she had a bit of a suspicion that she was not merely here for the past few hours. The sky out of the window looked as if the sun was just setting, which meant she had to have been there at least a day. For having just woken up, she was very cognizant. Something bad must have happened for her to be in the hospital, with Sammy’s eyes red and her father way off in the corner of the room.

“You don’t remember?” Sammy asked, looking quite concerned. “Nothing?” Maggie was confused why remembering anything was going to help. What was it going to help? Was there something she was supposed to know? Was it a special day?

Her tall father finally moved towards her, and she wondered what was going on. Looking up at her father, she waited for him to say something. Sammy took the hint and mumbled something about waiting outside for a few minutes. Watching her girlfriend leave, she wondered what the reason that she left was. Was there anything that Sammy wouldn’t hear from Maggie eventually? Maybe it was just to save face and make it look more important than it actually was. That had to be right. If Sammy already knew, then it might be that her father wanted to tell her. Have the whole thing a little more calm.

“Maggie, a couple days ago, you were coming back from Sammy’s house, and you were attacked.” Maggie went to speak, but he stopped her first. “You didn’t get home, and the man …he raped you.” Her mind froze, and she suddenly felt as if her temperature had dropped considerably. The machine that was hooked up to Maggie to keep her heart rate started beating quickly, and a nurse came in to check to see if everything was all right.

“I see you’re awake.” The woman’s voice had a thick Southern accent, and seemed to be smoother than molasses. “How are you doin’ hun?” The nurse’s hair bounced in that perfect way as she walked over to the equipment and started to check how Maggie was doing. Maggie’s father had gone silent, obviously not comfortable about talking about this sort of thing in front of anyone except Maggie. “Are you all right? Did you get worried or anything?” The woman was looking at Maggie and practically ignoring her father.

“Just a bit of shocking news.” Maggie said, shaking her head lightly at the nurse. She felt like an urchin compared to the nurse who was so well kept and had such pretty hair. It was a nice blond color that wasn’t so blond as to make her look like a complete ditz, but it was beautiful and Maggie was so envious of that hair. Her own seemed so normal being brown and simply straight. Maggie let her mind wander some on the topic of random looks, alas, she was pulled out of her little dreams by the fact that the nurse was leaving and saying that she should try and keep from getting worked up about anything. Maggie thought it would be difficult with her father apparently set on telling her what had happened in the time that she was apparently unconscious.

It was a moment, and then her father started going on with the gory details, but Maggie couldn’t remember a single moment of it. She had to have been awake, because they said that the police had found skin under her nails and that they were tracing the skin DNA to see if they could find the culprit. They weren’t having much luck in the three days that Maggie was unconscious. Three days? That means its Tuesday. She thought as her father continued on to tell her it wasn’t her fault that she had been raped and that there was a crisis line for those teens that did get raped and needed help.

“Dad, I’m fine.” Maggie said, shaking her head at the idea of needing to call a crisis line. She was going to be fine. Not only did she have her dad worrying about her, she was sure Sammy wanted to be let back in. Sammy was one of those people that tended to be very mean to people who deserved it, but really cared about her loved ones. More than anyone could imagine. “I swear. We don’t have to go through all of this now. We can wait until I get home. It’s not going to be long is it?” She didn’t want to stay locked up in the hospital for weeks. Think of all the homework she would be missing.

“I’ll go find the doctor and ask.” Her dad was immediately up to help his daughter get the information she wanted. He was always taking care of her that way. Even if he wouldn’t like the fact that she was dating a girl. For the time being, it seemed that life was perfect. That she wouldn’t have to worry about all of those horrible things happening in the world. She had her girlfriend and her dad. Speaking of her girlfriend, she came in as soon as Maggie’s dad left.

“Maggie, I am so sorry I didn’t walk you home. I should have, and I usually do. It was so stupid of me.” Sammy said, taking Maggie’s IV free hand and giving it a kiss. “I know I usually do. And I wanted to, but you always want to walk home alone, so I was going to let you.” Sammy had been the one to find Maggie on the sidewalk. Sammy was going to go and make sure that Maggie had gotten home safely, but had instead found her girlfriend in dire need of help in a dark part of the street. “Honey, I really am sorry.” Sammy’s eyes were gathering water.

“Sammy, don’t worry. I don’t blame you. It was just bad luck. I guess I shouldn’t have broken that mirror.” Maggie wasn’t superstitious, but she didn’t blame Sammy for staying home. Generally Maggie just rolled with the punches, and so she wasn’t about to get angry for something that neither of them could change. “At least you came and found me.” Maggie said, smiling. She hated to see Sammy kicking herself for something that wouldn’t have changed. If they had both been there, it could have deterred the attacker, but it wasn’t Sammy’s fault at all.

“But I should have been there. I want to look after you.” Sammy said, squeezing Maggie’s hand. “I wasn’t there. I could have helped. Or I should have come sooner.” It was clear that Sammy was kicking herself for having her girlfriend get attacked by some horrible man. It wasn’t that she was a man hating witch who only loved women, she loved her dad and had tons of guy friends …but she wanted to kill the man that did this to her girlfriend. It wasn’t simply because she was hurt; it was because he did it to her girlfriend. And it wouldn’t be a simple hurt if she got a hold of him. It would be a powerfully painful hurt that would make him wish he had never started living. A pain that would make him keel over and not be able to see.

“Sammy, don’t worry. I’m going to be fine, and everything is going to be normal.” Maggie was still in shock, so she wasn’t really thinking it was going to be normal once it hit that she had been raped, but at the moment, she merely wanted to help her girlfriend calm down. “Don’t worry hon. It’s going to be fine. I just won’t stay at your house until it’s that late. And if I do, I’ll see if I can spend the night or get a ride home.” Evasive measures were usually a surefire way to get Sammy to calm down about something.

Her father walked back into the room, followed by a tall doctor. The man had dark hair and brown eyes. While he looked as if he would be intimidating, instead the smile he gave made it very easy to listen to him and not feel as if she were going to be given news that he was the bringer of death. There were too many shows that she had watched that made doctors seem like the bad guys. All she wanted to do was to see a doctor who looked nice, and now she had seen one. She was set for life. Not to mention, if she was straight, she probably would have been drooling at that moment.

“Hello Margaret, I’m Doctor Martin.” He sounds pretty too. Maggie thought, before giving a bit of a wave to the doctor. “The police would like to question you, but I can tell them to go away since you obviously do not remember anything.” He said, indicating that her father had told him that she didn’t remember a thing. “Physically, there are a few things we want to check out before we send you off to start school on up again. We understand you don’t want to miss school, but your health really does matter more than your school work at the moment.” The doctor said it in such a way that Maggie was tempted to believe him. But she didn’t want to be so far behind when she got back that she couldn’t catch up in a timely manner.

“Are you sure I can’t go home today?” Maggie asked, looking at him pleadingly. “I’m fine. I’m normal as all get out. I really have to go to school.” School was something she liked doing, she loved learning and it made her feel as if she were accomplishing something. If she was accomplishing something then she was surely going to be feeling better than if she were sitting in a bed in a hospital feeling as if there were nothing for her to do beside wait to see if there was anything wrong with her. Turning her eyes to her dad she said, “I can’t sit here. It would drive me crazy! I’d start thinking I was sicker than I was, and I know I’m not sick!” Maggie didn’t want to be locked up in a hospital.

“I would rather that you stay here, but if your father agrees, I can have you signed out tonight.” The doctor said, looking very cautious about what he was saying. It was clear that he wanted her to stay another night or two so that they could run a few tests and make sure nothing more had happened to her than they thought.

“The way I see it is I’ve been unconscious. That has given you plenty of time to do tests.” Maggie said, smiling at the doctor. It was really simple. If she had been unconscious, they obviously had plenty of time to do all those tests so that she could go home as soon as she woke up. She didn’t feel bad about pointing it out. They should have expected such a thing coming from someone who was just told that they had had a traumatic experience.

The attention in the room then turned to Maggie’s father who was looking at his daughter. His blue eyes were watching her carefully, full of love and concern. The only sounds in the room were the sound of Maggie’s electronic heart beat and the occasional sound of Maggie moving on the bed to get more comfortable. She wanted so bad to go home, be in her own bed, sleep comfortably. Already she was missing her bed, and she was unconscious while she was sleeping in the hospital bed. “Dad, please?”

The blue eyes of her father met Maggie’s big brown eyes. Glued to each other, she waited for him to give his decision as to if she could go home or not. Her only hope was that he would care more for how Maggie was feeling than for the tests that the hospital wanted to keep her over night for. He closed his eyes and gave a sigh. “Please get the release form. If something goes wrong, she will be coming right back here.” He said as he crossed his arms over his chest and keeping his eyes closed.

“Yes, Mr. Hatcher.” The doctor said, giving a nod of his head before ducking out of the room to get the paperwork. It was obvious by his posture that he had wanted her father to say no, in favor of keeping his daughter healthy and so he could do all the interesting tests. Maggie had a smug look on her face as she watched him slink out of the room.

“I mean it Margaret. At the slightest hint that you aren’t doing well, we are coming right back here and you are getting those tests done.” Her father was practically staring her down. There was not an inch of give in those eyes, and Margaret wasn’t sure in this situation she wanted there to be any. It meant he cared, and didn’t want her to get hurt. That he wanted her to be safe and perfectly happy.

“Don’t worry dad, I’m sure I’m going to be fine.”