Chapter 25: The Low

What is it that they say about life having highs and lows? This was a high.

I wasn’t thinking anything else. This was a high. Last night was a low but this was a high. My family was meeting other families in the park and it seemed we were accepted and appreciated.

After tagging Genevieve Lynn, I walked over to Lynn and the lady she was speaking with, I smiled and introduced myself.

“Hello, I’m Paul O’Dell.”

“Hello, I’m Larissa Carpenter. One of my daughters, Clara, is in that bunch over there singing and the other, Carmen, is talking to the tall blonde girl and helping to push the swings.”

“That’s our oldest, Margaret Erin,” Lynn said. “Her mother is the tall blonde.”

As we talked the park was being populated with more and more people. Most of them young moms pushing strollers. There were men coming to sit and relax, and probably ogle the pretty young moms, during their lunch break.

The birds were singing and the children were giggling, laughing, and screaming from joy when it happened.

Suddenly a man, his face covered by his hoodie, who had been walking on the path near the playground, ran over, shoved Clara Carpenter to the ground and grabbed Margaret Erin.

Clara screamed, Margaret Erin screamed and began kicking, fighting, and biting her attacker. The man pulled a pistol out of his coat pocket and pointed it at Margaret Erin’s head. She immediately calmed down.

“Erin!” he screamed.

Erin had quickly arisen from her bench, infants still in slings, her hand moving behind her, she looked to see her ex-husband James Hogan, dragging her eldest daughter away from the playground.

“Erin!” he screamed again. “Follow me or I’ll kill her!”

The next things that happened were all a blur. Lynn drew the pistol she always carried from its hidden holster, pointed it at James Hogan, and froze.

Right then, seeing Margaret Erin in the grip of the man, with a gun to her head, Lynn froze. She froze, remembering Taylor Erin in the same situation. She remembered shooting the man holding her. She remembered his reflexive response and how he put a bullet in Taylor Erin’s head even as he was falling over, shot to death by her.

BANG!

The first shot rang out. Then a second and a third and James Hogan was on the ground. Margaret Erin was on the ground. Lynn O’Dell was on the ground. Erin’s pistol was smoking as was mine. The babies in their sling were screaming in stark terror. Erin ran to her daughter, holding the slings with both hands to steady the infants and I ran to James to be sure he was no longer a threat.

“Paul! She’s OK!” Erin called out to me.

My little love was shaken but not harmed. James Hogan had dragged her to the ground after he’d been hit and fell. James was lying still on the ground, a hole in his head from Erin’s large caliber bullet and a hole blown out of his neck from my smaller 9mm. A pool of blood forming around his head, staining the walking path upon which he died.

“How is Lynn?” Erin asked frantically.

I quickly ran to my first wife, holstering my pistol as I ran. Lynn was on the ground and not moving; blood forming on her shirt.

“Erin! Call 9-1-1. Lynn’s been hit! Blossom get the kids on the bus and take them home!”

Blossom gathered the children and was moving them towards the bus. I was shouting orders as I held Lynn. I turned her onto her back and saw a growing red patch on the front of her blouse, a small hole in the center of her upper abdomen. I reached back around her to find the exit wound but there was none. I quickly took off my light jacket, wadded it up, and started to press down on the wound as hard as I could.

Lynn flinched when I pressed down.

“Lynn, stay with me. Help is on the way.”

“Margaret Erin?” she groaned.

“She’s fine. James is dead. The children are all safe. You just relax and keep looking at me. An ambulance will be here soon. I think I can hear the siren now.”

The loudest siren was, in fact, that of a police car, and then I heard a few more. I was still pressing on the wound when an officer ran to us.

“Sorry,” Lynn whispered. “I suddenly saw Taylor Erin and I couldn’t pull the trigger.”

“Don’t worry about that, Lover. Stay calm and breathe deeply.”

“It stings,” she said and then passed out.

A police officer ran towards me, weapon drawn and aimed at me.

“Stand away from the woman!”

I yelled out as loud as I could.

“The man over there shot my wife,” I said, nodding my head in the direction of James Hogan’s still body. “I’m sure he’s dead but my wife’s been shot and is bleeding. Where is the damned ambulance?”

He looked around at the other officers, they nodded and he got on the microphone on his shoulder.

“Unit 32, 10-52 Solange Park playground. Two shooting victims. 10-18.”

“10-4.”

More sirens could be heard and in a few seconds there was an ambulance driving across the grass towards the playground. Another was coming from another direction, judging by the siren sound. As soon as the first one stopped near Lynn and I, a man jumped out and ran toward us.

“Excuse me, sir. Let me see.”

I moved away and as soon as he saw the wound, he yelled to the other man to bring a backboard. The second EMT came running with the board and they lifted Lynn onto it. Then they lifted the backboard and had her in the ambulance.

“I’m going with you!”

“Then you better hurry,” the one yelled as he was closing the back doors.

I ran to the front passenger side and got in as the EMT floored it and headed to the hospital.

“Can I use my phone in here?”

“Yes.”

The phone call was immediately answered.

“Paul! How is she?” Blossom asked.

“I don’t know. I’m in the ambulance going to ... where are we going?”

“St Luke’s Trauma,” the driver said.

“Saint Luke’s Trauma Department. Take care of everything for me, OK?”

“Yes. I’ve got all the children on the bus.”

“Is Margaret Erin alright?”

“Yes, a bit shook up is all. She’s helping Erin get the seat belts on everyone. And James?”

“He’s dead. He must have hit Lynn as he went down. Or when he saw her gun and she hesitated. I didn’t shoot until he did. I’m sure that was the same with Erin. We’re almost there. Call anyone you need to call to take care of things. I’ll call you as soon as I know something.”

I disconnected the call as the ambulance was backing into the ambulance bay. The driver jumped out while his partner opened the back doors. The guy in back started rattling off strange words and numbers to the ED doc who was waiting with a couple of nurses. I got out and staying out of the way, followed them in.

The group was going into an exam area surrounded by curtains. Just as they were about to close the curtain around them, I called out, “Doctor! She pregnant!”

The doctor turned around and that’s when I recognized him.

“Doctor Baselton? Remember me, I’m Paul O’Dell. That is my wife Lynn.”

He looked at me and the bulb went on.

“I thought your wife was that big blonde with the broken jaw.”

“She is! This is my other wife. Long story. Take care of her. Money is no object. Permission is granted to do whatever is needed to save her and the babies if possible.”

“Babies? As in twins?”

“Yeah, again.”

He turned back to the exam area and I looked around for a place to sit. A nurse approached me and asked, “Sir, why don’t you come with me to the waiting room and you can talk to the folks in admitting.”

“Good idea. The last thing I need to do is sit around imagining the worst.”

“Come this way, please.”

She led me down a short corridor and through two swinging doors that revealed a large lobby. At the far end there was a desk with a large sign, “Admitting”. I thanked the nurse and walked to the desk. No one was in a line front of me so I sat down and the lady sitting behind the desk smiled.

“How may I help you?”

“My wife has been shot and is in the ED and I need to take care of all the paperwork.”

“Oh my. I’m sorry. Forms are such a pain at a time like this,” she said in a heartfelt tone. “I’ll need these filled out.”

She handed me a clipboard with a small stack of papers on it and a pen. I thanked her and took a seat on a small couch. I had just started the part about name and address when my phone buzzed.

“Hello?”

“Paul, it’s Blossom. We got home and all the children are in a tizzy. Can you tell me anything to calm them down?”

“All I can say is that Dr Baselton is the doctor and he remembered my big blonde wife with the broken jaw. Lynn is in good hands. Right now, I’m sitting in the waiting room filling out forms.”

“OK. I’ll have Erin grab our personal files and head over there in the van. You probably haven’t memorized Lynn’s social security number and stuff.”

“Nope. Thanks, Baby. I love you. Tell the kids that too. Especially Margaret Erin.”

“Have already but I’ll do it again. Erin says she’ll see you in about fifteen minutes.”

“NO! Tell Erin no race car driving. I don’t need to have two wives in here. Tell her to take her time and come to me safely.”

“I will, Baby. I will.

“Blossom, how are you?”

“I’m good. Having to keep the family calm is proving to be my rock. In a few hours or days I expect that I’ll break down but not right now.”

“Good wife! Listen, I need you to make some calls and get the front door fixed ASAP and get a cleaning company in to either clean up the blood and guts from the carpets and walls. The children don’t need to see that stuff.”

“Already done, Baby. I did it at the buffet. The carpenter should be here within the hour. We wanted to get it done before we came home. The carpet cleaner will come in the morning and let us know if a cleaning will do it or if we need to replace and repaint.”

“Is the guy going to run up the cost?”

“No, the lieutenant who was here gave us his number. I guess he’s the guy who cleans up the crime scenes. Lieutenant Crawford gave it to me. He said that if we asked Lieutenant Caldwell that he would give us the names of another cleaner. He said both are good.”

“Fantastic, Baby. You are wonderful. I assume that you have the children playing Scrabble in their rooms and away from the downstairs?”

“Yeah, actually they are on the back deck. The game is keeping their minds occupied.”

Over the phone I heard the bell that indicated someone was at the front gate.

“Oh! I think the carpenter is here. I’m gonna go. Call me when you have news.”

“Make sure it’s the carpenter! I don’t want any more surprises. Make sure you’re armed.”

“Will do. I love you, Baby.”

I disconnected the call and went back to filling out the forms the best I could. Not fifteen minutes later, Erin came strolling into the ED waiting area. She saw me immediately and came to sit next to me and set a thick expandable file on the chair next to her. Her eyes were a beautiful, clear, blue with no signs that she’d been crying.

“Hi Sweetie. Here is our file. Everything you need to know about Lynn is in there. Including the account Lynn set up for medical emergencies. The regular debt card might not be accepted for the amount we’re going to need, so use the medical account.”

I kissed her on the cheek and looked at all the papers. Standing, I walked back to the lady at the desk.

“Excuse me, is there a desk or table I can sit at to fill all this out? I’ve got our emergency medical file and I’m gonna need to spread some papers out.”

“That shouldn’t be necessary. All I need is your insurance card.”

“We don’t have insurance. We pay cash as we go.”

“Cash? Really?”

“Yes, we’ve paid for all eighteen of our children’s births here that way.”

That must have meant something to her. She smiled and turned in her chair to face her computer. She typed in a few letters. Then a series of numbers before looking up at me and Erin who had walked with me.

“The O’Dells, right?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t remember right off the bat. Don’t worry you have an account here and all I need is your ID and the ID of the patient.”

I took out my wallet and handed my license to the lady. While I did that, Erin dug into the file and found Lynn’s passport. She handed that to the lady and in a matter of minutes we were done.

“That’s all there is to that,” she said. “Now just sit and relax and wait.”

“Wait and relax are not words that seem to fit this occasion.”

“I know, Mr. O’Dell. But it is the way it is.”

“Yeah. We’ll be over here if anyone is looking for us.”

She smiled and nodded as Erin and I turned and walked back to the couch and sat there in silence for about thirty seconds. Suddenly, Erin broke down in tears.

“I killed him, Paul. I shot James.”

“He was going to steal you daughter to make you come with him. He had a gun. He shot Lynn,” I paused for a few seconds. “I hope he didn’t kill our babies.”

The look of horror on Erin’s face told me that she hadn’t stopped to think about her and Lynn being pregnant. Then Erin realized something else.

“Oh my God, Paul. It’s like when Lynn shot that bastard that killed Taylor Erin. Only I shot James and he shot Lynn!”

Erin began to pant and had a look of panic. I took her in my arms and spoke to her softly.

“Sweetie, he shot her as soon as she showed her gun. You had no effect on the situation. You took him out and stopped him from shooting anyone else. You did what was needed when it was needed. I did the same. So stop with the worries.”