Chapter 5: A Scary Night

I was walking by the phone when it rang. I looked at my watch, and it was 9:18 pm. I picked up the phone on the third ring, said hello, and heard, “John?”

“Yes, who is this?”

“It’s Jenny. Can you come and get me? I can’t go home, and I didn’t know who else to call.”

I was starting to become concerned, “Where are you?”

“I’m at the St. Francis Hospital Emergency Room in Hartford. Please hurry.”

My heart started to race, “I’m on my way,” I slammed the phone down, ran, and got my keys as I yelled to my dad that I was leaving. I broke a few laws driving to the hospital. But luck was with me, and I didn’t get stopped for speeding or jumping red lights.

I ran into the emergency room and saw Jenny sitting in a wheelchair and a nurse talking to her. As I approached them, the nurse looked at me and asked Jenny, “Is that the one who hurt you?”

“No, that’s my friend John. He’s here to rescue me.”

Jenny was not looking her best. “Thanks for coming, John. I’m sorry to drag you into this. And remind me to get you a white hat so folks can tell you from the bad guys.”

Now that the nurse was not going to call the cops on me, I asked her how bad it was. From what she was telling me, it was worse than it first appeared. “There are a few nasty bruises and two cracked ribs that she will need to keep taped up. A few weeks rest and she should be fine, but she will need to come back in two weeks to be checked and to have x-rays to make sure everything is healing properly.”

I thanked the nurse and told her I would make sure Jenny got the rest she needed and bring her back in two weeks for her x-rays. I wheeled Jenny out to the car, got her settled into the front seat, then brought the wheelchair back to the emergency room. As I was returning the wheelchair to the nurse, a doctor came out and gave me a dirty look and asked the nurse, “Is that the guy?” The nurse smiled at me and asked, “Does this happen to you often?”

“Only when people see me with Jenny for the first time.”

She turned to the doctor and said, “No, he’s the good guy. He just forgot his white hat.”

The doctor did not look convinced, “Okay, but nothing better happen to that young lady, or I will call the cops.”

I escaped back to my car before anyone else decided that I should be shot on sight. I started the car and drove out of the parking lot.

I asked Jenny how this happened, and she started to tell me why her pimp Derrick beat her up. “That bastard hit me and knocked me down, cracked two of my ribs when he kicked me because I refused to do a guy he brought over for me to fuck. The guy smelled like he had not washed or brushed his teeth in years and had told dickhead Derrick that he would pay double to not use a condom. He was so gross I would not have done him even if he used a condom.”

I could not understand how anyone could treat Jenny like that. All I wanted to do was get her to a safe place. “Do you have somewhere I can take you that’s safe, and you can rest until your next appointment?”

“Drive-by my apartment. I need to pick up a few things, and then you can take me out of town to a motel.”

We drove to her block. Jenny spotted her pimp’s car and told me to drive around the block and park as far away as possible but still see his car. About twenty minutes later, her pimp Derrick came out, got in his car, and drove away.