Chapter 22: Knock, knock, knocking

There was a quiet but insistent tapping on the window.

“Freeman,” came a whispered voice from outside. “Let me in!”

“Huh!” I thought.

The tapping came again.

“Freeman! Wake up! Let me in!”

Sam stirred and his eyes popped open.

I cupped my hand over his mouth before he could say anything.

“Come on, Freeman. Wake up! Let me in!” whispered the voice.

I rolled out of bed and shuffled to the window.

The dim glow of the night light gave me enough vision to move around the room without tripping.

Pushing aside the curtain, I peered out but all I could see was a dark shape leaning against the window.

Then she put her face up against the window.

It was Laura DiMartino.

“Huh!” I said. “What the...”

She tapped on the window again.

“Come on, let me in. I’m freezing my ass off out here.”

I sighed and shook my head. Then I grabbed the key from its hiding place and unlocked the window.

I slid the window open.

“Laura? Laura DiMartino? What the heck are you doing?”

“Catch!” she said and thrust a small backpack into my face. Then she crawled, head first, through the window and slid down to the floor. She kind of folded up awkwardly on the floor as she landed head first. Then she started giggling as she clumsily untangled herself.

I stood looking down at her. I couldn’t make out a lot of detail in the dim light but she looked unkempt and she looked drunk. I guess the inane giggling was also a bit of a clue. She was wearing black tightly-fitting jeans and a grey hoodie with the hood pushed back.

She slumped back against the wall with her legs splayed out and muttered something that I didn’t hear. I dropped the bag into her lap and slid the window closed again.

I glanced over at Sam who was propped up in bed and watching curiously. I shrugged at him and then squatted in front of Laura.

“Laura, what the heck are you doing?”

“I ran away from home! I couldn’t take it anymore, so I ran away. Those asshole parents of mine want to send me to a military boarding school. Can you believe that? Military school! Can you see me marching back and forth like a fucking soldier? What a joke!”

“I admit that doesn’t seem very much like you,” I said.

I had to put my stone face on and keep my voice steady. I really wanted to laugh at her.

“Totally!” said Laura. “So I slipped a couple of sleeping pills into that nosy nanny’s coffee and made a run for it.”

“So you ran away? I guess that will prove how mature you are!”

“Right!” she said, clearly missing my sarcasm. “That will show them!”

“And you came here – to me!”

“Yeah! You’re the only friend I’ve got left, Freeman. Those other bitches totally shafted me. I knew you’d help me out.”

“I’m not your friend, Laura. My sister...”

“Don’t talk to me about your sister,” Laura cut me off. “She’s totally cracked. But you’re not cracked. You and her – you’re totally different.”

“Uh huh!” I said.

The wicked part of me wanted to agree with her about my sister being cracked, but I didn’t say anything.

“I can sleep here in your room for a few nights,” she said.

I sighed. Then I lowered myself down and sat cross legged in front of her. I watched as she reached into her bag and produced a large plastic bottle of cola that was half full.

“Ta da!” she said. “I liberated some of Daddy’s best scotch.”

“I see you had your priorities straight!” I said.

I really must learn to keep a lid on my sarcasm – especially when I’m talking to somebody who’s not in a condition to appreciate it.

She unscrewed the cap and took a swig. Then she held it out to me.

“Have some, Freeman. It will put some hair on your chest!”

“No thanks, Laura, “ I said as I pushed the bottle away. Besides – I know it’s a figure of speech, but – hair on my chest? Eeew!

“Fuck Freeman, “ she moaned. “Do we have to go through this every time. You always say no and you always end up giving in. Don’t be such a drama queen.”

I forced a little smile at her. “This time I think it might end up differently. Like you said before, I’m totally different from my sister.”

“Huh?” said Laura. Then she decided my comment was too complicated to figure out and gave up.

She took another swig from the bottle and then suddenly sputtered.

“Who the fuck is that?” she asked, pointing at the bed.

I looked over and saw Sam watching from the bed. He was lying there and watching without saying anything.

“That’s my cousin, Sam,” I said. “Sam is sleeping over for the night.”

“Hey, Sam!” said Laura. “Sam – Samantha! That’s a nice name. I wish my name was Samantha. What sort of asshole parents call their daughter Laura? Blech!”

I sighed and shook my head. “Sam, this is Laura. She’s a friend of Tara. She’s not always a very nice person but I guess you can’t have everything. Believe it or not, she’s not completely stupid. Don’t be fooled by the fact that she’s run away from home and gotten herself drunk and crawled into the wrong sister’s window. All of which are pretty dumb things to do.”

“Huh?” said Laura.

I guess I could have messed with Laura’s head for a while with her thinking I was Tara. But to be honest, it was too easy. There’s really no fun in taking pot shots when the target is so easy to hit.

I sighed and spoke more slowly. “Laura, I’m not Tara. I’m Bec. You came knocking on the wrong window.”

“Ah fuck!” said Laura.

She peered at me for a moment through the dim light.

“How was I supposed to know which window to knock on?”

“I don’t know. You’ve only been here about a dozen times.”

There goes that sarcasm again.

She looked me up and down – a process which seemed to take an age given her drunken state.

“You look like Tara.”

“Yeah!”

She tilted her head to one side as she stared at me in the dim light. Then she started to tip over. She had to use a hand on the floor to straighten herself up.

“She’s got bigger tits than you!”

“Gee! Really?”

I looked down at my chest, the loose pyjama top more or less hung straight down. Tara does have bigger boobs but Laura didn’t have to rub it in!

“You’re a lot weirder than Tara.”

I shrugged. “Yeah.”

It’s hard to disagree with that – unless you want to argue about the definition of weird.

She looked at me some more.

“I’m sorry about the whole closet thing. It was supposed to be a bit of fun. I didn’t mean for it to get out of control like that.”

“Really? It sure seemed to me like you meant it.” I stopped myself and sighed. “But I’m over that. It’s forgotten.”

She thrust the plastic bottle at me. “Have a drink!”

“No thanks.”

“What about you, Sammie?” asked Laura. She waved the bottle in the direction of the bed but Sam shook his head.

“She’s a bit quiet, this cousin of yours,” said Laura.

“Yes, he is!” I said and tried to hide my smile. “Sam is a boy, Laura.”

Another opportunity to mess with Laura’s head thrown away. Sometimes I’m too nice for my own good.

“Huh?” said Laura. “Oh!” She peered drunkenly over at Sam. “Sorry!”

“It’s okay,” said Sam. “It is kind of dark.”

She peered at Sam and then back at me. “Were you two fucking? Did I interrupt something? How come you were both in bed together?”

Apparently in Laura’s world, two girl cousins can share a bed without a problem but girl and boy cousins sharing a bed is immediately suspect.

“No, Laura,” I said, keeping my voice patient. “We’re both too young for that. All you interrupted was us sleeping. He was in my bed because it’s more comfortable than the floor.”

“Oh!” she said.

Laura took another swig from the bottle.

“Sorry – again,” she said.

She again held the bottle out to Sam. “Seriously, you should try some of this.”

“No thanks,” said Sam.

“Hey, Laura!” I spoke up. “Pass me the bottle!”

I held out my hand for the bottle and she handed it over. The smell coming out of the bottle was quite strong. I stood up.

“What are you doing?” asked Laura.

“I’m going to pour this down the sink,” I said. “Then I’ll come back and we can decide what’s going to happen about you.”

“What the fuck?” asked Laura. “Give it back!”

“I was thinking that you’ve probably had enough. Then you kept offering alcohol to my nine year old cousin. That’s when I decided to draw the line.”

“I haven’t had enough,” she was slurring her words. “You can tell `cause I’m still conscious. Enough is when I’m passed out.”

“Yeah? Well, give it a few minutes. You’ll get there.”

I looked down at Laura as she sat slumped against my wall and shook my head. Then I went out of my room and through to the kitchen where I poured the foul smelling mixture of cola and alcohol down the sink. I could hear Laura whispering loudly for me to come back and give the drink back to her but I ignored her. I tossed the plastic bottle into the recycling and went back to my bedroom.

Laura was still where I’d left her. She ignored me and started hunting through her bag and muttering to herself. I sat on the edge of my bed and looked down at her. Then I looked at Sam.

Sam had been lying there and watching Laura.

“She’s really drunk, isn’t she?” I said to Sam. “What should we do about her?”

I spoke to Sam because I didn’t think I’d get any sort of sensible conversation out of Laura.

Sam shrugged. I guess it was a sensible shrug but it wasn’t as useful as I was hoping for.

Evil Bec wanted to lock her in the closet and see how she liked it but, fortunately, Evil Bec wasn’t in control. Or maybe that should be – unfortunately. B really wanted to punch Laura in the face but I had B cornered and wasn’t letting her out.

“I guess I should phone her father and ask him to come and get her,” I said to Sam. “Or, maybe I could tell him that she’s here and he can come get her in the morning. Something tells me she won’t be doing much else but sleeping for quite a while.”

Sam looked at Laura and then back at me. “Won’t she be mad at you if you tell her father?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know how much of tonight she’ll remember. Besides, she’s always mad at me. This wouldn’t change anything.”

Then I saw Sam’s eyes widen as he watched Laura.

I turned just in time to see Laura had upended a pill bottle over her mouth and was rapidly swallowing its contents.

I cursed and went over to her. I knelt and pulled the pill bottle away from her mouth but it was already empty.

“Laura! What have you done?”

She peered at me through half-closed eyes.

“Sleep!” she muttered. “Want to sleep!”

I peered at the bottle but couldn’t read the label in the dim light.

“How many did you take?” I asked but Laura didn’t answer.

“Sam, I need you! We have to get her to the bathroom.”

Sam bounded out of bed and between us we stood Laura up and draped her arms over our shoulders. Then we half-carried, half-dragged her out of my room and through to the bathroom. Laura was moaning and complaining but we ignored all of that.

I switched the bathroom light on and we all blinked our eyes against the glare. Then I steered Laura over and knelt her down in front of the toilet.

I looked at Sam who was kneeling on the other side of Laura and helping to support her.

“I’ve heard about people doing this, but I’ve never done it. Could you hold her hair out of the way?”

I waited until Sam had gathered her hair into a handful at the back of her head.

“Here goes!” I said.

Then I bent Laura forward over the toilet and stuck my fingers as far into the back of her mouth as I could reach. She gagged and I pulled my hand out of her mouth. Apparently I pulled out too soon or something because nothing happened. I tried again, and this time it worked. She gagged and convulsed and then started vomiting into the toilet.

I screwed up my nose at the smell and the sounds and saw that Sam was doing the same.

“Sam, can you keep holding her? I have to make a phone call.”

I left Sam with Laura in the bathroom and I raced back to the kitchen. I picked up the phone and dialled 911. A man answered almost immediately and I started answering his questions.

By the time I got back to the bathroom, Laura was curled up on the floor with her face on a towel. She was lying on her side and seemed to be breathing okay, so I left her there.

I told Sam to pull a robe on and then go and turn the outside light on and open the door ready for the ambulance.

Then I went charging down the hallway and into Dan’s room.

I didn’t stop to knock on the door or anything, I just barged on in. The light was on and the first thing I saw was Pearl’s naked back. She was sitting upright in the bed and kind of swaying gently. Then I realized that she was totally naked and sitting astride the hips of an equally naked Dan.

Yup! They were doing sex and I’d barged in on them.

They weren’t being very energetic or anything but it was pretty obvious what was going on.

“Dan!” I called.

Pearl squealed and dived off Dan and onto the floor so that she could hide on the other side of the bed. That left Dan fully exposed and looking very surprised. I kind of stared at his middle for maybe half a second and then forced myself to look at his face.

“What?” he said.

“Sorry, Dan, but I need you to get dressed.”

“Huh?” said Dan.

“Sorry, Pearl,” I said in the direction where Pearl was hiding.

I walked over and picked up a sheet off the floor. I threw it over the other side of the bed to Pearl.

“What’s going on?” asked Dan.

Pearl poked her head up and started wrapping herself in the sheet. She was looking extremely embarrassed. I shrugged an apology to her and turned to Dan.

I quickly explained about how Laura had crawled through my window and how she was drunk and how she’d swallowed some pills and how I’d made her vomit and then called for an ambulance. I told him I was going to go with Laura to the hospital and stay with her until her father could get there and I would need Dan to drive to the hospital and bring me home.

Then I turned and walked out while Dan scurried around and pulled some clothes on. I went back to my room and pulled some sweatpants and a hoodie over my pyjamas and slipped a pair of sneakers onto my feet. I picked up my cell phone and slid it into my pocket. Then I grabbed Laura’s bag and went back to the bathroom.

Dan arrived in the bathroom a bit before I did. When I came in, he was kneeling next to Laura and checking her breathing. He pulled her eyelids back and looked at her eyes. Then he looked at me and shrugged.

“I think you did the right thing,” said Dan. “I’ll go finish getting ready.”

I pulled out my phone, took a deep breath and dialed the number of the DiMartino house.

I listened as it rang and rang. I muttered to myself while I waited for somebody to answer but nobody did. It cut through to the answering machine so I left my number and a quick message for somebody to call me.

Sam came in with a blanket while that was happening and I jammed the phone between my shoulder and my ear so I could talk while I helped him spread the blanket over Laura.

I guess I’m making it sound like I was totally calm and in control. I really wasn’t but I guess I was pretending to be calm so that Sam didn’t panic. Also, I kept thinking of stuff to do and keeping busy seemed to stop me from going hysterical so that was good.

I hung up and hit Melissa’s number from speed dial.

After a few rings, Melissa answered with a very sleepy sounding, “Hello?”

“Melissa, this is Bec. Wake up! I need you to do something.”

“What?”

“I need you to go and wake your father and hand him the phone. I really have to talk to him, right now. It’s kind of important.”

“Okay, I’m out of bed, I’m walking! What’s going on?”

“It’s Laura, she’s gotten herself messed up again. She’s going to be okay, but I have to get her to the hospital.”

I sat down on the bathroom chair and listened while Melissa muttered about worthless sisters. I took the opportunity to lean forward and push Laura’s hair back off her face. Laura groaned and muttered and pulled faces about the taste in her mouth and then went back to sleep.

“Is she really going to be okay?” asked Melissa.

“Yes,” I reassured her. “She’s going to be fine.”

Then I listened as Melissa went through the process of going in to her parents’ room and waking up her father. There was a very brief exchange between the two of them and then her father came on the phone.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Mr DiMartino. This is Bec Freeman.”

“So Melissa told me. What’s this about Laura?”

“She turned up at our place. She’s been drinking. Then she swallowed some pills. I made her vomit and then I called the ambulance.”

I heard him grunt something.

“I thought you should know, so I called as soon as I could.”

“Is she conscious? Can I talk to her?”

I looked down at Laura.

“No, she’s out of it. She’s still breathing though. The 911 man said I had to keep watching her and make sure she was breathing. He wanted me to stay on the line but I had to call you so I hung up. The ambulance should be here any minute.”

He grunted again.

“Tell the EMTs to take her to the hospital at Memorial Park. Do you understand?”

“Yes sir. I understand. The Memorial Park Hospital. I’ll tell them.”

“Why is it you doing all of this? Where are your parents?”

“Neither of my parents are around at the moment. Dan, my brother, is kind of in charge if that’s what you’re asking.”

“And he was letting you drink?”

I sighed.

“Mr DiMartino, Laura’s the only one who’s been drinking. And she was doing that before she got here. She was already drunk when she turned up. Everybody was in bed. It’s not like we were having a party or anything.”

“Then why did she go there? It’s the middle of the night. She had to have some reason for going all the way over to your house.”

At that moment, Dan appeared in the doorway with two EMTs beside him.

“Sir, the ambulance is here. I think we should talk about this later. I’ll see you at the hospital.”

“Memorial Park!”

“Memorial Park Hospital! I got that. I’ll see you there.”

I spent the next few minutes answering as many of the EMT’s questions as I could. I gave them the empty pill bottle so they would know what pills she had taken. I got asked how many pills she’d swallowed and I had no clue so I told them that. One of them talked to me while the other one did all the usual things that you see EMTs do on TV shows – including putting a little plastic mask on her face for oxygen. During the process Laura kind of half woke up and she grabbed a hold of my hand and wouldn’t let go. I was a bit nervous answering the questions in case I’d done something wrong but the EMT said I’d done the right thing. Then the other one said that Laura would probably be okay because of what I’d done but they still needed to get her to the hospital to have her checked over properly and maybe get her stomach pumped out.

I explained about Memorial Park Hospital and then I explained how I was going to sit with Laura in the ambulance and her father was going to meet us at the hospital. The EMT objected to that since I’m not Laura’s family but I kind of put my foot down and insisted. It was helped by the fact that Laura was gripping my hand as tight as she could the entire time.

Dan and Sam stood back and watched me argue with little smiles on their faces. I don’t know what they were thinking. I offered to get Mr DiMartino back on the phone so that he could explain to them that I was going with Laura but they gave in before I actually had to do that. I climbed into the back of the ambulance and sat beside Laura with her still holding my hand. Then I reminded the EMTs again about Memorial Park Hospital in case they’d forgotten while I was explaining those other things to them.

A little while later I was sitting on a bench opposite the bed in the back of the ambulance and holding Laura’s hand while we drove to the hospital. She had the plastic breathing mask over her mouth and they had her connected to a machine which was beeping away quite regularly. The EMTs didn’t seemed too worried about her so that helped me relax quite a bit. The regular beeping helped me relax, too.

About half way to the hospital I realized that Laura’s eyes were open and she was staring up at me.

“You’re going to be okay,” I said. “Just relax. You’re going to be okay.”

I squeezed her hand and smiled down at her.

She was looking up at me from over the top of the breathing mask. She didn’t say anything but her eyes had this really big question in them. It was like she was asking me, “Why are you helping me? Why are you being so nice to me?”

She looked so confused.

Honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure. I mean, obviously, she needed help so I was helping her. But she’s one of my worst enemies and suddenly all of this happens and I’m looking after her as well as I’d look after one of my best friends.

Sometimes, I confuse myself.

Mr and Mrs DiMartino were arriving at the entrance to the hospital as they wheeled Laura in on the stretcher. Laura had gone back to sleep so I’d let go of her hand by that stage and I was walking along behind the stretcher. Mr DiMartino nodded at me and then they both looked down at Laura as she was wheeled past them.