The Rainbow Patch

Chapter 7

The next day, I was seated on a very uncomfortable chair in a completely featureless room, being watched by two police officers. Adrian was tapping on their phone, muttering to themself. Emily hadn’t shown up yet. I shot her another text, which joined the collection of others on my screen.

Where are you?

Adrian’s getting annoyed.

The cops are really bored.

What’s going on?

Seriously Emily, I’m starting to get worried.

At least text me back.

Finally, I saw that she was texting me back. A really long message popped up. That was unusual, Emily’s texts were normally really short. I read it, hands shaking.

Hello Jo, this is Emily’s mother. I’m sorry to say this, but Emily is in the hospital. She was jumped on her way to the interview by some kids from your school. She’s fine, but has a lot of injuries. She wants to see you.

I stood up abruptly. The police looked at me. “Young lady, what are you doing?”

“I need to go.” I said breathlessly. Adrian stood up and put a hand on my shoulder. “Johanna, what’s going on?” I didn’t say anything, just showed them the text. They paled. “No. Oh god.” I was already out the door.

During the bus ride to the hospital, I sat in tense silence, checking my phone every two seconds, waiting for another text. At my stop, I flew off the bus and into the waiting room.

“I’m looking for Emily Jackson. I said to the woman behind the desk. “What room is she in?”

“Room 223.” Before she finished, I was already running up the stairs. When I reached Emily’s room, I saw an older man and woman sitting outside. The man rose up and shook my hand.

“You’re Johanna?” He asked. I nodded. “I’m Anthony Jackson, Emily’s father. This is my wife, Sadie.” She gave me a tired smile.

“How’s Emily?” I asked, fearing the worst. Her mother smiled.

“She’s awake now. It’s nothing too serious, but she’ll be in the hospital overnight.” I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Oh thank god.” I sat down on the bench next to Mrs. Jackson, my adrenaline wearing off.

“You can go in and see her, if you want.” My head snapped up, energy restored. “Really?”

Her mother nodded. “I think Emily would love it.”

When I walked in, Emily sat up in bed, and grinned at me. My eyes filled with tears. Her smile faded. “What’s wrong?” She asked. I wiped my eyes and sat down on the armchair beside her bed. “Nothing. I’m just glad that you’re okay.” She smiled, and took my hand in hers. “It’ll take more than a few homophobes to get me.” She declared.

“Do you know who it was?” I asked. Emily nodded.

“Yeah. They were football players from our school.”

“How do you know that?” I asked, stunned at her knowledge.

“The idiots were wearing their football uniforms.”

I laughed so hard that Emily looked concerned. “They were wearing their football uniforms?” I asked, still gasping for air. “That is the stupidest thing ever!” Emily smiled.

“Well, I mean if you get tackled enough times, that must do something to your brain.” I laughed again. God, it felt good to laugh. Our hilarity was ended by the appearance of Adrian, followed by Emily’s parents and a guy in a crisp black and white suit. Emily smiled at Adrian. “Hey Adrian! I’m still kicking! They smiled at her, then gestured to the man who had come in behind Emily’s parents.

“This is Jeffrey Williams. He’s the detective in charge of your case.” Jeffrey shook my hand, then Emily’s.

“Good to be working with you.” He was completely emotionless, like Spock from Star Trek. He got right down to business. “Right. Do you two have any idea who did this to you?” Emily nodded.

“Yeah. Well, I know who attacked me.” Emily named the three football players, and Jeffrey nodded and wrote something in a black notebook produced from who knows where.

“Anything else? Maybe something about who vandalised your lockers.” We both shook our heads. He sighed. “I’ll be conducting an investigation tommorow, and I will email you with my findings on Thursday morning, at the latest. We will have a meeting at the police station on the same day beginning at 12:30. After that, I will conduct a series of investigations and interrogations. If we have enough evidence, and you want to press charges, a court appearance will be necessary. If all goes smoothly, this process will take about 3 months. You still with me?” Emily and I nodded. Jeffrey snapped his notebook closed and turned on his heel. When he was gone, Emily leaned over to me. “I lost him at investigation.” Everybody laughed, even Adrian.

“Try to be nice to him, Emily. I know he’s a bit...intense.” Pleaded Adrian.

“Intense? He’s about 10 kilometres past that.”

Adrian sighed. “He’s the only guy who’d take the case. Most detectives either don’t care about stuff like this, or don’t want to lose other clients because they helped us.”

I was appalled. “How many detectives do they have down there?”

“About 15 or so.”

“And not one of them would take your case?” This was Emily’s father. He was beet-red and shaking with rage. Adrian shook his head. Emily’s father left the room, tapping on his phone. Her mother left too, trying to call him back. Emily sighed.

“I hope those cops don’t have delicate eardrums.”