DVEINNN
1567 Words
My cell phone was ringing. My eyes cracked open, and I tried to collect my
thoughts. My body and mind were beyond the point of exhaustion. I grabbed the
phone and did my best to focus my eyes on the Caller I.D. It was a local number,
but I didn’t recognize it. And as I answered the call, I saw Daphne peeking into the
window at me.
“Hello,” I said, as much to the hawk as to the caller. My voice sounded
groggy as hell.
“Is this Josiah Reign?” A woman asked at the other end.
“Yes.”
“Are you a relative of Tommy Jensen?”
“No, I mean yes. We’re practically brothers.” Okay, now I am worried.
“Tommy has been in an accident.”
I sat up. “What kind of accident?”
“We’re not quite sure. We pulled out his file, and you were the only contact.
listed. He’s in the ICU.”
“Which hospital is this?”
“San Bernardino Memorial.”
“Okay. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
I jumped up and put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and headed out the door.
Daphne was on the hood of my truck, almost as if she were waiting for me. I got
in my truck and honked my horn, so she’d fly off. She did, squawking at me.
with a shriller kee-eeeee-arr than usual, and I pulled out of the parking lot and
headed to the hospital.
Twenty minutes later, I pulled up to the emergency entrance. Surprisingly,
There were a lot of empty parking spots. Even at 5:00 a.m., I would have thought
most of Southern California ER’s would have been busy. Learn something new
every day. I went through the double doors and headed straight to the nurse’s
station.
“Hi, I’m here to see Tommy Jensen,” I said to the dark-haired, heavy-set
A Latina woman behind the desk.
“He is in the ICU. Why don’t you have a seat and someone will be available?
shortly to speak with you.”
“But I got a call from you guys. Can I go back and—”
“Have a seat and someone will be out to speak with you.”
“All right.” I sat down on a seat near the back, my stomach churning. There
There were sure a lot of people in the waiting room, considering how few cars were there.
were in the parking lot.
A police officer came in from outside. He walked over to the nurse, and the
The nurse pointed him in my direction. I guess the “someone” who was to speak with
I was going to be a police officer. He came right over to me. “Are you Josiah?
Reign?”
“Yes, sir, I am.”
“I need to ask you a couple of questions.”
“Sure,” I said.
“What relationship do you have to Tommy Jensen?”
“There is no relationship. He’s my roommate. He’s the closest person in the world.
to me, but there is we are not related.”
“Were you with Tommy tonight?”
“Well, sort of.”
“What does that mean?”
“Tommy had a fight tonight at the Honda Center in Anaheim.”
“A fight? You mean a professional fight? A boxing match?”
“Close. It was a mixed martial arts fight.”
“You mean like ultimate fighting?”
“Yeah, something like that,” I said.
“You were in the fight?”
This guy wasn’t going to believe what I was about to tell him, but it was the
truth, so I had nothing to lose. “I was his opponent in the fight.”
“You’re kidding me? You fight also?”
“Yes.”
“And you fought Tommy tonight?”
“Yes.”
“Who won?”
“He did.”
“He did?”
“Yeah, he did,” I said, suddenly annoyed.
“Wow, there’s a first for everything.” The police officer sat down in the chair.
next to me. “So, what did you guys do after the fight?”
“Nothing. I went straight home. What is this about? Can I see Tommy now?”
“You didn’t stop off for a beer or an ice pack?”
“I received all the ice packs I needed before I left the arena. No alcohol at all
after a fight. Gotta heal up.”
“What did Tommy do after the fight?”
“He had been staying at his grandma’s during training. After the fight, he was
supposed to come over, so we could go out and celebrate our first fight.
together.”
The police officer stopped writing and looked me in the eyes. “You were
going to celebrate getting your ass kicked?”
“No, not exactly. Tommy is ‘in line’ to fight for the title in our weight class.”
“I see.” The police officer paused. “Did you throw the fight?”
“Of course not.”
“Well, that’s neither here nor there. Have they told you the severity of
Tommy’s injuries?”
“No. I don’t know anything.”
“Did Tommy call you and tell you that he was going to be late?”
“No, he didn’t. What has happened to Tommy?”
“We’re not quite sure. All we know is that he was attacked.”
“Attacked? After the ring fight?”
He paused and leveled his stare at me. “And, due to the nature of his injuries,
it appears that he was attacked by some kind of wild animal.”
I think my eyes bugged out of my skull. Before I could speak, the officer
went on. “Even more unusual, he was dropped off at the ER, where the nurses
found his body lying near the door.”
“No.” A sense of dread filled me. “Who dropped him off?”
“We don’t know.”
“Someone just dropped him off and took off?”
“Exactly. So where were you at 1:00 a.m?”
“I was at my house just about to fall asleep.”
“Can anyone else vouch for that?”
“No. I was alone.“
“Well, hopefully Tommy will regain consciousness shortly and he will be able to
shed some light on what happened.”
The police officer closed his notepad, nodded at me and walked outside. I just
stared at him. Had I heard him correctly? Tommy had been attacked by a wild
animal?
I sat there and waited. And waited. Two hours later, I got up and went to the
nurse’s station.
“I’ve been here for two hours. Is there anyone who can give me an update?”
“The doctor will be out shortly to talk to you.”
“The doctor?” I questioned.
“Yes, the doctor.”
I was about to head back to my seat when I heard someone call my name. I
turned around, and there was a man of Middle Eastern descent coming toward
me.
“Yes, I’m Josiah.”
The man walked over to me. “Are you related to Mr. Jensen?”
“I’m pretty much all he has. What’s going on?”
The doctor paused. “I’m sorry. He didn’t make it.”
I’ve been hit hard in my life, but never have I been hit harder than that. All
The air left my lungs, and I struggled to find words.
The doctor went on, but his voice reached me as if speaking from a deep well.
“Mr. Jensen was pronounced dead ten minutes ago.”
“His name is Tommy. Please call him Tommy.” My voice sounded strange to
my ears. Panicked, strained, high-pitched.
“I’m real sorry.”
I took in a lot of air. I could tell I was close to hyperventilating. “But...what
What happened?” I managed to say.
“He had bite marks all over his body. It appears he was attacked by multiple
animals. But that’s for the medical examiner to determine.”
“But this doesn’t make any sense! He was on his way home from a
professional fight.” My brain spun. For all that, I knew I was spinning, too. I wished
like hell that there was something nearby to hold onto. I would have used the
doctor, but I didn’t think his frail body could support me. “What kind of animal?
was it?”
“I have no idea. The bites were deep and unmistakable. The medical
The examiner will look into it, along with the police.”
“He’s seriously gone? Dead?”
“Yes, I’m sorry.”
“Just like that? One minute he’s full of life kicking ass in the ring, and twelve
Hours later, he’s...dead?” I wasn’t making sense, and I knew it. Who could make
sense at a time like this?
“If you need grief counseling, we can provide you with that—”
“I don’t need grief counseling.”
I fell to my knees. I couldn’t think straight. What I needed was a hospital bed.
of my own.
TO BE CONTINUED.....
- Writer
