SURVIVAL INSTINCT

CHAPTER: 18

Sarah started breathing again after she saw a small, shriveled, black woman stepping into the doorway. Her face was full of wrinkles, but she looked like she might have been very pretty in her youth. At the moment her unkempt gray hair was sticking out in all directions as if no one had taken the trouble to comb it for her for several days. She was wearing a faded housecoat and fuzzy, blue slippers. She blinked looking at both of them. Ryan relaxed, although he did not move away from her.

"Good Morning, Madame." Ryan's voice was surprisingly polite, with the merest hint of a tremor. Maybe he had not been as unaffected as he had appeared.

The old lady squinted at him, then shuffled a couple of steps closer. Finally, a toothless smile spread over her face and she put her hand on his arm. Her quavering voice seemed to be delighted. "Mark! I have not seen you for ages. Why did you not tell me you were coming, you naughty boy?"

"Who is Mark?" Sarah murmured. Ryan did not respond. His attention was focused on the smiling old lady in front of him.

"I did not know it myself till just now," Ryan said. 

"Well, it is great to see you, baby. And look at it here! Who have you brought home to show your mama?" The old woman asked Ryan.

The old woman then peered around him to her. Sarah smiled politely. She smiled back, widely before she focused her attention back on Ryan. Or Mark as he clearly was to her. She lowered her voice and seemed to think that Sarah would not be able to hear. "She is a looker, isn't she? But she doesn't have hips boy, that is necessary for breeding. Are you sure she will be able to get that baby out?" The old woman asked Ryan.

Sarah sniffed. This remark was offensive to her on so many levels and she was not even sure she had caught them all. She could see from the tightening of Ryan's lips that he was suppressing something; most likely a  grin. But his voice seemed to be soothing. "She will be fine," he replied to the old woman.

The woman smiled back. You have been dating her, ain't you boy?" She reached up, in fact way up; as she was barely five feet tall; and patted him on the cheek.

Meanwhile, a car door slammed outside, and just as quickly as that, the atmosphere in the kitchen changed. The old woman stiffened, and her brown eyes became sharper. "They are coming for me." She glanced over her shoulder towards the front wall. "Filthy cops. You won't let them take me away, will you, Mark?" 

Ryan hesitated, for just long enough to make her take another look at him. Something seemed to switch over in the old woman's brain, and her eye narrowed. "You are not my Mark. What are you doing at my house? Help! Intruders! Help!"

Ryan took a step back, straight into Sarah. She grabbed hold of him to steady herself while outside in the hallway, someone speeded up and came barging through the door, entering the kitchen with a gun in both hands. Sarah did her best to shrink behind Ryan's bigger frame. The old woman shrieked and crumpled in a heap on the floor. Ryan lifted his hands, slowly, in a gesture of surrender.

"Christ!" a disgusted voice outside the door said. "Put the gun away before you accidentally shoot somebody."

Officer Turner flushed and lowered the weapon just as Officer Shawn came trotting through the door. He took in the situation at a single glance and was not very surprised. Sarah guessed that a beat cop gets used to seeing all sorts of things. Officer Shawn nodded cordially to Sarah. "Good Morning, Ms. Miller. Mr. Johnson. Sorry about that. And where is...damn, she has fainted. Oh, well; it will make it easier to get her in the car. The last time she had given us a hell of a time."

He nodded to Turner who, having put his gun safely in the holster, bent and lifted the old lady in his arms. He then headed towards the door with his burden, and Sarah addressed herself to Shawn. "Where are you taking her?"

Shawn did not seem to mind sharing the information with Sarah. "Back to the nursing home. She keeps walking off, and they keep calling us to bring her back. Poor old lady." He shook his head.

"Who is she?" Sarah asked although she was pretty sure she already knew the answer. This lady had to be the owner of the property; who else would worry about intruders?

Shawn's words confirmed her theory. "Her name is Jemima. She lived here up till just a few weeks ago. She does not remember it is not her home anymore."

"Alzheimer's?" Sarah asked.

Shawn shrugged, "Or she might just be forgetful. It happens to most of us when we hit eighty or so."

Sarah nodded in agreement. When she did not say anything else, Shawn tipped his uniform cap and started to walk off. He stopped after a few steps and turned back. "What happened here anyway?" he asked.

"Oh." She glanced at Ryan who was standing beside her but was engrossed in thoughts. "We came back to see the house one more time. We had only been here a few minutes when Mrs. Jemima turned up. She most probably must be an early riser."

Shawn confirmed that she was. "Old folks don't sleep so well. The nursing home attendants said she escaped before breakfast. It is hardly a quarter-mile walk from the nursing home till here."

Sarah nodded. "At first she was worried about us being here, but then she seemed to think she recognized Ryan. But she kept on calling him Mark." Sarah paused, hoping that Shawn could give her some more information, but if he had any, he chose not to share. "Then we heard the car door slam, and she realized that you were coming. I don't think she likes it where she lives now," Sarah said to Shawn.

But it isn't the nicest place in the world," Shawn agreed.

"She asked us; Ryan; to help her, and as he didn't say yes right away, she must have realized he was not Mark after all. She thus started screaming for help, and that is when Turner came running in," Sarah said to Shawn.

"I will have a word with Turner," Shawn grunted. "I cannot tolerate him pulling his weapon on innocent bystanders. Though I don't mind telling you it will make it easier with Ms. Jemima. The last time we did this, we thought we would have to tase her with an electric stun gun.

"That poor old lady?" Sarah pitied her.

"Hey, let me tell you, she can be a handful. She scratched both of us, and also bit Turner. I guess I should better get her back there before she wakes up." He tipped the cap again and headed for the door. This time he did not stop. Sarah waited until she heard the car door slam and the tires crunch before she turned to Ryan.

"That was interesting," she said to Ryan. He muttered something.

Sarah added, "Do you want to look around some more? We could go upstairs again. Or downstairs. Whatever. You had not seen the basement last time."

"I think I am done. Thanks." Ryan said the 'thanks' as an afterthought. He sent her a distracted glance as they headed out of the kitchen.

"No problem. So do you want the house?" She smiles optimistically. 

"Who would not want this?" He looked around at the peeling wallpaper, the dull wood floors, and the sagging ceilings.

Sarah grimaced. "Right," she said.

"I will let you know," Ryan replied.

"You do that. Here, why don't you take one of my cards? That way you can call me if there is anything that you need," Sarah said to Ryan.

She then dug a couple of business cards out of her purse. "In fact, take several. Spread the joy."

Ryan accepted the cards with a grin. "When you say 'anything'..."

"I mean something related to real estate. Like, you want to buy this house. Or you want to see it again. Or you plan to see another house. Or you would like me to suggest to you a good mortgage broker," Sarah said.

"Right." Ryan pocketed the card, although he didn't stop smiling. Sarah locked the front door and put the key back into the lockbox in case someone else wanted to see the place. When she straightened up, Ryan was still standing in the same spot. They looked at each other in silence for a few seconds.

"Well..." Sarah said finally, though a little awkwardly, "it has been nice seeing you again." Sarah was surprised to find out that she actually meant it.

"You too." That grin was present on Ryan's face.

"I guess I will...um...go now." Sarah gestured towards her car. He nodded pleasantly.

"I have got places to go, people to see. I have got to stop by the office to let them know I escaped unscathed. I will...um...see you around," Sarah said to him.

"I will call you," Ryan said,

"Right," Sarah replied.

Ryan did not say anything else, so she did what she had said she would do and went, down the stairs and over to the car, into the driver's seat, down the drive, and through the gate. He was still standing on the porch when she turned the corner. And although she could not see it, he was probably still grinning, too.