Blackout

Miami Max Present “Mija escoge lo que quieras,” I rolled my eyes while holding my phone to my ear. My abuela had this consistent need to let me pick whatever I wanted for her birthdays without asking for anything in particular. She was one of those old ladies that still wore the same clothes she bought twenty years ago because they fitted. Whenever I asked her what she wanted for her birthday she would always say the same thing “Just pick whatever you want”. Easier said than done. “Abuela, please, give me something here,” I said, staring down at the assortment of necklaces and bracelets on the showcase of the jewelry I’ve walked in. I eyed a golden necklace with a cute little cross and smiled. Bingo. My grandma would love to wear that to church on Sundays, “ Nevermind, I found something you will like.” “I don’t need anything mija,” she said for the hundredth time.  I sighed, resting my elbows on the glass and motioning one of the sellers of the store to come closer. By my peripherals I saw a man by the entrance checking me out. I felt the impulse of staring him back and making him swallow his eyes down his throat but fortunately for him I didn’t have the time to show him any manners. As a matter of fact I’ve only stepped on the Ventura Mall to buy my grandma’s birthday gift and then I was crashing down at my apartment. I’d been at the St. Mateo hospital for three days and three nights in my first week of residency as a Cardiothoracic Surgeon. I was exhausted, hungry and I couldn’t remember the last time I washed my hair. I’ve run out of clothes, hence the reason I was wearing denim shorts and a tight t-shirt I wouldn’t have been caught wearing in public on any other occasion. The clothes weren’t even mine but from a nurse named Rosie who I’ve befriended and who had been kind enough to give me her spare clothes after a patient vomited all over my last clean outfit. Rosie was petite and thin, when I was tall, with a large butty that could hardly fit in the shorts I was sporting. I started drumming my fingers over the glass, annoyed by the looks all the men inside of the store were given me. Tired and ready to put this entire experience in the rear mirror I pointed at the necklace I wanted and then motioned to the seller so we could meet by the cashier. The seller nodded and I gave him a thumbs up before turning around and marching to the back of the store.  “When will I see you again Maxima?” I smiled at her question. My grandma was the only person in the entire world who still called me by my given name. For all of my friends I was just Max and people at work only called me Dr. Cruz. Only grandma insisted on calling me Maxima every single time she talked to me. “I will see you next Sunday.” “Ven a la iglesia conmigo,” she said and I tensed, reaching the cashier a little faster than the seller. The man motioned for me to wait for him and I gave him a nod while I tried to take my card holder from the back pocket of the shorts I was wearing. How exactly I’d been able to put my card holder inside that tight pocket? My grandma cleared her throat, a clear sign she was losing her patience with me. I was woman enough to admit I was afraid of old Cuban ladies when they lost their patience. They become insane and fast. Extremely fast. Which was dangerous. I finally got the card holder out of the pocket and decided to be upfront with my grandma. “Abuela, listen,” I sighed, drumming my fingers over my naked thigh, “I know why you want me to go to church with you. You want to introduce me to a man who is single, don’t you?” “I want to see my grand-grandchildren before I die mija,” she fought right back, without giving me any time to form a proper defense. As I said, she was fast when provoked, “All you do is work and work in that place that smells like alcohol and death. You need to live a little. Find a good man. Make a family. You are only going to be twenty six once. Don’t wait until you are old like me to see the world.” “I live abuela, just not the same way you imagine,” I looked around me, making sure nobody was listening, “and don’t give me that basura that I can find a good man. That man doesn’t exist.” “Because you haven’t looked for him, mija,” I groaned, scratching my itchy scalp. Jesus, I really needed to wash my hair the moment I got home. The seller reached my side that moment and when I realized he was about to ask me a question about my purchase I held a finger up and took a step back.  “I need to go, abuela. Te quiero mi vieja,” I blew her a kiss over the phone and ended the phone call. When I turned to the seller I caught him checking my ass too. Seriously? Et tu brute? I shook my head at him and motioned with a hand for the guy to wrap everything. I passed him my credit card with a frown and in silence the man nodded, running the card and working on wrapping my gift. I was about to take the wrapped box with my grandma’s gift and get out of there when a loud blast made us all crouch down. A gunshot. s**t. The seller screamed and one of the guys who had been checking me out fell flat on the floor, holding his hands over his head and shaking in fear. So far for the macho routine. I looked fast to the nearest exit and calculated that reaching the parking lot would take me twenty minutes. Maybe more if everyone tried to evacuate the mall at the same time.  I quickly unlocked the screen of my phone and started marking the police number. I’ve already dialed two digits when a gloved hand snatched the phone out of my hand. I looked up just in time to see a man dressed in army fatigues taking my phone and slamming it against the closest wall. Well, there went my chances for a smooth exit. Next step was losing my cool and nobody wanted me to go there. I was already in a dark place since I needed sleep and food badly. The man was soon followed by other two guys, also dressed in military fatigues and black balaclavas that covered their faces. They were all holding guns in their hands and large duffel bags. With a movement of a gun the guy who had destroyed my phone motioned for me to get on my knees. I was way too mad to even understand what he wanted from me so I stood, grinding my molars and fisting my hands. “Get on your knees pendeja!” The man screamed at me, holding me at gunpoint. The other two men started to hit the showcases, breaking the glass with the back of their guns and throwing all the jewelry they found inside of their duffel bags. A robbery. Of course! As if I hadn’t had enough working my ass off for three days in four emergency surgeries and helping our team transporting a heart transplant from hospital to hospital. A robbery was just what I needed to finish my week. “I’m getting on my knees for no one,” I said loud and clear because let’s face it, at that point I was already in deep s**t. If I was supposed to die right there and then, so be it. I was good at making peace with this life. The man moved fast then, grabbing me by my neck and holding me close to him. That close I could smell him too well. His skin smelled like onions and fried food, as if the i***t had breakfast right before coming to rob the jewelry store. I wasn’t sure how crazy I was after my lack of sleep but I was seriously jealous of this guy. At least he had time to grab breakfast before going to work. Others like me didn’t have that luxury. “Just for that I’m taking you with me,” he threatened and then turned me around, placing the barrel of his gun against my head. s**t. s**t. s**t. Now I was officially losing my s**t. I hit his feet with the back of my heel and elbowed him hard enough for him to lose his balance. The moment he moved back I sprinted into action, running to the closest column and hiding there. The robber shot after me, piercing the side of the column while everybody screamed and I started shaking. I could hear his boots crushing glass down it’s soles while he made his way to me, screaming all sorts of threats in Spanish. The other two guys were coming for me too. I knew what they wanted. They were smart enough to know they wouldn’t be able to leave the mall without kidnapping someone and using it as leverage. I’d foolishly given them enough reason to come after me. I closed my eyes tight and prayed for a miracle. Any miracle. This life hasn't given me much. A good brain I guess and the determination to put my shitty parents and the bad neighborhood where I’d grown up behind me. The only two things I had to be proud of were my grandma and my career. If God could only send me a miracle so I could see things through. Take care of my grandma during her last years, do my first surgery, save some lives. Was it so hard to ask? God wasn’t listening this morning or had a severe case of ear wax because next thing I knew was that one the assailants punched me by my side, hitting my ribs and making me scream in pain. I tried to run but I was soon surrounded. The guy who smelled like onions grabbed me by my ponytail, pulling at it until I was forced to take a step back between groans. I didn’t comply obediently though. I went down fighting. After an entire life living in Little Havana I knew a thing or two about fighting. I smiled when my fist connected with one of the robber’s faces, making him curse in Spanish.  “Stop that s**t, perra!” The leader screamed at me, pulling the trigger of his gun. A second passed but I didn’t register any pain. Then I heard the screams. I looked to the right and sure enough I froze when I saw they had shot a pregnant woman. Who did something so monstrous like that? I screamed in rage, but the robber held on tight to my ponytail. His lips were on my ear the next second, making me flinch and try to put as much distance as I could from his horrible breath. “Now you are going to behave or we are going to shut down every single pendejo in this place, do you understand chica?” he asked me and grinding my teeth I nodded. My eyes followed the movements of the pregnant lady while I tried to discern where she had been shot. If I couldn’t help her and she lost too much blood it could be fatal to her baby. I needed to get to her. The robbers were now taking me with them. We were walking in a tight group, moving fast to the back exit of the store, the same one I'd eyed at the beginning of the robbery. If we reached the parking lot the pregnant lady wouldn’t be helped until after everyone was evacuated. And I...I would be as good as dead by then. I needed to do something. Anything! Screaming I pushed the man to my right, trying to get to his gun. For a moment nothing happened and then I heard the zimming sound of a bullet hitting a body. Everyone started screaming while I tried to locate the pregnant woman. More gunshots started zipping through the air, their sound silently lethal.  There! By the exit doors. I’d found her. Now there was open fire and the screams were deafening. I ignored it all, my eyes zeroing on the only person that mattered. I ran faster than I’d ever ran in my entire life. The robbers tried to stop me but I was too fast. One second after a body fell hard by my back, the sound heavy and dead. One quick glance over my shoulder confirmed one of the robbers was down. Someone was helping us. God wasn’t as deaf as I thought. I reached the pregnant woman and cursed when I saw the bullet had hit her leg. She was bleeding too much. I needed to neutralize the wound. The woman was hysterical by then, screaming and looking around until I could see the white of her eyes in the middle of her shock. I acted fast, tearing the fabric of the t-shirt I was wearing until I had enough fabric to make an emergency bandage.  There was a tap on my shoulder and my first impulse was to draw my fist back and turn fast. I’d always been one of those to throw punches and check for faces later. The hit never connected. A large, warm hand covered my fist. Controlling my entire body with that single touch. I gulped nervously. The grey-green eyes staring down at me were what my grandma had called los ojos del diablo. The eyes of the devil. Cold, powerful, calculating. The black helmet he was wearing covered his entire face except for his eyes. I realized this stranger wasn’t one of the robbers. He was much, much worse. A quick inspection to his black, nondescript fatigues corroborated my previous thought. Black ops. No SWAT, not the military. The type of unit you called when you wanted results but not divulgation.  The scream of the pregnant lady I’d been tending pulled me out of the intense eye contact I’d been sharing with the stranger. I moved fast, bandaging the wound and checking her vitals. Her heartbeat was escalating too fast. She would be hemorrhaging soon if we didn’t get her to the hospital. “Call an ambulance, now,” I ordered the stranger by my side, moving on my knees until I was between the pregnant lady's legs. The moment I lifted her dress I saw the blood gushing out of her. I knew that time was vital and even if I’d only remembered a few things of my time doing rotations in the OB department I knew for a fact we were risking losing the baby if we didn’t act fast. I swallowed down the curse fighting to come out of my mouth. I needed to keep it cool, this woman’s life and her baby were in my hands now. There was movement at my back and then some feedback from a multiband radio, the type of black walkie talkies that only military men used in the movies.   “Report: Pregnant civilian down. We need an ambulance...Ten minutes. Over,” that voice...damn. Silky gunmetal with low undertones. I’d never heard such a low voice before. It suited him. Whoever he was. There was more to the conversation but I wasn’t quite following it. When I finally checked the woman’s bleeding I found her already dilating. She was going to have the baby soon. I gently pushed her hair out of her face, taking her by the neck and making her look at me. She was young, probably just a couple years younger than me. Her only crime had been to be at the wrong time in the wrong place. She had come to the mall probably to buy last minute clothes for her baby. I needed to help this woman and damn it, we were going to have this baby. “Breath in and out, relax,” I said to her, smiling when she started doing exactly what I was saying, “we got this, girl. Let’s deliver this baby safe and sound, should we?”