===
November 6, 2009……5:30 p.m.
===
She had on a bored expression the entire time she was out. Clinging onto her bag, Nancy walked mindlessly from one street to the next, wishing to kill time. She had something else to do a few hours later but for the moment Nancy was finding anything and everything to keep herself busy so as she had an excuse not to come home. In the past couple of days, she had only seen Ron’s face for maybe an hour, not even. They spoke few words to each other mainly because of the heat for an argument she still had in her. That fight was the longest one they’ve ever had. On one side she wished for it to be over, but on another she wished Ron could just straight out have another fight with her just so they could get their points across.
It’s been hours and she still didn’t feel like coming home. Nancy had tried calling Tavia earlier, but Tavia didn’t pick up that one call. She didn’t make any more calls in worry that Tavia could be with Raymond and might bring Raymond to suspect their relationship. She let out a sigh as she looked down at her feet and continued walking.
After a while, she knew she wandered back into the large shopping mall that she and Ron would always go on their days off. Nancy looked from store window to store window with a blank expression. Normally she would be gawking at the new shipments that just came in while her hands were filled with bags, but she just wasn’t feeling it that day. Instead she only glanced at them, thinking in the back of her mind how she will buy them later when she was with Ron. As she continued her stroll, Nancy glanced into another store window. This one was a bookstore with hundreds perhaps thousands of books lining the shelves varying of novels to graphic novels. Someone caught her eye. It was a woman, an aged woman but still looking very young with shoulder length hair in sharp curves around her neck and face. She had a flawless face and wore a soft smile as she looked into a book. Nancy froze in her spot.
Nancy shook her head in disbelief. The woman had every feature bearing near resemblance to someone Nancy had wished had disappeared in her memories. The woman wore a black fur trench coat, luxurious looking with a nice scarf accessorizing her attire. She looked rich and she looked well. She didn’t see Nancy. Her eyes were busy reading the back of the book that read Mother and Child. Nancy shook her head and unconsciously backed away a few steps.
Just when the woman seemed to be looking up, Nancy made a quick jolt of motion and vanished from her spot, sprinting full speed in a random direction just to get away from that woman. She finally slowed down and then stopped once she was sure she was on a whole other side of the shopping complex. She breathed.
“She can’t still be alive,” Nancy shook her head. She wished that woman to be healthy and happily living, but seeing her before her eyes was just so unexpected for Nancy. “She can’t be here,” Nancy shook her head while mumbling to herself and thinking deeply. “I would’ve known if she had been here the whole time. I would’ve at least ran into her somewhere before.” She let out a suppressed sigh. “Why now?” She asked, tilting her head up and seeming to be asking God that question directly.
Soon she was walking again but her mind paid no attention to where she was going. Her cell phone rang and vibrated in her handbag as Nancy picked it up. Ruco was on the other line, his voice low and whispering to her. She had to strain to hear him clearly as he spoke and gave her the information.
“I don’t know if this is good news or bad news to you,” Ruco began roughly. His voice was half between a whisper and a low, hoarse sound at the same time.
Nancy switched the line over to her Bluetooth as she tucked the cell phone into her back pocket. She didn’t know what to expect from Ruco’s words but taking in a deep breath, Nancy told him to continue on. “Just tell me,” she spoke in a rush.
“I got news that all the big bosses are suddenly coming back. Ones like Kevin Cheng and them, even bigger than Raymond. It’s also ironic because they would never gather back at the same time unless something big is going to happen soon.”
So sudden was what was happening as Nancy processed Ruco’s words carefully. “What do you think will happen soon? Everything seems so calm now. Raymond’s case will end soon, I’m sure of it. What else could happen?” Nancy asked, curious to look deeper into her future.
Ruco was quiet for a moment. Whether he was quiet because someone might suspect him or because he was thinking, she didn’t know. When he finally spoke, it again was a hushed and secretive voice. “This is just a rumor but I heard Kevin Cheng and his step-mother are fighting over 14K territory and head title. Something interesting might happen soon.”
“I never knew he had a step-mother. We tracked him for a few weeks, how come we never uncovered that?” Nancy mumbled, partly to herself but to Ruco as well.
“You don’t know her? I thought you would. Well,” Ruco suddenly paused. “Oh shit I forgot her real name; people are so used to calling her Madam!”
“Ruco I’m afraid if we talk any longer you’re going to get caught,” Nancy spoke, able to hear the voices in the background from Ruco’s end of the line. “Call me back later and find out her name for me. Just basically get anything that you can on Kevin Cheng and that woman. If something is going to happen soon it’d be easier if we can expect it.”
“Alright,” Ruco nodded. “I know that Raymond Lam is closely associated with her, try getting some tip off of him,” he suggested before hanging up.
Hanging up the phone, Nancy looked up slightly as she could smell the alluring scent of the bakery nearby. As she was talking, she didn’t realize where she had wandered to in the mass of cold city people. Her nose then caught onto that scent again. It was an alluring scent of sweet vanilla caramel coffee with freshly made sweet breads of all different kinds. Nancy hadn’t been able to experience such a calming emotion in such a long, long time. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, taking in the aromatic scent. Then, following her nose Nancy found herself arriving at the front of a giant yet warming bakery store window.
She looked inside like a child at a candy store, admiring each little sweetly decorated cake and deserts there. Anxious to get inside, Nancy’s eyes suddenly stopped when they fell on a woman. The woman who stood there, wearing a soft gentle smile with aged and warm eyes in a black fur coat with a scarf to add flavor to her appearance was the one who froze Nancy’s vision.
Her heart began to race and her mind came to a huge blur as she tried to erase the image of that woman from her mind. She kept wondering and asking herself why. Why did that woman have to come back? Why did she have to show up again? Why did they have to meet? After a while of trying to drown her thoughts, Nancy suddenly pondered upon a sad question she had locked up inside since forever. Why did she never look for them, her own children?
She mentally fell back. It was her again, the woman she had hoped to be deleted from her memories. The woman who had left Nancy and Fala on their own for her own selfish greed was standing in there, smiling as she tasted a sample of the chocolate brownie, a special favorite of the family. Nancy shook her head and turned. She winced from the painful memories flowing back into her mind. Gripping her back tightly as she walked away, Nancy decided to leave the thought of that woman behind, pretending as if she had never seen her since many, many years ago. Nancy diverted her thoughts to a different topic, perhaps a more important one, Raymond Lam’s case involving Yoyo Chen, Macy Chan, and a dead Alice Chan.
“I lost my mother,” she reminded herself, trying to free her of the emotional bind that just a mere thought about that woman would bring to her.
The woman in the bakery looked up from her delicious piece of cake she had gotten the pleasure to sample. Breathing in deeply the perfect and sweet aroma of cake, she suddenly caught sight of a young girl as she crossed the street. Her eyebrows came together slightly, finding a strong familiarity and resemblance in the face of the strange girl. She watched, seeing how the girl seemed puzzled and troubled as she crossed the busy intersection that lined the city.
“Miss Michelle Yim,” the cashier spoke softly in a melodic voice. “Here is your order,” she spoke, gently and carefully handing her a nicely wrapped box of sweets, most of which were chocolate brownies with whipped icing, her favorite.
“Thank you,” Michelle smiled, taking the box. Her smile was warm and comforting as the way her lips curled upwards, she brought on such a nurturing and motherly feel to a complete stranger.
She then turned back to the street. There she caught sight of the same girl again, this time able to remember her face clearly. She stood in silent for a moment, rewinding all her many memories, trying to remember where she had seen this girl before. They way the girl dressed, she was too professional and formal to be a girl from the underground, but yet her face was so familiar. Michelle felt like hitting herself in the head for being unable to remember. That girl’s face, her exotic features, defined eyes and cool aura, she had sworn she’s seen somewhere before in her life and she had sworn should could never lose memory of it.
===
November 6, 2009……6:30 p.m.
===
After a while, Tavia had grown comfortable to the hard leather of Raymond’s sports car passenger seat. She had even begun to grow into the excessive speeding Raymond tends to do. She would even admit that at times, speeding and feeling the wind smack against her face was quite fun and relaxing. She sat back, finally comfortable in the high end sports car as she looked through the thick looking document in her hand.
“You don’t have to work all the time you know,” Raymond commented. “My last lawyer didn’t even work as much as you. He was more into all the pretty girls I had around me.”
“That’s because he’s a man and I’m a woman. I also focus more on work than anything else,” Tavia replied, her eyes busy with the paper.
“Or is it because you’re jealous?” Raymond asked in a laughing and childish tone.
Tavia set her papers down and smiled. “Now why would I be jealous?”
“Oh I don’t know. You could be jealous of all the girls that keep surrounding someone so fine like me, or you could be jealous of this sports car and money,” he continued, dragging out his words as to mess around with her.
She laughed lightly. “I’m not the jealous type,” she replied. “I wouldn’t be jealous of those girls. They can have such an insane guy like you. I’m definitely not jealous of your money. I have my own to handle myself, thank you.”
“I know,” Raymond replied quickly with a wide grin. “I was just messing with you.” As he spoke he unknowingly stepped harder on the gas, causing the car to jolt to a faster speed. “So why do you focus more on work than anything else?” he asked, remembering her words.
“Because work means money and money makes the world go round. Without money I won’t be able to get anything done in this society and that’s the cruel thing about it but what can I say, I don’t make up the laws of the universe.”
Raymond nodded. “I like your answer,” he replied honestly. “Most other girls, if I asked something like that they’ll go on about some silly fantasy with love being the dominant thing.”
“You don’t want it to be?”
“I’d like it to be, but like you said. It’s not up to us to make the laws of the universe.”
Tavia nodded. “Right, so we think alike,” she concluded. She smiled when she saw Raymond’s hard on nod to her and his wide grin that seemed to have widened a bit more. “So where are we going again? I just remember getting in the car and go.”
“I’m taking you on a joy ride to kill time with me. Tomorrow morning I’m going to take you to meet with the woman who picked my life and Yoyo’s out of the gutter,” Raymond replied calmly as he continued on driving at top speed down a busy highway, weaving through the gaps between cars and trucks. His eyes were focused on the road, his mind split between the road and her, while his heart was entirely facing the woman who sat next to him in the car.
“What are we going to do for more than twelve hours?!” Tavia asked, surprised. “I still have a lot of work to do!” She stressed.
Raymond’s lips curled upwards into a wide grin as he began to laugh at Tavia’s remark. “Come on, can’t I spend some time with you? Five minutes earlier we had such a good conversation going on. I’m sure more like that will come up the more time you spend with me,” he laughed. He himself didn’t understand why he wanted to be around her so much, but he was the kind of guy who caved in so easily to his emotions, he didn’t bother to think twice about taking her on this ride with him.
“Can’t we find some place to sit down first?” Tavia asked, pouting slightly.
“Nope,” Raymond replied playfully.
“If you keep going at this rate, you’ll either run out of gas or you’ll crash and die!”
“Hey, think of it this way,” Raymond spoke, facing her. “If we die now at least we have company right? As a triad, dying with such a pretty woman like you would be an honor.”
Tavia couldn’t help but laugh at Raymond’s face and the way he was looking at death right then. She let out a smile first but then a soft sound of laughter came afterwards. “You scare me,” she sighed as she sat back in her seat.
“It’s fun getting you to smile,” Raymond spoke softly. Tavia suddenly sat up to look at him in confusion. Once Raymond noticed her eyes on him, he immediately let out a sound of laughter, though this time it wasn’t as calm and cool as how he would usually portray himself. Instead he sounded nervous and anxious. “Now, how about telling me more about yourself? It interests me how you and that amusingly reckless cop friend of yours, Nancy, met.”
Her eyes were confused. Tavia slowly turned to him, to his awaiting smile and questioned, “How did you know Nancy was a cop?”
Simply, Raymond laughed again. He didn’t seem to care much about that fact as his smile was not fake nor an act. “Please,” he replied. “By the way she does things I can just tell. All the girls who are in the gang are either manipulating bitches or plain stupid sluts. Your friend is different, I can see that clearly. Besides, her fiancé, Inspector Ron Ng has been taking me in and out of the station for years. It’s not like I wouldn’t know her.”
“And you’re fine with that?” Tavia questioned, unsure of what else to say.
“I’m fine with that. After all, if that amusingly reckless cop never tried to investigate in my crowd, I would’ve never met you. I think I actually have to thank her. Do you think me sincerely thanking her would be weird?”
She shook her head and awkwardly smiled. Raymond had known all along? She definitely had to rethink about tricking him a second time. Tavia wondered what this infamous criminal face would want with her and in a situation like so. “Amusingly reckless cop?” Tavia questioned, trying to act as if she wasn’t surprised by how calm he is, knowing they were trying to trick him all along. “That’s an interesting new way to put it,” she smiled. “We met…”
Tavia suddenly paused as she looked out far into the distant horizon with a faint smile on. Raymond could see it and nearly it had melted his heart. Her eyes were staring into the softly shining sun as it began to set and fade into the clearly drawn line between the land and the sky. The sunshine reflected upon her face, an immense beauty. Raymond took a breath as he looked at her, watching her reminisce her times with the only other person so close to her. In his eyes, Raymond saw Tavia as an angel from heaven, fallen down to the Earth for him. He had never felt such a strange feeling before. It was a feeling that made his stomach turn into knots, his heart race at a scary pace and his world shot into an unreal fantasy. As he watched her, he had a strong temptation to lean in to kiss her, but he was afraid she would turn him down. Raymond stayed quiet as he watched such an amazing woman give him her smile time and time again.
“You could say we met during one of Nancy’s amusingly reckless moves,” Tavia began. “It was many years ago, when we were still in high school…”
===
November 6, 2009……7:30 p.m.
===
Everyone and everything was ready to go. Ron watched as Bosco, Kate and the rest of his team all piled into two black sedans and drove off. He waited on his own listening over and over again to the recording Nancy had given him a few days back. At first he wondered how Nancy got her hands on this clip but then he remembered back to the time he saw her at the restaurant and how scary the realization of it was. Over the speaker he could hear a conversation between Macy Chan and another man sounding very close to Ruco Chan.
“Ruco I’ve been really nervous late,” Macy spoke. “I’ve been getting headaches and migraines.”
“Are you sure you’re not just at that time of the month again?” Ruco asked calmly.
“No it’s worse. I’m feeling too paranoid,” Macy replied. “Can you do me a favor?”
“Sure,” Ruco replied.
“Can you go and get these prescribed drugs for me?”
“But these are anxiety and mental disorder drugs. Are you sure you should be taking them? This one said it’s for anxiety and this one is for depression.”
“Yeah, I really need them,” Macy sighed. “Please? And don’t tell Raymond. I don’t want him to worry about such a small matter.”
“Fine but why would you need these? Is something wrong?”
The clip ended there. Ron played with the recorder that was in his hand. After a couple seconds, he set it down and began driving. From his reports he had gotten from Bosco, he could pretty much guess where Macy would be at that moment. It made him feel irresponsible as leader of the team to send his team off arresting Yoyo Chen while he himself was following Macy Chan. He had his bets on Yoyo, but something about this clip made him reconsider his decision.
===
November 6, 2009……2:00 a.m.
===
Realizing how dark it finally was outside, Ron leaned closer towards his windshield, trying to see clearly what was going on with the pixie-like girl he had been following. His breath was eased after Bosco and Kate had called saying they couldn’t find Yoyo anywhere at that location. Ron took the chance to call off the arrest as he did some snooping of his own. He sat in his black sedan, hiding in the darkness of the thickened trees as he followed Macy to a place seeming like an abandoned warehouse.
The building looked like an industrial piece of junk as it sat quietly in the darkness of the night, rusting and falling apart hour by hour. Even the moon couldn’t be seen as it hid behind the thick and dark layer of cloud above the line of the horizon. From the earthy scent that drowned the air, Ron knew that it was going to rain soon. Perhaps the soft oncoming rainstorm will bring some personality to the cool metal building.
He let out a soft sigh as he slouched in his position, both hands tapping impatiently on the steering wheel and his head leaning just carefully beside the horn. Ron closed his eyes for a moment, wondering whether he should’ve trusted himself or trusted Nancy’s judgment. When he looked back up, a sudden movement in the bushes caught his eye. He was too far away to see exactly who it was but from the figure he could tell that it was a woman. Ron saw the woman following Macy. Had she been following her the entire time? How come he never noticed?
Slowly and carefully Ron got out of his car, leaving the engine in neutral on a low rumble that blended in nicely with the rhythm of the rainstorm. The ground was wet as he stepped his nice black leather shoes on them, walking quietly over for a better view. He crossed the dirt path road that was in front of the warehouse. Once he got a little closer, he could see the woman moving in on Macy. She didn’t seem like she wanted to jump Macy or anything. Instead she seemed careful and cautious, just as he was perhaps even better at how close of a distance she was following. Ron kept quiet as he followed them, watching the woman sneak in slyly behind Macy just as she slipped into the warehouse. He too did the same, being as quiet and sly as possible. Ron barely made it pass the small crevice of an opening the rusty door left because of his larger built body as compared to the two girls. Once inside, he quickly got behind a pile of metal barrels that lined the far east side of the wall. The warehouse, lit by a single light that swung crookedly above the floor, was filled with old and useless junk. A small group of rough gangsters were also standing around in the center, waiting for Macy the entire time. Ron could see the shadow of the other woman slip into a small space between the barrels that lined the walls on the west side of the room. He watched as the meeting took place and the secret words began to spill out.
Macy stood like a leading figure in between the taller men and more intimidating, dangerous looking women of the small crowd. Her arms were crossed as she looked at them all with a disappointed expression. Her eyes showed guilt with a close look but at a glance they were cool and mysterious, almost too different from her usual self.
“Who was the one who came up with the idea of the crime scene?”
A buff, muscle-lined man stepped out from the middle back, standing tall and broad against Macy’s smaller body. “I am, is there something wrong with it miss?” He spoke with a surprisingly gentle and polite tone, showing great respect to the small woman in front.
“You’ve gotten the cops so stirred up about it now. Why didn’t you take away more of the clues? Now you’ve even gotten Raymond involved,” Macy spoke.
Ron’s eyebrows furrowed together as he began to wonder about her words. “Raymond?” he mumbled quietly to himself, his mind instantly pulling back to Raymond Lam.
“I’m sorry missed but that was the best we can make it. After all you were the one who killed your sister. Disposing the evidence is really hard…”
Before he could finish, the entire room was stunned at the sudden thundering slap that came across his face. Macy had on and worried and angered expression, her hand still warm from the stingy slap. She looked back at him showing fear and regret in her eyes, behind her thin façade of strength. Her breathing became a little heavier. The man placed his hand on his cheek, rubbing it from the pinching pain. Yet he didn’t dare to utter a word. Instead he bent his head down slightly and backed up to his original spot, seeming to be in shame of sort.
“Don’t you ever mention those words again,” Macy sighed.
“She killed her own sister?” Ron whispered to himself, accidentally thinking aloud.
Macy looked around the room. “I had all the rights to kill her. She was the older one, always getting the best of everything. I would only be lucky if she decided to share with me. I had always been second best. What kind of sister would not care about her own but it had gotten too much for me to handle. Raymond was mine and mine alone. First we’ve taken care of my sister, Alice,” she spoke with a sinister tone as she repeated her own sister’s name in a sadistic manner. “Next we will take out Yoyo Chen. Then I won’t have anyone else even capable of competing with me for Raymond’s heart,” she laughed at the end, her laughter wicked and sickening.
“Miss,” another person spoke, this time a tall and skinny woman, looking malnourished and in need of sleep from the heavy bags around her eyes that she attempted to hide with a thick layer of make-up. Her hair covered half her face as she spoke but it didn’t seem to bother her. “What will we do about the cops? They are now suspecting either you or Yoyo.”
“We’ll just have to put the blame all on Yoyo then. She’s known to have a very short temper, I think it would work and fit in very well. It would save me a lot of trouble if she wound up in jail any time soon. Then I won’t have to go through the trouble with her like I did with Alice.”
Sighing, Ron shook his head. “Sick bitch,” he spoke.
Suddenly, a familiar ringtone echoed through the hallow building and caught his ears along with everyone else who was in the room. Ron realized that the sound was coming from him and his chiming ringtone which Nancy had set for him as a joke a while back. His face looked surprised as he looked up at the crowd. Their heads turned, searching for where the noise was coming from. Finally the dreaded moment came when they saw him hiding behind the metal barrels. Ron kept quiet, hoping to only be mistaken as the ringtone finally stopped. The two men kept coming at him, one who had spoke earlier, the one with the muscle but an eloquent voice.
They took his shoulder and forced him out to face the crowd, standing there as he stared at Macy square in her eyes. Along with him, another person was also being forced out from behind the metal barrels on the other side of the room. He was pushed into the center of the room, standing right in the dead middle of the circle the crowd had made. His heart raced in fear when he finally saw who the other woman following Macy was. She had been Nancy the entire time. As they stood in the center back to back, staring at the laughing eyes of the crowd, Ron could feel Nancy’s breath lower, sighing as she shook her head on him.
“Oh look what we have here,” Macy laughed. “Two love birds from the police academy.”
“Such an insult,” Ron spoke, sighing how they could mistaken him of still being in the academy.
“Shut up,” Nancy sighed in annoyance. “You should know to turn your cell to silence during times like these,” she complained.
“I forgot,” Ron replied evenly. “What are you going to start another argument with me here?”
“I would but no. Besides, I’ve been right the whole time. I had her conversation recorded. All we have to do is get out of here. Afterwards I assume that you owe me an apology,” Nancy spoke.
“I will apologize after thinking it over,” Ron replied just as squarely. “No how do you suggest we get out of here?” They spoke so that their voices were low and private. They were so quiet they were the only two that could hear their whole conversation. To the crowd, their lips were just moving but no words came out.
She again rolled her eyes in a mix of frustration between wounding up in such a troublesome position and having a feeling to start another argument with Ron no matter where they were. Nancy took a deep breath, hoping to clear her mind of whatever stupid temptation she had to quarrel with him. They had bigger troubles to worry about. She realized that in the few seconds that she took thinking the heartless crowd had already taken out their guns. After hearing the last click of the magazine in the gun preparing the next bullet echo in the warehouse, Nancy scanned around. She was almost certain that all the guns were pointed towards their heads. Surely these people wouldn’t have a problem with aiming so she didn’t have to worry about them missing and hitting anywhere else on their body.
As a couple, their thoughts were almost in sync. Ron was scanning the scene as well. He was quite certain that all the guns held up were pointed at their heads. He counted them all, trying hard to use his peripheral vision to count the rest behind him. Tilting his head carefully, Ron could manage a bare three hundred degree view. He counted a total of seventeen guns pointed at them.
“Ron look on your side. Are they’re all pointed upwards,” Nancy whispered just barely audible.
He returned her question with a soft whisper of his own, trying hard not to stir anymore unwanted suspicions. “They’re all up on here, seventeen guns total.” He stopped to think, wondering what kind of crazy plan his fiancée would come up at a time like that. His eyes slightly widened in fear when he found a solution he knew Nancy would no doubt take. “You’re not going to do it are you?” Ron asked quietly, glancing up at the single light that swung above them. He knew if they could manage to shoot that at a right angle, the whole warehouse would be trapped in darkness.
“Eleven guns on my side. The maximum shot would be twenty-eight gunshots. How else are we going to get out of this?” Nancy asked.
“Find a better way, it’s too risky,” Ron sighed.
His words rang through her mind at least twice, but it was just like her to not listen. Nancy took a sharp glance upward at the swinging light, taking her only a short moment to determine where to shoot it down at.
The next second took the entire room by a storm. In silent unison, Ron and Nancy both took out their guns. As Nancy pointed hers upward towards the ceiling, she could see the surprise in Macy’s eyes. In the half second that she had, Nancy aimed carefully and finally, a thunderous crack echoed through their waiting ears. Within a flash of firecracker, the entire room was set and covered in pure darkness. The only light came from the dim image of the moon through the tinted window. The two officers in the middle of the circle ducked quickly, dropping to the ground in an attempt to save their own lives from what was going to happen next.
Gunshots rang through the air. As Ron counted them, he searched quickly for where his Nancy was and pulled her closer to him as they crawled their way due south, knowing that was where the door had been. He held her tightly and held her close. In his mind, the numbers shot up fast from zero to twenty-seven then twenty-eight. His hand finally touched the door, able to feel the vibration from Nancy’s touch. They both pushed it out and in an instant, as the dim evening lights from the city flooded their eyes, they both ran for it.
He could hear a few more gunshots chasing after them, but lucky as they ran out he slowed himself down for an instant just to kick the door closed. The next thunderous sounds they could hear were only the stray bullets crashing against the cool metal of the warehouse. They could both see his black car still sitting in the darkness with the engine running. Ron rushed into the driver’s seat just as he was certain that Nancy had closed the door to her side of the car. Stepping quickly on the gas, he could see the triads running out from the warehouse and attempting to run after them. Too bad his car had shot into full speed already and was well on its way down the empty highway.
Closing her eyes, she felt the searing and burning pain in her left shoulder blade worsen. The pain ached and it burned, feeling like her entire shoulder would fall apart. Nancy felt her heartbeat race as her body tried to deal with the pain. She could feel the heavy piece of molded metal lodged deep into her bone. Biting her lips, she kept so quiet, hoping to relieve Ron of even more worries. That time was yet another time in her life she had done something reckless and having Ron yell at her for all the right reasons. She let out a deep breath, trying hard to forget about the pain as the blood in her head lowered, feeling light headed and dizzy.
Nancy’s breath was heavy, sighing as she fell back into the leather seat.
“I told you not to try it, it was still too risky!” Ron began. That time he argued with her not because of who was right and wrong, he just wanted to get it through her head how much he worried about her, even if he knew she was fully capable of taking care of herself.
“If we waited any longer they were still going to shoot us!”
“Didn’t you think of taking Macy as a hostage? She was standing at a good distance, taking her as a hostage would’ve been a much better and safer idea!”
“Well I’m sorry I didn’t think that far! All I saw was the single light above us and it brought on an idea to a desperate moment. I’m sorry I’m not overly careful!”
Ron closed his eyes for a second, sighing and giving in. “You know I just care about you.”
Nancy was quiet for a moment, breathing, sighing and pushing thoughts away in her mind.
“Ever since the day I met you, I knew you were fully capable of taking care of yourself. But it’s just that the things you do, the methods you resort to, and the crazy plans that you come up with are so reckless! It worries me that something horrible could happen to you at any time. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you and as a police officer you’re put into dangerous situations more often than anybody! Can you please just hold back your recklessness, even just a little?” Ron’s voice was sincere. He worried about her and cared for her. He loved her deeply and they both knew that. It had been something he could never hide from her, how much he loved her. Nancy was good at reading people and Ron was good at hiding himself from people but when they were together, Nancy could read him like a book no matter how hard he would try to hide his love from her for reasons even he didn’t understand.
“We’re both still breathing aren’t we?” she laughed faintly.
Ron turned to her, knowing that something was wrong by her voice. It took him a moment to adjust as he turned the lights inside his car on to see her face. His heart shake when he saw how pale she was, her lips losing its color and sweat coming down her lovely face. Ron’s eyes widened when he saw that where Nancy’s shoulder rested, blood was dripping down on the leather car seat. He pushed even more on the gas even though the car couldn’t go any faster. His other hand took her whole body as he hugged her quickly and attempted to cover her wound.
“Fuck!” Ron yelled in a breath. “You’re going to be alright,” he spoke to Nancy as words of comfort and to assure himself that she will be ok in the end. “You’ll be alright,” he continued to mumble, driving faster as his heart raced at a scary level. In the background he could hear Nancy’s faint chuckle as she tried to cringe away from the searing pain on her left shoulder blade. She had been shot and hurt badly.
His car raced down the empty highway, swallowing the road in desperation to save Nancy. Ron knew that if more time passed them by, Nancy would be losing too much blood and that alone could prove to be fatal. As his black car created a blur down the road, he felt like he was driving to the sun. Inside his mind, Ron cursed the heavens why he had to be so far away from the nearest hospital. The sun was already rising up. It was already dawn.
As the rising sun lit up, the light slowly unveiled Nancy’s lovely face. Her face though pale and stiff from trying to hide the pain, was still as beautiful as ever. Ron turned to her. Her eyes were closed but she was still breathing hard. Both their hands were pressed over her wound, trying to slow down the blood flow as Nancy pretended that she was asleep. Ron glared into the bright red morning sun, breathing hard, wishing that the road would be shorter. He was in fear, in fear of losing her, the only woman he ever did and ever will love.
This image was taken by me at my bus stop with my rather convenient iPod Touch 4G. I'm not much of a photographer but I like it. To me it signals that beyond this reality that we see, there is an endless horizon of dreams and possibilities. I'm hoping that this year I'll come a little bit closer to that horizon. 