THE SIXTH GUEST: Chapter Five - Part Nine

Joey hadn’t seen so many ambulances, bodies and shouting people in one place outside of a war film. Stretchers were coming off the vehicles, doctors and nurses crowding round them and then the ambulances were driving away with their lights on and their sirens going, really punching it as though they had to go back to where these came from and bring more.

Accident & Emergency was filled with chatter and shocked silence. Clare had both hands over her face, only her eyes peeking. Mike, the man who’d been talking to her that Joey didn’t like, had taken his little girl away from the window to shield her from it.

“Oh my God,” said Clare. “What could have done this?”

Joey wanted to comfort her but he didn’t know how to. It was horrifying but he was exposed to so much death in his games it was hard not to just see it as more of that. Clare was obviously deeply affected. It made him want to place his hand on her shoulder. But he was terrified of what might happen if he did and she shrugged him off, insulted that he’d touch her. Instead he just watched like the rest of them.

The doors on the back of the last of the ambulances slammed shut and it pulled out, rapidly. As the stretcher passed close to the window, Joey got a good look at the body on it. He couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman but the body was horribly burned; blackened down one side of its face. Was it possible it was still fuming?

“Oh my God,” said Clare. “Oh my God.”

Joey touched the top of her back on impulse, not thinking about it this time and her little hand slipped up to touch his at her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. He couldn’t believe it was happening.

A man came through from the interior of the hospital looking harried and wan and started making an announcement. Joey resented him immediately because the sound of his voice drew everyone from the window, making them turn. Clare released Joey’s hand and her revolution drew his hand off her back. He glared at the man, barely listening, but picking up enough of the gist to know that he was asking people who weren’t critical to go home if they could and come back tomorrow.

People were grumbling, checking the friends and family with them to make a decision on what to do. When Joey turned back to Clare she was gone from the spot she’d been; walking over to Mike. Joey frowned and scratched his teeth together.

“What the hell could have done all that?” asked Clare.

Mike shook his head without replying, looking, as a lot of them were now, through the translucent flap that led into the area at the rear where the urgent movement of the doctors and nurses was unclearly visible.

“What’s happening daddy?”

“Nothing sweetie. Don’t worry. Just ordinary hospital stuff.” He held her tight enough to his chest with her chin on his shoulder so she couldn’t pull away and look the same way he was facing. He and Clare shared a long moment of deeply troubled eye contact. “Do you think we should get out of here?”

“I guess. We’re hardly critical. Unless you...?”

“I feel fine,” said Mike. “My muscles don’t even ache anymore.”

“Me neither.”

There was a lot of chatter all round them. People without serious injuries were sidling away. The ranks of the standing anxious were starting to thin. Clare and Mike stood in the middle of it with Rosalie. Joey hovered nearby but at a distance. There was a lot of shouting coming from the back rooms. Clare didn’t know what had happened but she’d seen the burns that Joey had, she understood the significance of the ambulances speeding out and away.

“There’ll be something on the news tomorrow,” she said. “We’ll find out then.”

“Yeah. We should better...”

Clare nodded and fetched her handbag where she’d forgotten it on the seat. When she bent to pick it up she closed her eyes and thought back to the incidents that had led to the ending between her and Mike. And she thought about the spectral visitor, the heat and the connection between them all. Finally she thought about that tired little girl and the love she clearly held for her father.

Mike was still where she’d left him when she returned, eyeing her nervously. He shifted Rosalie into a more comfortable position on his hip. Clare gave him a hard stare then said, “Look. We do have a spare room that I can put you in” Mike brightened considerably. “But it would just be for a day or so, okay?”

“Sure. No problem.”

“You can share, in the loft conversion. It isn’t the best room we have vacant but I want to leave the nicer one free. I’m putting another advert in the paper this week.”

“Sure. That’s fine. Anything’s fine.”

“I’m not doing this for you. I want to make that perfectly clear. It’s for Rosalie.”

Mike nodded but there was a little more of that non-verbal communication because they both knew it was more than that. The fact was they needed answers; and Mike was obviously connected to this somehow, as was his daughter.

The waiting room was half empty. Some of the people were doggedly staying on, despite the warnings that their wait might be extended by several hours but most had left. Clare, Mike, Rosalie and Joey moved toward the external doors and made their way outside. The sound of the ambulance sirens was almost gone but there was still a ghost of it in the wind. Once again, Clare asked herself what could have caused such horrific injuries but there was no way of knowing.

“Joey,” said Clare, “Mike and his daughter are going to come back with us for tonight.” Joey looked cross about something but she didn’t know what. Most likely he was disturbed by seeing the burn victims. She turned to Mike. “We’ll drive ahead and you can follow us, okay?” She checked the time. “You don’t have to leave for work for another hour, do you Joey?”

He shook his head.

“Thanks for this Clare,” said Mike. “Seriously. I don’t know where we would have slept otherwise.”

She raised her eyebrow and said, “Hmmm.” This was against her better judgment to the nth degree. But she couldn’t have Rosalie sleeping rough. And there were more questions they needed to ask. This wasn’t over. “Come on,” she said and started leading them toward the car park.

She had a feeling this was only the beginning.