© 2022 Phylicia Joannis
Penny walked into the ER and found her brother in the waiting room, fighting with the chair that had his chain tangled in its legs.
“Hey, did they take her in already?” she asked. “What did they say?”
“Stay here.” A nurse glared at Marcos, and he obeyed, freeing his chain and settling into a seat. Penny watched the nurse rush towards the security doors and raised her eyebrows.
“Who was that?” she asked.
Marcos scratched his head, flustered. “I’m not sure. She looks familiar, though. And she knew Miracle’s name.”
The triage nurse returned with forms for Marcos to fill out for Miracle, but Marcos pushed them away.
“I barely know her. I don’t even know her last name.”
“Just fill out as much as you can.” The nurse extended the papers again, but Marcos turned away. Penny reached out and grabbed the papers.
“I’ll help him, thanks.” Penny smiled at the nurse and waited for her to walk away before turning on Marcos.
“What’s the matter with you? Why are you acting so skittish?”
“I don’t know.” Marcos shook his head. “Did you see the way that nurse was looking at me? I thought she was gonna strangle me.” He looked at his sister, eyes pleading. “Penny, I swear, I didn’t do anything. It’s just like I told you. I dropped her off somewhere uptown earlier today. She never reached out to me after that, so I headed home. I stopped to say hey to Coke, we saw a car pull into the alley, I went down to check it out, and I found her in the dumpster, wrapped in a bag.”
“Why would anybody want to hurt her?” Penny shook her head as she stared at the forms. “Poor girl. I hope she’s okay. But why would they dump her body if she wasn’t dead?”
“She sure looked dead to me,” Marcos replied. “Maybe they thought so, too. I checked her pulse and everything. Penny, there was nothing. She wasn’t breathing, she wasn’t moving. Nothing. It’s like she came back from the dead. Like a miracle.” Marcos made the sign of the cross and grabbed his chain.
Penny rolled her eyes. “Since when are you religious?”
“Whatever, Penny. We’ve always known there’s something bigger out there. Just like mom always says.”
Penny snorted. “Mom? Really? You know she hasn’t stopped calling since the whole thing with the sinkholes. She wants us both to move back home.” Penny sighed. “Sometimes I wonder if she’s right. It’s so crazy here.”
“Sinkholes!” Marcos snapped his fingers. “That’s where she’s from.”
“Come again?” Penny raised an eyebrow.
“The scary nurse lady – she’s from the tv, that’s where I saw her. She was trapped with Miracle.”
“I didn’t get a good look at her.” Penny tapped the pen in her hand. “Do you know anything about Miracle’s medical history?”
“Nah, we were only on our first date. You save that stuff for the third or fourth.”
“Ha ha.” Penny laughed dryly. “What about her last name? Can you remember what it was?” Marcos gave a pitiful shrug. “Seriously, Marcos? Just hours ago you claimed you might marry this girl, and you never bothered to ask her what her last name was?”
“I don’t have to know what her last name is to marry her, Penny. When we get married, it will be Rodriguez, period!” Marcos suddenly grew quiet. “What if she dies?”
“That’s not gonna happen.” Penny took her brother’s hand. “She’s a fighter. She’ll pull through, ok?”
Marcos nodded and squeezed his sister’s hand. Penny hoped she was right.
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