Quicksilver Messenger Pt. 01

She was still out like a light and he hadn't found anything wrong other than a head wound. Well, now he has a decision to make. He can't leave her in the road, but he needed to get help. He could move her to the side of the road, but he might as well put her in his car and drive her to the hospital. Okay, the decisions made, that's what he will do.

However, having a head injury he needed to immobilize her head. Steve went back to his car and laid-back the passenger seat. Then he searched for something to use to immobilize her head. Since most of his backseat was luggage and his camera equipment, he decided to look in his camera backpack. He thought about the dividers in the backpack and as he pulled a couple out, he realized that they could work.

Steve took two of the Velcro dividers, linked them, slid them around her neck and created a makeshift cervical collar. Then he picked her up and gently placed her in the passenger seat of the Cobra. Even as slight as she was, it was difficult to maneuver her into the car ... they make it look so much easier in the movies. With the seat back he finally got her in the Cobra and he buckled the seat belt around her to keep her from moving. Then he closed the door, got in on his side of the car and took off towards Alpine.

As he was driving back, he knew the Cops would want to get back to the scene of whatever happened, so he made a note of the nearest mileage marker.

As Steve sped up through the gears, he would steal a glance at his new passenger. She was out like a light, but with no real signs of injury other than the small patch of blood in her hair. On further examination he decided that his passenger was manufactured, because she seemed flawless. She had beautiful soft flaxen hair framing an innocent face free of life's tortures and scars. Her figure mimicked a Barbie doll with a small waspish waist, narrow but womanly hips and breasts larger than would be proportional to the rest of her figure.

Amid his appraisal her eyes fluttered and a small moan escaped her throat, but she stayed out cold. Soon highway 67 dead ended into highway 90. He took a right towards Alpine and accelerated quickly to 70 MPH and beyond.

Steve saw lights on the horizon and soon saw the city limit sign for Alpine, TX. Now he started looking for any signs that might suggest that a hospital was nearby. He was also looking for an all-night gas station, because he thought he might have to ask for directions. He was saved from that particular male embarrassment when he saw a sign with a blue H and an arrow pointing to the right. Steve began following the signs and eventually saw a sign for the emergency room at the Big Bend Regional Hospital.

Steve pulled under the awning in front of the emergency entrance and ran in to get someone to help bring the woman inside. After a few minutes of asking for someone to get a gurney a nurse finally came out with one and together they loaded his unconscious passenger on the gurney. The staff was quick and responsive and soon his passenger was in a treatment room.

He was relegated to filling out paperwork at a desk out-front with a rather large woman. She also looked bored and listless, much like many of the cattle he had seen on the road driving around Texas. She had large brown eyes and a blank mindless expression on her face. As they filled out the paperwork, he believed that she might have had the same IQ as some of the scrub brush he had seen.

"The patients name?" She queried

"I don't have a clue what her name is. I found her hurt on the road with no ID." Steve responded.

"Are you a relative?"

"No"

After several seconds of staring at him with a blank expression she said. "We have to have a name"

"So how about Jane Doe."

"Well, if you knew her name why didn't you tell me her name to begin with. Are you trying to be a wise guy?"

"No, I'm trying to be as helpful as I can."

"Well okay then, ... what insurance does Ms. Doe have?"

Steve began to look around to see if he could find a Candid Camera host, only to realize that this was real and he was in hospital paperwork hell. So, he tried to speak slowly in the hope that some of it might sink in.

"No, I don't know her insurance carrier. I found her on the road with no ID, no insurance card, no money, no purse ... nothing except the clothes she was wearing."

Once again, he received the blank, empty stare with the soft brown cow eyes and nobody home behind them.

"We have to have someone to bill the charges too. So, what's your name and do you have a credit card."

"What do you do when you have indigents come in for treatment?"

Steve saw the blank stare again and realized that he would need to speak in words with no more than two syllables.

"Bum's," He corrected.

"Oh, we bill those charges to the county, but we need the sheriff involved to do that."

"Then please call him. He needs to know about this anyway."

"Okay, I'll call him, but you'll be sorry for waking up the Sheriff at this time of the morning. You wait over there."

She went back behind a partition and made a phone call. While she was trying to persuade the Sheriff to come to the hospital at 3am Steve went back out to the awning outside the emergency room and moved the Cobra to a parking place. When he came back into the hospital, he adjourned to the waiting room to watch Jerry Springer reruns. He often wondered if people visiting USA really thought the people on Jerry Springer were representative of people in the USA ... He sure hoped not.

Anyway, as an interesting cat fight was starting to brew on the tube, a mountain of a man came through emergency room doors. The man was wearing a sheriff's badge and he looked pissed that someone had disturbed his sleep. As both doors opened (he was big enough to need both doors) to let him, the nurse pointed to Steve and said something he couldn't hear. However, instead of coming over to him the Sheriff went back into the treatment area.

The cat fight on TV was in full swing when the Sheriff came back out to see him.

"You the guy who brought in April?" he said.

"If that's the name of the girl in the blue dress, yeah I am! So that's her name!" Steve responded.

"I'm asking the questions here Bud. How did you happen to have her in your possession?"

"Possession? She wasn't in my possession. I found her twelve miles after the highway 90 intersection, back up 67 towards Ft. Stockton."

"What's your name and where are you from?"

"Steve McKinny and I'm from Corpus Christi"

"Why did you bring her here?"

"Not being from here, I didn't know of any place else to take her. She looked like she needed medical attention, so I brought her here." Steve said.

"Where is your car?"

"In the parking lot out-front, it's a black 93 Cobra"

"Okay" he said with a sigh, "Come with me to the office"

The way he said it gave him goose bumps. "Am I under arrest or something?"

"Not currently, but that can change if you want it too."