I will tell you exactly what happened. It all started when Cassie and Xander left Vernon that Friday night of last week. When she didn't come home from her walk that night, I started to panic a little. I thought that maybe something eventful had happened for them and maybe she had stayed out a little later than usual. I tried to stay up for her, but I fell asleep on the couch. Oh boy, I've got to remind myself not to do that again! Ouch! Back to the story - when I woke up the next morning and found Cassie not in her bed, then I really started to panic. I knew that Cassie was responsible enough that she wouldn't stay the night anywhere without asking first, and so I just knew that something bad had happened. Since Cassie is a responsible type of girl, I knew that she wouldn't leave home without taking pajamas and a toothbrush for an overnighter, and so I began to frantically search her room to see what she had taken with her. To my horror, I found that nearly all of her clothes were gone! She had even taken her ugly sweater collection. "Now why would she want those awful things?" I wondered. Naturally, now that I know that she was headed for Montana it makes perfect sense, but back then I was utterly puzzled. It was then that I ran across the note. Not literally, of course, but I found it stuck to her computer screen. It was written with her favorite blue pen and the tiniest handwriting I had ever seen. This is what it said:
Now, Cassie had forgotten that she had posted her destination on her blog, and so when I read her blog, I found the city where she was going. I found that it would be a 33 hour drive to Malta, Montana, and I knew that I could call Cassie! After all, she did bring her phone with her! I finished dialing her number (9/ 969-5683), and held the earpiece up to my ear. Then a funny beeping sound emitted from the phone. I looked at it, puzzled, and saw that there was an incoming call from, oddly, the "Cleveland Clinic Emergency Department". "OH NO." I thought. Quickly, I answered the phone.
"Is this Eleanor Carson?" The person on the other end of the line asked.
"Y-y-yes." I answered shakily. I was dreading what they were about to tell me, because if you ever get a call from an emergency room, it's bound to be bad news.
"Eleanor, I have news about your niece and her fiancé."
"WHAT IS IT?!" I practically screamed. "I JUST KNOW IT IS SOMETHING HORRIBLE!"
Calmly and irritatingly she replied, "To put it plainly, they are both dead. If you wouldn't mind coming to Cleveland, we will explain it all in detail and you may retrieve their bodies. I am very sorry for your loss."
"Wait! What just happened?" I asked, but the lady had hung up before I could speak. I fell on my knees and wept my heart out. My Cassie was gone, gone forever! I didn't know what to do - but wait! I did know what to do! I sprang into action. My grief was pushed away by a sense of urgency. It took me just under a half hour to pack all of my bags and a lunch and start off. If I timed it just right, I could get to Cleveland by 3 o'clock this afternoon. This would still leave me time to talk to the nurses and hear Cassie and Xander's whole unfortunate story.
After a rather uneventful drive, I arrived at 2100-2128 E. 93rd St, Cleveland, Ohio (which is the address of the emergency department which had called me). I told the front office that I was here for Cassandra Carson-Murray, and the secretary looked it up on her computer and developed this very sad and sorry look on her face. "I am very sorry for your loss," she said. Seriously, what is up with that? Is that their way of apologizing that my Cassie is dead? Because it doesn't work... after several awkward seconds of clicking and typing on her computer, the secretary directed me to go to room 29 on the third floor, and there I would find the nurse(s) who had been witnessing the whole process of Cassie's time at the hospital. Even through my grief, I was rather curious to find out how both Cassie and Xander had died. I had thought that they were rather responsible young people.
Eventually, two escalators and four corridors later, I arrived at room 29. Anxiety washed over me as I knocked and pushed open the door.
"Are you Eleanor Carson?" said a familiar voice. I recognized it as the unhelpful lady from the phone.
"I am Eleanor Carson, and I have come to find out how my niece and nephew-to-be died." I replied as I walked through the door. I hoped she wouldn't say she was sorry again. I was getting tired of that.
"Eleanor, I am very sorry for your loss. I am Belinda, and this is Janice." Both Belinda and Janice were in their early thirties, but strangely enough, both of them wore very thick bifocal glasses.
Well, so much for hoping. I was glad that Belinda introduced Janice, or else I may not have seen her sitting there until it was too late to be polite! "So, where and when did it all start?" I questioned.
Janice began talking. "We were introduced to Cassandra Carson-Murray when she was driven here by ambulance last night. The police officers told us that Cassandra and her fiancé Alexander Murray were hit by a drunk driver on the highway. Only Cassandra was seriously injured, as she had several fractured ribs, a slightly punctured lung, a nasty blow to her head, and looked like she was in a coma. Alexander had only been knocked unconscious, but both were in bad enough condition to be driven here by ambulance. Cassandra was put on a heart monitor, an oxygen regulator, and an IV as we were not sure how much blood she had lost. As soon as they arrived and were taken care of, I called the 'In Case of Emergency' contact on Cassandra's phone. I think you must have been asleep, because you didn't answer your phone. We decided to call you again later when it was more likely that you would be awake. Alexander--"
"Please, um... Janice, will you please call them Cassie and Xander? That is what they were used to being called and what I am used to hearing. Besides, Cassandra and Alexander are far too many syllables to be convenient. Thank you." I smiled. "Please continue."
"Ok, so Xander, after he awoke from his unconscious state, began pacing the room. If Belinda and I were worried about Cassie's state, he must have been nearly frantic from the way he was pacing and staring at her. We were slightly worried because Cassie's heart rate had slowed considerably since she came, and we had hoped that it would start to recover as the IV had been in for a while. All of a sudden, Xander shrieked. We looked sharply over, and saw, to our shock, that Cassie's heart rate had stopped completely. Her face had turned dead white. Xander tore out of the room screaming and hurled himself at an open window, completely ripping the screen. I ran down the three flights of stairs and peered out to the spot under the window with the broken screen (Belinda had stayed to check on Cassie), not sure what I'd find. What I saw scared me so thoroughly that I couldn't stand it. A mess of broken bones and blood lay in a dead heap on the concrete in the alley at the bottom of the third story window." Here Janice stopped to catch her breath, and Belinda picked up the story.
"As for Cassie, her heart had just skipped a few beats. Her face was pale because of all of the blood that she had lost. That poor kid, Xander, had been in so much shock that he had nearly gone mad with worry. He didn't wait long enough for the heart rate to pick back up again. We don't deal with patients like him very often. Imagine! Hurling oneself out of a window! Wow... just wow..." Belinda muttered to herself for a few seconds, but then Janice poked her.
"She does this sometimes," Janice explained to me. Hmmm, I'm not so sure I'd want a nurse that did that during an operation!
"Wha-what? Oh, the story. Just as Janice rushed back into the room, whimpering, Cassie woke up. The first thing she asked was, 'Where's Xander? Is he here? Is he ok? Will you get him for me? I want him.'
'Slow down, sister!' is what I told her. 'We'll get him in a minute.' Secretly to Janice, I started to panic. 'What do we do? He's dead! If we tell her that, she'd be in a worse condition than she already is!'
'I know!' Janice said. 'We'll just show her what's out of the window. Since it's 2 a.m. she won't be able to see anything, especially in her groggy condition.'
'Great idea!' I told her."
Hmph. Some nurses these are! I definitely wouldn't want them taking care of me!
Belinda continued the story. "We told Cassie that we would show her where Xander was. 'But you can't join him, sweetheart. It's too dangerous.' As we wheeled all of the machinery attached to her down the hall, Cassie started to cry.
'Sweetie, what's wrong?' asked Janice.
'I don't care if it's dangerous! I want to be with Xander!' Cassie said, determined to get her way.
'Cassie dear, you are in a very fragile state of mind. You can't think clearly. Let's just wait it out and I'm sure you will feel better with plenty of rest.' "
Telling Cassie that she is in a fragile state of mind is always a bad idea. The same goes for telling her she needs rest and that she can't do what she wants. All three of these are a recipe for disaster, especially since Cassie had apparently been through shock and how these nurses were behaving. Poor nurses. I no longer felt hostility towards them. They had tried their best to take good care of Xander and Cassie, but things just hadn't worked out.
"It was then that we reached the window." Janice announced. "I could tell that Cassie was agitated because her heart rate monitor had gone up in speed. We showed her the fuzzy black blob on the street 30 feet down. Suddenly Cassie screamed, tears streaming down her face.
'NOOOOOOOO! XANDER! NOOOOO! I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT YOU!!' Wailing, she ripped herself from all of the machines and hurled herself out of the window as well. Now, just so you know, it would hurt a lot to rip yourself away from all that machinery. Not to mention falling to your death out of a window. I wonder which of life's greatest questions she pondered on the way down."
By now, tears were falling down my face. "It doesn't matter which of life's questions she was thinking of! She probably didn't even think of one! She wasn't that type of girl!" I nearly shouted at the poor nurse. Composing myself, I said, "Thank you for sharing this with me. It must have been difficult. If you are finished, I must leave now."
"Oh, actually, we aren't finished." Belinda told me. "There's still several threads left hanging."
"After Cassie fell out of the window, we decided that it was a good time to call you." Janice commented.
"I'll say..." I muttered.
"And you drove here and here you are! Belinda and I have wondered for a while what had caused Cassie to jump out of the window so suddenly. The only thing we could see was a fuzzy, black blob shining the dim light from the street lamp in the wee hours of the morning." Janice reflected.
"Did you ever consider that maybe Cassie had better eyesight than you?" It pained me to use the past tense, but I had little choice. "No offense, but you both wear rather large glasses, and Cassie had 20/20 vision her entire life. Maybe she could see more clearly than you knew."
"Ohhhhhhhhh! I'd never thought of that! That certainly explains it! No offense taken, by the way. I really need to update my prescription." Belinda began getting sidetracked again.
"Is there anything else you need to tell me?" I asked, getting a little tired of the nurses' company.
"Nope! I think that's about it!" Janice smiled as she led me out of the door. "Hope you have a nice drive home!"
I was very glad to leave that fateful room and the exasperating nurses. When I had almost reached the front desk, I heard feet slapping on the hard floor behind me and ragged breathing. "WAIT! Ms. Carson, wait!! You forgot something!"
"Belinda, what is it?" I was really frustrated at this point. I just wanted to get home and grieve properly.
"Do you want the bodies? We have them here." Belinda smiled. Janice had followed behind her with an enclosed cart. "We meant to give them to you before, but we forgot."
"Ladies, thank you for bringing them here, but I do not want them in my car. If you wouldn't mind transferring them to my address in Vernon, Vermont, with whatever system you usually use for dead people, I would be grateful." Who wants smelly, dead, decaying bodies in their car, even if they are the most precious people to you in the world?!
"Oh, ok. Maybe Ms...oh, what's her name again? Maybe Ms. Front-Desk-Lady can direct us to your address and then we can send them to you. Bye-bye!" They called after me.
Imagine! They can't even remember the name of their colleague! Poor dears. They mean well, it just doesn't always happen.
I had to sleep in a hotel that night (I didn't want to risk driving for eight hours when it was dark, as I have a habit of snoozing in the car), and the drive back to Vernon the next morning was completely uneventful. This gave me some time to go back and ponder some things. This post is too long already, so I have written my conclusions in the next post.
