Summer drifted lazily by, a mash of hot humid air, long sultry days and cool starry nights. At night I would take my lawn chair and go sit beneath the silver maple tree that stood in the courtyard of my apartment building and watch the airplanes on their final approach to the airport in the big city. Some nights they scared me, other nights I found their soaring above peaceful. The stillness of the night besides the planes was some how calming to me. It was when I could forget my burdens and my responsibilities. I drank in those nights and filled up on peace.
It was these nights underneath the silver maple that I would long for the hours I had shared with Emily before I learned about her baby. Before everything happen I didn't have to worry, care, guard or even listen. Before I thought of Emily as a friend but I knew that the minute I left this place our friendship would have ended. Not that I would have forgotten her or she I, but our lives were on different paths. I was and am still searching for the road I need to take. Emily knows her road or at least she thought she did. Now, though I wouldn't trade some of the closeness it has brought us I'd give so much of the rest back. It can hurt to care too much. I guess I should tell you what has happened so you know why my thoughts are running deep.
I went home after the first summer class ended. It had been a very long time since I had done more than run in do a load or two of laundry, hug my cats, call my parents and pack up and leave again. I need the time away to vegetate. I thought that surely two weeks could pass without something bad happening. Emily was going to take a vacation and head west. She was NOT going to Colorado so I wasn't worried that she was going to see Jack. Really I shouldn't have cared even if she was going to see Jack but somehow knowing that she wasn't set my mind at ease.
Strange as it may seem I wasn't the least bit concerned that at 18 weeks pregnant Emily was heading West with a tent to go camping… alone. Not that I would ever dream of doing that as a hearing person let alone a deaf person but for some reason Emily had no fears of the great unknown so I trusted that she would be safe. I trusted that she would know to be extra careful and to take more precautions than she would normally. I trusted the next time a Moose stopped outside her tent for a drink from the stream she would not go out to watch! And I was right to trust in all that.
It wasn't Emily's vacation that brought havoc to our lives. Well, in a way it was. Maybe if Emily hadn't taken the vacation what happen wouldn't have happened. But it might have been much much worse if she'd been there. What happen: in a word Jack.
As I said I had taken my leave from Wolf Lake too. I was home blissfully relaxing in the privacy of my own little cottage with its natural spring in the backyard and my own deer that stole the bird feed from the feeders, my own squirrels, raccoons and other critters to watch. I didn't need to go West to find nature. I could find it in my own backyard if I so wanted. So that was what I was doing. I was digging in my flowerbed, planting bulbs and shrubs that my darling critters had dug up and eaten the year before. I was off at my uncle's farm with a fishing pole and a can of night crawlers, lounging beneath a river birch at the edge of a pond. I was at my grandmother's barn watching a litter of pigs come into the world or watching the barn cat's kittens play in the hay. Basically, I was in my own private paradise as long as no one intruded on my own little world.
For those two weeks I lived happily without much thought about Wolf Lake. Of course I thought of Jane. I will always think of Jane. She means as much to me as Emily does but I'm closer to Emily. I emailed Jane a few times during the break just to check in. All was quiet. So I continued to live my tranquil life. It was only when I returned on Friday before the second summer school session started that I was greeted at the door by yellow crime scene tape and an armed guard.
I looked at the guard with the massive revolver on his hip, "Um, can I get in?"
"Do you have a valid student ID?" he asked in English.
"Yes," I replied digging in my book bag for my wallet and produced my very frightening looking ID.
"Okay, you're in. Do not cross the yellow tape, once inside."
"Can I ask what happen?"
"Shooting. Seems some cowboy came looking for his girlfriend. He couldn't find her so he let loose with a colt." the guard replied in a monotone that revealed he was way to use to such occurrences.
"What? Anyone hurt?" I asked in a very frightened tone of voice.
"No," He replied as I breathed a very heavy sigh of relief and went in search of Jane or Sally… anyone who could fill me in on what had taken place.
There was more than one surprise awaiting me inside the building. Apparently while we were on break the electricians had been in and now all the office doors were rigged with doorbells. Well not doorbells as a hearing person knows them but doorbells that were rigged to light flashers that told the professors or whomever that someone was standing on the other side trying to figure out how to get their attention. I had told Emily what I thought of closed doors and trying to find the professors so I had to wonder if my tirade hadn't produced this newfangled doorbell.
The other surprise was the fact that Emily's door now hung in shreds where several bullets had torn through it. I found Jane immediately after ringing the new doorbell. She looked pale, which would be hard for her since she's very white to start with. "What?" I signed lowering my eyebrows in correct ASL grammar.
"Last PM I was getting ready to leave when Jack came in. He wanted to know where Emily was. I told him she had gone on vacation. He was drunk. He tried to open her door. It was locked. He told me to open it. I refused. He left and came back with a gun and shot open the door. I hid in my office and called security. He left before the police came."
"He got away again?"
"Yes."
"When is Emily supposed to be back? This isn't good."
"Tomorrow. She sent a TTY message last Wednesday."
"It's good he doesn't know about the baby."
Jane looked away from me. I was surprised that she looked away. When she looked back at me again I knew that somehow Jack knew. "How?" I signed.
"I don't know. He asked me about the baby last night before he got the gun."
I just stood looking at her. He's had to been watching her. No one knows but you, the staff, myself and… Eunice."
"Eunice?"
"Emily told her after Eunice guessed."
"How would Eunice know Jack?"
"I don't know but it wouldn't surprise me if she was how he found out," I signed in faltering ASL but for once Jane didn't bother trying to correct me. I think she was in too much shock.
"I will call her and see if I can find out anything."
"Be careful."
"Why I didn't know you cared," I smiled when I finished signing so she'd know I was pulling her leg.
"I care. Why would Eunice want to hurt Emily by telling Jack?"
"Jane, Eunice is vindictive. I couldn't tell you this before. I shouldn't tell you now. But Eunice does things and says things that are cruel. Last fall when you questioned her presentation she got mad at you. I went to lunch with her after the presentations. The whole way she said unkind things about you. She said you hated her because you wouldn't talk to her. She said you purposely were marking her papers as wrong. She said you were mentally unstable because of your past. She said you were a bad teacher. She told me the school needed some sort of piece of equipment but if you didn't give her a C or better, she wasn't going to buy it. When we got our papers back and hers was bad, she said to me "See if I buy that now." All this because you didn't sign hi to her and questioned her presentation. If she thinks for a minute that Emily has done something to her she'd attack Emily anyway she can." I said first in ASL before I gave up and switched to pen and paper because Jane was looking really confused.
"Is this what you tried to tell me before Christmas when you said Eunice thought I hated her?"
"Yes, I was trying to get you to at least sign Hello to her so she's stop thinking you hated her. It didn't work. But I tried."
"That doesn't answer why she'd tell Jack."
"No it doesn't unless she thinks Emily wronged her."
We stood around and talked a bit more before Sally showed up with a detective and told me to vamoose. I graciously left and went to my apartment where I put in about twenty phone calls to Eunice before I finally got an answer.
"Hey lady what's up? You ready for Monday?" I asked pouring on sugary sweetness and cheer that made me want to barf.
"Hi Rachel. Yes. I'm looking forward to class," Eunice replied without a hint of anything out of the ordinary. It was then that I saw the shooting coming on the news.
"Eunice turn on your TV to channel 8. There's been a shooting at school!"
"What?" she asked and then there was silence before I finally heard a barely audible, "Oh My God."
"Terrible, isn't it?" I asked hoping she was taking my bait.
"It's the man I saw outside Emily's window."
"You've seen him?"
"Yes, the day I was at school. I went to her office to ask if she was pregnant, remember?"
"Yes, I know the day. He was there?"
"He was outside her window looking in. I just thought he was a nosy student. I ignored him and asked my question. She answered me and when I looked again at the window he was gone," Eunice answered.
I don't know if I should have breathed a sigh of relief that she didn't tell him out of vindictiveness or what. It wasn't a good thing that he knew about the baby no matter how he found out. "Oh I see. You never spoke to him then?"
"No, when I left there was no one outside. Who is he?"
"I suppose it will all be out in the open very soon given this turn of events. He's a former friend of Emily's."
"Former friend?" Eunice asked redundantly baiting me for more.
"I'm sure you can figure it out for yourself. I just wish they'd find him before he finds Emily."
"Oh, you think he'd really hurt her?"
"What do you think? He just shot up her office."
"I suppose your right. Look I have to go. My husband needs my help. Call me later if you learn anything more," Eunice answered sounding distracted.
"Sure, Talk to you later," I replied and hung up.
I left my apartment and went to the local library where I sent Jane an email about what Eunice had told me. By the time I got back to my apartment my phone was ringing. When I answered I heard a distinctive annoying sound that indicated that call was coming from a TTY. I put my receiver in the TTY receptacles and typed GA, which means go ahead. The message was from Jane. She wanted me to know that Emily was back but staying at a hotel. The police had met her at her door and told her what had happened. For her own safety they had placed her under protection. The police had also found Jack's truck abandoned about 40 miles outside of town heading west. There had since been reports of at least 2 stolen cars that they believed where in connection to Jack. I told her thanks for telling me and to tell Emily if she needed me for anything to let me know.
I signed off SKSK… stop keying, just as someone knocked at my door. Very few people know where I live so it was a surprise to me that someone was there. I thought it was probably one of the handy men for the building wanting to change like the air-conditioning filter. I didn't bother trying to look out my peephole. I'm too short anyway. I just swung open the door and my jaw fell open because in front of me stood Jack!