I met April on February 14th. Just over two years after my girlfriend, Meredith, dumped me. The way Meredith dumped me was something I'll remember my entire life. And not in a good way. The way I met April was more than memorable, too.
I'm still don't understand what happened with Meredith. She left me three days before Valentines Day. A Valentine's Day when I intended to propose. I was picking up the ring I knew she liked the next day. Point six-one carat, VVS2 clarity, pear cut, faint blue, platinum setting. It was putting a monstrous dent in my savings, but she meant far more to me than mere money.
We both worked in Manhattan though our schedules were slightly different. She worked in the Jacob Javits Federal Building, one of a multitude of lawyers plying their trade in a Manhattan office of the federal government. I worked out of an office farther uptown as a security consultant, so I left for work a little earlier and got home later than she did.
I traveled out of town a little but not often. Most of my work was confined to the New York City boroughs, sometimes taking me to a client's local site. I spent more than half of my working hours on the twentieth floor in a nondescript office complex without a company name on the door. Meredith traveled infrequently, too. In her case, it was typically for legal seminars or meetings with legislative staffers, usually in Washington, D.C. Her last work trips were in mid-September and late October the autumn before she left. She was gone a full week both times, which was a little unusual.
We shared the house I bought from my grandparents on Staten Island. Like all the houses in the neighborhood, it was on a city lot, with a neighbor spitting distance away on both sides. The house had a covered porch and sidewalk in the front, a one car garage with no car in it at the end of the driveway, and a backyard patch of grass so small it almost took longer to get the mower out of the garage and start it than it took to mow it.
I was a little earlier than usual that Friday when I got off the train at my stop. My team wrapped a major system upgrade that week. I was looking forward to a long weekend. Meredith and I were taking Monday, Valentine's Day off. Then I anticipated a couple weeks of routine workdays dealing with administrative tasks before the next project kicked off. It was already dark when I got off the train. The short walk to the house was bitterly cold. The night only got colder.
I was buffeted by the wake of a small moving company truck followed by a van with the same company markings as I walked home. Both sped past as I turned onto my street. I idly wondered if my grandfather's old friend across the street was finally moving to Florida like he'd been threatening for several years. A taxicab was in front of the house as I approached. I watched a man carry two suitcases from my house to the cab and hoist them into the open trunk. Meredith followed a moment later with two more and set them down near the trunk. I got to the taxicab at about the same time she did.
"What's going on, Meredith?" I asked, though it was obvious. She was leaving. With far more luggage than she needed for a work trip or to visit her parents. And leaving on the Friday night of what was supposed to be a long weekend together.
"I accepted a partnership offer from a law firm. I'm moving there. I start a week from Monday. My flight leaves in about four hours."
"When did you get the offer?"
"Just before Thanksgiving."
"When did you accept it?"
"Mid-December. After I had time to review it and talk to them a couple more times."
"You weren't going to tell me?" I asked.
Meredith hesitated. "No," was her succinct reply.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"It doesn't matter. You're not going with me."
We'd been together four years, living together nearly two. Just two weeks earlier, we'd discussed getting married. But we hadn't formalized our commitment, though I thought we were of one mind. I hadn't asked that night only because I wanted to have her engagement ring in hand when I did. She seemed happy with our talk. She was an enthusiastic participant in our lovemaking when we got home that night.
"So, that's it? You're just leaving?"
Her answer was again succinct. "Yes."
I briefly glanced at the cabbie, still standing at the back of his cab. All the suitcases were in the trunk, though he hadn't closed it yet. He was clearly nervous, fidgety. Probably worried that my conversation with Meredith might suddenly escalate from strained but civil. Meredith nodded at him. He closed the trunk and headed for the driver's door. Meredith got in the back seat without another word. She didn't look at me again.
Back to April.
The project I was leading was ahead of schedule, which would mean a nice bonus for me. The hospital group's new security protocols and system were due to go live in three weeks. I estimated there was still a week of work for the team to complete. Four test runs had gone well with only a couple minor, already fixed, hiccups.
I'd stayed late that night to address other issues, unrelated to the project, that arose. I caught the nine pm Staten Island Ferry. I was tired. Afraid I'd fall asleep if I sat down inside then get an unwelcome second wind on the walk home. Instead, I made my way to the upper, rear outside deck. It was cold so there wasn't a crowd. Just two people besides me. A man and a woman huddled in a corner together near the rail. When I came through the door, the man glanced at me briefly. His aura suggested annoyance at my arrival. Like they wanted to get intimate, but I intruded. The woman ignored my presence.
After a few minutes, the man went inside, leaving the woman by herself. I hadn't paid any attention to them. After the man left, I noticed the woman was unsteady on her feet. When she started weaving back and forth, I hustled toward her, almost dropping my computer bag. I got to her just in time to stop her from pitching over the railing into Upper New York Bay.
"Are you alright? You almost went over the side," I said to her.
I got a vacant smile and a giggle. "I feel like I'm flying," she said.
I put my arm around her and brought her inside to a seat. I looked around for a cop but didn't see one. I hadn't seen one on the lower deck before I came upstairs, either. I decided to stay with her until I got her some help. It was still about twenty minutes to St. George Terminal. I'd get help for her there.
I noticed she didn't have a handbag. "What's your name," I asked.
"I don't know. Why don't you run a few names by me? Maybe I'll recognize something." She giggled again.
Oh, shit, I thought. This girl really is flying. I continued trying to talk to her. I got a few semi-plausible responses, but mostly just nonsense, and giggles.
When we got to the dock, I led her downstairs. She was able to walk under her own power but I had to steer her otherwise she'd have wandered aimlessly. She could easily have fallen on the stairs. The ferry wasn't crowded, probably less than half capacity but it still took a few minutes to disembark. I looked around for a cop; again, didn't find one. I took out my cell, intending to call 911.
"Who ya gonna call?" she asked when she saw my cell. I was surprised by the question.
"Emergency services."
She looked around frantically. Panicked. "Is there a fire? What's the emergency?" Her speech wasn't slurred. She sounded frightened.
"You're the emergency. You need help. A cop and a doctor."
"No, no doctors. I don't want a doctor. And no cops," she said, trying to forcefully pull away from me.
I reacted instinctively to avoid a scene. Probably not my best decision. "Okay, no doctor, no cop. What's your name?" I tried again.
"I told you I don't know. Maybe, I'll recognize it if you say it," she giggled again.
I took a deep breath. "How about where you live? Do you know that?"
"Of course! I know exactly where I live."
Finally, something I can work with I thought. "Okay, where? I'll get you home." I hoped there'd be family that could take charge.
"I live.... in a house!" she exclaimed proudly.
I went round and round with her for a good ten minutes and got nowhere except that she didn't want a doctor or a cop. That much she was adamant about. I really wanted to find a cop but there wasn't one in the terminal. The people nearby pointedly ignored us despite it being obvious something wasn't quite kosher about the situation between me and this woman.
"How about I take you to Staten Island University Hospital?"
"If I don't want a doctor, I certainly don't want a hospital," she said, her voice strident. And getting louder with each word.
I didn't want to abandon her. In desperation, and foolishly, I decided to take her home with me. My next-door neighbor and his wife are doctors. He works in an emergency room in Manhattan. She's an OB/GYN in private practice with privileges at a different hospital in Manhattan. Hopefully, one of them would be home. I preferred Brian though Teresa was more than qualified, too. I was sure he had more experience with both drugs and sexual assault victims than Teresa. He also worked several days a month at a substance abuse clinic.
I got her on the train and headed home. The motion of the train lulled her enough that I was able to call Brian. I should have called 911 from the train.
"Hey, Jeff. What's up? No lights at your place so I see you're not home yet."
I breathed a sigh of relief. "I got a problem I need help with. You're just the guy."
"How so?" he asked, hesitantly, sounding leery.
I first met Brian when I was a kid. He was more than twenty years older than me. I'd never asked a favor of him. I hated doing so now. Especially for professional services. "I kept a woman on the ferry from pitching off the upper observation deck into the bay. She's loopy. I can't get a straight answer from her when I talk to her. She said she feels like she's flying. She's damn happy, that's for sure. I want to take her to the hospital but she's adamantly against it. I can't get a name or address out of her. She doesn't have a purse. She was readily agreeable when I told her I'd take her to my house. There was a man with her, but he took off when I went out on the deck. I'm worried he might have drugged her. Maybe even planned to throw her overboard until I showed up. Right now, we're on the train. The rocking motion has her lulled and quiet, so I called you."
Brian didn't say anything for a moment. "You should get her to a hospital," he finally said.
"She pitched a fit about going to a hospital. Can you at least look at her? You deal with this stuff sometimes. Maybe between the two of us we can convince her to go to a hospital. I just want to make sure she's safe without getting into a hassle with her."
Brian was silent for a moment. "Alright, I'll meet you at your place. I'll look at her but if someone slipped her something, she really should go to an emergency room. How long before you get home?"
