I got a call in the middle of the night. I fumbled for the phone. A call at 3am isn't usually good news. "Hello. Is this Edward Martins? "
I responded groggily, "Yes, that's me."
"Sir, this is Officer Murphy from the 2
nd
precinct. I'm sorry to have to tell you but your wife, Amber, has been in an automobile accident. Now don't worry she has very minor injuries but to be on the safe side, the EMT's took her to Deacon Hospital for observation. "
"Were there other injuries?" I asked, worried that some of her friends were with her when the car crashed.
"Unfortunately, the only other person in the car was dead before he reached the hospital."
"Did you say he, Officer"? Either he ignored my question or didn't hear it.
"That's all the information I have, sir. We were lucky that the EMT's found her purse at the scene or we might have had trouble identifying her and getting to you as quickly as we did. Your car is being towed to the police impound area behind the precinct. An initial check suggests that the brakes failed. The car drove off the road and rammed into the railroad abutment on Henderson."
"That doesn't make sense Officer, we just bought the Jeep last week"
"Sir, perhaps you could come down to the station and look at the accident report tomorrow morning, I'm sure a lot of your questions will be answered in the report."
Then he hung up. I was going to call back, when my cell phone rang.
"Sir, this is Doctor Cohen. Your wife, Amber, is here at the Deacon Memorial Hospital. She has just been admitted with non-life-threatening injuries the result of a car crash. If you come here before my shift ends at 8am I'll fill you in on her condition when you arrive."
"I'll be there" I told him.
I dressed as quickly as I could. I wondered what could have happened that he didn't want to talk about over the phone? I was really worried about Amber. When she came home from her previous Fridays with the girls, she never seemed to be so drunk that she couldn't drive safely. Last night I had insisted that she take the new Jeep that we got last week figuring that it would be the safest car for her to drive at night, especially if she had been drinking. I was not only worried but confused. I tried to drive slowly to the hospital and get control of my emotions.
When I got to the hospital, I identified myself and asked to see Dr. Cohen. The receptionist paged him and gave me a strange look. I was about to question her about the look when the doctor came. He brought me to a semi-enclosed space in the emergency area.
"I'll get right to the point Mr. Martins, Your wife was in a one-car accident. She was with a man who was driving his car. Your wife has some bumps and bruises, and a possible concussion, nothing life threatening, but the driver bled out on the way to the hospital. Fortunately, we believe that your wife was bent over at the time of the crash. Her position saved her from more significant injuries.
While her injuries appear to be minor, she is very confused about her identity, the identity of the driver, and the crash itself suggesting a possible concussion. We want to keep her under observation for a few days and see if the confusion goes away. We'll also be checking to make sure that the confusion is not the result of some neurological problem that hasn't presented itself so far. If the tests prove negative, we'll send her home with you by Tuesday morning. I expect that some time in familiar surroundings will take care of the confusion.
"There is one thing that you will probably read about in the police report since it may have led to the crash. Your wife was found with a piece of the drivers' penis in her mouth with the head lodged in her throat. We believe that she may have contributed to his being distracted and that caused the accident and the resultant bite.
Also don't be alarmed when you see her, because she is covered in marks that have nothing to do with the accident. She is resting now so please don't disturb her. It would be best if you waited to see her until you have had a chance to read the accident report and digest what I told you."
This Dr. Cohen is a real card I thought. To say that I was in shock would be an understatement. I thanked him and said I would be back tomorrow to visit my wife. On the way home I thought about last night when my wife told me she was going with the girls for her regular girls' night out. These events which started about three years ago, used to occur once a month. The last 4 or 5 weeks it changed to every Friday night.
"I like to get together with some girls from the office, have some drinks at a local bar, and maybe flirt with some guys "
"I don't like the way that sounds, Amber! "
"it's just harmless fun. A way to relax after a tough week at work. Nothing untoward ever happens."
"Who are the girls, you go out with"
"It changes every week depending on who is available."
But she seemed to be available every time. Based on what happened last night I wondered if there were any girls at last nights' girl's night outing. Could the guy who died be her regular Friday night date or just someone she picked up last night. And now that she was so confused it might take a while to find out. I went home and tried to go back to sleep. Just what had she been doing all those years when she was supposed to be with girl friends?
Amber and I lived in my hometown. We owned our own home and had been married for four years. As a teenager I was very shy around girls and had never gone out on a date. On the other hand, I was into sports big time. Played on the high school basketball team and found it easy to hang with the guys.
Amber lived in a neighboring town and was known to have a very colorful sexual background. Another way of saying that she was considered the town slut. She was very pretty and possessed a very sexy body.
Neither of us would set the world on fire in the brains department. We were on the business track in high school and that's how she found that she excelled in clerical skills while I was a born salesman. Apparently, my shyness was limited to pretty women. Contrary to that, my experience in sports made gladhanding a male client extremely easy for me.
I couldn't sleep after visiting the hospital, so I grabbed a coke and thought about Amber, our courtship, and marriage. I met Amber a year after she graduated from secretarial school. She was working for a school supplies company as a secretary to the owner, Max Bitter. I was a buyer for a large stationery concern.
The first time I saw her I knew she was the one for me. As I started to walk into Bitter's office she looked at me with those beautiful hazel eyes and said
"Excuse me sir, do you have an appointment with Mr. Bitter?"
"No, I don't but I've known him since grade school and I'm sure he will see me."
I just walked past her desk ignoring her protest and opened the door to Max's office and stopped short when I saw him leaning back against his desk, his pants were around his ankles and a sexy naked blond was holding on to his modest sized cock.
"Dammit, Eddie, don't you know to knock first before barging into someone's office? And how did you get past my secretary? She better have a good excuse or her ass is toast."
Meanwhile the blond was scurrying around the office looking for her clothes which seemed to be scattered all over the place. I had gone to Max' office to complain to him about the quality of #2 pencils that Max was importing from China. The wood crumbled when you put one in a sharpener and the graphite was inconsistent going from 2h to 3b. Max was really angry,
"Get out of my office, Eddie, and send in my secretary"
" Don't be mad at her Max, I just walked right past her before she had a chance to do anything."
"Don't you tell me what to do or not to do in my own office. She had one lousy job to do and she failed. She's out of here. Amber gather your things and go down to HR. You're fired" he shouted.
Then he turned to the young blond,