Broken (16 page)

In the distance I spotted two figures, hunters right
in front of us. They had their rifles raised and aimed directly at us. My heart
almost stopped. I stared into the eyes of the one directly in front of me.

It was Jim.

Of course he had been clever enough to know that the
jaguar would run for the forest and encircled us. He had his finger ready on
the trigger. His breathing was heavy, his eyes focused when he suddenly lifted
his head.

"There are two!" he whispered to the other
hunter. "I am staring at a big black one. Beautiful specimen. Would make a
great trophy for my library."

"I've got my eye on the other one, tawny with
black rosettes," the man whispered back.

"That's my jaguar!" Jim said.

"I'll get her," the man answered. "I’ve
got it right in my sights."

It all happened really fast. I turned my head and
looked at
Aiyana
with great fear for her life. I
heard the shot fired and my heart skipped a beat as I saw her stop, change her
direction and suddenly run to the side with such a magnificent speed and pace I
could almost see every muscle underneath her tawny fur. As I turned my head I
realized that it was too late for me to stop. My eyes locked with Jim's as he
screamed. I crouched on my hind legs and leaped right over his head as he crouched
to the ground with both arms over his head to protect himself. This time I was
actually flying through the air. All the smells and sounds of the night whirled
around me as I slid through the air and landed on my feet far behind the
huntsmen. Jim was still on the ground and the other huntsman was shooting after
Aiyana
while I stormed towards the forest and quickly
disappeared between the trunks.

I kept running for a long
time until I reached the river hoping that
Aiyana
was
right behind me. I had lost the voices and there were no longer dogs or any
sounds following me, but still I jumped into the water and started swimming
upstream with all the power I had left in my body. I swam until I reached the
clearing in the middle of the most impassable and heavily vegetated area in the
swamps where
Aiyana
and I used to meet. Same place
where we had met back when I was still only human and she a magnificent jaguar.
I knew they wouldn't find us here so I threw myself to the ground exhausted and
worn out. I waited for my beloved
Aiyana
to return to
me. I fervently hoped she was going to make it. As I lay on the ground panting
heavily I listened to the sounds of the night. I thought I heard voices again
but very
very
far away. I also heard shots fired and
my heart almost stopped every time. My stomach cramped at the thought it might
be
Aiyana
they were shooting at. Every now and then I
would get back up and start walking towards the river thinking I should go look
for her but my wounds were painful and my left leg was badly injured. I
wouldn't be of much help to her, nor did I know where she was. She had taken a
different path.

As the hours went by and she didn't come back I
started to walk in circles, before I finally decided to go look for her. I swam
back and started walking through the trails. I tried to catch her smell or hear
her, thinking she might be lying somewhere hurt and alone unable to move. My
leg was hurting badly, causing me to limp. The swamps were unusually quiet as I
searched for her. The moon was hidden behind heavy clouds and put the entire
area in a deep darkness. My glowing eyes helped me in my search but it seemed
the entire swamp had been deserted, as if all animals had fled for their lives
and were hiding under rocks or in bushes and the entire forest was afraid of
what had taken place. I was snarling and growling as I walked trying to signal
Aiyana
and let her know where I was, but at the same time I
was terrified of attracting the hunters instead. I had no idea if they were
still here. It couldn't be long till sunrise so I hoped that they had left. But
I didn't want to take any risks.

I walked for hours heartbroken and devastated by the
fear that my premonition had come true and something horrifying had happened to
Aiyana
. I hadn't even been there to help her, to
protect her. The guilt was agonizing.

Suddenly I
realized that the sun was about to rise in the horizon. I let out a last
desperate roar that echoed through the forest for long before it came back to
me. No answer. I was crying on the inside and roaring on the outside trying
hard to run and search every bush, every clearing for her when I sensed that
the transformation was about to take place. There was no stopping it and no way
to get home in time. I panicked slightly when my paws were no longer furry as
the soft glossy black hairs withdrew and left those hairless pink, useless
human fingers on the soil of the trail. I got up on two legs as I slowly
transformed back into my human body, my blond curls returning, arms and legs
losing their hair, the tail retracting, the pointy ears disappearing, the
whiskers, the fangs, the claws. I was left with nothing but a feeling of being
completely naked and defenseless. Literally, I was. Naked and far away from my
home and clothes.
 

Luckily I knew
the swamps so well that I quickly found my way out to I-Ninety-five leading
back to St. Augustine. I knew no one would pick up a naked man walking beside
the road at the crack of dawn so I had no other option that to start walking. I
walked for half an hour right next to the morning traffic going into the town
of St. Augustine, limping on my hurting leg while trying to cover up my sex
with my hand. Eventually, a car slowed down behind me.

I turned my
head. It was a police car. I stopped and the officer pulled the car to the
breakdown lane. Then he got out. "I guess there’s no need to search
you," he said. "Reckon we're not hiding a weapon anywhere, are
we?"

"No
sir."

"Got a
report that someone had seen a guy exposing himself on I-Ninety-five in the
middle of morning rush hour, so I thought I'd better go check it out for
myself.
Gotta
say you're the first I’ve seen without
a jacket or even something to put on in case we should stop by."

The officer
looked at me more closely. "Say. What happened to you?" he asked and
started examining my entire body. I realized I was bleeding from my leg and
several other wounds on my back and front. The officer looked around the area.

"How did
you even get out here? Where is your car?"

"I
didn't drive here," I said.

Realizing
that I might not be a sexual offender after all, the officer hurried to the
trunk of his car, pulled out a blanket and put it around me. "What
happened to you? Did someone beat you up? Have you been mugged? Say don't I
know your face from somewhere?" The officer snapped his fingers.
"You're that doctor from the billboards on ..."

"Kings
Street Yes, that is me."

"I am so
sorry, Doctor, that I didn't recognize you right away. Have you been the victim
of a crime here? Do you want me to take you to the station?"

I shook my
head heavily. "Just be so kind and take me home please."

"Right
away, sir. Right away."

 
Chapter 20

While
the police officer
now had a fun story to tell his
kids at the dinner table that same night I had a hard time seeing anything
humorous about my situation right now. I got home and managed to sneak in and
take a shower in the guest bathroom without anyone noticing me. I wasn't crying
because of my wounds. I felt like someone had ripped my heart out, like every
part of me was screaming, longing for her, demanding to know that she was all
right, that she wasn't hurt. I had absolutely no idea what had happened to
Aiyana
, I didn't even know her phone number or where she
lived. I had no way of finding out if she made it home to
Luyu
in time for the change to happen. I pounded the tiles in the shower and
screamed at the top of my lungs. I tried to figure out a way to find her.
Should I have people searching for her in the swamps? Should I go back to look
for her? Would it matter? If she was wounded and helpless then it would.

William was up when I got
out of the shower. He was in the kitchen eating his breakfast with Sarah. I
decided I was going to go back to the swamps to search for her. Maybe if I
focused on hearing her voice I could hear her thoughts, maybe I could sense my
way to her. We had a special connection and these powers I had received when
Aiyana
bit me had to be used for something. They had to be
able to help me.

"Oh my gosh, what happened to you?" Sarah
asked when she saw me. "You look like you've been in a bar fight or
something."

Of course that was where she figured I spent the
nights. In bars drowning my sorrows in alcohol. That would be the more normal
reaction I guessed. So I let her believe it to avoid too many questions.

"Don't want to talk about it," I said
because I didn't want to lie to her.

She took a piece of paper-towel and wiped off some
blood from a wound on my cheek that had sprung leak. "It almost looks like
someone bit you," she said with astonishment in her voice. "Some kind
of animal?"

I pushed her arm away. "It's nothing," I
said. William had stopped eating and was staring at me with his blue eyes wide
and big. I forced a smile. "It is nothing, really, William. Don't worry
about it, alright?"

He nodded slowly as if he wasn't quite sure what to
believe.

"Eat your cereal, you need to get ready for
school," I said and grabbed a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice that
Sarah had made with oranges from our tree in the yard. It tasted sweet like
heaven. Divine.

"But I’m not going to school today,
remember?"

I stopped drinking and put the glass down on the
counter. "What do you mean you're not going to school today?" I
looked at Sarah.

She shrugged. "Says you promised him
something," she said.

I looked back at William who stared at me with his
wide blue eyes almost bursting into tears. "You promised me I could come
with you to work and be with
Luyu
when she has her
operation today, remember?"

The room started spinning.
Luyu
!
The operation! That was today? I had told William the date long ago. Of course
he remembered. How could I have forgotten? How could that have slipped my mind?
As I tried to get my thoughts straight and figure out what on Earth to tell
William, the phone rang. Sarah answered it.

"It's your office," she said. "They say
your first patient is in and that you've told them to let you know when she
arrived. She is there now."

I stared at Sarah. "Who? Who is there?" I
asked.

She held out the phone to me. "Maybe you should
ask them yourself."

I took it and almost yelled into it: "Who is
there? Tell me who the patient is!"

"Her name is
Luyu
. She
is here with her mother. You told us to let you know right away when she
arrived. They are both sitting in your private waiting room."

The weight of the world suddenly was lifted from my
shoulders. I sank into a chair next to me and started sobbing with joy. Sarah
and William stared at me.

"Hello? Is something wrong, Dr.
Langaa
? Was it wrong of me to call? I thought you told us
to get a hold of you no matter what you were doing, no matter where you were,
so I thought ..."

"No, no, Mrs.?”

"Miss Ruby."

"Miss Ruby. You did the right thing. You have no
idea how right this was. I am so happy to hear that they have arrived. You have
no idea how happy I am ... I am just really relieved right now."

"Okay then. Should I let the nurses begin the
preparation of the patient?"

"No. No. This is a very special patient of mine.
She is a child and requires general anesthesia. I want to follow her all the
way. Don't let anyone do anything till I’m there."

"I guess I'll just tell them that the doctor is
on his way then?"

"Yes, please tell them that." I caught
William's eyes and winked. His face lit up. "Tell them
we
are on our way."

"Very well, then. Goodbye Doctor."

Aiyana
was in a much better shape than I. When I rushed into the waiting room with
William on my arm she got up from the chair. She had no bruises on her face or
arms like I had. She stood staring at me while I froze as well just by the mere
sight of her. It was the most wondrous sight in the world. The most beautiful
view right there in front of me. I wanted to run to her and grab her in my arms
and tell her how much I had dreaded never seeing her again, how scared I had
been in that swamps at night all alone not knowing where she was or what had
happened to her, not knowing if I'd ever see her again. She exhaled deeply and
stood frozen solid in front of me. I sensed she was as shocked as I, that she
had been just as scared. Our eyes locked for a long time. I put William down
and he ran towards
Luyu
who embraced him with her
open arms. They hugged closely and William lifted
Luyu
into the air causing them both to tumble onto the floor where they rolled
laughing while holding on to each other like they never wanted to let go again.