To Kill a President (5 page)

“Bobby! It’s back!” David yelled.

He sprinted from the living room along the hall and out of the front door.  He took the elevator down to the lobby, Kevin was not by the entrance.  He turned right when he ran into the street, it was still deserted.  He sprinted towards Dealey Plaza and prayed he would be able to get to the knoll before the wormhole closed.  Bobby had warned him not to think such things but he had to try if it would get him back to Sharon.  He sprinted past the Dal – Tex building and then past the School Book depository, as he did so the light disappeared.  He carried on behind the Northern Pergola and arrived at the muddy area behind the Picket fence.

As David sprinted he saw someone lying motionless by the picket fence.  It was a girl.  The girl had black hair that was soaking wet, she had been wearing makeup that had run all down her face.  Her clothes were soaked through.  He looked at the girl and saw a large gash on the left side of her forehead.  He felt for a pulse but there was none.

He knelt over her interlocked his fingers and began pushing down on her chest.  She did not respond to the initial compressions, he lifted her chin gently and used his other hand to cover the girl’s nostrils as he began to blow into her mouth.  He watched her chest rising, this was the first time he had performed CPR on a real person. His patients were normally way beyond his help.  He then began the compressions again, after what seemed like an eternity he finally heard the girl splutter, as she threw up the water she had swallowed.  David rubbed his hand on the girls back as she continued to vomit, he knew how she felt.  The girl seemed far more disorientated than he had.

She spoke softly. “Faraday?”

David heard the girl’s word but was not sure what it meant, perhaps she had meant Friday that was today.  She lost consciousness once again and her pulse was weak.  David carried her back to the apartment.  Thankfully Kevin the concierge was still nowhere to be seen. 

“Bobby get up!” David yelled as he walked into Bobby’s bedroom.

“Wha?” Bobby groaned, he was not a morning person.

“MOVE!”

As Bobby rolled to the edge of the double bed he reached out for his cane and struggled to his feet.

“Who’s this?  Why didn’t you use your room?” It was a bizarre sight as David laid the girl down exactly where Bobby had just been lying.

“I don’t know.” David replied exasperated.  He began to undress the girl.

“What the hell are you doing David? What have you done?” Bobby stepped towards David and pushed him away from the young girl.

“She’s soaking we need to get her out of these clothes and warm her up before she catches hypothermia.”

Bobby stepped back and turned away whilst David continued undressing the girl.  “What happened David?”

“I don’t know Bobby, the light flashed again I ran over and then I found her.  She wasn’t breathing, I managed to bring her round and then after throwing up she said something and passed out again.”  As David finished speaking he struggled with the girl’s bra whilst averting his eyes.   It had been a long time since he had undone a woman’s bra.  After he had done that he pulled down the girls black pants whilst again averting his eyes.  He covered her with Bobby’s quilt.  “Have you got a towel in here Bobby?”

Bobby gestured towards a pile of clothes on the floor with a towel in a ball on top.

“You need to tidy in here for Christ’s Sake!  All these expensive suits and this is how you keep them!”

“What did she say David?”

“What?” David replied as he started to dry the girl’s hair.

“You said she spoke and then passed out, what did she say?”

“I’m not sure, it sounded like Faraday it could have been Friday, that’s today.”

“Why would she say Friday?”

“I don’t know Bobby!  Can you get me my sewing kit and a clean cloth?”

“Sure.” Bobby limped through into the hall, his hip always ached in the morning and a warm bath usually eased that pain until it was early enough to drink.  As he made his way into the living room he saw the sewing kit on the table by the window.  He hobbled over and was momentarily blinded by a bright flash of light in the morning sky.

He grabbed the sewing kit and made his way back through the living room and into the bathroom where he picked up a face cloth that he had not used yet.  He hobbled back into his bedroom and saw that David was holding the bottle of vodka that was kept on his bedside table.

“There was another flash David.”

“What?  When?”

“Just now!  It looks like we’ve got another one.  Will you run back my hip is playing up?”

“I can’t Bobby, look at the gash on her head I need to disinfect it and sew it up.” David grabbed the cloth and sewing kit from Bobby.  He poured vodka on to the cloth and began to clean the wound.

Bobby was still only wearing a pair of black y fronts. He hobbled over to his wardrobe and pulled out a black shirt and his navy suit.

“Do you really need to put on a suit to walk down the damn street?”

“It’s a working day David and something tells me I’m not going to have time for my bath.”

As Bobby dressed David continued to clean the wound.  Bobby hobbled into the elevator and then to the front door, he struggled with the weight of it.  As he got outside he hobbled towards Dealey Plaza.

Chapter 9

Robert Stinson pulled into the car park at Parkland Hospital and parked up his black Toyota Carolla.  His grandmother had bought it for his 16
th
birthday, the same day that he had passed his driving test.  Later that day they had celebrated with his grandmother’s home made Spaghetti Carbonara and glasses of Limoncello. 

They had then had two bottles of Valpolichella red wine.  It was the first time that Robert had tasted alcohol and it was a treat.  His grandmother had been so proud of him.  He had been living with her since the age of four.  Both of his parents were killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks and he had no memory of them.  As the night wore on the room filled with cigarette smoke, his grandmother smoked forty a day and if she had been drinking it could easily pass sixty.

His grandmother was the best friend he had in the world. She had grown up in Sicily in the 1930’s before the family had immigrated to America.  She had met an American man in the sixties and had given birth to his father Bryan Stinson.  Robert had never met his grandfather he had died before he was born and his grandmother never spoke of him.  His mother had not spoken to her parents in the ten years before her death so even if they were alive and out there somewhere they had no idea that Robert existed.

As Robert prepared himself for what would surely be the hardest night of his life he sat for a moment in his car.  The radio presenter as they had been all day was focussing on tonight’s inauguration address by the 45
th
President of the United States Hilary Clinton.  They were discussing the growing liberal attitudes of the American nation with the first female President following the first black President of the United States.  Robert turned off the ignition and got out of the car.

He was dressed in black jeans a black t-shirt and black Converse trainers.  He had been called by Claire a nurse at the hospital suggesting that he should make his way there as it would not be long now.  After a short battle with lung cancer her pain would finally be over.  He had been to see her twice a day since she had been admitted to the hospital a month prior.  Ironically it had caused the start of Robert’s smoking habit.

He pulled out his packet and lit his twelfth of the day.  He still had a way to go before he would catch up with the old girl.  He smoked quickly and then ran into the hospital.

His grandmother was thankfully in a private room, he did not want an audience for this.  As he walked towards her door the blonde nurse that had been on duty most evenings gave him a nod and spoke. “How are you holding up Robert?”

He tried to control his emotions. “I’ve been better Claire how are you doing today?”

She again smiled sympathetically. “I’m okay Robert, we are sure going to miss her.”

“Thanks Claire.”

“How are things going at the house?”

“Alright I have the majority of the furniture in storage. She would lose her mind if she knew I was selling the place.”

“You are doing right by her Robert, medical treatment doesn’t come cheap. Hopefully the new President can do something about that.”

Robert sighed, he had done a lot of growing up this past month.

“Yeah I hope so.”

“Just give me a shout if you need anything.”

“Thanks again Claire.”

He entered the room quietly, not that she would wake up with the amount of morphine she was on.  He sat down on the chair beside her bed and waited.

In the last week he had found these visits to be particularly difficult, his grandmother’s face was gaunt and drawn.  He had never seen her without her teeth before.  It was as if her face had collapsed in on itself.  Her hair was no longer the dark brown it had previously been it had become grey and wiry in the space of a month.

Whilst her appearance upset Robert what he hated most was the silence.  His grandmother had always been a chatty woman, so caring and attentive.  She probably didn’t even know he was there.  He glanced up at the clock and saw that it was 18:00.

As the hours passed without incident he began wondering what he would do now.  He didn’t have a job, the only mother he had ever known would be gone and his childhood home would barely cover the medical costs.  All he had left was his car and a steel storage container holding all of his and his grandmother’s earthly possessions.

“Bobby?” He jumped as the silence was broken.  He looked towards his grandmother and saw that her tired eyes were open for what must have been the first time this week.

“Is that you Bobby?”

She had never called him Bobby before.  “I’m here Nana.”  He had not expected this he had no idea what to say. “How are you feeling?”  He felt stupid for asking the question but what else was there to say?

“Where are we?”

She looked confused and Robert was sure he heard his heart break.  He could feel his eyes well up, he tried to fight them but as he opened his mouth to speak he gave out a strange sigh and the tears began to roll down his cheeks.  “We are in the hospital Nana remember?”

“Am I dying Bobby?”  Her words were muffled.

Robert thought of the pain she must be in and the tears began pouring from his piercing blue eyes.  “No Nana you just needed a rest.  The nurses don’t want you to come home because they’d be bored without you.”

She gave the faintest of smiles.  This again shocked Robert, it didn’t look like the woman who had raised him, but he knew she was in there.

“Are you in pain Nana, can I do anything?”

She didn’t seem to hear him as she spoke again it was softer than before, her mouth was so dry and she barely managed a whisper. “I’m sorry Bobby.”  As she spoke he saw a single tear run down her cheek.

“Don’t you apologise, you have nothing to be sorry for.”

“I should have been there for you.” Another tear ran down her cheek.

“You have been Nana every day! Don’t you go saying your goodbyes you’re coming home with me.  Who else would look after me?”

He saw her give the faintest of smiles as her eyes closed once more.  Robert looked up at the clock it was midnight, she had lived on to a new day.

It was 04:00 when he called in the nurse.  She was gone.  He kissed her on the forehead and said goodbye before leaving the hospital.  His head was spinning he had to organize a funeral, finish emptying the house and find somewhere to live.  Whilst doing all that he also had to find time to mourn.  Robert was growing up fast.

Chapter 10

It was just after 16:00 when James Faraday reached Inverness.  As he parked up he patted the dashboard of his car.

“You did it!”  He had half expected the old girl to break down on route.  The radio was blaring out an interview given by Alex Salmond.  James had almost forgotten that he had been in hospital when the independence referendum took place.  As history graduates he and Jane had both been planning to vote yes.  They had studied the wars of independence and it felt like a patriotic obligation.  Neither of them had managed to cast a vote and if truth be told Faraday had forgotten the world was still out there.  It had brought him little joy that the SNP had been successful and as Salmond once again discussed the hopes of achieving a currency union he turned off the ignition.