Inspired by a Song

inspired by a song

Leo was drinking with King and Jonah underneath the Walnut Street bridge when they first heard it. They had gathered there in an impromptu service to Kelly's passing. None of them had been invited to the funeral, none of them had expected to be invited, so here they were. Leo wasn't even sure if he should be there, since he certainly didn't know Kelly as well as Jonah and King did, and since,courtesy of Tommy, his few interactions with her had all been negative. But Leo always admired Kelly, and he was sorry she was gone.

But there was this sound that kept distracting the three of them from mourning her. Surely, they were all high, and it didn't take much to distract them, but this ongoing sound of children crying was proving to be too much. Unfortunately, the sound of their cries kept echoing off of the river.

“They must be nearby,” King offered.

Leo looked around. “I think they're by Judy Garland!” he announced before popping up and heading down the waterfront.

“I don't think so,” Jonah warned, “I think they're up this way.” He was pointing towards the museum.

Despite the prostests, Leo walked a good two blocks south before he realized that the crying was coming from behind him. He turned around, and he anxiously gathered Jonah and King to walk along the river with him.

“You're right,” he announced, “This way.”

King looked at Jonah and wondered what was going on. Jonah just pulled a bag out of his pocket and offered a blue pill to King. King accepted it.

Leo looked at them. “Hey, there's something up there. Are we going or what?”

Jonah and King nodded at him. “We're going,” Jonah stated, “We're just preparing ourelves.”

“For what?” Leo asked.

“For what those cries might be attached to,” Jonah replied.

Leo studied him. Then he nodded. “Okay, give me a couple.” Jonah gave him the tablets.

The three of them walked along the waterfront for a few more blocks. It seemed further. Leo was amazed that the sound of these children crying could carry so far. Nonetheless, they were all tired, so Leo offered up the idea of sitting on a rock and shooting up. They had, after all, been dropping speed for the past two hours, so Leo figured a balance might be in order. Everyone agreed.

After they were high, they continued walking. Despite the close nature of the sound they were following, It felt to all of them that they had been walking for hours. Just south of the museum, the sound became much closer. The three of them split up and decided to scour the area below the Waterworks.

“I think I found her.” It was King.

Leo and Jonah slowly made their way over to him from their separate searches. They slowly came up behind each of King's shoulders. She was there, naked, trembling in the high grass.

“Jesus,” Jonah said, “This is a bit too much to deal with right now.”

She had obvious wounds all over her arms, legs, and face. Leo could only surmise that they were from insects or worse. Her lips were split open, so her cries were somewhat muffled through her blood and spittle.

“How long do you think she's been here?” King asked.

They could only stare at her. “I don't know,” Leo offered, “I can't imagine that long. Maybe a day?”

They looked at each other and surmised that a day made sense.

“So what do we do now?” It was Jonah this time.

Leo bent down over the baby. “We should take her to a hospital or something.”

Both Jonah and King seemed to be against the idea. They started talking amongst themselves, trying to come up with an alternative idea when Leo picked up the child. As soon as his hands touched it, the infant let out horrific screams.

Leo looked at King and Jonah's faces as he held the screaming baby over his shoulder.

“Are you guys okay?” he asked.

They couldn't respond. The child's back had been eaten away.

King coughed. Then he put his hand on Leo's arm. “I think we need to take her to a hospital,” he said.

As they ran down the riverbed heading to Graduate Hospital, they wondered what to do. Both Jonah and King felt afraid to harbor any responsibility over the fate of the child. Leo wondered about them. It seemed to him that they were so embarassed by their own fates that they didn't dare influence the found baby's future in any way. He decided he would deal with everything on his own. King offered him another blue pill, and Leo accepted it. King seemed frightened reaching around the child to pop the pill in Leo's mouth.

By the time Leo got to Graduate, his mind was going in five different directions. At the sight of the baby, emergency personnel surrounded him. He tried to answer all of their questions, but as he looked around the emergency room full of gunshot wounds, knife wounds, seizures and worse, he realized that he had a hard time concentrating on what they were asking of him. He wished that King were still with him to conjure up some more speed.

He gave them the baby. He didn't say much. He didn't have anything to say. He walked out of the hospital and headed towards the bar. The air in the bar had a somber feel to it. There was a sparse crowd, and he recognized Jack at the end of the bar in what Leo couldn't help but think was the same suit he had last seen Jack wearing.

Leo sat next to him. Jack turned. “Kelly's gone, you know. She O.D'd.”

Leo nodded and ordered a beer. He waited until he had his beer in front of him before speaking. “Did you know her well?” he asked.

“Not well enough,” Jack answered.

“Not well enough for what?” Leo prodded.

Jack stared at Leo, then turned to his whiskey. “Not well enough to be as upset as I am.”

Leo watched Jack. They made no more eye contact, they had nothing more to say to each other. Leo simply watched the man drink. He wondered who this man was. He didn't expect to get an answer. He tried to accept the fact that this man was as much of an enigma as he himself was. Rehab. Addiction. Salvation. Collapse. Leo realized then that he had no right to judge anyone.

After a while, Jack settled up with the bartender. He turned and looked at Leo. Leo stared back at him. “I don't know who you are,” Jack stated to him, “and I don't want to know. You shouldn't mean anything to me. But we're a lot closer than either of us want to admit, and I don't want to come in here and down five shots when you die.”

And then he left.

Leo, however, stuck around. He drank, and he wished he had more drugs on him. Lindy showed up, and the two of them talked for a while. Thankfully, she was as drunk as he was, and they could relate to each other.

Finally, he found himself drunk enough to ask her why she disappeared on him when he went into rehab.

“You disappeared first,” she said, “you're a ghost and you don't even know it.”

When Leo woke up, everything hurt. He needed something, but he wasn't sure what. He almost called Tommy, but he remembered that Tommy had run out of town when Jay got out of jail. He thought about calling Jay, but remembered how much Jay wanted both he and Tommy dead.

Then he remembered the child.

He dressed faster than he normally dressed, and he walked faster than he normally walked until he got to the El. Then he ran from the 15th street station all the way down to Graduate Hospital.

When he got to the receptionist, everything turned cold. “Are you family?” the receptionist asked.

“No, but I brought her here.”

“Only family can see patients in ICU.”

“I don't think she had any family. I mean, I brought her here. She was abandoned. Does she have a grandmother or something? I just would like to say hello.”

“Look, no reward was offered for a missing child. Now you can just go,” she demanded.

Leo was lost. “I wasn't looking for a reward. Look, I brought a child in here yesterday…”

“I think you need to go,” he was told.

Before he could even think, two security guards were beside him. He knew what they wanted. He cursed them loudly and walked outside. He couldn't bring himself to leave, he just paced back and forth along
the entranceway to the emergency room and smoked a cigarette.

“Hey,” he heard. He turned. There was a nurse standing at the entrance to the E.R.

He didn't know what to do or say, so he just stared at her.

“You brought that baby in here last night, didn't you?” she asked.

He nodded.

She started to walk towards him, but he stammered back a step, so she stopped. “She's going to be okay,” the nurse said.

“What do you mean by 'okay'?”

She started towards him again, then stopped again. “Look, there's already a couple willing to adopt her, and she should be out of I.C.U. in a couple of days.”

Leo stared at her. The nurse stared back. “Listen,” she said, “I don't know who you are or what you're plans are or anything, but the baby is going to be okay. If that doesn't mean anything to you, I have nothing more to say to you.”

They looked at each other for a while, and Leo tried hard to give her a look that said that he understood everything she had said, but he knew that he had failed. The nurse turned and went back into the hospital.

Leo went to the bar. He didn't know where else to go. The usual crowd was already there, and Leo nodded to them all before he turned around and walked back out.

He didn't realize it, but everything had changed.

It was time, he realized, to leave the bar.