The Story of Ann Chapter 7 Love and the Devil

The Story of Ann Chapter 7 Love and the Devil

My kiss did not awaken Jack. I press his face against my shoulder as I looked up from the floor. Janet and Susan are standing over me with tears streaming down their faces. I looked to see others standing with their heads bowed as if in silent prayer.

I looked into Jack’s face as I said, “Please Jack, come back, I need you.”

“MISS, we will take it from here,” a paramedic said to me. “Miss, you’re not hurt are you?” He then asked.

I shook my head no, as he helped me to my feet. The other female paramedic went to work on Jack. I looked to my hands and saw Jack’s blood all over them. I went to wipe them on my top however; it had been drenched in his blood as well. Janet came to me and wrapped me in her arms.

“He is alive, I have a faint pulse,” the female paramedic said as she continued to work on him.

“We have to move him quickly if we are to save him as he has lost a lot of blood,” The other paramedic replied to her.

They moved Jack onto a stretcher and wheeled him from the bar. I tried to get into the ambulance with him when a police officer stopped me. He asked me if I was hurt because of all the blood over me. I told him no it was Jack’s blood. The officer told me Jack was in good hands and that he needed to ask me some questions. I looked to his name tag it read Capt. Bob.

“Do you know Jack, Captain Bob,” I asked as I fell into him crying onto his shoulder.

“Yes Miss Ann, Jack and I go way back since he was seven or eight,” Captain Bob replied. “Let’s take you back inside and clean you up a little,” he added.

Captain Bob asked Janet to take me into the woman’s room to clean me up a little. He then asked her to bring me and herself back to him to answer some questions. Janet walked me into the bathroom. I stared into the mirror. I wondered what all the red stuff over my face was. I realized it was blood. I had Jack’s blood all over my face as well as on my hands and down the front of my top.

I turned to Janet as I said, “He is going to die, Janet,” as I started to cry uncontrollably.

“Don’t even think that Ann,” Janet replied as she ran some water.

Janet grabbed some paper towels and wet them. She wiped Jack’s blood from my hands. She grabbed some more wetting them then wiping at his blood on my face. I stared into the mirror thinking how I once had hated this man for something he had done to me. Now here I was worried sick about that same man and I did not want to lose him.

I closed my eyes as Janet wiped blood from them. As I did a pair of blue green eyes stared at me. They sparkled and shined as Jack’s sweet soft voice singing “Hush Little Baby,” filled my head. A knock on the bathroom door broke the vision of his eyes and his soft singing in my mind.

“Miss Ann, everything all right in there?” Capt. Bob asked through the door.

“Yes, we will be out in a minute,” Janet replied to him. Janet dried my face then wrapped her arm around me as she added, “Let’s go Ann, the sooner we get this over the sooner we can get to the hospital.”

Captain Bob led us to a nearby table sitting us down. As I sat down a cold chill raced through my body causing me to shiver and shake. Captain Bob removed the lightweight jacket he had on wrapping it around me. I smiled at him with tear-filled eyes as I thanked him.

Captain Bob asked us both what had taken place tonight. Janet and I told him about the four men entering the bar. Janet told him what the one had said about “Hell coming to this bar,” I also told him Jack seemed to have sensed it all coming before it happened. We explained about how the fight started and that three of them had put Jack onto the floor punching and kicking at him.

I explained that when I saw them beating him up then the one trying to stab him. I had screamed out to leave my boyfriend alone. I also explained about seeing the pain in Jack’s eyes when I had screamed that.

“Jack would have been concerned about your safety for now they knew who you were,” Captain Bob said to me.

I went on to tell him that as Janet grabbed me running for the back door we heard a loud snap as Jack yelled, “YOU DEVIL FUCKS LEAVE HER ALONE.” We both explained we ran out the back door only to hear two gunshots from inside the bar.

“Those Devil Fucks are a group of Vietnam veterans who heads were messed up during that war,” Captain Bob explained to us. “They terrorize bars in the area thinking that anyone or anything in there belongs to them especially women, I had warned Jack to be watchful for them,” he added.

“Jack has spoken of Devils in Vietnam,” I replied looking to Captain Bob for answers.

“You will have to ask Jack of that,” Captain Bob said. “Go to him Miss Ann I will see you there later,” he added telling me where they had taken him.

Janet and I rushed to the hospital. We ran into the emergency room when we got there. A nurse asked me if I was hurt seeing the blood all over my shirt.

“No my boyfriend was shot and they brought him here,” I replied.

“You must be Ann,” the nurse said.

“Yes but…” I replied as she cut me off in mid sentence.

“Jack told me to tell you, “I love you Ann,” the nurse said. “He is in surgery right now, when I know something I will tell you,” she added.

“How is he?” I asked as I sobbed.

The nurse looked to Janet giving her a little frown shaking her head as she asked her to take me over and sit with me. Janet held me as I cried in her arms. About twenty minutes later, grandma with Michelle in her arms, Frank and another woman of Asian descent came walking into the emergency room.

Grandma came to me handing me Michelle until she saw the blood upon my top. She handed Michelle to Janet instead. I watched the other woman as she walked up to the nurse. The nurse took her hand as she walked her back through the closed door.

“Who is that woman?” I asked grandma.

“That is Jack’s mother,” Grandma replied. She then asked, “What the hell happened tonight?”

We all sat down as Janet and I explained the events of the night. I broke down in tears as I explained about trying to stop the blood as it spurted from his wound. I told them about Jack closing his eyes as I held him.

“I think Jack died in my arms tonight,” I said as my tears started again.

Grandma took me into her arms giving me comfort. She rubbed at my back telling me everything would be all right. Frank took my hand as he told me Jack is strong he will pull through this. Frank, grandma, and Janet gave me comfort as we waited for word on his condition.

The four of us sat there waiting for any word. The nurse kept telling us she had no news to give us anytime one of us walked up to her station. Michelle awoke about 3 hours later and still we had heard nothing about Jack. I was talking to grandma with Michelle on my lap.

“Con trai cua tôi làm cho ma quy tra lai Ä‘em này,” a high-pitched female voice with an Asian accent said.

I turned from grandma to see that Asian woman standing before us. She looked at me, as her dark brown eyes seemed to pierce my soul. The woman turned to Grandma.

“Sorry, I forget you no know my speech, I translate,” She said. “My son make devils pay again this night,” she added.

The woman walked up to me and she opened her arms as she said, “You must be Ann, my son much in love with you,” “You call me Kim-Ly.”

Kim-ly hugged me rubbing at my back. She broke our hug wiping my tears from my eyes. Kim-ly started to speak in a strange language then switched to English as she looked into my eyes.

“Eyes lovely like stars should not be filled with rain,” Kim-ly said smiling at me. “Jack make good husband no,” she added.

Kim-ly no sooner said that when Michelle asked, “Where ACK, where daddy?”

Kim-ly took Michelle from Janet’s arms as she replied, “Daddy son sleeping right now as it was not his time once more.”

Kim-ly kissed Michelle’s forehead and Michelle smiled at her. Kim-ly handed her back to Janet as she sat down next to me. She took my hand as she told us Jack would be OK. She explained he had lost a lot of blood however; they had gotten him here in time.

Kim-ly patted my hand as she bowed her head to me. She lifted her head as she said, “Doctor tells me someone stopped his bleeding save life,” “You only one wearing blood so I thank you,” as she bowed her head to me once more.

The nurse came walking over and she told Kim-ly she might go back and see her son. Kim-ly stood up and started to walk to the doors then she stopped. She turned to me and motioned for me to come along. The nurse at the door told her that I could not go back there.

Kim-ly looked to her and said, “Cau’s wife,” which I took to mean son’s wife.

The nurse smiled and allowed us to pass. Kim-ly walked us down the hall into a small dimly lit room. Jack lie on a bed with tubes in his nose, IV’s in both arms, one with blood the other with two or three bags dripping stuff into his veins. Kim-ly walked me up to the bed.

She placed her hand onto Jack’s open hand. His eyes flickered a little then she removed her hand from his. She placed my hand into Jack’s hand as I felt him close it tightly around my hand. I looked to see his eyes open as he tried to say something.

However, Kim-ly touched his lips shaking her head. Jack squeezed my hand as I squeezed his. Kim-ly kissed his fore head then rubbed her hand at his hair as she started to sing sweetly. Her voice was lovely as a nightingale as she sung “Hush Little Baby,” to him. Jack’s lips started to move, as he seemed to sing with her. He closed his eyes after he had squeezed my hand one more time.

“You go home clean up get rest, I stay with son then you take over,” Kim-ly said to me patting my hand.

I hugged her and told her thanks for being Jack’s mom. I kissed Jack’s forehead and I thought he smiled. I walked from the room and back to everyone. I explained he looked OK other than the tubes and IV’s running out and into him. I explained Kim-ly told me to go clean up and to rest then come back and take over for her.

I kissed Janet goodnight telling her I would ride home with Grandma. Janet lived in town so there was no reason for her to drive me home then have to drive back to town. Frank drove with Grandma up front. I sat in the back with Michelle who was fast asleep in my arms. I asked grandma just where Jack’s adoptive mother was from.

Grandma turned to me from the front seat as she replied, “Kim-ly is Vietnamese.”

I got a strange look on my face as I looked into the rear view mirror. Frank looked back at me in the rear view mirror. As he looked at me I wondered why Jack would go fight in a war against the same people who had raised him.

“Kim-ly and her husband left their land when it was still peaceful.” “The family they left behind was wiped out by the North when the war broke out,” Frank said. “Jack told me once as a young boy he would seek revenge if given a chance,” he added.

I wondered if Jack had gone to Vietnam because of me or because he sought revenge for the family that had taken him into their home.