Post # 11 - Checklist for life

Sile N'Bhroin ambled passed Spring as she struggled with the handles of the wheelchair, attempting to force the two wheels over the door frame. Spencer winced as the chair fumbled over the bump. 

A frazzled man ran up the stairs, taking two at a time. He brushed past Spencer and Spring, nudging the wheelchair with his hip. Spring's hand slipped and the chair rolled forward, but she managed to regain her grasp. 

"Are you alright?" Spring asked.

"Yes," Spencer said.

"I wonder what his hurry was..." Spring mumbled.

"Who knows," Spencer said.

It was so interesting how the two communicated now. They were both cautious, careful not to upset the other on account of the previous events. 

But they were mostly silent. Not an awkward silence. A serene, comfortable silence that settled between them and felt right. They didn't need to say anything. They just needed to go.

In the second the wheelchair made it across the doorframe, however, Spring realized that she did need to say something.

"I saved a woman's life," she blurted out. "She gave me $10,000." Spencer didn't say anything. Had she really spoken out loud?

But Spencer craned his neck around to look at her out of one eye. "Wow. That's a hell of a story," he said. 

"Yeah," Spring sighed. No one knew yet. But now Spencer did. It felt good to make the events of the last few days known.

"What are you gonna do with the money?" Spencer asked.

Spring contemplated the question. "What would you do?" she asked.

Spencer chuckled. "Hell, I don't know. A few days ago, I would've bought a lifetime's supply of beer and whiskey," he said. "But now ... I don't know. I can't think of anything I'd want that I'm not about to have."

"You're lucky to be so content," Spring said.

Spencer laughed again. "I wasn't always," he said. "But I'm getting out. I'm doing what I want to do. What do you want, Spring?"

Spring was taken aback. No one had asked her this in years.

"I think I want to have a baby," Spring said. "I think I want to use the money to adopt or to pay for artificial insemination."

Spencer looked back at her again. "Wow. That's a big step," he said.

"I know," Spring said. "But that's what I want." 

The tranquil silence settled over them again. Spring wheeled Spencer to the end of the hallway.

"I think you'd make a great mom, Spring," Spencer said.

Spring smiled. 

Post # 10: And one more thing...

There was no getting away from it now. $10,000.
Spring didn't know Linda's address. She didn't have her phone number. She doubted the hospital would give her that kind of information. There was no way for Spring to give the money back, even though she felt she shouldn't take it.
$10,000. It was all hers. As uncomfortable as the thought made her, the money was a relief. The barely-there weight of the check and the thinly-scratched numbers could hardly represent what the money meant.
"What is that?" Trish scream-asked. 
Spring didn't answer. She continued to stare at the paper, holding it in her hand so that only her thumb held it down, as if the wind could cary it away at any second.
"Spring! What is it! Why do you have that look on your face? Spring!" Trish continued.
"Nothing, Trish!" Spring snapped.
Trish looked taken aback. Her face welled up, red and shiny, as she prepared to belt out again.
But Spring was already at the door. She yanked it closed behind her.
Back in her car, Spring looked at the check again. Her heard thudded at the sight of the zeros on the end of the number. $10,000. The things she could do...
But again, she could think of just one thing.
Linda's baby's face flickered in Spring's mind for a moment. She shook her head.
Turning on her car, she made her way towards Spencer's apartment.

Blog 9: Sunset Grill

Spring finally arrived back at her car, miraculously still sitting there on the curb. Of course, there was a ticket. $200. Not as bad as it could be.
The ticket triggered the image of the check. $10,000.
All the things she could do with $10,000. Spring could only focus on one.
But she hadn't taken it. She'd refused, but Linda insisted. So, when she'd fallen asleep again, Spring left it there on the bedside table. She couldn't take $1,000 from a stranger, not even though she'd saved her life.
Spring fumbled in her purse for her keys, finally producing them and getting into her car. She lifted the keys to the ignition to start it. 
Spring jumped at the ring of her phone. She'd almost forgotten about it. She hadn't spoken to someone on her phone in days. Not that she usually got many phone calls.
She answered. "Spring?" It was Spencer's voice.
"This is Spencer Daey. You bought a car from me a while back."
Spring was silent. Spencer had been ignoring her. And the last time she'd called him, she'd left a message sounding like a total lunatic. Now he thought she didn't even remember him.
She realized she'd been silent for several seconds. "Oh yes!" she said, trying to recover from the awkward pause.
"One, I'd like to apologize. I'm sorry for yelling at you."
Spring was silent. She didn't know how to respond. She felt she should be sorry for bothering him in the first place.
"Two, I need a favor."
Spring made a noise like a cough mixed with a laugh. What on earth could she do for him?
"I want to go to the Grand Canyon," Spencer said. "I can't drive, I can't use my legs, but I'd like to go there and I need someone to take me. You're the only person I know who has a car. I thought I might ask..."
Again, words didn't come quickly to Spring. "The Grand Canyon?" Spring finally asked. "But why?"
"Because everywhere there is ground. And that's what I want. I want to feel ground, everywhere, all around me, nothing else. Will you go with me?"
Spring was silent. This was crazy. He was crazy.
But, then again, she was sometimes, too. She had a feeling she knew what he meant about ground. When everything was so out of control, she could use some solid soil, too.
"Okay," she said.
"Okay?" Spencer said, almost surprised.
"Okay!" she exclaimed. 
They made plans to meet within the next few hours. They didn't want to waste any time.
Spring hung up, giddy from the conversation.
There was just one problem, she realized. Her car didn't work. The one reason he called her of all people, her car, and it wasn't working. Or, at least, it hadn't the last time she'd tried.
She sighed. "Here we go," she said. She put the key in the ignition and turned.
The engine hummed beautifully, no, gloriously to life. Spring nearly screamed in excitement. All she needed was to swing by her house to grab some clothes and equipment. 
Trish, unfortunately, was at the door to meet her.
"Spring, where the HELL have you been?!" she screamed.
"No time, Trish," Spring said.
"What do  you mean no time! You've been gone two days and you have nothing to say! And you cursed at me when you left! I want you out! I want you out of here!" Trish gasped for air after her rant. 
"Fine, Trish, I'll get out. As soon as I get my clothes." Trish's screams followed Spring into her room. Caleb's began to mingle with them. She threw some clothes in a duffle bag and grabbed a sleeping bag, and she was ready.
" -don't even have the courtesy to apologize! And take your goddamn mail with you!" Trish's screams continued. She threw an envelope in Spring's direction.
Spring picked it up. "Linda Powers" was printed in the upper left corner.
Spring ripped it open, but she already had a feeling she knew what was inside.
$10,000.

Post # 8: Motifs

Spring drifted off again. She woke to the gentle shakes of a nurse. The woman was petite and blonde. She looked frenzied. Spring read the name "Holloway" on her name-tag. “Linda is okay,” the nurse said.
“Who?” Spring said drowsily.
“Linda, the woman you called 911 for,” she said. “She’s okay.”
“Oh...good, great,” Spring said, waking up a little bit. “What about the baby?”
“We had to induce, but the baby is fine. It’s a little girl,” she said.
Spring smiled and felt as if she might cry.
“Linda would like to speak with you if you are willing,” the doctor said. She motioned towards a door down the hall and then hurried off in the opposite direction.
Spring rubbed her eyes. She felt exhausted. She'd been dreaming about Robbie again. Robbie and a tiny heartbeat inside her chest. She shook her head fervently.
Getting up slowly, the scent of the hospital came back to Spring. The fluorescent lights and bare white walls mingled with the scent, and Spring was reminded of ghosts.
She paced slowly down the hall to the room, poking her head in. Linda lay in the bed. She held a tiny white bundle and was surrounded by balloons and bouquets.
“Spring,” Linda said. “I’m so glad you’re still here.”
Spring didn’t know what to say.
“I just had to thank you. What you did...it was amazing. I owe you my baby’s life,” Linda said.
Spring looked at the tiny baby girl and smiled, still speechless.
“Would you like to hold her?” Linda said.
Spring barely managed to get out a “yes.” She took the little girl in her arms, examining her tiny features.
“Spring, I can’t thank you enough. I wish I had the words, but I don’t,” Linda said. “Instead, I’d like to do something to show you my thanks. She grabbed her purse, pulling a slip of paper out of the pocket. She held it out for Spring.
Spring took it, adjusting the baby in her arms. A glance at the paper revealed that it was a check. A longer look revealed the amount:
$10,000.

Blog 7: the past is always present

Spring woke with a jump. Squinting around, she almost forgot where she was for a moment. She was slumped in the straight-back chair against the wall, and the realization came to her that she was still in the hospital.

The hospital clerks had given Spring permission to leave once the woman’s husband arrived, but Spring wanted to make sure the woman was okay. Spring knew what hospitals were like. The last time she had been in one, she was completely alone. She didn’t want to leave that woman alone. 
Suddenly, the blank walls and the acidic, cleaning-product smell of the hospital began to overwhelm her. She didn’t want to think about the last time she’d been here, but the sights, smells, and sounds were too familiar.
Spring met Robbie when she was 15. They had gym together. She was a freshman and he was a senior. She noticed him watching her one day taking laps around the field. From that point on, she would put on a show for him during physical fitness, strutting around, flipping her hair. She hoped it would encourage him to ask her out.
It did. They started dating and were always together. When Robbie graduated, he went to the community college in order to stay close to Spring, even though he could have gone to the big state university on a basketball scholarship. His parents didn’t approve, but Spring and Robbie were going to get married and start a family and always be together.
Along the way, they accidentally mixed up the order of their plans. At 17, months from graduation, Spring got pregnant. This was okay, though, just fine. It just meant they could be a family even earlier. They perfected their plan: Spring would finish high school and then join Robbie at the community college. They would each take a lighter load of classes in order to take care of the little one they expected. Robbie wanted to know the sex, but Spring wanted it to be a surprise. She had always wanted to be a mother; it didn’t matter if it was a boy or girl.Spring’s father had died when she was young, but her mother couldn’t have been more happy about the pregnancy. She started planning the wedding and fixing up a nursery in the house. Robbie could move in to Spring’s room, and they would all be a family together.
Four months in, Spring woke with pains in her abdomen. She told her mom she felt sick, she wasn’t going in to school. Her mother went to work, and Spring went back to sleep. She woke again to much stronger pains and blood on her sheets. Panicked, she called 911 and went to the hospital.Doctor’s examined her and shook their heads, but no one would tell her anything. She shouted, wanting to know, but they just put her under.
When she woke, her mother sat across from the hospital bed, tears in her eyes. She began to speak but Spring cut her off. She already knew. She didn’t need to hear it out loud. Robbie came to visit, pale and anxious. He wouldn’t look her in the eye. He said he had to go after just 30 minutes.Spring went home later that day. A letter was waiting for her in the mailbox without an envelope. It was from Robbie.
He was sorry about the baby. But he wasn’t really ready to be a dad anyway. And he didn’t think it was right to get married just because of a kid. Spring had been holding him back, really. He had another chance to play basketball in school. It wasn’t as great as his first offer, but he needed to go on to bigger and better things than what she and this town had to offer. She didn’t see him before he left. After graduation, Spring went to work at the Rolling Rink with her mom, helping raise her younger sister, Trish, whose high school sweetheart married her at 18. They had a baby boy.

Blog 6: The Crime

Hours later, Spring had yet to return to her car. She had spent the majority of the day wandering around Poplar Avenue, save for when she slipped into the small café to waste a few hours.

She was getting tired of the same buildings, faceless windows, and cracks in the sidewalk. She was even beginning to become familiar with a smear of old gum on the curb that she had passed at least a dozen times. Time to make a detour.

Halfway down Poplar, as dusk was settling over the street, Spring made the turn onto H. Street. A rush of adrenaline went through her, as this was the "riskiest" and most interesting decision she'd made all day.

There wasn't much on H. Street, either. A gaggle of petite, blond teenagers crowded outside the now-restored Forever XXI for some sale. The manager of the cheap shoe store next door was attempting to coax some of them into his shop, without much luck.

Across the street stood the old Sawmill Theater. For the first time, Spring really looked at the abandoned building. She had lived in Cityblock her whole life, but she never remembered the theater being open. It was if it had always been closed, yet never purchased, renovated, or torn down.

With a sudden wave of curiosity and spontaneity, Spring curved right and walked closer to the run-down theater. She shook the doorhandles, but they were locked. So were the windows.

Spring ambled around the side of the building, finding a staircase leading to a door that apparently opened onto the second floor.

Thinking it she may have luck opening it, she climbed the stairs to the door. She turned the handle. No suck luck.

At that moment, Spring heard a woman's shouts and frantic footsteps. Leaning over the railing, Spring looked down to see an extremely pregnant woman sprawled out on the sidewalk, the contents of her purse and the grocery bags she was carrying spread around her. Just yards away, a figure was sprinting around the side of the theater and around the large shed behind it.

Spring opened her mouth, finding her voice catching in her throat.

"H-h.... Hey! HEY!" she finally got out. "Stop! Hey!"

Spring sprinted down the steps to the woman still on the sidewalk, clutching at her bulging stomach and sobbing.

"Ma'am! Ma'am, are you alright?" Spring nearly shouted.

The woman's words were hard to make out between sobs. "I-I don't know. M-my-my baby! Pl-please help me."

With trembling hands, Spring dialed 911 into her phone.

Blog 5: A brush with death...

Spring ambled slowly down the street, her cheeks tight and itchy from dried tears. She'd completely given up on her appearance. What did it matter, anyway.
She had always been self-conscious about her weight, but she knew she looked ten times worse now, makeup smeared on her face, messy hair up in a sloppy bun.
She looked down at the toes of her shoes. They were black and worn from all the walking. Suddenly, she noticed a stray thread. The hem of her dress was fraying. It was her very favorite dress. It perfectly combined eccentricity with stylishness. She loved the bright pattern and the modest neck and length. The little details of the stitching were so-
Spring heard the screech of brakes and honking in her left ear. She turned and realized she was crossing the street at a green light. Before she could react, she saw the black SUV barreling towards her.
Turning in an ungraceful pirouette, Spring stumbled over her feet and fell on her backside. Baby Caleb's face flashed in her mind.
She barely managed to catch herself with her hands. She felt hot air on her face and smelled smoke.
Looking up, she found herself face-to-face with the grill of the SUV, the cursive words Ford aligned perfectly with her eyes.
Recovering from the shock, Spring slowly forced herself up. The driver of the car, a frizzy-haired, middle-aged woman, gestured violently at her. She rolled down the window.
"Are you crazy!" she shouted.
Spring brushed the grit from the road off her bum and hands. "Sorry," she mumbled, embarrassed for her obliviousness. She stepped onto the curb, and the driver sped off, still glowering at Spring out the window.
Spring recalled the flash of Caleb's face as she fell to the ground. She'd felt strange at the threat of getting hit by a car. Incomplete. As if she hadn't accomplished something important. 
Strange.
Spring looked down at her dress. The hem was ripped clean through.