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  Dr. Moore turned around and looked at him; he was still staring at Dr. Whitney through the glass window. Dr. Whitney had not been working there for long, but she was still part of the team, part of the family. They spent so many hours in the same place that sooner or later they all became family. Dr. Moore knew that was probably the reason why Dr. Meacham was feeling a little down. Seeing one of his fellow co-workers dying in front of his eyes had to be extremely difficult for him. It’s not like having a car accident or being murdered, the person he knows is right in front of him, and he cannot do anything to save her or even prolong her death. Dr. Moore knew Dr. Meacham needed time to think by himself to analyze the situation at hand. Dr. Moore decided not to waste any more time, he slowly opened the door, so not to disturb Dr. Meacham. Dr. Moore exited the room and closed the door behind him.

  The sound of the door brought Dr Meacham back to reality. He pulled a chair in front of the glass wall and sat down. He never broke eye contact with his patient. A million thoughts were going through his mind. He didn’t want to let anyone down, but this was something he was not going to be able to fix. He stood up, walked toward the little desk inside the office, and picked up the phone.

  “May I speak with Dr. Spranger?” Dr. Meacham asked the receptionist on the other end of his call. “He is currently in a meeting,” the lady on the phone said.“I don’t care if he is in a meeting, or in the bathroom looking at porn, you need to get him on the phone! You need to tell him Dr. Meacham needs to talk to him, and is an emergency! Do it NOW!” Dr. Meacham could tell the lady’s attitude had changed, and she was going to comply to his demand.

  “Sir, give me a second,” the lady said. A few minutes passed before he heard a man’s voice through the phone. “How can I help you?” the man said. “I’ve got a situation that is currently unfolding here in my building and I don’t really have a starting point for it. I was wondering if you can review some specimens I have? You know I would never ask for your help unless I really needed it. I understand we are not on the best terms anymore, but I think my situation could also affect you and your people. Let’s leave the past mistakes in the past,” Dr. Meacham said.

  “For you to call me and pretty much beg for my help, it must really be some situation you’ve got there. You know I don’t respect you as a person anymore, but I do respect your work and your research. So if you need my help, something really big must be happening. Send me what you’ve got and give me a few hours,” Dr. Spranger said.

  “Everything is already in your email; I was going to send it to you even if you had said no,” Dr. Meacham said. “Cocky as always. I’ll reply in a few hours. I’ve got my own share of situations over here,” Dr. Spranger said. “Just do me a favor, when you read my email, please prioritize on the last question, ok?”“No problem” Dr. Spranger said.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Emma Smith

  If Emma would have known about the events that were about to unfold, she would have done things differently the day before. Shit, she would have even gone to bed early, but instead Emma spend all night talking on the phone with Jason. Being grounded didn’t make a difference. Even if Emma’s parents took her cell phone and computer away, she was fine by it. She was prepared for these type of situations. She always had a back-up plan; even her mother said that she was way too mature for her age. Emma always saw them as ignorant, and she prided herself as being the smart rational one of the family.

  Emma was glad that Jason had given her a pre-paid cell phone for her to have in case she ever got grounded, which by his calculations, was about every other week. After all, every time Emma was in this type of predicament it was because of him, so in a way he was trying to make it up to her. Emma really didn’t care since the money was not coming out of her pocket. Emma didn’t think about herself as a gold digger or anything like that, but shit, how could she say no to stuff someone else was buying for her? It’s not like Emma was sleeping with anyone in exchange for stuff. Emma knew a few girls in her high school that would do sexual favors for old guys around the neighborhood. Emma even knew about the relationship between Katy Huffman and Mr. Edwards, the math teacher.

  Emma saw them going into the math classroom and locking themselves up inside after all of the other students were gone. “I guess you’re stupider than you look, to get a B minus instead of an A after you let that nasty old man doggy hump you for an hour,” Emma remembered telling Katy. It was true, Emma always thought about Mr. Edwards as a disgusting old man, already in his forties, and still trying to pick up young girls. “Only stupid girls would fall for that bullshit,” Emma said. Emma never mentioned a word to anyone about the thing she had seen.

  She had the tendency to say what she needed to say to that person’s face and no one else’s. That was one of the things Jason hated about her, and was trying so hard to change, but she was too stubborn to listen to him or change on her own. Maybe one day she would change, but not now. She didn’t want to be like her mother, always following her dad around and doing everything he said, like sheep following direction from a Labrador. Emma hated how her mother was so simple minded, always repeating and reassuring everything her dad said. Emma used to call her “K.A.E or Kiss Ass Echo.” Her mother never knew the meaning of it, but she knew it was not pleasant. Emma found it so annoying. It was funny when she was little but not now.

  But for Emma everything she knew was about to change forever, and today was the day. The day that her whole life would alter, and there was nothing she could do to prevent it.

  The banging noise was so loud it echoed through Emma’s room. Scared to her bones, Emma woke up feeling her heart beating like a Latin conga. She looked around her room making sure none of her stuff had fallen from her dresser. For a moment she thought that her middle school run & track trophy had fell. The first trophy she had ever won in her life, well, at least the only first place trophy she had won. The dresser was the only piece of furniture holding her life achievements, from a time when she was dedicated to school and her studies.

  The rest of the walls in her room were covered with emo looking stuffed animals and Japanese animation posters. Her mom and dad didn’t even know what all posters were about, and didn’t pay too much attention to them. Emma grabbed her pillow, laid back down, and covered her face. She was trying to go back to sleep. But the sun was already out and the headboard of her bed was laying against the window, even though her mother didn’t like it. She was a teenager, a rebel to society, and a wanna be adult.

  Her mom just didn’t like it because she was afraid that someone would reach through the window and grab her hair. Emma laughed at her mom every time she heard her mom’s worries. Her mom usually got mad and walked out of Emma’s room, yelling how disrespectful and inconsiderate she was. What her mom didn’t know was that there was a reason why Emma’s bed was setup that way. They both had grown apart soon after Emma started high school. Due to that and other family issues, neither of them were brave enough to talk to each other. Her mom didn’t even know that she had a boyfriend. The only reason Emma had her bed against the window was because it was easier for her to hear when her boyfriend threw rocks at the window, letting her know that he was there to help her sneak out.

  The banging noise echoed through her room again. Who in the world is making so much noise this early? she thought. Looking out her window to the backyard, she saw her dad. He was building another of his weekend projects. “Why is he up so early building all that crap, it’s not like he is ever going too finished it”. She thought. She was right, her dad had the tendency of starting a project every other weekend, but never finishing it. Like the wooden rocking chair he started last month. After not being able to bend the bottom legs of the chair to make it rock back and forth, he quit. Another piece for his “hoarding collection.” A few times she thought about calling that TV show where they do interventions on hoarders, she always thought her dad fit the profile.

  “Well I’m already up”, she thought. She headed down th
e stairs and into the kitchen to see what her mom had made for breakfast. Emma noticed the missing smell of pancakes, and remembered that her mom was going out. For a moment, she thought her dad may have made breakfast, but then again, he usually didn’t worry about anybody else in the house. “He should have at least made some scramble eggs and toast, but instead he went straight outside. If he was going to spend all day in the backyard, at least some food would have been nice.” She thought.

  “Unbelievable, seems like nobody cares about me in this family, the only one that really gets me is Jason. I wish he could spend the night”. She knew better, though. If her mom ever found a guy in her room — she was a dead girl, and Jason would probably be cut in little pieces and fed to the fishes. She had a vivid imagination about possible murder scenarios ever since her mom made her watch a few serial killer movies. She remembered her Dad always kidding around about her mom looking for a way to get rid of him and collecting the life insurance.

  He always joked about how she was getting the right tips on how to murder someone. Emma still remembered her mom saying that if anyone ever hurt her children, she will kill them in a slow painful way. That used to creep her out and make her think that she was adopted. But she didn’t have any proof. It didn’t help that the three of them were so different, with a somewhat psychotic mom and a lazy father. She wanted to leave the house, run away, but she was only sixteen years old. She knew better than trying to run away. And besides that, where would she go? To her teenage boyfriend, who still lived with his parents? A friend? Nope, she had seen too many movies where the girls got kidnapped and forced into prostitution. Well she was kind of forced to watch those types of movies, but not according to her mother. Though, it was really convenient for her mom to start watching the movies right after Emma got home from school. It also didn’t help that her mom was always blaming the victims of all the movies. “If they would have listened to their parents, nothing would have ever happened,” her mom used to say. Even as a rebel, the movies had done their job and prevented her from leaving the house. She always compared it to an invisible force field. “Two more years until I turn 18, and I can leave this house, find me an apartment somewhere, and not have to worry about all the nagging of my family”.

  Emma felt the vibration in her pocket. She had forgot about the cellphone Jason had gave her, in case of an emergency. Well more like “If you get grounded you can use the phone to call me.” After a few seconds, she realized what it was. She took a look around ensuring her Dad was still in the backyard, quickly ran upstairs to her room and lock the door.

  “About time, so when are you stopping by? I haven’t seen you for about a week,” Jason said over the phone. “Well, it is your own fault. I told you not to show up at my house and you did anyway,” Emma replied. “Well, if it wouldn’t have been for your Dad, I would have scored with you,” Jason said. All he could think was how hot Emma looked in her bikini the last time they ditched school and went to the lake. Too bad they had some friends with them and he couldn’t make a move on her. They had been dating for a few months now, but Emma hadn’t even let him grab her butt. He always thought she was such a tease, and since he had a one hundred dollar bet with his friends, he needed to get her in bed. All he could do now was smile, and think about how to get her there.

  “Wipe that smirk off your face,” Emma said. Even though she was on the other side of the phone, she knew him well enough to know he always had that smirk on his face when he talked about anything related to sex.

  “I don’t know what you are talking about,” Jason replied, letting out a quick laugh. “Well you should know,” she said. Emma knew he would try anything to get her to sleep with him. She came really close a couple of weeks back, but her dad came home early. He had told her he was going fishing.

  Since he retired a year ago — more like medical discharge from the army — all he had been doing is milking the Veteran Affairs for a stupid injury he incurred in one of his unit training exercises. Emma’s dad spent most of his time fishing or playing golf with his buddies. But for some reason that day he returned early and caught Jason in Emma’s room. Emma was glad Jason was able to jump out of the window and escape the rage of her dad. Even if his back had an injury, he was still a good runner. But he was too old to be jumping out of the window to chase after Jason. He sure let her have it afterward. He yelled at her for almost two hours.

  Afterward, she was grounded, and Jason didn’t even apologize for getting her into trouble. It had been his idea to go back to Emma’s house. She had no plans on letting Jason anywhere near her anymore. Since she’d been grounded every time she talked with Jason on the phone, she liked to mess around with him. Emma didn’t care anymore if Jason thought of her as a tease, it was fine by her, she wasn’t putting out anyway.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Jason said.“You should not think of my body as Temple, you should think of it more like an amusement park,” Emma said.

  Jason stayed quiet for a second, not knowing if to laugh or be concerned about Emma’s comments. He always thought that she was a virgin or that she had never been with anybody else, but he could be wrong. “Did a cat bite your tongue off, don’t be so shy now,” Emma said. “Whatever, so are you coming or what?” “You know, I’ll have to pass on your invitation, they already took my driving privileges for two weeks because of you. I don’t want my driving gone for a whole month,” Emma said.

  “Whatever,” Jason replied and then hung up.“Well screw you too,” Emma said, turning off the phone and put it back in her pocket. Emma was trying to persuade her dad to lift her punishment. Emma been doing the same thing for the past couple of days. She’d been waking up, getting dressed, and trying to stalk her dad to see if he would let her go out. But for the past few days, she had failed miserably and instead of letting her off the hook, her dad had gotten madder and sent her back to her room. Emma walked down the stairs and into the kitchen.

  She opened the refrigerator door and grabbed the last apple in sight. She headed out the backdoor into the backyard. All the hammering had stopped, and her dad was nowhere in sight. Emma walked inside her dad’s tool shack. It was the only project her dad had ever finished. The tool shack was a decent twelve by twelve wooden shack. She stepped inside and looked around but couldn’t see her dad. Emma knew he had to be out there because he would never leave his tools outside.

  “Dad, hello!” Emma yelled. She didn’t get any response, so she continued to walk around the backyard. She was about to go back inside the house when she heard a noise coming from the back of the tool shack. Emma slowly walked toward the back of the shack. When she turned the corner, she saw her dad’s boots on the floor. “Dad!” Emma yelled. Her dad’s body was twitching as if he was having a seizure, but Emma knew that couldn’t be because he had never had such a condition.

  She left him there and ran inside the house to call 911. After a couple of rings, a woman’s voice answered, she sounded in her late 30’s early 40s, and asked what the emergency was. Emma explained the reason for the call and the woman told Emma to turn her dad on his side and let him rest to help prevent shock. However, she would not be able to send any emergency vehicles to her house because all the emergency services were busy.

  “What do you mean they’re busy? I am not a freaking doctor; you guys need to send one over here!” Emma yelled on the phone. The female voice on the phone started crying, which confused Emma. “What is wrong, why the heck are you crying?” Emma said. The voice remained quiet for a second or two.

  “You have not watched the news? Your dad is not the only one. Hope God gives you strength,” the female voice said and suddenly the dial tone filled Emma’s ear. The woman had hung up. She wanted to turn on the TV, but she needed to go check on her dad. She didn’t know what the lady was talking about. Why would she say such a thing to a complete stranger, and more importantly, why did she hang up the phone on an emergency? Emma tried to call 911 again, but this time all she got was the bu
sy tone. She dropped the phone and ran outside to check on her dad. To her surprise, he was no longer where she left him.

  “Dad!” Emma yelled. After not getting a response, and not seeing her father anywhere around the backyard, she ran inside the house and up the stairs. Emma got to her room and pulled the cell phone from under her mattress. She turned on the phone and tried calling Jason, but after a few unanswered rings she hung up and tried calling her mom. The phone continued to ring for a few more seconds, until she heard her mom’s voice.

  “Hello?” Her mom said.

  “It’s Emma, something happened to Dad. He was lying on the floor twitching, and I tried to call 911, but they are not coming, and now dad disappeared,” Emma said.

  “You need to get out of the house, NOW!!” Emma’s mom yelled. “Is not safe inside the house, I need you to get in your car, and come to Grams!” Emma didn’t know what was wrong with her mom, and wondered why she didn’t even ask for her Dad. It seemed like she already knew what happened, but that was impossible since her mom was at her grams house. Could her mom be responsible for what happened to her dad? Emma thought, then shook her head. “Naaa,” Emma murmured.

  Emma forgot to ask her mom where she had hid the car keys. Since Emma had been grounded for the past two weeks, her parents had hid the keys in case Emma tried to go out. But she didn’t have time call again, her mom sounded frantic on the phone. Emma went into her parents’ bedroom looking for the keys. She always loved how her mom had set up the room with every single piece of furniture on black and white, even the pictures above their parent’s bed displayed abstract paintings in black and white. Emma opened her mom’s dresser drawers but couldn’t find anything, then she remembered the small black leather box where her dad kept all his watches. He used to collect watches. Emma remembered her dad showing her the very first watch he bought with his own money. Emma used to laugh because it was missing the bands, the battery was dead, and because her dad was so cheap and lazy, he’d rather by a new watch than replace the battery on the old one.