"He's right, you know."
I jumped at the sound of his voice. I couldn't believe it. I looked up and stared at Dad. His eyes were still closed and he hadn't moved. Was I hearing voices all of a sudden? I stood up from the chair and looked at him. No nothing had changed. Then I sat down in the chair again. I had just been imagining things.
Suddenly his eyes opened and he stared at me. "Sune is right," he said. "Haven't I always told you that everything will be just fine?"
"DAD!" I jumped up from my chair and threw myself at him. "You're awake!
My dad chuckled. "That I am," he said with a strained smile.
"Are you in any pain? Should I get the nurse to give you something?"
"Nah. I'll be fine. The old body is just a little tired, that's all." Then he smiled. I hugged him and held him tight feeling the tears roll down my face.
CHAPTER 30
THE NIGHT AT the hospital became quite busy for me. First the nurses came running as soon as I told them Dad was awake, then a doctor examined him and told me that they wanted to keep him for a couple of days more to make sure everything was working the way it was supposed to. Then they told me he needed to rest and I went back to the ER to see if there was any news about the injured woman. In the waiting room the police came to talk to me. They took my statement and were soon on their way telling me this was a very busy night with the snow causing many accidents.
"Will I be charged with anything?" I asked just before they left.
"We'll be in touch," was their not so satisfying answer.
Of course they needed to look into the circumstances of the accident before they could determine if I had done anything wrong. I knew that perfectly well, I was just hoping for a more comforting answer.
I had a strange feeling inside sitting in the waiting room staring out the window or flipping through old magazines without even looking at the pictures. Part of me was happy, thrilled even, that Dad had woken up and was feeling better, but then I was overwhelmed with guilt since it was after all my fault that this woman was laying in there while the doctors fought for her life.
I texted Sune and told him that my dad was awake and he replied with an annoying “Told you everything would be fine.” Then I laughed as I read the text again. Had I in fact found a guy who was just like my dad? They did both have the same calm nature, they were both like rocks and they always chose to stay positive even when things looked awful. It was a wonderful quality in a guy and something that often made me forget how young Sune was.
I put the phone back in my pocket when I spotted a nurse walking past the waiting room. I approached her.
"Hello, nurse? Excuse me."
She stopped and turned to look at me with a smile clearly indicating that she was busy and did not have time for this, but she did it anyway.
"Yes?"
"I was wondering if there was any news about the woman I brought in a couple of hours ago. She was hit by a car."
"Let me get a doctor for you who can answer that," she said and walked away still smiling widely and forced.
"Okay, thanks!"
I went back to the chairs and waited for another half an hour before someone finally approached me. He sat down in the chair next to me. His eyes were serious. The nametag said Dr. Wad.
"Are you the driver who hit the woman with her car?" He asked.
I swallowed hard feeling my stomach turn into a knot. "Yes. How is she?"
"I'm afraid she is not doing too well," he said.
I felt my heart pounding in my chest. My cheeks flushed and I gasped for air. "Will she ... is she ..."
The doctor sighed. It wasn't a nice sigh, it was deep and worried. "She is very sick and we are having a hard time finding out what is causing this. Plus we don't know who she is. She didn't carry a wallet or any identification. Do you have any idea who she is or where she is from?"
I shook my head. "No. She just jumped right out in front of my car. Like she was running and was surprised that there was a car. It was really strange. You said she was really sick, did that come from being hit by the car?"
"No, no. She keeps vomiting blood and having seizures. This has nothing to do with the hit. She has a few fractures on her left arm from bumping into the car, but that is not what is making her sick. She has also ripped her arms and legs on what may have been barbed wire."
"Then what is making her sick?"
He looked at me and our eyes locked. "If only we knew," he said with heavy voice. "If only we knew."
"Will she survive it?"
"We don't know yet."
I gave the doctor my number and told him to call me if there was any news about her condition. He promised to do so. Slightly dazed and startled I walked down to the reception and asked her to call a cab for me.
"In this weather it might take awhile for them to get here," she said.
"It's okay. I'll be right over here," I said and pointed at some chairs in the lobby. Then I walked to them and took off my jacket. I folded it into a pillow and laid my head on it. Soon I was sleeping heavily.
CHAPTER 31
SOREN SEJR HAD a happy morning. He was thankful he was still alive but even more thankful that no one else had died at the camp during the night. Two people in two days was enough to drive them all into panic, and that was exactly what the devil wanted them to do. He always used fear to prevent them from accomplishing anything, to paralyze them.
Well, he would never get to Soren Sejr. Not again, not anymore.
He ate his breakfast consisting of only boiled carrots and oatmeal while studying the new young ones who arrived at the camp just a few days ago. Like all newcomers they looked scared and insecure, trying hard to fit in into this new life that had been given to them. Trying hard to grasp this new chance to start over in life that had been handed to them. Until now they thought they were only supposed to be here for a short period of time, which was what they were told.
Soren Sejr had recruited the four of them himself.
He found one in the nightlife of Holbaek right outside of a club, lying drunk on the ground alone, abandoned by his friends who didn't care enough about him to even help him, leaving him in the hands and fate of complete strangers like Soren Sejr. Soren had talked to him and realized the boy had nowhere to go since his parents had thrown him out and now he stayed with a friend in his apartment but since the friend had found a girl that same night, the young boy had to sleep outside in the freezing cold. Soren had told him he knew a place they could go and get a nice meal and somewhere to sleep for the night. The young boy had said he thought it sounded wonderful and followed Soren Sejr into his van.
The second youngster he had found among the drug addicts in Copenhagen. He always knew where to look, in a stairway in Vesterbro next to the Central Station. The young kids would sniff glue or take the needles left there by the real drug addicts and take the leftovers in them and inject them in their veins with the risk of getting all kinds of diseases.
The third was a girl he rescued from the hands of a violent boyfriend. They were arguing in an alley, both of them very drunk and he was slapping her across the face. Soren parked his van and grabbed his baseball bat. Then he rescued the girl by beating the boy senseless.
He told the girl he would take her to a place where she could meet friends and people like her. Drunk and high, she accepted his invitation not knowing what else to do or where to go. She fell asleep in the backseat immediately after Soren had started the van.
The last one had been a lot harder to get to go with him in the van. This girl had been quite resistant when he approached her at the train station where she was on her way home after a night in town. Soren sat on the bench next to her and started talking to her, asking her where she was going. She had gotten up and left telling him that it was none of his business and to leave her alone. Soren didn't like to be too pushy so he stayed in his seat trying to figure out what to do to help this poor girl find the true purpose to her life. She was so beautif
ul, he thought to himself. So young, with skin so tight and smooth. Her short dress showed her long legs in panty hose and her low-cut shirt revealed her fleshy breasts, so juicy and sensational. Soren loved the young girls the most and even more he loved to help them get away from this horrific world that only wanted to exploit them and use their young bodies. This was his calling in life, to change the course of these youngster's lives. It was his mission and he adored it, he thought as he approached the young girl from behind with a cloth of chloroform holding it against her face while she struggled to get free. He loved the power, the strength that the good Lord had given him to help these people. He knew that even if they tried to fight him now they would eventually end up loving him. Like a slave learns to love her master. Some day they would thank him for what he had done; thank him for helping them get away from this world and all its atrocities.
Yes Soren Sejr was a happy man this morning, happy because he was alive and no one else had died last night, and happy because this was the day when he started training his new recruits. Today was the day he started shaping them into real servants of God.
CHAPTER 32
SUNE LET ME sleep in the next morning and took care of the kids. I heard them downstairs but still managed to get an hour or so more of sleep. Around eleven the kids couldn't keep out any longer and came into my room.
"Mom? Are you still sleeping?" Julie whispered.
"Not anymore," I said and opened my eyes. I smiled when I looked into her deep blue eyes. Then I grabbed her and pulled her into the bed where I started tickling her.
"Stop!" she laughed.
Then I kissed her and held her tight. "Grandpa is better," I said. "He woke up yesterday and talked to me. Do you want to go with me to the hospital today and see him? I think he would like that."
Julie's eyes smiled. Then she nodded. "I miss him, Mom."
I sighed and kissed her again. "Me too sweetie. Me too."
"His breakfast is better than Sune's."
I laughed. "What did he give you?"
"He tried to make oatmeal but it tasted horrible. I had some cornflakes instead," Julie said.
I chuckled. "I could go for one of his big breakfasts right now. I'm starving."
I had a bowl of cornflakes when I got downstairs and ate it while letting my mind wander. Sune grabbed another cup of coffee and sat at the table while reading the newspaper.
I looked at him and felt suddenly emotional. "I'm scared, Sune," I whispered.
He put down the paper. "Of what?" He said.
"That woman dying. I'm not sure how to live with myself if she dies."
He reached out and grabbed my hand. "She'll be okay."
"I keep thinking about her and wondering where she came from, who she was. They said she didn't have any papers or even a wallet. Who walks around in the middle of the forest on a snowy night without anything, not even a jacket?"
"Sounds weird to me too," he said and sipped his coffee. "Maybe she is a psychiatric patient? Maybe she escaped from somewhere?"
I nodded pensively. "Or maybe she was running from something."
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Sune asked.
"I might be. If you're thinking she came from the camp. I was driving right past it at the moment. I didn't see what direction she came from, but she could have come from up there."
"That was exactly what I was thinking," Sune said.
"She had also ripped her arms and legs on barbed wire, the doctor told me. Sounds like she climbed the fence." I felt a pinch in my stomach. "She was sick," I continued. "She was throwing up. Wasn't that what the Priest was doing before he died? According to the statements we read he was vomiting blood. So was she."
"What about the other guy that died?" Sune said. "According to what I heard on the radio then the police were investigating it like it was some kind of food poisoning."
"Could it be some kind of collective suicide pact?" I asked. "Could this woman be trying to escape from it because she didn't want to do it?"
Sune shrugged. "Sounds plausible. Lots of sects commit collective suicide. Maybe she regretted it at the final moment."
"Isabella Dubois did keep talking like it was the end of the world or something. Like an apocalypse. Maybe they believe that and now they all want to die before the end is coming."
"Like the religious group Heaven's Gate who committed suicide in the late nineties?" Sune asked. "Remember them?"
"Yes. They killed themselves following the comet Hale-Bopp. Wasn't it in order to reach some spaceship or something? I don't remember the details, but you get the picture."
Sune nodded. "It could be something like that. Lots of religious sects have done similar things."
I finished my bowl of cereal and put it in the dishwasher. "I think we should go to the hospital right away," I said and wiped my mouth on a paper towel, then finished my glass of orange juice. "I promised Julie to take her to see her granddad today and I really want to talk to Dr. Wad about that woman and make sure she is still alive. I might have to contact the local police as well and tell them my theory. There might be a lot of people in that camp who are forced to participate in this if so it needs to be stopped immediately."
I stopped on my way to the living room. Then I turned and looked at Sune.
"I know," he said. "You don't have a car. I called the towing company but they have a lot to do today, so they couldn't promise that they would be able to bring it back today. Maybe tomorrow, they said."
"We'll take a cab then."
CHAPTER 33
MY DAD WAS sitting up in his bed when we entered the room. It made me smile. Julie ran to him with a shriek.
"Grandpa!" she yelled and hugged him.
He chuckled and hugged her back. I kissed him on the cheek. "How are you feeling today?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Still a little weak, but definitely better. But enough fussing about me. How are my munchkins?"
Julie and Tobias looked at each other then they laughed. "Sune made breakfast," Julie said. "It was really bad. And yesterday he tried to make dinner, pork chops, but he screwed that up too."
"Don't say that Julie," I said. "It was really nice of Sune to take care of you. Tell him you're sorry."
Julie looked at Sune. "Sorry," she said.
Sune smiled. "It's okay. I'll try harder."
Dad laughed. It felt nice to see him happy again. He had even regained a little color in the cheeks. "It's nice to know that I have been missed," he said. "How long do you think I need to lay around here? I really want to get out now."
"I don't know," I said. "I haven't talked to the doctor today."
"It sounds like you need me at the house, so if you could, tell him I really want to go home today."
"I will, Dad. But once we get you home you have to remember to rest too, okay?"
"I have a feeling you're going to be really annoying about this," he said. "I'm not dead yet, you know."
"No, but you could have been."
Dad ignored my remark and concentrated on the kids. They talked about the snow that hadn't stopped falling since yesterday. They told him what they had been doing and about the snowman in the yard that was now covered in so much snow they were thinking about making him into an igloo instead. Dad enjoyed listening to them. I looked at Sune.
"I'll go talk to the doctor. Be right back," I whispered.
"Okay," Sune said and kissed my cheek.
"Ew," Julie exclaimed.
I shrugged and sighed. Then I left the room. I went into the hallway and found a nurse who didn't seem to be busy. "Excuse me, do you know where I can find Dr. Philipsen?" I asked.
"Actually I just saw him attending another patient. If you wait here he'll be out in just a minute."
"Okay, thanks."
"No problem."
I only had to wait for a few minutes before a door opened and Dr. Philipsen showed his face. He spotted me immediately and as soon as he had talked to a nurse and given her what looked like ins
tructions he walked towards me.
"Rebekka Franck," he said. "I just told my secretary to call you a minute ago and tell you to come in."
"Well here I am. Hopefully you have good news for me?" I asked with a knot in my stomach fearing that he didn't. "I mean my dad is already much better. He was sitting up when we came in this morning."
"That he is," Dr. Philipsen said but his face remained serious. A little too serious. It scared me. I couldn't figure out if that was just his professionalism, this distance, or if he was about to tell me some bad news. I hated that about doctors. You could never read their faces.
"We're all very pleased to see his improvement," he continued.
"Why do I feel like there is a 'but' coming up?" I asked nervously.
"Because there is," he said.
I froze. I really couldn't bear any more bad news. I was an emotional wreck already.
"Remember how I told you that the lab needed to run more tests on your father?" he asked looking at me over the top of his glasses. It made me feel like a child standing in front of my teacher.
"Yes. You told me they detected something unusual in his blood sample that they wanted to look into," I said my voice trembling slightly. I was already imagining the worst kinds of things that could be wrong with my father.
"Well yes. They did and I just received the results. I have to say that what they came up with is quite unusual and slightly disturbing."
I swallowed hard. What was he saying? Was my dad seriously ill or something? Was this the moment where he told me my dad only had a few months to live? Or maybe just a few weeks?
Oh please don't say something like that. Please let it be good news, please.
"What kind of result?" I managed to ask while a knot of tears was growing in my throat making my breathing troubled. Many thoughts ran through my mind. It doesn't have to be bad news. He only said it was disturbing and unusual. It doesn't have to mean he has to die, does it?