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Arts & Entertainment

NoHo Noir Short Fiction: 'Forgiveness'

There are at least two sides to every story and sometimes even more.

Maggie Hamilton knew exactly who Jill and Ethan were the minute they entered her hospital room. Her husband Tim had no idea who they were but sensed a threat anyway and was on his feet and moving toward them aggressively before they’d even cleared the doorway. Tim was a tall man, and bulky, and used to intimidating people with his size.

Valley Presbyterian Hospital

15107 Vanowen Street

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Van Nuys, CA 91405

10:06 a.m.

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“This is a private room,” he said and kept moving as if to physically push them back through the door. Ethan planted one of his crutches like a barrier to block his path. Tim stopped an arms’ length away, breathing hard. Meanwhile Jill moved to Maggie’s side and was looking down at her still-bandaged arms.

“How are you feeling?” she asked softly.

“I’m so sorry,” Maggie said. “I’m so terribly sorry.”

“Shut up Maggie,” Tim barked without looking at her. He was an attorney and even though the police had told him the baby’s parents weren’t going to press charges, the less she said the better.

He locked eyes with Ethan. “I appreciate you not pressing charges,” he said, “but you’re not welcome here.”

Ethan, who hadn’t wanted to be in the hospital room in the first place, gave Tim his best mad-dog stare, which backed the big man up a step. “My girl has something to say to your wife,” he said. 

“No,” Tim said. He shook his big, square head and said it again, “No.”

“Tim,” Maggie said. 

“Shut up Maggie,” he said again.

Ethan took a step forward, wincing as too much weight came down on his wounded leg.

“How about we take it outside,” he suggested. “Give the ladies a chance to talk.”

Tim looked like he was going to object but then he capitulated.

“I need a smoke,” he said, and pushed past Ethan to get to the door.

Ethan gave Jill a look and then swiveled on his crutches to follow Tim.

Maggie visibly relaxed the moment her husband was out of sight.

She caught Jill’s eyes and tensed up again.

“Sorry. My husband can be …”

“Kind of intense?” Jill suggested.

“Yeah,” Maggie said. “Intense is a good word for it.”

She shifted uncomfortably on the bed.

“You’re still in pain,” Jill observed.

“I’m trying to wean myself off the meds,” Maggie said. “They make me feel too good.”

Jill, who was a little too fond of Vicodin herself, nodded understandingly.

 

***

 

In front of the hospital, Tim Hamilton was sucking down a cigarette as if going for a speed smoking record. Ethan watched him without comment. He knew most people were unnerved by silence and figured eventually Tim would have something to say.

“So,” Tim said finally, grinding out his cigarette even as he lit another one, “you two aren’t married? Is it because she’s black?”

“No,” Ethan said. “It’s complicated.”

Tim blew smoke.  “Lucky bastard,” he said. “I married Maggie because she got knocked up. Wasn’t a lot of choice back then.”

 

***

 

“Tim wants me to come home with him,” Maggie told Jill. 

“What do you want to do?”

“I don’t want to go home without my daughter,” Maggie said fiercely.

“How long has she been missing?” Jill asked, thinking, You poor woman.

“A long time,” Maggie said sadly. 

“I didn’t know she had run away for almost a week,” she confessed. “She used to go over to her friend’s house and stay the night when she was angry about something. I thought that was where she was until her friend called asking for her."

Friend, Jill thought. Just one friend.

“What kind of mother doesn’t know when her daughter is missing?” Maggie asked.

Tears rolled down her cheeks but she made no move to wipe them away.

Jill took her hand.

“Tim resented Mary,” Maggie said. “He was accepted at Harvard Law but when I got pregnant, he had to take a job and go to law school at night. He never forgave me for ruining his chance to become an Ivy League lawyer.” S

he was silent for a moment. 

“I should have had an abortion.”

“No,” Jill said, surprised by her own vehemence. Maggie looked at her in surprise.

“Abortion’s not a theoretical concept for you, is it?”

“No,” Jill said. “If my father had had his way, I would have been aborted.”

They both lapsed into silence.

 

*** 

 

“I didn’t want Maggie to come out here,” Tim said, lighting his third cigarette. “I’ve been on the Web sites, I know the statistics. I know the odds aren’t good that we’ll find her. I know she’s probably dead.”

His voice shook as he said this and that made him angry. He wasn’t a man who liked to show his feelings, especially not in front of strangers.

“Maybe not,” Ethan said mildly. “That’s actually what Jill and I want to talk to you about.”

Tim went on as if Ethan hadn’t said anything. “And Jesus, it’s not as if she’d want to come back to us. By the time she left, our house was a war zone. That last thing she said to her mother was .”

He trailed off.  “It was vile,” he said softly.

“What was the last thing she said to you?” Ethan asked, genuinely curious.

The question surprised Tim enough that he paused with his cigarette halfway to his mouth.

“I don’t know,” he admitted sheepishly. “We’d pretty much stopped talking by the time she left.”

 

***

 

“I tried to kill myself when Mary ran away,” Maggie told Jill. “Tim was so angry with me.”

Tim is a raging asshole, Jill thought, but knew it would only distress the other woman if she expressed her opinion out loud.

“He didn’t want me to come out here,” she said. “He told me that I should forget about her and that we should go on with our lives.”

She picked at the dressing on her right arm. The gauze needed changing, it was yellow with pus.

“If you hadn’t come out here,” Jill said, “my baby would have burned up in that car. And I would be the one trying to kill myself.”

She pulled an object from her purse and handed it to Maggie.

It was a tiny baby shoe, singed in one spot.

“We found that in your hotel room,” Jill said.

Maggie stared at the little shoe in her hands, transfixed by the burn mark.

“Thank you for saving my baby,” Jill said.

“Thank you,” Maggie whispered. “Thank you for not hating me.”

 

***

 

“I’m going to look for your daughter,” Ethan said.  “I can’t go back to work until my medical leave’s over so I’ve got the time.”

Tim was instantly on his guard again. “I’m not interested in hiring you.”

“I’m not looking for a payday,” Ethan said impatiently.

“Then what?” Tim asked.

“Forgiveness,” Ethan said.

“I don’t understand,” Tim said.

“You don’t have to,” Ethan answered.

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