The street was too noisy. Cars, people shouting, loud music — too many sounds all at once. The Man's room was always quiet all the time she was there. And now she missed that quiet.
Elsa moved fast. Not like a normal girl working. She was walking too close to building walls, keeping her body small and being very careful like she was afraid of the cold weather.
It had been three days since she got out. Her belly was hurting now. It was empty. She needed food. She saw a big man come out of a fancy restaurant and throw away a brown bag into a nearby trashcan. She waited until he went back inside. Then she ran towards the trashcan and brought out the bag. Inside the bag were chicken bones and a piece of bread with butter still on it. People here wasted too much food. She found a hidden spot and to sit. She ate the bread as fast as she could.
The blue light she had seen some days ago was now blinking way in the far off. She crawled out from the hidden dirty spot. She had to cross the biggest street now. It was too wide and too many cars coming and going so fast.
She did not look right, she did not look left. She only looked straight at the blue light as she step right into the busy road.
Then the sound came in too loud. One car. A black car, real shiny, running too fast for the street. It was a blur.
SKREEEEECH.
The sound of the tires was like a ringing static playing off in her head. The bright white lights from that car hit her eyes. Then she felt a hard hit against shoulder and side area. It was not big of an impact to break bones, but a fast push that brought her to the ground.
The loud screeching sound was still in her eyes as the screams of passerbys gave into the volume.
She felt the whole world tilts, like the floor was moving away from the walls. Everything went fuzzy and then everything went black. The blue light, gone.
A tall guy jumped out of the car from the driver's side. He looked scared but also mad.
"Shit, shit, shit," he mumbled, grabbing his hair. He doesn't look at the person laying almost lifeless on the street at first. He looked at the car front bumper, making sure it wasn't too scratch up, then back at her.
mm
A lady rushed up beside Elsa. "Someone call 911! She is hit..oh my....!" People were gathering now. All staring.
"I'll handle it," he say as he walks over to the lady standing by Elsa. "I've got her."
The guy bends over Elsa. "Hey. Hey, are you okay? Can you hear me?" He shook her arm as he yelled like he was trying to wake her up. He touches her neck, checking for a pulse and senses it's faint.
He lifts her up. She weigh almost nothing. Like he was carrying a bag empty air. She is too thin for her long legs. He put her real careful in the back leather seat of the car. He shut the door real fast and ran around to the driver side.
The guy drove fast again. Not to a hospital. He stop the car at a building. He pulls Elsa out real careful, holding her too tight to his chest like she was very breakable.
"Marcus!" he yells out, pushing the door open with his foot.
A younger man was sitting on a sofa, looking at a screen playing a noisy game. He had messy brown hair and was wearing an old, paint-stained t-shirt. This was Marcus, younger brother.
Marcus jump up real fast when he sees his older brother carrying the girl.
"Victor! What are you doing? Who is that? You bring a drunk girl home from the club?" Marcus whisper-yelled. He looked mad and worried all at once.
Victor drop Elsa not too gentle onto the huge, sofa.
"Shut up, you idiot! It's not a club girl! I hit her with the car! She ran right out into the road!" Victor whisper-yell back, wiping sweat from his forehead. "I can't go to the hospital. You know I can't. They call police and I go back to prison."
Marcus stare at Elsa. She look pale and too thin. Her clothes were dirty and torn. She looked like a ghost, not a drunk.
"You hit a kid?" Marcus's voice was very low and quiet now.
"I didn't mean to, man. We gotta keep her here for a couple days. You gotta watch her." Victor was sweating real bad. "No police. No doctors." He ran fast towards the door to lock it.
Marcus walk up to the sofa real slow. Why would a kid run into the road like that? Why did she look so empty? He touched her face soft, noticing a small cut on her forehead.
"How the hell are we supposed to treat her now?" Marcus almost yelled. He was just nineteen year old. He was no nurse or doctor. His brother was a mess.
He walked fast to the closet and found a soft blanket. He throws it over Elsa's body on the sofa. She looked like she was shivering hard.
He went to the bathroom next and found a towel that was still warm and wet. He came back, as he got down low on his knees by the sofa. He looks at her closely now. He touch her hair slow and gentle. It feel like dried grass. He started to wipe the dirt off her skin. He didn't really know what he was doing, but he knew Victor was too upset to do it himself even though it was his own mess. He cleaned her face and hands very slowly, trying not to hurt her.
Marcus finish wiping the dirt away. The girl, Elsa, she is still not moving at all. Just her breathing real shallow, like a quiet puff of air every few seconds.
Victor comes out of the room. He looks less scared but more angry now.
"She hasn't moved for two days now, Victor!" Marcus half-yelled "Two days! Are you sure she isn't... you know? Dying? We have to do something now"
Victor walked over and stare down at the girl. He kick the sofa leg with his shoe.
"She's gotta be breathing," Victor muttered. He bent down and put his ear near her mouth and nose area. He waited for almost a long while. "Yeah, yeahh, she still breathing. I feel it. But it's just weak."
"It's not just weak, Vic, it's faint! She's a kid, she's skinny, and you hit her with a car! What if there's a crack in her head? or she's bleeding internally?" Marcus whisper-yelled, point at the sofa.
Victor pull his hair hard. "If she dies here, we both go down, Marcus! I go back to prison for sure, and you too for hiding the body! This is your mess now, too, because you knew!"
"Are you fucking kidding me right now? are you threatening me now? Oh my god....what have I done?? Look, we gotta take her to a damn hospital!" Marcus shouted, feeling the panic rise up in his throat now.
"To the hospital? And tell them what? 'Oh, my brother on hit this girl and we kept her in our house for two days'? No. Damn No!" Victor's face was dark. "We wait one more day. If she still doesn't move, then we move her. We take her somewhere quiet and leave her for the ambulance to find, far from here."
Marcus looked back at Elsa. She was still, silent, like a statue made of ice. Her life was so close to stopping. And they were playing a game with it.
"oh my god...is she been reported missing by her family, I mean someone somewhere out there is looking for her, right?.
"Alright then, one more day," Marcus agreed, feeling already sick. He watched her chest. He had to be the one to watch her chest move up and down, making sure it didn't stop rising and falling.
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The sun was coming up. Marcus hadn't slept all night. He sat on the floor beside the sofa, watching Elsa's chest rise and fall. Slow.
Victor was snoring loud in his room. Like he didn't care that he has a problem that needed solution. He had now dumped it on Marcus.
Marcus wanted answers. He needed to know if this girl was just lost, or something worse. He took a risk. He leaned close and whispered.
"Hey. You gotta wake up now. I really don't want to go to prison because of him. I'm just nineteen."
Elsa didn't move. She lay there, her face pale and dry.
Marcus sighed. He got up and went to the kitchen. He found a can of soup, heated it up, and brought it to her. The smell filled the quiet room. He brings a spoon to her mouth, kneeling down by the couch.
"You gotta eat this, okay? You haven't eat real food in days," he said softly like she was actually listening to him.
He tried to get the filled spoon into her mouth. But her lips were shut tight. He tried again, gently, still locked shut. He sat back, frustrated. The silence made him feel crazy. So he started talking—just to fill the air. He talked about school and how much he hated it. He talked about Victor and all the stupid trouble that he's always caused.
Marcus went on for almost an hour. Elsa did listen but didn't understand anything, but the sound helped. It wasn't like the silence of being with The Man.
After a long, long time, Elsa's eyes finally opened. They were gray, dull and tired. She saw Marcus.
Marcus instantly jolted into the kitchen and brought her a small bottle of water with a straw. He put the straw near her lips.
"Here, drink up", he fed her gently.
She looked at the straw. Then at his face. Then back at the water. Slowly—very slowly—she moved her head and took one tiny sip. Her throat burned.
He grinned, wide and proud, like he won an award.
"Okay," Marcus said, setting the bottle down. He leaned closer to her, "Hi, there. What's your name?"
Elsa stared blankly at Marcus for a short while. She swallowed hard. Her throat was dry and sore as she tried to speak. She forced the word out, rough and broken.
"El…Elsa.....Elsa."
Marcus's eyes went wide. She had a pretty voice.
"Elsa," he repeated, softer. "That's a pretty name." He smiled again, gentler this time. "You have been asleep for about two days. You had an accident, that's why you're here. Where are you from?"
"Where are you from, Elsa?" Marcus asked again. He still kneeling by the sofa. He didn't sound mad, just like a curious kid asking too many questions.
Elsa look at him. She didn't know how to explain the gray walls and the silent room. She didn't have a from.
She shook her head. No words.
"You don't know?" Marcus's face crinkled up. "Like, you lost your memory? Is that why you ran into the street?"
She just stared at him.
"Okay. Don't worry. It's okay," Marcus said. He sounded like he was trying to calm a puppy, real patient. He stood up and went to the big window. "Look at this city. It's huge. You probably just need time to remember."
He walk back and sit on the floor again, closer this time. He took her hand, just resting it in his. It was a warm hand. The first warm hand she felt that wasn't a memory.
"Victor is a jerk. He's my older brother, and he messes things up and cause a lot of trouble. Recently, he got in trouble for something stupid, and if the police come for you, he goes back to prison."
She didn't respond, but her eyes moved around the big room. It wasn't like The Man's room. It was bright. Too many windows. Her shoulder ached where the car had hit her. The pain was dull now, not sharp. Marcus had wrapped a white bandage around it—crooked, but it worked.
He brought another spoon of soup and tried again. This time, she opened her mouth. The hot liquid tasted strange, but good. She ate five spoons before shaking her head.
"Good..... good girl," Marcus said, proud.
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He spent the rest of the day talking to her. Not about himself this time—about the apartment.
"That's my guitar. I play it, but I'm bad."
"The bedroom's over there. You should sleep on a bed tonight."...
Elsa only watched him. She memorized his words.
Later that night, Victor came out of his room. He saw Elsa sitting up, eating a cracker Marcus had given her.
"She awake?" Victor asked. He looked scared all over again.
"She's awake and but she doesn't talk much" Marcus said, standing tall. "Her name's Elsa. I think she lost her memory. She's gonna stay quiet here until she's better. No police, Vic. We're fine."
Victor stared at Elsa. "You hear that, kid? You don't say nothing to nobody, or we all go down. Got it?"
Elsa looked at Victor. Then
at Marcus. She saw the fear in Victor's eyes and the pride in Marcus's. Marcus looked like he was the safer bet.
She nodded once
"Good," Victor grunted, and went back to his room.
Marcus looked at her again, he pulled the blanket tighter around her. "You can sleep in my room. It's safe."
.