Emma's Deliverance by Susan Vance Page B

helped her stand up. Emma began to cry as they walked out the door to his car. Howard drove to a small private hospital where Dr. William’s nurse met them just inside the door. She asked Emma to sit in the wheelchair, then she wheeled her down a long hall and into the elevator. From there things looked a lot different. The nurse pushed her into her room and said she would be right back. It was a terrible room that was under decorated and drab looking. There was a bed and a nightstand and a bathroom. That was it. There was a mirror in the bathroom, but it wasn’t made of glass. The window didn’t open and there was a wire weaved through the glass. This was not a regular hospital room.
    Emma turned to Howard, who was right by her side. “Don’t leave me here, Dad. I don’t want to stay here. Please, I’m afraid to stay here. Please don’t leave me here,” she begged.
    Howard took a deep breath and without further hesitation he grabbed her hand. “Come on, Emma, stand up. You’re not staying here. Let’s get the hell out of here right now. This place is for crazy people of which you are not.” He took her arm and walked her right out passed the nurse. They headed for the elevator and jumped in.
    “ Sir, wait, wait a minute. You can’t just bring her here and then take her back out. Please wait for Dr. Williams. Sir, the doctor is on his way. Please Sir, take her back to her room right now,” the nurse commanded.
    The elevator door shut and down to the lobby they went. They rushed out the door and Howard drove Emma to her apartment and called his wife.
    “Marilyn, call Dr. Williams and tell him that if he is to treat Emma he can do it on an outpatient basis. That place was unbearable. Call him right away. I will not allow anyone to take her there and that is final.”
    Marilyn had never heard her husband sound so unwavering and she knew he was very serious. Later, Marilyn called back and told them that Emma had an appointment with the doctor first thing in the morning. Howard stayed with Emma all night. They talked until late and Emma fell asleep in his arms. Emma knew she was in trouble. There were too many blank areas that she had no memory of.
     
    * * *
     
    Howard spent most of that evening explaining to Emma that the man she had been seeing was most likely the same man she had seen as a child. She had conjured him up in her mind. He explained that he was probably the man from her nightmares as well. For whatever reason, she was now seeing him again. He wasn’t real and it was her imagination that was causing her to see him everywhere.
    “ Emma,” he had said, “when you see him, sometimes you see his face in someone else. He is very real to you and I know you are frightened. Do you remember when you were younger sometimes you thought you saw him, but it always turned out to either be someone else like what you’re doing with Mr. Elliot or you simply conjured him up in your mind.” He had no answers for her as to why this was happening now. Especially now when she was so happy.
    The man convicted of murdering her family had been arrested just weeks after the murders and was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. There was one thing for certain and that was, there was at least one monster that came into the Taylor home that night and murdered that family. He was behind bars and could not hurt his daughter. Howard told Emma how she had accused the bookstore owner across the street of stalking her and how she had fainted a few times over this. Emma argued that even though she might have mistaken the man across the street for being the same man she has been seeing around town there really was someone following her. She was sure of it.
    “Dad, I don’t remember yelling at my neighbor across the street. I don’t know why I would do that. I’ve known Mr. Elliot for years. I know what he looks like, it wasn’t him. That wasn’t Mr. Elliot I went out to see. It was the other man. I