Unforgettable Alina

I

THE UNFORGETTABLE ALINA

Cerebus blew short, stinky puffs of breath up my nose. His spastic paws scrunched my sheets into a ball. He was dreaming. Maybe chasing rabbits or Frisbees.

Oh for Christ's sake. No way I can sleep like this. I have to be up at six, and here it's already 5 minutes past midnight.

Right when I pushed Cerebus away from my face, we jumped from a banging on the front door. Struggling into my bathrobe and slippers, more knocks, this time more rapidly and louder. Cerebus barked alarm. lrritated now, I called down the hall, "Coming! Jeeze! Coming already!"

It was Spring, shivering even though she was wearing her puffy parka.

"Open the garage, quick," she hissed, "open it!"

Without asking what the hell was going on, I slammed the front door shut, ran into the kitchen, grabbed the remote from the counter and flicked it. Pushing itself free of the frost lock, the door finally opened with sone creaking.

Spring's moonboots crunched like she was grinding broken glass into frozen ground as she ran across my front lawn, jumped into her car, and drove straight into the garage. She nearly grazed Cerebus' boxy head. He lept to the side and barked, now sounding like he had a cracked whistle in his throat.

That's when I saw it. Or, I should say, HER. She was kind of perched on the Carrera's hood, her right leg in a middle split toward the windshield, her left leg caught between the bumper and the chassis.

Her eyes were wide open, like a trophy having been caught on the highway, in the headlight.

"My car scooped her up like, it was a snowplow, like I was scooping her up, kind of," Spring explained in breathless jag.

My nosy neighbor across the street, flicked on his porchlight and called "Everything allright, Chloe?"

"Yep, not to worry, Just a friend, visiting."

"Right," he said in an unmistakenly sarcastic tone, "just visiting at past midnight...," as he shuffled back into his house.

I closed the garage door, grabbed Spring by the arm, and pulled her into the kitchen. Got the kettle going for mint tea, my go to remedy for shock. Added two spoons full of honey. Her hands shook but she managed to drink some of the tea.

I propped the door to the garage open with a garbage can.

We were looking at the girl on the hood like she was an ornament.

Where was she going?" I asked Spring, once her teeth stopped click clacking.

"Like, I don't know. How should I know?" she said. "I like ran into her when she was like in the middle of the road...

I don't even know her name ... she just like stood there, I guess I ran into her," Spring said, slurring her words together.

So much for getting the police involved. Maybe if I sobered her up, we could call an ambulance...

I bent my head to face the girl. "Are you ok?"

"I don't know. I can't feel my leg."

"Do you want some mint tea?" I asked her.

The girl closed her eyes, and shook her head. Her chin dropped to her chest, and I thought she had fainted or maybe gone to sleep, she was so still.

Spring said, "Maybe she's hungry? Or we could get her to the bathroom, get her cleaned up..." Spring started pulling on the girl's arm.

That was all I could take. "Let go! Are you mental? Stay away from her!" I screamed.

"Here, spoon some tea into her mouth, real slow like," I said, handing Spring the cup and spoon.

I got my cell from the bedroom and called Mark. He was a third year med student, and even though he was Spring's ex, I called him because he was the most level headed friend I had.

Twenty minutes minutes later, Mark's bike careened into the driveway.

Without saying anything when he saw her, Mark listened to the girl's chest and checked her eyes.

"She's in shock. Get a blanket.

I'm calling 911 right now.Just look at her! What the hell is WRONG with you two?"

It was the first time I saw Mark get upset--he never wasted time getting emotional he said, because emotions only got in the way of sound decisions. He took out his phone and after giving the address and such to the operator, he asked Spring how much she had to drink.

Spring's eyes veered off beyond Mark, the look telling him what he had suspected.

"She's medicated, too," I told Mark. "I'll get her into the shower, get her sober ...

Mark grabbed my shoulders tight, "You'll do no such thing. She's drunk and maybe high, and she ran her car into this girl. I want no part of a cover up."

"I don't either, but she's my friend," I said.

"Then visit her in jail," Mark said coldly.

By the time the ambulance came, Mark had untangled the girl's foot from license plate and placed her on blankets next to the car. He used Spring's puffer jacket as a pillow for the girl's head.

*

The intake staff at the Hospital Center took apart the girl's wallet. Her name was Alina Demera. She lived with her cousins not far from where she was hit by the Carrera.

One of the orderlies on the floor that day casually walked by the intake window. Bending down and catching the woman's arm, he said, "you got something for me today, honey?"

Whatever it was that the orderly had on the woman, it was worth giving away Alina's infomation.

Alina's wallet in hand, the orderly called a man he knew as John B. Qu.

The orderly asked John whether he still paid $500 per 'alien subject.'

While Chloe and Mark waited outside the trauma center, a gurney was hustled past them.

The person on the gurney was Alina. She was disappeared by ICE. Chloe never saw her again. She and Mark filed a report, but couldn't get any information.

It was as though Alina Demera, the girl from Crucita, a fishing village in Ecuador, had never existed.

All she was guilty of was that she crossed a highway on a Monday night, going to her cousin's house, after she'd finished her shift at Macdonald. And, oh yes, she was guilty of working without papers.

Chloe visited Spring after she was sentenced to 6 months jail time. She discovered that she liked Spring better now that she was clean and sober.

Chloe sold the Carrera at an auction to pay for attorneys. To the auctioneers, she said that the name of the car was The Unforgettable Alina.