New York, Oh the Big Apple! Suits and breifcase in the light, glamour and glitter in the night. But New York's long lost brother Brooklyn doesn't seem to have that effect on its residents. Ones that had given up in life or the ones that had nada in their pocket jet stormed to live in Brooklyn. The old rusty buildings. Gangsters and hipsters and homeless kinda looking all the same, trying to get through life. Some with one bullet a shot; some with one shot to the nerve a day; another with one free doughnut a day.
Then there is our st. Peter's street, populated by the ones that have lost everything and ended up here or the ones trying not to be found by their past, or by the members of their past. The Rusty old street begins with st. Peter's Cathedral, followed by Earl's general store, hippy nail salon, phoney taro cards reader and then the st.Regis building. The occupants at st. Regis is either old, half-dead or too high to remember what is going on. The cafe at the bottom of st. Regis rarely sees lunch rush, like its dishes see soap.
It's a bright sunny day all over the city but the road of st. Peters was as gloomy and dull as always. A guy probably around 35 years old in his scrubs taking a quick but not so slow walk out of the street. Grandpa Earl, shooing away the homeless gathered in front of his shop. Sweet waitress Clary, calling them and giving them a doughnut each, as always, from the generosity of her paycheck. Willy Jr chased down by his recently returned from rehab mom, to go to school. And an unusual black limousine pulled in, in the corner but left as if it just stopped to throw that cigarette butt out. Grandpa Joe, standing and giving his racial slurs as if it's the 50's. The Lord hasn't been that merciful on these people. Probably because they make it harder...
Clary opened the cafe to others after she saw the homeless leave contented with the doughnut they just had. She inverted the closed sign to open and waited for the sound of the bell to serve her first customer. But, it looked like, she was about to have a breakfast rush or the exact opposite as she heard some vehicles pull by. She peeked outside to see what had happened. To her shock, it was an ambulance. She took her hand to her chest and said, "O Lord save the soul whoever it may". The EMT's got down took the stretcher and ran into the st. Regis building to apartment number 5.
It was an old apartment with daisies and yellow wallpaper. The ones that many remember their grandma's house to be as. In the living room, was seated 55-year-old women, laying there unconscious in front of a half-eaten bowl of oats. Mr Reginald, who called it in came in screaming, "Take her to the hospital and do what you must, she hasn't moved since I saw her". The EMTs took her to the ambulance but gave a nod of "don't think she is alive" to their fellow mates. Ms Rachel was on her way to the hospital. The entire street stood frozen as they saw them take her.
Miss Rachel was the newest resident of st. Regis. She had just shifted here one year back and has been very quiet but always had a smiling face. Sometimes she chipped into Clary's tip jar a little extra to make sure she keeps feeding the homeless every morning. Otherwise, you barely saw her outside. She had been visiting the church a little often. And not to mention, a nurse has been visiting her more often, one might even say regularly.
Mr Reginald is a 50-year-old single parent. He lives across the hall from Ms Rachel. It's been some hours now, and no news from the hospital about Rachel. A police vehicle pulled over in front of st. Regis and everyone in the street ran inside to hide whatever was illegal to possess
its Brooklyn Y 'all
, they probably had to hide half of their belongings. The police went unto to Rachel's apartment and started looking around. Mr Reginald came in to check if everything was alright.
"Hope she is doing well officer and that this is just a visit to get her hospital records."
"What did you say your name was again ?" questioned the officers.
"I am Reginald, I live across the hall, and I was the one who called the ambulance".
"Then we might have some questions for you, sir, since it doesn't look like Ms Rachel will live to say what had happened".
With a shock, Reginald sat on the chair as the police officer took his notepad to ask the questions. Reginald started to tell everything that went on this morning....... "I came out of my apartment around 6 a.m. to get my morning exercise. Don't give me that look, sir, not everyone in Brooklyn has given up on their health. Anyway, when I got downstairs, I saw Rachel's nurse walking in, he wished me a Good day and came up. I came back from my walk around 7:30 a.m. and saw Rachel's apartment wide opened. Rachel is a very private person, and it's not like her to leave the door opened. Her dog Ron the German Shepard that wouldn't leave her side even in the ambulance, yeah, he came out to the door and looked dull. Nothing seemed right, so I called out for her nurse Michael, he didn't respond so I went in, and I saw Rachel laying there unconscious on the sofa all dressed and ready to begin her day. So I immediately called 911, and you know the rest".
As soon as he finished telling what had happened, two more officers came and then all four had an intense talk. When they looked at Reginald, they knew they had to fill him in, so the one that interviewed him went a little close and said, "Sorry sir, but it looks like they couldn't save Ms Rachel". Reginald was shocked to hear that and stood there, saying nothing clear but stood murmuring under his breath. All the officers were about to leave saying "then its the health insurance guy's problem let's go home". Mr Reginald got a hold of himself and yelled "what do you mean by that, Her nurse is missing, the door was open, and she looked healthy....How can you just say it's just a matter of health insurance hereafter and leave?"
One of the hotheaded police officers wanted to punch him, but the other stopped him and just said, "Sir, Ms Rachel was suffering from heart disease, and with that, the doctors were pretty sure it was a heart attack. So the missing nurse might just be a sign of him seeing his patient dead and took whatever precious and ran. And frankly, we don't care what he took, as it's the robbery division's problem". "If the owner of the things stolen files a complaint then we can ask them to look into it maybe," said another one with a little conscience but with a hidden sarcasm.
But Mr Reginald was not convinced, on the other hand, he has a son to take care of so he just thought, "May whoever is up there bring justice to Ms Rachel" and dropped his claim. As Mr Reginald, walked out to pass the news of Ms Rachel's death to everyone, entered a new beat cop. Running into the apartment beaming with happiness as it was his first real case. The senior, arrogant officers pushed it to him to avoid doing any extra work. As there might be the case of taking care of Ms Rachel's funeral because it looked like she had no living relatives.
But to the new officer, Timothy, everything was crucial. He was eager to look into every angle in this case, but Mr Reginald or anyone who thought that this death was unnatural, was not around him to encourage to look at that angle. Ciara his superior officer, came in saying, "Hey Deviant, don't go searching for roofies or drugs to take home, it's an old lady's apartment, she might not have any". Timothy's parents are doing time in prison for drug abuse charges. Timothy grew up in foster homes and decided to give a second chance and a new life to those who have parents like him. But none in the academy take him seriously. But nothing stopped him.
While leaving the apartment, he heard Reginald scolding the cops for being inconsiderate. Timothy steps in and agrees to everything Reginald said and made a small correction,
"Not all are like that, sir. If you have anything, please let me know".
"You're just a beat cop son, what will you do, anyway its nothing, Ms Rachel's nurse was here this morning when I went for a jog, but when I came back he was nowhere to be found".
A curious Timothy takes his note pad and writes it down and ran out yelling, "Thank you, sir". "Silly boy" exclaimed Reginald, as he closed the door and went on with his daily routine.
Why was Timothy so happy hearing Mr Reginald? Was Rachel killed? Where's the nurse?
