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“Veronica…” I started.
She seemed to be mumbling something to herself, something I couldn’t understand. I strained to make anything out, but failed as her voice carried away with the late morning traffic of the city.
“Veronica,” I said more urgently, more loudly, finally getting her attention.
She turned to me as if in a daze.
“What happened? Where is Troy?” I asked.
Her eyes widened slightly before she gripped my arms tightly.
“Oh, it’s just horrible. Horrible. We have to get to him now.”
She still wasn’t answering my questions, but I assumed she was in some state of shock. I knew she cared about Troy, probably more than he or I would prefer, but I couldn’t blame her. He was Troy. She loved him once, enough to marry him. Though they weren’t together anymore, I could see the hurt that still subsided in her. It didn’t justify what she had done to him or me, but in this moment, I wasn’t going to make her feel worse than she already did.
“I’ll try calling him,” I offered, pulling my purse in front of me.
“No!” shouted Veronica frantically.
I looked at her questioningly, as my hand froze in my purse.
“It won’t matter. It was destroyed in the crash,” she said, her voice breaking.
Crash. I suddenly felt sick. I thought I was going to throw up right there on the sidewalk. The crunching of metal filled my ears as I tried to block out the images threatening to ruin me. A car. A plane. I didn’t know, but I knew a crash wasn’t good.
“Come on,” she said, grabbing my hand and leading me down the sidewalk. She looked from left to right as we passed a few blocks and several parking meters. I wondered if she even knew where she was going, and then she stopped at a red sports car. She rummaged through her small clutch and pulled out the keys, clicking the button and unlocking the doors. She rounded to the driver’s side and slid into the car.
“Get in!” she said, looking at the door.
Something told me not to, but my worry for Troy trumped any other feeling and I slid in from the passenger side.
As soon as I was inside, Veronica locked the doors and quickly turned the ignition. I saw her hands shake as she placed them on the wheel. I anxiously put my seatbelt on and gripped the handle of the car door, bracing myself for whatever was coming. Without looking for oncoming traffic, she peeled off the curb with a squeal of tires sounding in my ears.
“Are you okay to drive?” I asked unsurely.
“I’m fine,” she snapped.
I watched as she expertly weaved her way through traffic, going much faster than the speed limit. I wondered if Troy was in the hospital or if he was still at the scene of the crash. Internally, I begged for him to be at the hospital being tended to, begged that he was still alive. I hated that Veronica wasn’t giving me any answers and letting my mind run with terrifying thoughts.
“Can you please tell me where he is?” I asked softly.
Veronica stared straight ahead, barely blinking. I might have thought she was frozen if her hands weren’t turning the wheel.
“Veronica…” I tried again.
Nothing.
“I just want to know if he’s okay,” I said, in barely a whisper. “Ineedto know if he’s okay.”
Still nothing.
I started to feel unease creep in and chill the blood coursing through my veins. Something wasn’t right. I looked from Veronica to out the window at the blur of trees now passing by. She was pulling onto the interstate. It didn’t make sense. If Troy were still in New Jersey, we would take a flight to him. If he were somehow here in Manhattan, we wouldn’t be leaving the city, we would be heading to a hospital. None of this made sense.
As the reality of my situation sank in, a large part of me was relieved at the possibility that Troy was actually okay, and that Veronica’s sick mind had come up with an extravagant lie to get me to leave with her. Another part of me felt foolish for believing her, for getting in a car with her. As I looked out the window at the city fading away in the distance of the wing mirror, I wondered where the hell was she taking me.
“Troy is fine, isn’t he?” I asked, trying to keep my voice calm, but it was betrayed by the shakiness of my nerves.
Veronica ignored me.