Albatross Read Free Page A

loving someone was telling. That made Samantha the only woman he had ever remembered loving. As Burns drove, he smiled. He always smiled when he thought of her.

    Samantha was sitting at the nursing station when she had gotten the text. She had been waiting since the beginning of the third shift. Because one of the first-shift nurses had called in sick, she was doing a double. As the first- and third-shift doctors, nurses, and medical technicians were now in rounds, reviewing last night events and scheduling out the new days appointments, Samantha had volunteered to cover the front desk and patiently wait for this very text. She looked carefully at it to make sure it was not the abort code. Convinced the text said what it meant, she placed her smart phone deep in her pocket and picked up the nursing station line and put the empty phone line on hold. After she placed the phone back in the cradle, she then went to find Jack, the first-shift security officer who would more likely be in the hospital’s main entrance’s front lobby. The main entrance lobby of Lawrence Memorial Hospital was positioned to look out over the old section of Lawrence. Across the street were the old mill buildings that the city was now converting into multi-income condominiums. The condominiums were situated to look over the Merrimack River. The glassed-in lobby gave a panoramic view of the city.
    “Jack?” Samantha asked as she approached the security officer. While she was new to the staff, Samantha soon learned from them that Jack was a legend among the female nurses. While she could see elements of how he might have been quite the catch in the past, his thinning hair, thick middle, and tight clothes were detractors. She had to give him credit though. He still thinks he’s God’s gift to women, she thought.
    “What is it, Ms. Smith?” Jack replied. Samantha watched him look her up and down, smiling as usual. Could you be less obvious about it, or is subtlety not your strong suit? she thought. She ignored him. He always checked her out, and today, she made sure to have her makeup just right. Her hair was its customary raven black and shoulder length, and her uniform seemed a bit tighter than usual. None of this was really needed to get his attention. She could have worn a potato sack, and she would have bet big money that Jack would check her out anyway. He has no idea how much he would have to pay for me, she mused.
    “Jack,” she repeated, “I have a guy on the phone who says there is a bomb in the emergency-room nursing station.”
    Jack’s smiled faded a little bit but returned quickly. “Well, did you see one? You were just there,” he said.
    “I didn’t look. The guy told me to go out into the lobby and look outside to make sure I believed him,” she offered.
    Samantha watched Jack stand up from his chair behind the podium desk and look out the lobby windows. He was about to say something when a flash of red, white, and yellow flames shot out of the top-floor windows in one of the condo units facing the hospital. The sound finally caught up with the sight, and the windows shook violently.
    Samantha stepped back, and Jack turned ash white. Even though she expected an explosion, Samantha was caught off guard at the size and violence of it. Once she regrouped, she saw Jack run back to call for police and noticed that one of the lines was lit with someone on hold. He looked at her, and she immediately picked up the phone. In a shaking voice, she finally asked, “Did you set that off?”
    She waited a moment. She then responded to a fictional voice by saying, “What do you mean … there’s one in the second lateral file near the nursing station in the ER and one on the maternity floor?” Samantha made sure to widen her eyes as if in shock or surprised. Jack had no idea how many times Samantha had played a role for men. There was a number of staff coming out to look at the ensuing flames. Cell phones were ringing, and the