“You started all this.  I hope you realize that,” Amy said.

Mr. Pip swished his tail and gave her a good look at his ass as he left the room by another door.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, same to you,” Amy said.

Isabel stood in the open doorway.  “Who are you talking to?”

“Mr. Pip.”

Isabel looked concerned.  She spoke in a voice Amy had heard people use on crazy or old people.  “Who’s Mr. Pip?  Your imaginary friend?”

“No.  He’s the cat.”

Isabel looked around the room.  When she didn’t see a cat, she smiled and patted Amy on the arm.  “Is he an imaginary cat?”

“Don’t be silly,” Amy said.  “He was here.  And then he wasn’t.”

“Like the Cheshire Cat?”

“For God’s sake,” Amy said, rising and walking toward the door.  “I’m going to get a look at this video.”

Isabel grabbed Amy’s shoulder, stopping her.  “I don’t think you should see it.”

“What is on that thing?  What has he done?  Is it creepy?  Should I be afraid?”  Amy felt frantic and sick to her stomach.  What were they hiding from her?

Isabel took a deep breath.  “He has a lot of pictures of you.”

Amy digested this.  “That’s not so weird.”

“And by a lot, I mean hundreds.”

“Hundreds of pictures of me?”

Isabel nodded.  “Afraid so.”

“My mother doesn’t even have hundreds of pictures of me.”  Amy couldn’t imagine where he’d gotten the photos.  She sucked in her breath.  What if he’d taken pictures of her while she was conked out.  “Please tell they weren’t naked ones.”

“No.”

“Okay, well then it isn’t that bad.  I want to see the video.”

“Sweetie,” Isabel said.  “It’s kind of creepy.  You might want to let it go.  The video is more than enough to convince Jordan that Chad is the stalker and that you weren’t planning to marry him.”

“I want to see it.”  Amy marched into Edison’s lab.  She walked straight up to Edison who sat hunched over the computer keyboard and said, “Show me.”

Edison looked at Isabel.  Isabel nodded, saying, “Show her.”

Edison clicked a few keys and the video feed started.

Amy thought she was prepared to see the video.  She thought she would see an Amy shrine.  Maybe a few photos thumb-tacked to the walls.  Nothing could have prepared her to see every wall, every table, every surface completely papered with her face.  Wallpaper, pillows, throw blankets were all decorated with collages of her smiling face.  It was worse than the Duck Dynasty line of interior decorating.

Once she got her breath back, she said, “How could he have gotten so many pictures of me?” She pointed at a picture that showed her and Jordan getting in her Smart car.  “Did he hire someone to watch me?”

“From what I can ascertain these look like they were taken at work functions,” Edison said, pointing to a cake in the break room in one of the photos.  “And these are more I’m-a-creepy-stalker-following-you pictures.”

“He was following me this whole time?”

“Apparently.  And here he is taking pics of his handiwork.  The signs in the yard.  Irma stomping the flaming dog doody.  Here’re several of Jordan’s slashed bike tires.  And there’s a whole bunch of you two making out.”

Isabel put her arm around Amy’s shoulder.  “We’ll put a restraining order on him and send HR at the hospital an anonymous tip with accompanying video.  That should get him to leave you alone.”

“I don’t want him to just leave me alone.  I want him gone,” Amy said through gritted teeth.  She felt violated.  Somebody had been watching her in her most private intimate moments.  She felt vulnerable and scared.  She underscored what she felt with one word.  “Gone.”

“Understood,” Edison said.  “Do you think you’ll be safe at home tonight?”

Isabel said, “I texted Jeremy.  He said Chad is gone from the premises and he’s changing the locks on the doors right now.  We’ll take turns keeping watch.  We’ll be safe.”

Edison and Isabel talked in hushed tones as they walked to Isabel’s car.

Amy was so stunned by what she’d seen that her mind didn’t seem able to process everything.  She felt as if she were walking upstream against a strong current.

Edison opened Isabel’s door for her.  Isabel got behind the wheel, started the car and powered down her window.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Edison said.

“I can’t wait,” Isabel whispered breathlessly.

Amy got in the passenger seat and looked up at the house at Jordan’s dark window.  “This will all be over with by tomorrow,” she said out loud.  But even she could hear the doubt in her own voice.


Elvis Has Left the Building

Amy didn’t hear from Jordan the next day.  Or the day after that.  She had checked her phone for missed calls or texts approximately one hundred and seventy-eight times.  She had called Edison at least twenty times each day.  Edison reassured her that she was still trying to track Jordan and Irma down.  But like Edison said, “If Irma wants to go off the grid, there was no way she’d be found.”

Amy was exhausted.  Worrying burned up a lot of energy.  She barely slept.  She worked like she was sleepwalking and drank coffee like a fish.  She hadn’t seen Chad since he proposed.  He was off work until his hand healed.  That was the only good news.  However, Amy still couldn’t help but look over her shoulder all the time.  She felt like she was being watched everywhere she went.  She even checked the women’s restroom for peepholes before she allowed herself to sit on the toilet.

Veronica, twinless at the moment, rapped lightly on Amy’s door.  Amy looked up and smiled.  “Come on in.”

Veronica glanced down the hall then back at Amy.  “Oh, crap, I’m too late.”  She jumped inside the office and slammed the door behind her.  “Doesn’t this thing lock?” she said, fiddling with the door.

“No.  I put in a maintenance request but no one has showed up yet.”

“Oh, holy hell!”  Veronica grabbed a chair and wedged it against the door just under the knob.  She tested it.  “Hey, that really does work.”  She appeared surprised and excited that it did.

“What’s going on?  Why did you lock us in here?”

“I’m not locking us in.  I’m locking him out.”

“Him?  Him?” Amy asked excitedly.  “Him as in Chad him?”

“Yes. Chad is here.  He’s coming,” Veronica ran to the window.  “We need an exit strategy.”  She shoved up on the window.  It didn’t budge.

“Those windows don’t open,” Amy said.  “They’re sealed shut in a feeble attempt to lower the suicide rate among doctors.”

There was a pounding on the door.  Amy looked at the door and back to Veronica.  “Shit,” she mouthed.  “Shit, shit, shit.”

Veronica looked around frantically.  The doorknob rattled.  “Amy.  Are you in there?” Chad’s voice called.  “Let me in, I need to talk to you.”

“HR just got through telling him he has to leave you alone.  I guess it didn’t make an impression,” Veronica whispered.

“They got the anonymously sent disc?”

Veronica nodded.  “He’s been in there talking to them and the hospital administrator, Haroldson.  And when the Big H gets involved you know it’s serious.”

“I can hear you,” Chad called out in a singsong voice.  Then he pounded on the door with both fists.  The chair wobbled from the force of his blows.  Veronica steadied the chair, holding it firmly under the doorknob.

Amy wished she’d never seen The Shining.  This was way too much like the “Here’s Johnny” moment.  She felt like she was going to throw up.

Chad bellowed, “Damnit Amy, I just want to talk.  It’s not what you think.  It’s not what they think.  This is love.  True love!  No one understands how much I love you and they’re trying to take you away from me.” He pounded the door and it shook on its hinges.

Veronica looked up at the ceiling.  “I’ve got it.  Get up on the desk.”

“Why?”

Veronica snapped her fingers at Amy.  “Just do it.  Now!”

“Amy!  I fucking love you!” Chad screamed.

Amy quickly climbed up on her desk.  She could brush the ceiling with her fingertips, but that was all.  Veronica plucked several thick medical volumes from Amy’s bookshelves and stacked them on the desk.  “Climb up on these.”

“Am I going up there?” Amy said, pointing to the ceiling.

“That’s right.  Push the panel aside.  Hoist yourself up.  Put the panel back and lay flat on the joist.  He’ll never know you’re there.”

“AAAAAAmmmmmmyyyyyy!”

Chad’s out-of-control scream sent Amy upwards. She scrambled up and into the ceiling as Chad’s voice turned soft and pleading.  “Let me in.  Amy, please, I love you so much.  I understand the mercurial nature of your sexuality and we can work through it.  I want us to be together and have little Chaddites and Amyites and live in the suburbs and have barbeques.”  His fingernails scratched at the door.

Amy slid the panel back into place, disappearing from view.

“Elvis has left the building,” Veronica said loudly.

“Elvis?  Who’s Elvis?” Chad hollered.  “Is he vying for Amy’s affection?”

Veronica moved the chair.  She flattened herself against a wall and said, “Help me, Chad.  The door handle is jammed or something.”

“What?”

“This is Amy.  Use your brute strength to rescue me,” Veronica said.  “Throw your body against the door!  I’m locked in here and suffocating!  Help me!”

There was a moment of silence.  Then the door burst open and Chad flew into the room, headfirst.  He tripped over the chair and sprawled facedown across Amy’s desk.  Veronica quickly pulled a syringe out of her pocket, took the cap off with her teeth and poked Chad in the butt with the needle.

He went out like a light.

“Okay, Amy, you can come out now,” she said.