With a rush of gratitude for Eliza, Emily tore her eyes away from the prison to find their driver peering out the window, too.
“Hey,” he said, “what’s—”
“She’s losing consciousness, Officer!”Emily snapped, diverting his attention.“The hospital, please!Now!”
“Okay, okay, Doctor,” he said, tossing a notepad down onto the console without looking at it.“I’m just making a log.Been a hell of a night.We’re tryin’ to get backup from Port Credit, but they aren’t here yet.Fire brigade can help when they arrive, I guess.Lucky them.”
The car peeled away from the curb, slowed briefly, then blew through the stop sign at the corner of Fraser Ave.It was Christmas Eve, so there was no traffic.Still looking out June’s window as they sped past, Emily glimpsed the sign for Liberty Street on the post high above them, glowing like a flare in the flashing red lights of the cruiser.
They sped down King Street West, past the low-rise apartments and churches that defined the neighbourhood.The policeman drove in silence and Emily wondered briefly if a real doctor would have engaged him in conversation during the ride.But no matter; he didn’t seem to suspectanything, had no reason to.June sat with her head leaning back on the vinyl bench seat.Emily caught glimpses of her in the streetlights as they flashed by the window in a slow rhythm, like a lighthouse beacon swinging past every few seconds.The blood was crusted and darkening around June’s temple where she’d smeared it, but Emily was worried about the cut on her hand, which might legitimately need medical attention.Looking down, she saw June was cradling it in her lap.Silently, Emily reached over and lifted her wrist, trying to see.June flinched, and her eyes snapped to Emily, brow furrowed with inquiry.But she allowed Emily to take a look.It was a short cut, right at the fleshy base of her thumb, but looked a little too deep.Emily pulled down the sleeve of Stone’s clean white coat and pressed the fabric onto the wound.June winced, but said nothing.
As they continued on toward the Queensway, the shoreline of the lake dark and frigid on their left, Emily felt June’s fingers close tightly around her own.They stayed like that, grasping one another in silent victory until the car pulled up in front of the brightly lit hospital a few minutes later.
Emily had been so lost in thought about all that had just happened, June’s surprising show of emotion, and the shock of their current situation that she hadn’t considered what they would do once they finally arrived at the hospital.She caught June’s eyes as the car wound its way to the entrance, trying to silently communicate, but June shook her head and closed her eyes, feigning unconsciousness again.
Emily recalled her words of not even an hour ago:We might have to improvise, kid.She took a deep breath.They’d managed well enough so far…
“All right,” the policeman said, shifting the car into park with a sigh.He turned in his seat to face her.“How—”
“I need you to go inside and ask for Dr.Anderson,” Emily said, inventing recklessly with the first name that came to mind.Her mouth was dry.“He’s a brain specialist.This woman has a bad head injury.And hurry, please!”
“It’s Christmas Eve, ma’am.What if he’s not here?”
Emily faltered.“He’ll have a resident, or someone covering for him.Please, go now!”
The officer nodded once, and hopped out of the car.He darted into the hospital with an inconveniently admirable haste to save a criminal’s life.There probably was no Dr.Anderson, and if there was, odds were excellent he wasn’t the brain specialist.The ruse would collapse within minutes, and then the officer would start asking questions.
“A cab,” June said suddenly, snapping out of her hoax.“There.”She pointed at three taxis lined up twenty feet away in the drop-off loop.
They leapt out of the cruiser and scurried through the snow toward the closest black-and-orange taxi, which was running, staying warm for the next hire.Without knocking, they opened the back doors and threw themselves in.The surprised driver, who hadn’t seen them approach, turned around.
“Evening, ladies,” he said, then saw Emily’s coat.“Doctor?A lady doctor?”He smiled, though not maliciously.“Never had one of you before.Where you need to go?”
Emily cleared her throat and looked at June.“My friend’s, uh…”
“Mansfield Ave., in Little Italy,” June supplied.
“You got it.”The driver shifted the car into gear.
Snow continued to fall as they looped back down King Street West.Emily sat back, staring out the windshield in a state of disbelief.Slush whirred in the wheel wells but otherwise the journey was quiet, the streets nearly deserted.At this very moment, Emily thought, people were sitting down to family meals, attending Christmas Eve services in warm, candle-lit churches, carrying on as though there weren’t a riot happening at the Mercer Women’s Prison a few blocks away.But after the chaos of the escape—escape!—the silence was a bit disorienting.Unnerving, even.Emily’s throat tightened thinking of Eliza, Rose, Gertrude, Lizzie, Peggy, and even Thelma.All the women who had banded together to help get her out.She owed them everything now.
June rode silently beside her until, fifteen or twenty minutes later, she finally spoke, her voice a little hoarse.
“Number sixty-one,” she told the driver, who slowed and then stopped against the curb.Emily looked up at the narrow, red-brick row housesandwiched between a nearly identical building and a large Catholic church, its windows glowing gold from within.She raised her eyebrows and, had she had any mirth to spare, would have laughed at June’s daring.A nondescript house of ill-repute snuggled up against a house of the Lord in a middle-class neighbourhood.One-stop shopping for the sinful and subsequently repentant.
“The precinct is down the street,” June muttered, and Emily turned to see the madam watching her inspect the church.“I’ll be right back,” she said louder, to the driver.“Cash is inside.”
“Alrighty,” he drawled, tapping a finger on the steering wheel.
Emily sat, trying to calm her heart rate as June knocked hard on her own door, which was finally opened by a tiny woman Emily recognized.She squinted, trying to recall her name through the buzzing in her head.Lola.Lila.June returned two minutes later with a tidy roll of bills from which she peeled a few, handing them to the driver through the open passenger window.She leaned her head in then, resting her large bosom on the window frame.
“There’s enough to take my friend to her destination, and extra in there for you,” she told him.“ ’Cause it’s Christmas and all, and I think you’re going to forget where you picked us up and dropped us off.Aren’t you?”
The driver counted the bills, then nodded.“Merry Christmas, ma’am.”
“Whatever’s next, you know where to find me,” June directed at Emily, meeting her eyes, unblinking.“I’ll need to lie low for a bit.But I’ll corroborate anything you need.You have my word.”
Emily nodded once.For some reason, she was next to tears.“And Eliza—”
