The Fall Risk: A Short Story

There was chaos in the half hour after the incident. John came, Gabe next, and the cops showed up. They took my statement. Izzy got there and ran up to Charlotte inside, where the police were getting her account of the events. When I knew Charlotte was in good hands, I used the moment to make my way outside and over to the ambulance.

“Hey, do you mind if I talk to him for just a sec?” I asked the EMT, loading the gurney with George on it into the back of the rig.

“His knees are shattered, we really need to get him—”

“I only need a moment,” I said. “It’s important.”

The EMT looked at his partner. His partner looked at me, just a harmless guy on crutches. He shrugged. “Whatever. Make it fast, though.”

I leaned over the man who had been terrorizing the woman I’d been falling in love with.

He didn’t look like a monster. But then monsters rarely do.

“Who are you?” he rasped, clearly hurting.

Good.

“I’m Seth,” I said. “I live here across from Charlotte. Have you ever heard of the western sycamore tree?”

He grimaced in pain. “Huh?”

“They’re a protected species in California, so once one’s in the ground, it’s staying put. They can live up to six hundred years, so if you were to bury something under one of them, chances are that thing would never be discovered. At least not for a few centuries.” I leaned in. “If you ever come back here,” I whispered, “you won’t find her, you’ll find me. And then no one will ever find you.”

I held his wide-eyed gaze for a long, purposeful moment. Then I straightened. “All done with him, boys, thanks.”

He yelped in agony while they pushed him the rest of the way into the ambulance.

The police were coming out with Izzy as I made my way up the stairs. The cops jogged past me down the steps, and Izzy paused on the landing. “We’re heading out to see if we can find George’s car in the neighborhood,” she said. “You got this?” She nodded over her shoulder to her best friend’s apartment.

“I definitely do.”

She studied me.

“You’re a good one, Seth.”

“Thank you.”

“I’ll still kill you if you hurt her, though.”

“You still think you need to? Looks like she could just kill me herself.”

She tried to look serious, but she couldn’t. We shared a proud smile. She gave me one final nod, then she walked past me down the steps.

I came in and shut the door behind me. Charlotte was sitting at her kitchen table, clutching tissues. When she saw me, she got up. I set my crutches against the wall, and she closed the space between us and threw herself into my arms.

“He’s gone,” I whispered. “You did it.”

She melted into me and I folded around the extra space and pressed my nose to her hair.

I kept my promises. I meant every single thing I said to that piece of shit. If he ever came back, I had a chainsaw with his name on it and a public park in need of a new tree. But I didn’t think he’d be back. Not walking anyway.

Charlotte was a bigger force to be reckoned with than she gave herself credit for.

“I don’t know if you need to hear this,” I said, “but you beat the shit out of that guy.”

She did a little laugh cry into my neck.

“I can’t believe it’s over,” she whispered.

“It is really, really over.” I kissed the top of her head and tightened my arms. “It’s time to celebrate, I think. What do you want to go do?” I asked.

She made space between us and looked up at me. “Anything?”

“Anything and anywhere you want.”

She sniffled, gazing at me with those pretty brown eyes that I couldn’t say no to, even on the first day.

“How about a date?” she asked.

A grin spread across my face.

“I want to go to dinner,” she said. “At a restaurant with lots of indefensible spaces. I want to go see a movie and I don’t want to sit in an aisle near an exit because it gives me the fastest escape route. I want to get ice cream after in a place with tons of windows. Oh, and I want to do this.”

She stood on her toes and she kissed me.

My heart burst in my chest.

This did it. It was officially over for me, I was done for. I think I’d been done for for a while.

I slipped my hands over her cheeks and I kissed her back.

It was slow and gentle and perfect. The first few moments of us.

A blink of an eye for a redwood, but timeless for me.

She pulled away, out of breath. “Wow,” she said against my mouth.

I smiled. “Yeah.”

“You didn’t tell me you were a good kisser,” she said.

“Well, I don’t like to brag about myself. I let the ladies do it for me.”

“I’m going to have to let them know about this so they have the most up-to-date info.”

I laughed, and she beamed at me.

I brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “Ready to go?” I asked.

“Yeah.” She cocked her head. “Hey, I saw you by the ambulance. Did you say something to him?”

“Oh, you know me. I was just talking to him about trees.”

She smiled and kissed me again.