Page 29 of Joker's Ghost
“Don’t move him; let him get his shit together.”
The male voices float over me just out of reach.
“Baby, please open your eyes.” A soft female voice I know, but I can’t come up with a name.
I slowly open my eyes, but the bright light makes me squeeze them shut again.
“Hey, Doc, he just opened his eyes.”
I try to open them again, and this time someone holds the lids open, and my pupils are scorched with light.
“Can you hear me, Joker?” Again the familiar female voice. “Please tell me you’re okay.”
I part my lips, but no sound comes out. Then I focus onher face, wet with tears. Shit, why is she crying? If only I could remember her name. Desiree? No, that’s not right. Desiree’s gone a long time ago. I stare into her face longer, willing my damaged brain to recall.
I swallow hard and try to clear my throat. “Daisy?” I croak out, and the beautiful face smiles through her tears.
“Yes, baby, it’s me.”
The same guy who shined the light in my eyes is now pressing different parts of my body while asking if I am in pain. Right now, the only pain I have is my head feeling like a balloon about to pop.
Slowly, very slowly, my brain clears, along with my vision. The cold, hard concrete floor is under me, with Mamba, Cobra and Rattler’s faces peering down at me.
“Shit, brother, you took some fall.” Python kneels on my other side, his face unusually somber. “Gotta say, you scared the shit outta me. You were unconscious, so we called the Doc.”
The man examining me isn’t Doc Henderson, who we usually called. This guy is much older, dressed in a tweed suit like something out of an old movie.
“I don’t think there’s any permanent damage,” the doctor says, “but you probably have a slight concussion after falling.”
I struggle to recall the last few minutes, but my mind blanks. All I can remember is an intense pressure and a high-pitched screeching vibration.
“Why don’t you see if you can sit up?” the doctor suggests.
I push up with Python’s help and wait for the room to stop spinning, then I struggle to a standing position.
Daisy wraps her arms around me. “You had us all so worried.”
I kiss the top of her head as I regain my balance, struggling to get my bearings. I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.
Cobra shakes his head, motioning to the concrete stairs. “Fuck, man, falling down all those stairs, you’re lucky to be standing.”
Python’s heavy hand hits my shoulder. “He’s too hard-headed.”
Mamba laughs. “Yeah, you’ve been hit harder than that in the ring.”
I laugh along with them, then narrow my eyes at Python dressed like a cowboy in the Old West. “How come you’re dressed like that?”
“The Halloween party, remember?”
“Halloween, right.”
Daisy leads me to the stairs. “But of course you, Cobra, Mamba and Rattler refused to dress up.”
I look down at myself, then at Cobra, Mamba and Rattler. We’re all dressed in double-breasted three-piece striped suits with wide-leg pants and two-tone shoes.
“These aren’t costumes?”
Rattler throws his shoulders back and preens. “Fuck no, I paid fifty bucks for this suit.”
