The Hospital Diaries

Eden

Eden lay in her hospital bed, wanting to scream. Having an officer sit inside her room nearly 24/7 was really getting to her. It was bad enough being smothered on and off by her probation officer, but now to have first- and second-shift officers sitting inside her room with her was making her squirm as if she were in a fishbowl being inspected. There were also officers out in the hall. The only time they stayed out there was at night, when she was sleeping, or at least trying to. She didn't mind the second-shift officer much. She was a young, somewhat soft-spoken, plump woman with brown eyes and brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, who wasn't exactly friendly but was definitely polite. For the most part, the officer occupied herself with books, paperwork, and things like that. It was the first-shift officer who made her uncomfortable. That was Officer Stafford. She suspected the officer was a lesbian, not that she hadn't had her own experiences with women. The woman wasn't an all-out butch but sort of in the middle, where she didn't look like a guy, but you couldn't picture her in heels and makeup either. She was a tall, skinny woman with dark eyes and shoulder-length wavy hair. Most would probably consider her on the plain side. What made her uncomfortable about this particular officer was the way she didn't do anything but sit there and stare at her. She wasn't always staring directly at her, but she wasn't doing anything either. She never read anything or wrote anything, but just sat there. There was something about it that made Eden uncomfortable, and she sensed that the officer was fully aware of it. Eden wasn't sure if the officer was trying to make her uncomfortable for some reason or if it was a ploy to get her talking. She knew she was suspected of murdering Jerrod's aunt and niece. That's because she'd been questioned with Jerrod present, and the detective seemed to focus most of his questions on her. Despite Eden pointing out that Jerrod had known them much longer and could answer questions about them better, the detective remained very focused on her. She knew it was mostly because she had a record for violence, whereas her husband had no record at all. She could just imagine all the suspicions being voiced among family members as well. Eden did everything she could to act just as surprised by the deaths as everyone else and swore she had nothing to do with it when Jerrod asked her privately why people suspected her. "They suspect me because I'm Eden Montgomery, that's why. Someone could be killed on the other side of the world, and I would automatically be suspected." "Oh," Jerrod said in a sarcastic tone that seriously annoyed her. The truth that she wouldn't admit, not even in the journals she'd been keeping for years, was that she had been very much involved in the murders. The only difference was that, as dumb as she was, she had smartened up to a degree over the years, and part of that meant not writing about it or admitting it to anyone. It hadn't been premeditated. They were crimes of opportunity. She liked to ride her bike around the city. It was a hot day in Phoenix one day when she was riding past her sister and brother-in-law's house. She had to use the bathroom really badly, so she stopped and rang the doorbell. Instead of Bobby or Nena answering, it was Jerrod's aunt Betty who came to the door. Betty allowed her to relieve herself in the bathroom. When she stepped out of the bathroom and walked down the hall to the kitchen, she found the rude bitch sitting in the living room watching a soap. "All set?" she said with impatience in her voice, knowing how much she disliked Eden and wasn't comfortable being alone with her. Eden nodded but just stood there, staring down at the woman, who was in her sixties. Betty took a deep breath, looked up at her, and said, "Don't you need to be going somewhere now?" "Well," Eden said thoughtfully, seizing the moment, "I don't know." "What do you mean you don't know? What do you want?" Eden's eyes darkened as she focused on the woman. "Well, why don't you tell me why you're such a rude bitch?" A brief second of shock passed over Betty’s features, then anger, as she rose from the plush chair she'd been sitting in. "Why don't you get on your way now?" But instead of leaving, Eden stepped closer to the woman. Instead of anger, she now saw fear written on her face. "Every single fucking time I come here with Jerrod to visit, and you happen to be here, all I hear about is my weight and how dumb I supposedly am, along with other taunts and jabs." "Get out now!" "Sure, I'll go. But first, I want to know why you don't have the guts to call me a fat pig when it's just you and me in the house. I mean it, Eden. Get out, and get out now." Eden chuckled coldly. "What are you going to do if I don't? You going to call my husband and tell him what a naughty, foul-mouthed wife he has?" "He already knows that, Eden." Eden laughed louder. "Get out, or I'm calling the police." "Oh, don't let me stop you," Eden said, stepping back. "Help yourself." They locked eyes, with Betty trying to hide the terror mounting in her chest, unsure what move to make next. How the hell was she going to get this mad woman out of the house? She knew Nena and Bobby wouldn’t be home anytime soon, so she’d better figure it out, although she had an increasingly bad feeling that she wasn't going to be very successful. Once again, Eden stepped forward, this time right in the woman's face. "Call me names, bitch. Just call me names to my face with no one around to protect you and keep you safe." Betty began to tremble visibly, any trace of anger and bravery now gone. "Please," she begged. "I promise I'll never say another mean thing to you or about you ever again if you just leave." "Relax. I'll leave. Just not without beating the shit out of you first." Eden lunged for the woman, who let out a scream that was abruptly cut off by Eden's fists to her head. The punches were hard and brain-damaging. Betty went down fast, and Eden stomped on her and kicked her in the head as hard as she could to make sure she wasn't just knocked out. Once the object of her verbal abuse and hatred was taken care of, Eden felt the urge to snoop around the house and steal some food because, yeah, she was quite a pig. It was part of why she was so big. But she knew that wouldn't be smart and that the faster she got out of there, the better. All she had to do was hope to hell no one in the neighborhood had spotted her or her bike sitting outside.