The Other Side of the Glass

The call comes in the middle of a busy afternoon while he is catching up on some paperwork. Deep in thought, the phone vibrates and makes him jump, knocking it onto the floor.  

“Hello, hello, Dr. Levine speaking. I’m sorry about that…”

“Hello, Dr. Levine, it’s Staff Sergeant Walter McClure speaking. Are you in any way related to a Maya Gordon? She had your number in her wallet. “ 

Adam feels the room grow cold. 

“Dr. Levine, are you still there?” 

“Yes,” answers Adam weakly. He feels like he is deep down in ice cold water trying to swim up to the top. He is trying to breathe. For some reason I always thought the call would come in the middle of the night. 

“It seems there’s been an incident. Your friend, Miss Gordon, she’s in some trouble.” 

“Dear God. You mean she’s alive?”

“Sure, she’s alive. She’s been arrested. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Seems she passed some forged cheques and managed to bluff her way into buying a new car without any money in her bank account. I think she might have stolen a bank card as well – she did have a lot of cash on her. Judge hasn’t set bail yet. You can visit her at the Detention Centre. Might be good to bring a lawyer.”

***

It had been a whirlwind romance and they hadn’t really known each other that long so when Adam said, “Why not get married?” Maya didn’t take it seriously. 

“You could get a job a lot easier My, and if you decide you want to go back to school it’s a lot cheaper for landed immigrants than it is for a US citizen.” 

Maya had hesitated at first and then realized that she had no major objection to the plan although it would have been better had it been her idea. 

“You have to decide if you want to stay here, that’s all,” Adam said, diplomatically avoiding the real issue. He was crazy about Maya but not quite as sure about her feelings for him. 

“Of course, I do,” Maya replied with an urgency that Adam found reassuring. 

She hadn’t wanted a traditional ceremony. She didn’t want to register for china. She sang Amazing Grace at the small gathering that observed their exchanging of vows even though it was not a song appropriate for a wedding. She just loved that song.

Maya enrolled in university again and Adam was in his final year of medical school and about to begin his internship. His were long nights buried in books and then even longer nights turning into days spent on rotation at the hospital. He would often stagger home stressed with the responsibility of making life and death decisions in a constant state of sleep deprivation and collapse into bed.

It was around that time that Maya started her “explorations”. They weren’t very long at first, usually just a trip across town to a neighbourhood that she had never been to before. Often, she would set out in the morning thinking that she was heading to class and then she would find herself in Chinatown surrounded by stalls bursting with mussels, bok choy and lychee nuts. She’d wander into stores that sold mysterious herbs, roots and potions. Her favourite was a store that specialized in nothing but different kinds of ginseng from around the world, some candied and some curiously suspended, floating in glass jars. 

Then just as mysteriously she would find herself walking along the bluffs overlooking Lake Ontario, the wide expanse of it filling her with a sense of awe. She’d climb down the cliffs and walk along the beach collecting little pieces of blue-green glass rubbed smooth by the surf and sand. She’d count the dead fish on the beach and feed the seagulls potato chips. Sometimes she’d skip stones across the frigid water. 

Adam became concerned but Maya reassured him. Ok, maybe she was a little eccentric but no big deal. They were both on edge, they needed a holiday. Adam’s exams came and went and they decided to celebrate with a trip to Jamaica. Two weeks in the sun in Negril would revive them and rekindle the romance. It would be great. And it was. Until it wasn’t. 

They went for long walks on the beach and went snorkelling for hours. Maya had her hair done into tight little braids flecked with shiny coloured beads. They listened to reggae music and danced under the stars. They ate curried goat and washed it down with lots of Red Stripe beer. Then one day Maya disappeared. 

She left no note, no message. Adam notified the local police and searched all of their favourite haunts without turning up a trace of her. Days passed and he became frantic. He contacted the Canadian Embassy. She just seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth.  Reluctantly he started to pack his bags for his flight home; they were expecting him at the hospital on Monday morning. Adam was dropping off the key at the hotel lobby when Maya appeared out of nowhere and jumped onto his back collapsing into a fit of laughter. 

“My where the hell have you been? We’ve been looking everywhere for you. We thought you’d been kidnapped or murdered or something else terrible.”

Maya looked at Adam and burst into laughter again. “Listen Adam, it was just a game, that’s all. “Tag, you’re it. Now let’s go and get something to eat. I’m starving.” 

The next day they flew back home in silence. 

***

Back in Toronto Maya’s adventures continued, sometimes for days at a time. One day she left the front door wide open and a family of raccoons moved into their kitchen and ripped open a bag of flour leaving powdery white footprints all through the house. The cat disappeared in terror. Maya returned home and without acknowledging the disaster that had once been their kitchen, she calmly made herself a cup of tea and lit a fire. It was a warm afternoon in June when Adam returned home and found her sitting there. It was then that he finally insisted that Maya should see a doctor. 

Adam had his final exams coming up. He couldn’t study. He couldn’t sleep. And just when he was at the breaking point, Maya disappeared again. For a long time he didn’t hear a word from her and feared the worst until weeks later a postcard arrived from Florida. It said: Dear Adam, Life is good here. I didn’t like the winters in Toronto and the pollution is bad for my asthma. I have a new friend. He is a musician and sometimes we busk together in the shopping mall. I hope you are doing all right and that you pass your exams. Love, Maya

***

After that Adam only caught glimpses of her here and there, or at least he thought he did. He had heard that she was living rough and he tried to find her so he could try to help her. One time he found bags and a grocery cart in his waiting room when he came out at the end of the day and heard her singing in the shower. 

I’m gonna wait ‘till the midnight hour. That’s when my love comes tumbling down…” 

The singing continued. Adam got up and started banging on the door. 

“Open the bloody door My. I mean it! Open the door right now.” 

The steam came pouring out from underneath the bathroom door as he kept banging. 

“I’m gonna wait till the midnight hour, that’s when my love begins to shine, just you and I.”

Suddenly the door flew open and Adam fell forward. Maya walked out from the steam, dripping wet, her hair wrapped in a towel. 

“Hi Adam, how are you?”

Adam was sweating and his chest felt tight. He stopped and took a few breaths. 

“Maya what are you doing here? I’ve got patients coming in a few minutes. You can’t be taking a shower in my office.”

Adam was obviously distraught but Maya seemed oblivious to the problem. 

“I want to talk to you about medication, I want to help you Maya. You can’t go on like this.” 

Maya unrolled the turban from the top of her head slowly allowing her long matted hair to fall onto her bony shoulders. She had bruises up and down her legs and a large one on her left shoulder that was fading into a tattoo of a butterfly right beneath it. She had a faded pink scar on her left wrist and pink plastic bangles on her right wrist that jingle as she leans sideways and starts to rub her wet hair. Her cheeks were hollow and her eyes are sunken. She smiled, revealing a missing front tooth. 

“Adam, “she said sweetly, “I’m starving. Why don’t you take me out for lunch?” 

***

Adam doesn’t have much luck with getting her to take medication. She tries it for a few weeks and then forgets about it or she says, “I don’t like the feeling in my tummy when I take it. Can’t I just take a vitamin pill instead?”

He tries to get her into some kind of housing but after a few nights in the shelter, she claims she doesn’t feel safe and wanders back out onto the streets. 

Adam then tries to talk her back into taking the meds by trying a new tactic. 

“Maya if you take your medication, every day, I’ll pay you $10 at the end of every week. But I’ll know if you’re not taking it.” 

Maya is enticed by having her own money so she actually starts to become compliant. Adam then tries the money tactic on her to stay in housing and not on the streets and after a time she actually seems to be improving. He starts to feel optimistic about her future and even manages to find a caseworker that will help her to find more permanent subsidized housing. It all seems to be going so well until one day Maya disappears completely and Adam is again searching the streets to find some trace of her. 

Months go by and Adam has searched all of the shelters and her usual haunts and still can’t find her. Exhausted, he finally assures himself that she must have gone back to her family in Florida and hopes that she is safe and warm somewhere far away. 

***

The phone call from the police came as a shock but not a huge surprise. He knew that it would come one day but the reality of it was just taking hold. The officer tells him that Maya had managed to steal a car, or actually had talked a naïve car salesman into buying a car with funds that she didn’t have. God only knows how she managed that but he also knew that Maya could be very persuasive when she was having lucid moments. Of course, it didn’t take long for the dealership to catch on when she took the car on a test drive and didn’t return. A short police chase ensued but she was apprehended within hours and was now awaiting trial and sentencing. 

After what seemed like hours of listening to gum chewing, babies crying and conversations punctuated with expletives, Adam’s name is finally called at the detention centre. He stands in the row against the glass wall lined with telephones. Behind the tinted scratched pane stands Maya, smaller and frailer looking than usual. 

 “Hey My. How’re you doing?”

“Not good Adam. I don’t like it here at all. How much longer do I have to stay?”

“I don’t really know. I spoke to your lawyer and she says that the judge doesn’t like to set bail in cases like this. It seems he’s not confident that you’ll show up for the arraignment.”

No reply. 

“Shit, My this is serious stuff. This is fraud, grand theft auto, they could give you…”

“Adam, “ Maya brings her face close up to the glass. “I’m just as pissed off as you are so don’t start shouting at me.”

“Maya, “ Adam lowers his voice, “do you have any idea why you are here, why you were arrested, why you are in jail right now?”

“Of course I do. They’re after me. They wanted my shoes. You know that Princess Kate has the exact same pair. Or is it Duchess? And my jewellery. That’s why they locked me up in here. They took it all away from me and now I’ll never get it back.” 

“Shoes? And what kind of jewellery are we talking about here, the crown jewels or those wacky crystals that you wear,” Adam’s voice is starting to get louder again. 

“That’s right.” 

“Maya why the hell do you think anyone would want those pieces of junk anyway?”

“Well, that’s just the thing, I can’t figure it out either. But they got them alright, didn’t they?” 

Maya looks over her shoulder and lowers her voice to a whisper. “You’d better watch out Adam, they’re everywhere, watching. You might have something that they want too. Watch your back. You just might just end up on the other side of this glass one day.”

***