Annie and Tara

The dim hospital corridor was long and seemed to have no end. She walked down the halls hopelessness engulfing her. Looking through the hazy windows, she peered into the lost souls along the path. 

Each patient had a different reason for being there, yet, they all knew they were in the one hospital department that was impossible to leave alive. 

After what felt like an eternity, she arrived at her destination. Gripping her purse from sliding off her shoulder, she collected her thoughts. She cleared her throat pulling the bright yellow flowers close to her chest. She reminded herself to smile from her eyes, so that it wouldn’t seem forced. Releasing a breath, she knocked and stepped into the room.

“Goooood morning! How’s my bestest friend doing today?” Annie gleamed, putting the flowers on the side table looking over the multitude of machines behind the bed. 

Picking up the chart hanging from the side of the bed frame, Annie continued, “Ok, stats seem to be good, your oxygen levels are good, that’s good… What did the doctors say?” 

The frail and fragile woman sitting on the bed coughed, let out a labored deep breath, “They said it was good…”

Annie sighed feeling defeated by her choice of words finally sitting down by her friend. She looked at what was once a vibrant and fit woman. Tara was a worldly person who had what anyone could describe as, everything. 

A thriving career, it appeared that she was gliding rather than climbing up the corporate ladder. Wealth passed down to her from generations passed as well as a massive inheritance from her late husband, with a crowd of people catering to her every need and desire.

She had a luxuriously expansive loft that oversaw the magnificent city on one side, contrasted by the breathtaking Pacific Ocean on the other. Tara’s purse that sat in the cabinet beside one of the beeping machines was worth more than some people’s annual income. 

With a single phone call, she could have anything she wanted - sold-out tickets to a concert, reservations at the latest exclusive restaurant, and of course the red-carpet treatment anywhere she went. 

Tara never drove, she never need to. She had private drivers take her anywhere she wanted, and private planes and helicopters filled the rest of her travel needs. 

She had the best of doctors to look after her health as well as several celebrity trainers who pushed her body to be at peak performance. Her personal chefs catered to every exotic dish she thought of. If there was a thing that money or position could buy, Annie’s friend Tara had it. 

However, as Tara sat in the bleak chilled hospital room, an oxygen mask fixed to her face, barely speaking, barely breathing for that matter, she was a mere fraction of the person she once was. 

Tara looked over to her dear friend forcing her lips to curve into a smile. Nothing needed to be said. Annie could see the emotion in her friend’s cloudy eyes. She stretched out and held Tara’s ice-cold hand, “It’s ok, Tara. I know…”

Tara shook her head, pulling her hand back. Beneath her blanket, she had an envelope for Annie. It was meant for Annie and only Annie. 

Annie politely excused herself and stepped out to go get a fresh cup of coffee. The perfect excuse to read the note privately. Stepping into the hall, one of Tara’s doctors approached the room. He explained that Tara’s terminal illness and suffering was coming to an end, taking Tara with it. Thanking him in a whisper, Annie slipped away.

She unfolded the thick perfumed personalized paper. 

‘Annie, you have been by my side for as long as I can remember. We have known each other for what feels like, forever. I could always depend on you at any moment, and when this disease ate through me, you stood there. Everyone else I know has abandoned me at one point or another. Now, I’m left with only one thought in my mind, what do I do now?’

‘We played as little girls, shared our secrets as teenagers, you have been the best friend anyone could’ve asked for. I’ve spoken to my doctors - they told me the end is near. Oh, I wish it were different but let’s be real. This wing isn’t exactly for miraculous recoveries. We all knew what was going to happen. I made my peace with it, I’m ready. Maybe I’m not, but do I have a choice?’ 

‘I spoke to my lawyer, Annie. I took care of everything. My mother will have her house paid off and then, I want to leave everything I own to you. You have seen my insides through endoscopes, you read my blood results, passionately argued my treatment options. You have been my only family, my only friend, my everything. Thank you, Annie, and goodbye.’

Annie stood in disbelief clutching the letter to her chest. Was Tara trying to spare her feelings after the agonizing health struggles? 

Annie rushed back. She ran. She couldn’t let Tara’s last moments pass all alone in a horribly empty room. Tara’s doctors were paid to care for her and therefore didn’t truly care at all. Everything Tara wrote in her letter was true, they had known each other their entire lives and Annie was not going to let her go alone. 

Annie made it back as the doctor was leaving, “Any minute now, Annie. Say your goodbyes and I will be back to turn off the machines.” She stopped to catch her breath, her lips shaking, her heart pounding. Annie nodded then thanked the doctor.

“Tara?” Annie whispered. Tara looked up, shivering and barely able to sit up. Her face was pale, her lips were white, her skin wrinkled and shriveled like old pinched leather. She had no visible body fat or muscle tone. There was nothing on her that gave any sign of life. 

“Annie, I talked to the estate lawyers,” Tara hissed gulping for air, “There will be no contention.” Tara gasped again holding the oxygen mask over her face, “It’s the only thank you I have left…” Tara said in a weak and limp manner.

“Oh Tara,” Annie said with a humble smile slowly walking closer to the bed, “Of course no one will contend. No one is left.” 

Tara glanced up in shock. 

“Oh, poor little dying Tara…. She has no one but her childhood friend by her side… Well, guess what you self-centered, narcissistic, egotistical maniac! I was never your friend. I was your little puppet. The prop you used to make yourself look and feel better.” 

Annie maintained pristinely calm composure and kept her firm voice low, giving her back to the door so now one could see her face as she spoke to the disappearing person beneath her. 

“If there was ever a thing I did, you had to outshine it or ruin it for me.” Annie said, piercing her lips together allowing the anger to consume her, “When I got first place in the spelling bee, you tripped me and I fell over the committee members. I was thinner than you, but you made fun of me at every possible moment so you could feel better about yourself.” 

“You killed my dog!” Annie stifled a shout, “That dog helped me get through my parents’ divorce and you ran over it with your stupid new car. You switched our names on our college applications and admission scores and got in to my dream school, you got in with my grades!”

The hatred she hid for so long was finally coming to the surface as she relived all the pain she spoke of, “You despicable wench. You partied and barely passed on my hard work! They accused me of fraud and I couldn’t reapply.” 

Annie approached the bed taking in Tara’s timid body shaking, “I went to a local college and then to a low-level four-year university. You came back into my life whenever you needed to feel better about being the bag of crap you are! You had a bad date, call me at 3 in the morning. You got a parking ticket, ask me to take care of it. Tara, you piece of garbage, you have messed with me for the last time…” 

Tara gasped for air, and Annie knew she had little time remaining. “Do you even know what I do for a living? Do you actually know my number, or is it still saved under do anything Annie?” She lowered herself to sit closely to her dying friend, then whispered, “Do you know what is happening to you, Tara?”

At hearing Annie speak, Tara shook in fear and was losing more of the little life she had left. Only her glassy eyes shifted looking like she tried to scream if she only had the energy.  

“Let me tell you when you started to die…” Annie triumphantly spoke smiling as she stared at Tara, “Three years ago, if you remember,” she huffed, “I was married. My husband and I had a lovely life together until, until the night he met you…”

Projecting aggression in her tone and loving that she could finally do so, Annie snickered, “Remember? You ran his company’s marketing account and had to go over some details before you finalized the deal. You flirted for weeks, then, before the deal was done, you came on to him.” 

Annie giggled at the thought she had, then glanced down before continuing, “And I know, if you could talk, you’d say you didn’t. But since you flirted so flamboyantly, he recorded you.” 

“You’re not so subtle hints triggered him to record the entire last meeting so that he wouldn’t be blamed for anything. Do you know what this means, Tara? I know for a fact, everything you did.” 

“Did you even think about his family? I wonder if the thought ever crossed your mind, of course not.” Annie scoffed, “He was fired, just so you know. You, as expected, pulled your lawyers into play and from what I found out later on, you paid off everyone in the building to say that he made the advances. Did you stop to think about what happened after you ruined someone else’s life?” 

Annie quickly wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, “He came to your office to show you the video before he went public, but then you ran him over! You told your driver to keep on driving after hitting a person. Who does that? Like he was a racoon or cat!” 

“You are the living embodiment of pure evil.” Feeling the weight she had been concealing for so long lifting, Annie grinned devilishly, “When I got the call at work that he was hit and on his way to the hospital, I collapsed. And my unborn child was lost that day; my baby boy didn’t survive and neither did my husband.” 

“This entire revenge plot was born when I decided to confront you about it and all you did was chit chat about your hair! You didn’t know I was married or that I was expecting even though the announcements were online. Your selfishness had reached its end, and I was the one who was going to stop it.” 

“The symptoms you have been experiencing these past two years, the symptoms that were so vague and common that doctors thought they knew what illness you had, are because of me. Tara, you fool, I’m a nurse. A fact you never remembered even after you got sick.”

“When we became close after the destruction of my family, when I agreed to be your lap dog and beg for your attention, it was all to slowly but ever so surely, poison you!” 

“Yup, I’m who has been killing you. I am the reason your organs have shut down because they’re practically mush. I am the reason you never responded to any treatment.” She chuckled, “I never administered any treatment at home, they were all placebos.” 

With a splendid monumental smile, Annie exhaled, “Oh the relief to finally tell you this. This has been three years in the making. And, do you know the absolute best part? You slithering whimpering little disgusting worm! The best part is that you bought it so much that you left me all of your money and this very convincing dying declaration.” 

“So, you see, pitiful Tara. Not only do you get to die knowing that everything in your life was not as valuable as you thought it was, but I got to sit by and watch everyone you love walk away. I watched you lose your home. I watched you lose your career. I watched you get heartbroken. I watched your body fail. I watched you give up.” 

“Everything was planned out, every detail. And, oh the satisfaction I feel with finally getting revenge.” 

Annie leaned back filled with joy as Tara meekly scrambled in her bed barely stirring a sound. She looked into Tara’s eyes after hearing the monitor blare that her heart rate was dangerously low. Annie wanted to see Tara take her last breath, and she wanted to revel in the excitement of finally getting back at the woman who had taken so much from her. 

“Revenge is a dish best served cold, and Tara, look at you, you’re frozen.” 

Just then, the beeping on the monitor became one long loud monotone. The doctor came in to declare the death with Annie hunched over on the chair near the bed. 

“I’m so sorry, Annie.” He quietly said, laying his hand on her shoulder, “She’s gone now, she’s at peace.” 

Annie nodded while holding a tissue to her face. 

“You were an exceptional companion, Annie. The very best of friends. I’m glad she had you in her life.” 

Annie turned to the doctor, hospital employees calmly walking in to take Tara’s body, “Oh no, doctor. She is the one who has enriched my life.” She said wiping the genuine tear from her cheek.

Armed with the best feeling in the world, a compounded feeling of attaining revenge and escaping the legal system, Annie took her claim of the millions left by Tara. 

Annie used the money wisely. She spent it kindly. Putting Tara’s millions to good use, she contributed to a plethora of charities, bringing good fortune to countless lives. In establishing a foundation in her son and her husband’s name, Annie felt that Tara’s wickedness had left a positive mark on the world. 

Annie went back to saving lives as a nurse. She did so with complete peace of mind and a grateful heart to what her patience and hard work achieved. She woke up every day and walked to work in clothes that were old and too small, content with the knowledge that nothing in life was purely good or bad. 

Nothing was ever black or white, but rather life flowed in an endless ocean of varying shades of gray. 

Annie spent every day watching good people do the wrong thing, she in turn watched bad people do the right thing. Not once regretting the endless good that came from Tara’s death, Annie lived on quietly, holding on to the concept that one act of evil can breed a million good deeds.