(the following is a letter that I once intended to send directly in the mail. Later on I reconsidered that idea, and for now I write it instead as an open letter published here at the blog)
Dear Ann,
I imagine it's quite a surprise to receive a letter from me, perhaps even a shock, but before you read any further I want to reassure you that I don't mean to upset you in any way. I would not have written to you at all if I had any other recourse, any other alternative source for the information I am seeking. You may have guessed what I am referring to before you even opened this letter, which is the event at the apartment building in Reseda, here in the Valley, that took place on the night of September 1st, 1989.
I am writing to you because you were there that night, and I need your help. For over twenty five years now, I have sought answers to what happened to me not only that night, but in the days that followed. My experience during that time, what I can remember of it, was overwhelming to me. You may or may not know about the larger series of events that extended past that first night at the Reseda apartment house, but I am only concerned for the purposes of this letter of asking for your help to determine what took place on the first night and the following morning. To avoid a preamble, I will assume you know what I am talking about, and in any case I don't wish to recount the details of the situation that brought you to the apartment that night in the first place. I only can guess that your sister must have called you and asked you to come.
What I want to do now, is to describe to you what I remember from that night, beginning at the moment when I was first aware of your presence on the scene.
Without recounting the details of how I came to be in this position, because I assume you already know, I was sitting in the back of a paramedic's truck parked in the east driveway of the Concord Square Apartments on Sherman Way near Lindley Avenue in Reseda. I am guessing that the time would have been between 9 and 10pm. I was in a state of shock, having suffered a life threatening injury, and the paramedic, after treating me, was trying to make sure I was stabilized. I remember feeling groggy and "inside myself". Also I was unable to speak. My first memory of your presence was when the paramedic was trying to establish my identity. I was unable to tell him my name, so you took my drivers licence out of my wallet and gave him all of my relevant information.
You were standing right there, next to the ambulance and by my side, and you were talking to the paramedic. That is my initial memory of you that night.
After giving him my information, you asked him how I was doing. I also recall him asking me if I knew who the President was, and other questions that would indicate an awareness of the moment. I think I may have croaked out an answer or two to these questions. I don't know what the paramedic told you regarding my condition, but I'm sure he indicated that I wasn't in good shape. I also clearly remember you asking if he was going to take me to the hospital. As I did not have health insurance, he explained the particulars of what he could and could not do. My guess is that he would have been only able to take me to the county hospital up at Olive View. But what I also remember, very clearly, is that you told him you were a nurse. If I am not mistaken, you said that you would be willing to take responsibility for me, and that you wanted to take me to a much closer hospital, which was Northridge Hospital, located less than two miles from the apartment complex.
You were not the only one present with me in the aftermath of the event inside the apartment. A young lady named Lys was also there. I am sure you remember Lys; she was a close friend of your sister's. They had known each other all through high school. Lys lived in Reseda, very close to both the Concord Square Apartments and to Northridge Hospital. I would guess that your sister called Lys at around the same time she called you. She needed the help of both of you, and you both responded.
After your discussion with the paramedic was concluded, and it was decided that you would take charge of me, I remember a period of minutes where I waited while you made arrangements to take me to Northridge Hospital. You may have gone back inside the apartment to inform your sister of this. What I can remember very clearly, is that when it came time to put me in the car, Lys had to assist me, to give me support to make sure that I could stand and walk. I was able to get into the car with her assistance.
However, I do not believe that it was your car I got into, nor Lys' car. This is where things get a little strange. While I was still with the paramedic, and my memory tells me I was still on the gurney being wheeled from the apartment, I heard a woman's voice near the entry gate. It was loud and argumentative. I recall very clearly being wheeled past this gate and seeing the loud woman arguing with two men. I have always had a visceral memory of exactly what she said to them, but I'll not recount it for you now because it pertains to the larger situation of my experience, which is quite complex. At any rate, you might know yourself what she said and why she was there.
I remember being wheeled past this woman and the two men, who in hindsight must have been authority figures (but not policemen), and thinking to myself "that's Sean Young".
In my writing of the overall experience, I have described certain memories as being "visceral", meaning that when I recount them, I can feel them in my gut as well as my brain, as if they happened this morning.
My memory of Sean Young arguing with the two men at the entry gate is visceral. There is no doubt whatsoever that she was there, at the entryway to the Concord Square Apartments, within one hour of the incident that took place inside. Why she was there I have no idea to this day, though I do have a few wild guesses. Nowdays, she is known by her first name of Mary. Her career as an actress is mostly over. She was on the rise all through the early 1980s, but strangely, after 1989 her star began to fall, until she was basically blackballed from Hollywood by the mid-90s and thought of, maybe unfairly, as being a kook. She currently lives in New York and works occasionally in movies you haven't heard of, but prior to September 1989, she would still have been considered a well known movie star.
There is zero doubt that she was there that night, and that she was there because of what had happened in the apartment. Why she was there, I don't know. It has seemed to me that it might have been part of a game. Hollywood is a strange place, with strange inhabitants.
I have diverted from the details of that night to mention the presence of Sean Young, and I will finish the diversion by saying that this was the point, for me at least, when things began to get really weird. Before her arrival, I had thought I was involved in a domestic dispute that had turned ugly. There was also an extra dimension to the situation involving drugs and drug dealing that I will not now go into.
But to get back to the details, I can remember Lys walking me down the sidewalk in front of the building, asking if I was okay, and then I can remember you Ann, and this woman Sean Young, out in front with Lys and I. And I remember that the two of you decided that it would be better to take me to the hospital in her car, as it was larger and had a bigger back seat. You, Ann, were driving a small hatchback in those days (a VW or Toyota or something similar), and it was decided that Sean Young's car had more room in which to place me comfortably in the back seat. In my memory, she was driving something like a Crown Victoria, maybe a rental car. But her car had a back seat I could stretch out in, and so we took her car to the hospital. Lys rode in the back seat with me. Mary Sean Young drove. You sat next to her in the passenger seat. At that point we drove to Northridge Hospital.......
(to be continued tomorrow night.)
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