Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 72196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
He wasn’t happy that they wouldn’t let him near her, but having me there was reassuring enough that he stopped trying to push through.
“You’re really a nurse?”
I pulled out my badge—the one that was no longer useful since I didn’t work at the clinic anymore—out of my pocket, thankful that I’d had the wherewithal to grab it on the way out of the house, and showed it to him.
I thought I’d be using it at the hospital.
“They’ll let you ride with her then. They’ll always allow medical personnel if the circumstances warrant it,” the paramedic explained. “Help me get her onto the gurney.”
I did, lifting her slight weight up the foot that it took to get her up on the gurney, and nearly cried out when I heard Alex’s low moan.
“Alex?” I murmured, leaning forward, touching the side of her face.
Alex cracked open one eye, and then closed it again.
But it was enough. She knew I was there.
“Can you hear me, honey?”
“Daddy.”
The word was so soft, so ragged, that I had to strain to hear it.
But I knew what she was asking.
“He’s here, baby,” I assured her. “Just a few feet away.”
She licked her lip, tried to lift her hand, and then sighed like just doing that one thing had taken it all out of her.
I reached for her hand.
“Are you meeting the helicopter here, or are you transporting her?”
The medic lifted his bags to the bottom of the gurney and fastened them with a few snaps before replying.
“We’re meeting them just down the road,” he clarified. “There’s an open field right next to the library.”
I nodded and stood up as the paramedic’s partner, a slight woman that didn’t look like she was holding her lunch down well, raised the gurney.
I held onto Alex’s hand as they walked her to the ambulance.
“How are her vitals?” I questioned.
“Everything was slightly elevated, I gave her some pain meds about a minute and a half before you got there, which is likely the cause of her sleepiness,” the medic explained as he helped lift the gurney into the back of the ambulance. “Her arm’s broken at least in one place, but likely more since I couldn’t set it. Pupils dilated, most likely indicating a concussion. She’s got bruises and scrapes, as well as road rash along her left side.”
I closed my eyes and stood beside the ambulance for a few moments.
“Once we get her to the LZ—landing zone—and loaded, we’ll come back for the mother.”
I wanted to say, “Fuck the mother” but managed to hold my tongue.
Instead, I got up into the ambulance, sat down on the bench next to the medic, and bowed my head over Alex’s body.
Then I prayed.
I prayed that she’d be okay.
I prayed that she wouldn’t have any lasting damage due to this wreck.
I also made a promise to God that I’d make more of an effort to get to know this little girl.
“Ready, Freddy?”
The medic nodded at his partner, and she shut the doors before rounding the ambulance, hopping in the front seat, and driving off.
I looked out the window to see Travis watching, tears coursing down his cheeks, as we sped away toward the LZ.
I held his gaze until I couldn’t see him any longer.
***
Travis
I wanted to rewind to yesterday when I last saw Alex, and take her. I wanted to bring her to my house, tell her that she was never leaving again, and that would be the end of it.
But life didn’t work like that.
Allegra really had been drinking with my daughter in her care, and then she’d driven.
She had then gotten into a wreck by driving off the side of the road and hitting a parked car.
She’d done a lot of things wrong in this situation. She’d drank with my child under her protection. She’d gotten into the car when she had no business doing so. She hadn’t restrained or made sure that Alex had restrained herself. She hadn’t seen the parked car due to her inebriated state. Then, she’d wrecked and my daughter had been thrown free of the car.
No father wanted to hear that his kid was hurt.
No father especially didn’t want to get a call that not only had she been hurt, but the mother—the woman that you thought you could trust to take care of your baby—had been irresponsible.
“Travis, what are you doing here?”
I tore my eyes away from the retreating ambulance, and turned dead eyes on the woman that was supposed to take care of our baby when I wasn’t there to do it.
“Do you know what happened, Allegra?”
I didn’t care that she was bleeding from her head, a constant torrent of blood filtering through her hair and down her hairline to curl around her chin.
“I…we got in a wreck.” She sounded confused.
That, and she also smelled like a brewery.