by Ami LeCoeur
I couldn’t believe it. These two were having a fight in the middle of all this chaos? “Stop it, you two!” I yelled and the woman fell back, sobbing, against my chest.
“My phone. I need my phone. I gotta get out of here,” Alice began to whimper, then to yell. “Damn it, damn it!”
Her phone? Here we are, halfway in and out of her smoking car, she can barely stand on her own, I’m struggling to wiggle out of this window so I can get her to safety, and she’s worried about a fucking phone?
“I’ll get it, baby,” Daniel said and began to yank everything he could get his hands on from the car. Clothes, shoes, children’s toys going flying.
“A little help here, Daniel?” I said to him, but he’d already pulled down the backseats and was halfway into the trunk of the car, his ass sticking out. I was on my own.
I managed to wiggle the rest of the way out, grab the woman under her arms and pull her through the window. Once I was out, I was somehow able to half walk, half carry her to a tree.
She kept yelling for her phone, struggling against me, and despite her pain, it was everything I could do to convince her to sit down with her back against the trunk.
Chapter 20 — Maria
I saw the puff of CO2 and then the rise of steam from the dampened fire. But, I didn’t see Thompson. Where did he go? Was he inside the car? It was too dark to tell.
Then I saw his head, his shoulders, and I heaved a sigh of relief.
I was distracted by the dispatcher asking me questions. I turned back toward the accident when I heard the woman scream again. Now the man and woman were flailing at each other. What the…?
“Stop it, you two!” Thompson’s deep voice filled the darkness. A moment later clothes and other items came flying out of the car and onto the ground.
“They’ve gotten the woman out,” I reported, too amazed to say anything else.
A truck pulled onto the shoulder in front of us, and two guys jumped out with flashlights. They headed in through the trees, their lights sweeping the area.
Thompson approached the men, then turned back towards the car where I was sitting with the girls.
I noticed our car was still running, so I turned it off, but left the headlights and flashers going.
“Listen carefully, this is how to stop the bleeding…” said the dispatcher.
I rolled my eyes and suppressed the urge to shout. Instead, calmly saying, “There is no active bleeding, the girl just has some dried blood on her face.” I’m sure they were just trying to make sure everything was taken care of, but the constant repetition was starting to get on my nerves, especially since I was desperate to follow what was happening outside.
Scanning the scene, I watched as Thompson spoke to the newcomers before turning and heading back toward us.
Then suddenly he stopped dead still, staring back and forth between the truck and our car.
Before I could stop her, Shelley pushed open the back door and jumped from the car.
“Shelley!” I yelled. “Come back.”
I was too late. I could only see the top of her head as she rounded the SUV and ran in Thompson’s direction. Oh no. Thompson now stood in the middle of the road. Frozen. Staring down at the girl with some strange mixture of fear and horror in his eyes.
Chapter 21 — Thompson
Bright lights and the roar of an engine distracted me and I looked up to see that a truck had pulled over and a couple of flashlights were headed our way. I called out to the newcomers, welcoming their assistance.
“What is it?” they yelled back. “What the hell happened? Is everybody okay?”
I watch the lights weave towards me, and give the basic information. Turning back to my vehicle, a chill slides through me. Something’s wrong. This doesn’t look right. I stumble forward to get a better look when I see it.
There’s a little girl, running towards me… she’s crying. Screaming. She’s watching me. Those eyes… oh my god, the little girl is…
…carrying a weapon.
“No!” I scream at my men, who are leveling their sights at the child. Fear is a living thing on the girl’s face as tears stream down her cheeks. I see her clearly through my M4 scope, her two front teeth are missing. She still a baby and she’s wearing a vest of explosives and there are men, her family most likely, shouting at her to run in our direction.
She’s crying harder now, speaking in a language I can’t understand. But she’s trying to do as they say, her long black hair streaming behind her as she breaks from a jog into a sprint. She can’t be more than six years old. She’s wearing a white dress under the heavy explosive-laden vest. The contrast of the white dress against the black vest is vile. Angel and Devil. Good and Evil. Innocence being murdered before me before she becomes the murderer.
She’s running towards us and closing fast. She’s covering the distance quickly for one so young.
“Go back,” I whisper to her, willing her to listen.
She doesn’t.
I hear the order, “Take her down.”
“No!” The word still rings in my ear.
Chapter 22 — Thompson
“Thompson!” came the scream as lights whizzed by me and a loud, long horn blasted me sane again. I shook my head, realizing I was standing in the middle of the roadway. My heart thudded heavily in my chest.
Shadow Time. Twice tonight. It’s been a long time since it happened twice in one night.
My knees threatened to collapse under me as I took three long strides, scooped up the child and ran back to my SUV. She’s screaming—but—alive - as I placed her in the backseat next to Emily. I opened the driver’s side door, then slid into the seat, closing my eyes as my hands firmly grasped the steering wheel. My steering wheel. Calm. Control.
I took a deep breath and looked over at Maria. Her face was white, her eyes taking up half her face. She watched me for a moment, then her eyes filled with tears as she placed her hand on mine.
“It’s okay. You were amazing.”
I looked at her in stunned silence. She didn’t turn away. She didn’t fear me. She was holding my hand.
“Everything’s okay. Because of you, everyone is safe.”
Safe.
I sat there a moment longer, catching my breath and solidifying myself to the present.
“I’m sorry,” I started, but Maria leaned closer and touched her fingers to my lips.
“We’ll discuss it later,” she said, tipping her head towards the back seat, her eyes still shining with unshed compassion.
I nodded and kissed her fingertips before forcing my nerves back into neutral and turning around to smile at the girls. Shelley had stopped crying and had her head laying on Emily’s lap. Emily touched a finger to her lips, shushing me, before I could say anything.
I gave her a thumbs-up and she gave me a dazzling smile and thumbs-upped me back.
I turned back to Maria and whispered, “I better go talk with these guys and check on Alice.” I squeezed her hand and slid back out the door.
Chapter 23 — Maria
I watched Thompson move through the lights towards the two newcomers. He’d just scared the be-jeezus out of me. I suspected it was another one of those flashback incidents and I was worried about him. We hadn’t talked about them since that night at my house when the first one happened, but I wondered what had triggered this one.
The two guys from the truck had been gathering loose items from the accident and placing them in a pile near the car. The woman continued to curse at Daniel, who by now was walking aimlessly around in circles, holding his head, stopping and crouching down for a moment, then jumping up and pacing again. He walked over to the pile the truckers had gathered, swearing and searching through the stuff there. The woman was almost as incoherent.
For a moment, I wondered if this was some really bad dream. Or if we were being punked. Did real people actually behave this way?
I wondered if these two had a drug problem. It wasn’t my place, but I
worried about the safety of little Shelley. I picked up the phone again, setting it against my ear.
“Are there any obvious injuries?” came the dispatcher’s voice. At that moment, the woman let out a shriek and my head jerked up in time to see her doubled over, grabbing her leg and moaning as she tried to make it back to the overturned car. Thompson was doing his best to get her to sit down again. Poor guy.
“The woman seems to be in pain, she keeps grabbing her leg and is obviously limping. Everyone else seems okay.”
Now the young woman was cursing again. I gritted my teeth. She was cursing at Thompson.
“I need my phone. Where’s my fuckin’ phone?” she kept demanding. It was too dark to see her face, but from her voice, I judged her to be no older than about twenty-five.
“Do you need an ambulance?” I called out.
“NO!” screamed the woman. “No cops! I just need my phone,” she insisted. “I have to get out of here.”
“They say no ambulance,” I relayed as Daniel came back over to the car, opening the door and dragging his daughter into the night again. “I’m so sorry, baby. So sorry. Are you okay? Were you scared? Daddy’s so sorry.”
He shut the door, taking the girl with him. I noticed he was still in short sleeves.
“I think they’re in shock,” I reported to the dispatcher.
“I’m not in shock,” Daniel insisted through the open window. I looked at his bare arms in the forty degree night air, shaking my head.
Before I could say anything else, the young woman shrieked again. Thompson was attempting to get her to sit down against the tree. She was crying and rocking, holding her leg.
“Yes,” I said to the dispatcher. “Send an ambulance. The young woman has an injury to her leg and the driver is obviously in shock. I think the child is okay, but just a bit scared.”
“Okay, emergency vehicles are on the way, please stay on the line.”
I turned in my seat, looking over my shoulder. “Are you okay?” I asked Emily.
“Yes,” came her quiet voice, eyes like saucers, watching all the activity. “But why don’t the grown-ups know what they are doing? They are acting all crazy and being mean.”
I stifled a laugh. She was right of course, and I had been wondering the same thing.
The two men from the truck passed by my window.
“Hey, did you have a green backpack?” one of them yelled to Daniel, who was crouched down, rocking his child.
“Yes.”
“We just found it over here.” Daniel stood up.
“Thompson!” I called out. “Daniel needs a jacket. Can you find him something?”
Thompson nodded in my direction and pulled a sweatshirt from the pile Daniel had created earlier. He handed it over, helping Daniel put it on since the man refused to let go of his child. Then he led the two of them back to our car.
“The ambulance and emergency vehicles are on the way,” I said. He nodded again.
“Stay in this vehicle and keep the baby warm until the ambulance gets here, do you understand me?” he said to Daniel, his eyes hard and his voice harder. “If you get out again, I’ll duct tape you to the damn seat. Got it?”
Wow. Bossy Thompson is a little scary. And sexy.
Daniel nodded mutely and continued to rock his daughter as he slid into the seat, murmuring to her under his breath. She clung to him, head resting on his chest, thumb in her mouth, looking toward Emily. I wasn’t sure who was soothing whom.
Emily reached out a hand and stroked the girl’s hair.
“Okay, we have emergency vehicles dispatched to Old Woman Springs Road and Popper Lane. Is there anything else?” the dispatcher asked.
“No,” I responded. “I don’t think so.” Thompson stood by the driver’s side window where he’d placed Daniel in the back seat.
“Okay. Stay off the roadway and keep the people still if you can.”
I almost laughed, watching the young woman trying to shake off the two truckers, insisting she had to get to the car to find her phone. “Well, I doubt I can do that, they keep moving around.”
“All you can do is suggest,” said the dispatcher with a little laugh.
“Right. Are you hanging up now?”
“Yes. The vehicles should be there shortly.”
I hung up my phone, turning my attention back to the scene in front of me. The woman was cursing and crying as she tried to leave a message on a cell phone one of the men had loaned her. Sobbing in between each breath, she lamented, “Julie isn’t home. What am I going to do?”
“Shit. I don’t got a ride. Can I use your phone?” Daniel asked from the back seat. “I need to call someone for a ride. I just spent $2,000 to get my car out of the impound.” He shook his head, pulling his daughter closer to him.
“Baby,” he rocked his daughter, “I’m so, so sorry.”
“Tell me the number,” I said, knowing it would be nearly impossible for him to even think right now, let alone figure out how to use my phone.
I dialed the number and handed him the phone once it connected. He set Shelley on the seat next to the door as he slid toward the middle. Thompson leaned inside the window and began talking to the girl as her father focused on his call.
“Damn,” Daniel said, half to himself, “message machine.”
He left a fairly coherent message, but didn’t give any details, just a “please call me”. I wondered how he expected to get a call back when he couldn’t find his own phone.
“What am I going to do now? How am I going to get a ride home?” he asked, shaking his head again, barely holding back a sob.
“I’m sure the police can give you a ride.” I said as Daniel continued to talk to himself.
I glanced at Emily again and hid a smile when she twirled a finger beside her ear.
Chapter 24 — Thompson
I took a deep breath and ignored the whining man sitting in the back seat, choosing to focus on the girl he’d set next to him while he talked to someone on Maria’s phone.
I looked down at the quiet, innocent girl sitting in the backseat. The little girl with nothing in her hands except her pink sweater. I leaned down, resting my arm on the edge of the window.
“This must be scary for you.” She stared at me with haunted eyes that pierced my heart, reminding me again of that other pair of young, terrified eyes.
“You are very brave, you know. I’m proud of you,” I said to her, my voice shaking a little as I forced my breath calmly in and out. “Your mommy’s going to be okay, you know.”
“She’s not my mommy,” the girl said softly, shaking her head and looking down at her hands twisting her sweater.
Okay. Not her mom. “Well, then. Your… friend is going to be okay.”
For the first time, the little girl smiled shyly at me. A moment passed before she moved closer to where I was standing, and very slowly reached up to take my hand.
“Thank you,” she whispered, her eyes still large and searching mine. “For saving me, and for saving Daddy.” She looked over at the tree where the truckers were still trying to convince Alice to remain seated. “And Daddy’s friend.”
My throat closed up and I had to swallow hard to choke the emotion down. I looked at her little hand lying on mine, and felt something inside me crack open a little bit. “Of course,” I said and then was forced to cough before I could finish my sentence “You’re very welcome.”
She smiled up at me and said, “You’re a good daddy.” With those words, a weight seemed to lift from my shoulders.
I leaned in to kiss her forehead. “Thank you, sweetheart.”
In the distance, I heard sirens wail. I slid into the front seat, next to Maria. “I’m going to go check on Alice again. You’ll be okay for a minute?”
She reached out and took my hand. “Absolutely. The girls are perfectly safe here with me.” She squeezed my hand. “Because of you.”
The concrete wall inside my chest seemed to crack a little more.
I took a deep breath, closing my eyes for just a moment. Thank you for saving me... Because of you... You’re a good daddy. I let the words echo through me again.
Calm. Control. I raised Maria’s fingers to my lips.
“What would I do without you?” I said, leaning across the seat to kiss her forehead.
I heard Emily giggle as I kissed Maria and I couldn’t help but smile. I pulled away and gave all my girls a wink before I slid from the car, turned and walked back to the tree where I’d left the woman who wasn’t Shelley’s mom.
Chapter 25 — Maria
“Daddy’s doing a lot of kissing tonight,” came Emily’s voice from the back seat. I smiled at the girl’s innocent frankness.
Daniel handed back the phone and sobbed a large gulp of air as he pulled Shelley close, burying his head in his daughter’s curls.
A few moments later I saw flashing lights coming straight toward us. Thank god, this whole nightmare would be over soon.
“You stay here,” Daniel said to Shelley. “Daddy will be right outside.”
He jumped out of the car before I could say anything to stop him. A fire truck pulled up, the first of several vehicles they’d dispatched.
I glanced it the rearview mirror. Emily was doing her best to comfort the little girl.
“Are you okay, Shelley?” Emily asked.
“Yes,” she said, almost too quiet for me to hear her answer.
“Would you like to hold my hand?”
“Yes.”
I watched Emily reach down and pull the younger girl's hand into her lap. She patted the back of it and talked softly to the child, just like I’d seen Thom do with Emily on the rare occasions when I’d seen her upset or scared. Shelley sighed heavily and slumped down a little. Then she laid her head against Emily’s leg.
Emily yawned, then smiled sweetly at me as she reached down to pat Shelley’s hair.
Chapter 26 — Thompson
