Amanda flung the door open before I’d put the Jeep in park and was running across the yard to the door of the trailer without waiting on me. I took off after her.
She didn’t knock but went right in and called out Jimmy’s name. He ran into the living room just as I got into the trailer. His eyes went from Amanda to me, then back to Amanda. “She’s back here,” he told her.
Amanda didn’t look around the place in disgust like I’d expected. She didn’t seem to notice anything other than Jimmy, who she hurried after.
“Hey, Amanda,” Brent said as he looked up at us from his spot beside Daisy. He was icing her arms down just like Amanda had told them to.
“Hey, Brent. You’re doing a really good job,” she praised him, then walked over to the bed and touched Daisy’s head. Daisy looked up at her with glassy eyes and whimpered.
“You’re gonna be okay,” Amanda assured her, and looked back at me.
“Get her. Let’s go,” she said, standing back.
I picked her up and cuddled her up against my chest. She curled into me instead of lying limply in my arms, and that small fact helped ease my fear. She wasn’t lethargic. That was good.
“Come on, boys. You two go get in the Jeep,” she instructed, and went ahead of me to open doors for us.
Once we got to the Jeep, Amanda moved Jimmy to the front. She crawled into the back, then held out her arms. “Give Daisy to me. I’ll strap her in with me and hold her. You can drive this thing faster than I can.”
“Okay,” I agreed. I gave her Daisy, who went willingly. She didn’t know Amanda, but like the boys, she was willing to trust her completely. It was that angel’s face of hers. It was impossible for anyone to look like Amanda and be untrustworthy.
I ran around the Jeep and climbed in. We were speeding toward the hospital in seconds.
“How long has she had a fever, boys?” Amanda asked, looking back at them.
“Last night she felt warm and said her throat hurt. I gave her some Tylenol and put her to bed. Then all night she tossed and turned and cried. Her skin just got hotter and hotter,” Jimmy explained.
I was waiting on Amanda to ask why my mother hadn’t come home. Or if they had tried to call her. But she didn’t. Instead, she nodded. “Well, the two of you did a really good job taking care of her. No one else could have done a better job.”
If my little sister wasn’t sick and curled up in her lap, I’d grab Amanda’s face and kiss her. She had no idea how much those boys needed someone to affirm them. They never got that from anyone but me. Her praising them meant more than she could know.
“I shoulda called Preston sooner,” Jimmy said with a defeated sigh.
“You did exactly what you thought you should. You took care of her until you realized she needed a doctor. That’s all anyone else woulda known to do,” Amanda told him.
I pulled the Jeep up to the door of the emergency room and parked. They could tell me to move if they wanted to, but I was getting Daisy inside first.
Amanda handed her to me, and I took her straight through the doors.
The nurse at the reception desk gave me the usual annoyed look I got when I showed up with one of the kids. I’d been several times over the years.
“Sign in, please,” she said.
“It’s an emergency. Her fever is really high,” I explained.
“It’s the emergency room. Everyone in here has an emergency, I assure you. Now sign in please.” The woman’s bored tone infuriated me.
“She needs a doctor now. I can’t put her down and sign her in—she’s too sick to stand.” I tried not to snarl, but this woman was pushing me.
“Sign in,” she repeated.
My blood started to boil.
“What seems to be the problem?” Amanda’s voice interrupted the next words out of my mouth, which was probably a good thing.
“Y’all need to sign in and take a seat. He can’t seem to understand that.”
Amanda’s hand wrapped around my arm in a silent warning, and then she turned and walked over to the nurse coming out of a set of double doors.