Trissa groaned again as he lifted her. "I'm sorry, Sweetheart, it won't be long now." He sheltered her head against his shoulder as he trudged through the weeds and the low hanging branches of the thicket. As he emerged, he was all but blinded by the headlights thrown on by the driver of the car immediately ahead of him.
"Jesus Christ, Jack! What'd you do to her?" the driver shouted as he charged from his car toward him.
"Nothing. She's hurt."
"Shit, I can see that! What? Did she change her mind once you got her up here? Goddamn exasperating that way sometimes, ain't they? There's been a time or two when I've been tempted--"
"Tom," cautioned a woman's voice from the car.
Tom waved off the warning. "You look like you been in a cat fight, both of you. Feisty one, hey? What say we trade? Mine's a little too willing if you know what I mean."
"I haven't time for your nasty innuendoes," Nicholas said with tightly restrained anger. "Tris... my wife has been hurt and I need to get her to a hospital fast." He wasn't sure why the word wife had sprung so readily to his tongue, sister would have worked as well to cut off the crude comments of this asshole. But it didn't matter. Explanations could come later if they were needed.
"Wife? Oh yeah, sure, sorry, man. I didn't mean to -- Come on, I'll take you. Judy, get in the back." Once motivated to think beyond his crotch, Tom proved to be a man of decisive action. He settled Nicholas with Trissa on his lap into the front seat, backed out of his parking place and peeled off down the road with the urgency of an ambulance driver. "St. Andrew's okay?"
"What?" asked Nicholas.
"Hospital? St. Andrew's is the closest, don't you think?"
"Yeah, sure, I guess." Nicholas took a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at the welling scrapes on Trissa's face. He worried that she hadn't wakened yet. Her hands seemed so limp and pale against the dark blue of her skirt.
"What really happened?" Judy asked from the back seat.
"She -- uh, we were walking along the railroad track and the train..."
"Lord, you were hit by a train?"
"Tom, don't be so stupid," Judy said.
"No -- I mean, almost. We had to jump out of the way and we fell down the gravel embankment. She must have hit her head."
"What were you doing on the railroad track?" Judy asked.
"Walking. Just walking."
"Yeah?" Judy scooted forward in her seat and asked the next question right at his ear. "Well, then, where's her coat? What else do you do for fun? Play in traffic?"
Nicholas answered her probing with silence. He held Trissa closer trying to warm her with his own body. God, he wished he knew where her coat was. Or what had driven her out without it to embrace death with such grim determination. God, please, let me help her. He rubbed his cheek against her soft, frigid one. Don't let it be too late.
Judy wouldn't quit. "You two have a fight or something? She was running away from you, wasn't she? You beat her, don't you, you bastard?"
Now it was Tom's turn to warn, "Judy, watch your mouth. It ain't none of our business."
"I'm just speaking the truth. All men are bastards, ain't they, dearie?" Judy reached out to pat the top of Trissa's head but Nicholas fended her off by raising his shoulder and casting her a warning scowl. "Sure. Now, you're looking out for her. Bet you ain't that sweet when you got her alone," she hissed and slid back. Soon the only sounds from the back seat was the flare of a match and Judy's soft puffs as she lit a cigarette.
"Don't mind her," Tom said. "We were having some words, if you know what I mean, when we seen you coming out of the woods."
"How much longer?"
"A few blocks is all."
Trissa stirred a little, and Nicholas feared that she would come to and say something to further arouse Tom and Judy's suspicions. He worried, too, that getting help at the hospital would not be all that easy. She might look too young for them to believe she was his wife, and without any proof, how could he convince them he was? An ambulance with its lights flashing but no siren sliced passed them, and Nicholas peered beyond it to see the hospital. The neon of the emergency room sign glowed a welcome.