A Time for Us - By Amy Knupp Page 0,72
into trouble, too?”
“Exactly. The first one grabbed on to the second one and they both went under. It looks like that guy out there has both of them.” She spoke again in Spanish to the woman, who was covering most of her face with her hands, peeking around them as if she were scared to death to see what condition they were in.
The second rescuer reached Cale and took one of the girls, who appeared to be conscious. Rachel’s adrenaline had long ago started pumping, and she zeroed in on the limp girl Cale was pulling back to shore. It seemed like an eternity before both men reached them.
“I think she’s lost consciousness,” Cale said as the bilingual woman and Rachel splashed forward to meet him and help get the girl to shore.
“I’ve got her,” he said, breathing heavily.
Rachel was kneeling in front of the victim, assessing her condition practically before Cale had set her down. “She’s not breathing. Weak pulse. Check the other girl,” she told him as she tilted the girl’s head back and began mouth-to-mouth.
She barely noticed the gathering crowd as she kept working, gently pleading with the unhearing girl to respond.
“Ambulance is on the way.”
Rachel realized it was her mother who joined her on the sand as she bent forward for another round of rescue breathing. She was now more aware of the crowd, and she thought she heard Cale tell the grandmother the other girl was going to be okay.
“Come on,” Rachel begged her victim.
As if hearing her, the girl sputtered and threw up a bunch of water, gagging and sputtering. Rachel gently turned her to her side. “Yes, that’s it. Get it all out.”
“Give her room, everyone,” Rachel’s mom said to the onlookers.
The girl was ashen and fear was evident in her eyes, but her breaths came easier, more evenly.
“It’s okay,” Rachel told her. “You’re going to be okay.” She hoped. Chances were a heck of a lot better now. “Try to relax.” It appeared the girl understood English because she gave a half nod.
“Evie!” The girl’s grandmother, who’d been hugging her other granddaughter, fell onto her knees on the sand and grasped Evie as Rachel did her best to keep her well to the side.
“Evie, you’re doing great,” Rachel said. “We’re going to get you to the hospital so they can make sure there’s no water in your lungs. Just keep breathing, sweetie. Just like that.”
The grandmother gave Rachel a desperate, questioning look and Rachel nodded. “She’s okay right now. Out of immediate danger. She needs to go to the hospital.”
“Hospital?” the woman repeated in a heavy accent, renewed fear in her eyes.
Rachel looked to the bilingual woman to explain, and then the grandmother nodded.
The older Dr. Culver directed the gathered crowd out of the way to allow the arriving paramedics to get to the patient with the stretcher.
As Rachel updated them on the girl’s condition, Cale came over with Evie’s sister, who seemed okay on the outside, in his arms. “Hey, Paige, Rafe. Lili here needs to be transported, too. Can you guys get both girls and their grandmother in the ambulance?”
“Cale?” The female paramedic looked confused to see him there for a moment. “Shouldn’t be a problem. Just the two of them are patients?”
Cale explained what had happened to Lili as they prepared Evie to be carried to the waiting ambulance. “I can follow behind,” he said.
“No need for that,” the paramedic apparently named Rafe said. “If you can bring her to the ambulance, we can take them from there. Go back to whatever you were doing.”
Jackie again took crowd control into her hands and encouraged everyone to disperse. The paramedics carried Evie toward the lot where they had parked. Cale followed behind with Lili in his arms. Rachel hooked her arm supportively with the grandmother’s as they trailed the others. Rachel had taken Spanish for several years, but the woman rambled on and on so quickly, recounting once again what had happened, as if she were still processing it herself, that it was difficult to pick words out. She hoped her reassuring pats on the woman’s arm were helping to calm her down.
Minutes later, the ambulance set off from the parking lot, leaving Rachel staring after it in the relative quiet and calmness.
Cale leaned down and spoke softly into her ear. “You’d make a damn good paramedic, you know that?”
Rachel smiled and felt some of the tension leave her body at the unexpected remark.
“I’m not sure I could handle the