breaths heave in and out of me, my heart slamming so hard I can barely talk. “A tree hit his head.” I touch the back of mine. “Back here.”
A few rescue workers rush up with a backboard, and they load him up as I watch.
“What about you?” Jake asks me.
“I’m fine.” But my side is burning like it’s on fire, and I blink my eyes heavily as they blur.
“Ethan!” Jake calls out. I lie back against the grass and stare up at the cloud-darkened night sky. “Ethan!” I hear him call again, but it sounds like it’s very far away. So far.
I try to speak, but I can’t. All I can do is gasp, as the fire in my side moves up and down my body.
“We got you, Ethan,” Jake says as another team arrives. They roll me onto a stretcher, and I try to talk. My son needs to know I’m all right. I need to call Abigail to tell her I’m fine. I need to tell her I love her. I need…her.
But I can’t speak. Nothing comes out.
“Gently, boys,” I hear Mr. Jacobson say. “I’m with you, Ethan. Everything is going to be okay now.”
I try to nod but I can’t. My body feels so heavy. I can tell they’re loading me in the back of an ambulance, and Mr. Jacobson climbs in with me. He never lets go of my hand. He barks orders at the ambulance workers, and he curses when they don’t move fast enough.
I want to laugh, but I can’t. I can’t do anything.
And then it all goes dark.
38
Abigail
I rush through the emergency room doors and find the lobby full of rescue workers, their wives, and townspeople I’ve seen here and there. The waiting room is also full. Ethan’s mom is sitting in a chair, chewing on her fingernails. I’d called her as soon as Little Robbie came to get me, and I assume she drove herself here.
I rush over to her. “How is he? Have you heard anything?”
She shakes her head. “He’s in surgery. He has a ruptured spleen, and a really bad gash on his side.”
“Okay,” I say. “So, we wait.” I sit down on the floor next to her.
A woman sits right in front of me, and she’s clutching two children against her like she’s afraid to let them go. She’s all wet, and her hair is stuck to her face. Her children are wearing hospital-branded pajamas, and she sits there shivering.
“Are you all right?” I ask her.
She nods as her eyes fill with tears. “We are now. He saved us. He saved all of us. We would have drowned without him.” Her teeth start to chatter. “He just came right out there, no life jacket, nothing. And he carried us all out.” She lets out a wet laugh. “He carried us all at once like we weighed nothing.” She looks down at her baby then at her young son. She runs a hand tenderly over his head. “He’s a hero.”
I look at Ethan’s mom. “Is she talking about Ethan, do you think?”
Suddenly, the fire chief, Ethan’s father-in-law, rushes into the room. Tears are streaming down his face. “She’s going to be okay,” he says to anyone and everyone. He sinks heavily into a vacant chair as if his legs won’t support him anymore.
Little Robbie Gentry has come into the waiting room too. I motion for him. “Who is he talking about?” I ask.
The whole room is silent. Everyone looks away.
“Imogene,” Little Robbie says. “It was Imogene, his wife, in the second car. The second person Ethan saved, the woman in the submerged car, the one who wasn’t breathing… That was Ethan’s late wife’s mother.”
The whole room remains silent. No one says a word.
Suddenly, Derrick gets up, grabs Ethan’s mom and jerks her up into a hard hug, whispering, “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” over and over.
She pulls back from him, glares into his eyes, and slaps him across the face. He goes absolutely still, his face drained of color aside from the red hand print she just left there. She strikes him again, and no one makes a move to stop her.
When she finally quiets, he grabs her hand and draws it against his chest. “I’m so sorry,” he says. “I should have done better.” He sinks into a chair again.
The doctor comes into the doorway and calls Ethan’s name. His mother and I get up, but she walks out into the hallway. The doctor has no choice but