Package Deal (30 page)

The bad
man
jerked when she
yell
ed
.
“Stop! Cecelia! Come back!”

Her stomach was full to bursting with fear
. S
he
ran
out the door,
down the porch stairs
,
and across the lawn
yell
ing at the top of her lungs. Her
heart pounded
as she heeded her mother’s
remember
ed words to get away. She looked back
once
to see if
he
was following her.

That
man was bad. H
e was going to do a bad thing. She was sure of it, and she had to get away—run and yell—like her mother had told her
—run and yell
as loudly as she could
.
As she angled across the neighbor’s lawn and
down to
the sidewalk, all she could think of was
to escape
—
to get
as far
away from the man who was in her house
, who might be following her
, trying to catch her, to stop her from screaming
. She ran into the street.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw
a
car
coming toward her, fast.
Her mother had told her never to go into the street
without looking both ways
.
But she had to get away.
If
she could just get across the street.

But
she couldn’t beat the car. She felt
the bumper smash into her hip, t
oss her into the air. And, then, for a moment, she felt as if she
were a bird, flying in the air away from the bad man until the
windshield reflected in the sunlight
out of the corner of her eye
. Then she must have hit it with her head. Now
she was seeing
flashing things. The sound of shattering glass r
inging
in her ears.
Stabbing
pain in her
side and her
leg and her arm. She
tried
to lift her arm
away from the pain
.
Suddenly
the car
seemed to drop
her and she was sliding off onto pavement.

She
couldn’t catch her breath,
didn’t think she could move, didn’t want to move.
Mama! Help me!
Every part of her body hurt, even her head, but before she could cry out, the world went black.

Marcus
parked his car up the block and walked toward Amanda’s house, looking forward to taking
Cecelia shopping
. He was surprised to see t
he neighbors gathered in
cluster
s on nearby porches, watching as
a
police
officer
interviewed
a
driver
,
sitting in the seat of the police cruiser, the door open. His
head
was cradled
in his hands.
A car was
stopped
crookedly in the middle of the street, its windshield a spiderweb of glass shards.

A
young woman was sitting on the curb
across
from Amanda’s open
front
door
,
crying and
talking to another police officer
.
“I told him to slow down—after he went around the corner, but he just went
faster. And then I saw the kid. S
he ran into the street.
She never even looked.
I
yelled at
him to stop, but he couldn’t,” she sobbed. “He tried, but he couldn’t. The
brakes screeched and screeched.
”

Marcus
started
toward
the young woman
when
he saw
the
blond curls
of the
victim, still
lying next to the curb on the other side of the car
.
A child, from her size.
He looked again and saw that it was Cecelia. H
is heart lurched.

“Oh, my God!”
Marcus
ran
over
and
bent down
near
the child
.

“Don’t touch her. Leave her be,
”
the
nearby
police
officer
cautioned. “We were a block away when the call came in.
An ambulance
has already been called. It should be
—”

A siren wailed, drowning
out whatever the man was saying as it screeched to a halt,
blocking the street in both directions.
Two paramedics approached Cecelia
and motioned for Marcus to move out of the way
.
He
backed up
and then
saw
Amanda
walking up the hill
too far away to see the activity in front of her house
.
When
one of the neighbors
called out
to her
and pointed
, she
looked up and
began to run.
Marcus
headed toward
her,
want
ing to shield her from the scene.
But w
hen
she
saw
Cecelia
lying on the ground
being attended to by the paramedics, her face turned white.
A
bag
of groceries
fell from her arms, and
a milk carton
emptied along the curb, blending with the blood
running down the street, blood
that curled out from under
the child
’s body.

“Let me go.” She
pushed past Marcus and
reached for
Cecelia’s
hand.

“Ma’am.Please move.”
The paramedic spoke to her
. “We need to get her
on the gurney.
”

Amanda did not respond.

Marcus came up behind her. “Amanda. Let them do their job.”

“I have to go with her.”

“Of course, and you will. Let them put her in the ambulance.”

She turned to him, shaking, her face
ghost
ly
. “What happened?”

“I don’t know. I pulled up after she—
it
must have been
right after it happened. You go with her.
I’ll be right behind you.
”

He helped her into the ambulance. It left, siren wailing, for the nearby hospital.
He followed in his car.

Hours later, Marcus and Amanda
sat together,
wait
ing
.

“I just don’t understand how this could
have happened.
I was only gone a few minutes, and now—
she
—she
could
be dying.”

Amanda’s
distraught
expression
and her words
tore at Marcus’ heart. The doctors
had not y
e
t
e
m
e
rg
e
d
from surg
e
ry.
He
clung to th
e
hope
that C
e
c
e
lia
must
still
b
e
aliv
e
and that th
e
y w
e
r
e
working to sav
e
h
e
r.

“Have you talked to your mother
yet
?”
he asked
, holding her hand
.

She shook her head. “I can’t—
not
until I have something to tell her
—more than that she was hit by
a car
.”
Her
voice cracked as she choked back tears.

Amanda
look
e
d
up
wh
e
n th
e
doors of th
e
op
e
rating suit
e
op
e
n
e
d
and th
e
surg
e
on cam
e
toward h
e
r. Sh
e
stood
up
.

“Sh
e
’s s
e
d
at
e
d
and will b
e
for som
e
tim
e
.”

“
Can I s
ee
h
e
r?”

The surgeon
pulled off the
green
cap on his head.
“Not y
e
t.
Maybe
later
.You go hom
e
. W
e
’ll call you th
e
mom
e
nt
you
can s
ee
her
.”

“What ar
e
h
e
r injuri
e
s, D
octor?” Marcus stood n
e
xt to Amanda,
holding
her as she
stood, trembling
.

“Sh
e
has a brok
e
n
left
humerus
, thr
ee
crack
e
d
ribs, a
nd a
brok
e
n
left
femur
. W
e
stopp
e
d
th
e
int
e
rnal bl
ee
d
ing
wh
e
n w
e
r
e
mov
e
d
h
e
r spl
ee
n. But w
e
’r
e
most conc
e
rn
e
d
about h
e
r h
e
ad injury.
There’s
some
brain sw
e
ll
ing
. W
e
won’t know for a
whil
e
how quickly that will resolve
.
She’s in recovery right now. You can see her, stay with her, when she’s out of recovery, in a regular room.
”

Amanda
blinked. “I’m not going home. It’s because I left her that this happened. I’m not leaving.” She looked around, her hands shaking. She pointed to the small sofa where she and Marcus had been sitting. “I’ll stay right here if I ha
v
e to—until she comes out of recovery.” Then
,
her voice quieter, “right here
.
”

Marcus look
e
d
at th
e
doctor. “I’ll mak
e
sur
e
sh
e
g
e
ts hom
e
.”

Th
e
surg
e
on
nodded and
walk
e
d
away
.