Runaways (30 page)

The older girl cried harder. Butterfly went to her and tried to console her while the woman went to her younger daughter, who looked like she was in shock. Raven joined her and they all watched Crystal work.

“I have no idea where I'm going,” I muttered. I drove until I saw a convenience store on a corner and pulled up. “I'll find out where the closest hospital is,” I told them and ran out. There was only one customer in the store and a short, gray-haired man with a dark mustache at the counter. “We need a hospital quickly,” I cried.

“Hospital. Go down here two miles, make a left, go five and when you come to the light, make a right. About a mile in you'll start to see the signs. What's wrong?” he asked.

“Heart attack,” I said and charged out and into the vehicle. It wasn't hard to drive, but I hadn't taken the time to adjust the seat and my feet barely reached he brakes. I tried fixing it as I drove off.

“How's he doing?” I asked.

“I think there's a pulse, but it's very weak,” Crystal said. “Is it far?”

“No.”

It was more difficult steering this vehicle than the station wagon, and I almost missed the turn because I was going too fast. The tires squealed. My heart pounded. I thought we would turn over or blow a tire.

“Sorry,” I said. A compact vehicle was right ahead of me, crawling along. I pressed on the horn in hope the driver would just pull over, but she didn't react so I had to wait for a chance to pass. As soon as I thought it was safe I pulled out and around the compact car. I had no idea what sort of power the recreational vehicle had and its acceleration was slow. A car was approaching. Neither of us had anywhere to go. I mumbled a prayer, kept my foot down and then swung into the right lane just at the last moment. The other driver sounded his horn angrily.

“Sorry,” I muttered.

I'm sure it was only minutes before we turned into the hospital driveway, but because of the tension, it seemed longer. I followed the signs that indicated
EMERGENCY
and we pulled up as closely as we could to the doors. Then I hopped out and ran inside.

Two nurses were chatting by a desk. On their right a man sat holding his arm. He looked like he was in great pain, but no one seemed to notice or care.

“I have a man having a heart attack!” I screamed.

The nurses stopped talking. An orderly stepped out of an examination room and the three of them headed for me.

“Where?”

“Outside in the recreational vehicle,” I said. “Please, hurry. My friend has been giving him CPR but she doesn't know if it's working.”

Another orderly appeared. They grabbed a stretcher and they all went out to the vehicle. Moments later, they were wheeling him into the hospital, with all of us trailing behind.

“Don't worry,” Raven said to the woman. “He's going to be all right now.”

“Oh dear,” she said. Her two daughters remained under her arms, the younger one still in a daze, the older one wiping her bloodshot eyes.

“Who can identify him?” the older of the two nurses asked. She went behind the counter.

“I can,” the woman said. “He's my husband, George, George Forbas. I'm Caroline Forbas.”

The nurse smiled as if she were a hotel agent filling out a form for a hotel stay instead of a hospital emergency room.

“I need you to fill as much of this out as you can,” she said.

Caroline looked frantically toward the room in which her husband George had been taken. A young doctor came running down the hallway and slipped in quickly. He was followed by another nurse and another orderly.

“I'll take care of Sophie,” Raven said, referring to the younger daughter. “Come on, Sophie, let's sit over there and look at the magazines.”

She took her hand and the little girl followed Raven to the seats. Butterfly trailed along.

“Go sit with Sophie, Denise,” Caroline said. Reluctantly, Denise left her side. Crystal and I remained with Caroline. “Thank you, girls,” she said gratefully. “Thank you, thank you.”

“It's all right,” Crystal said. “You don't have to thank us.”

Caroline looked at the nurse.

“I can't think.”

“Does she have to do this now?” I asked.

“She might as well let the doctor examine her husband and this is something to do in the meantime,” she replied dryly. “You can take it over there,” she said pointing to a chair with a desk beside it. “Take your time, Mrs. Forbas.”

Caroline sat down with the paper work and I walked over to Crystal, who looked more scared than I'd ever seen her.

“What's wrong?” I asked quietly, not wanting to draw attention.

“I remember when my foster parents were killed,” she said. “I was at a friend's house. We were studying for a math exam and someone called on the telephone. I don't remember who called, but my friend's mother came to the door of her room and said, ‘Crystal, there's been a terrible accident. Do you know your Uncle Stuart's number in Albany?'

“ ‘I'm sure it's in my father's Rolodex,' I said. ‘I'll go look it up.' We lived right next door,” she explained. “I remember I ran out of that house not even thinking about the consequences. It never occurred to me that they were both dead, you see. I was young enough at the time still to think of death as something alien, reserved for the aged, but not something that strikes people close to you.”

I nodded, listening as I watched Raven work miracles with Sophie while Butterfly sat by talking softly to Denise, keeping her from crying. It occurred to me that we were all as terrified as they
were. Crystal hardly ever talked about her past like this and certainly not with such nervous energy. Every once in a while, Raven would stop and look over at Caroline and her lips would tremble. She would take a deep breath, too. Butterfly's eyes met mine a number of times, searching for the same reassurance.

We had lost enough parents. It was impossible to simply sit by and watch someone else approach the same sort of doorway to sorrow.

“I ran back to my friend's house with the telephone number and gave it to her mother,” Crystal continued. “I saw the strange way she was looking at me, but I still didn't ask any questions. Instead, I stood by and listened as she called my father's brother.

“ ‘Stuart,' she said, ‘This is Vera Raymond, Thelma's friend next door. Yes. Yes, I'm fine. Stuart, there's been a terrible accident. A car accident. Karl and Thelma . . . Both of them have been killed. I'm so sorry,' she said. ‘Yes, it happened a few hours ago. A drunk driver in a pickup truck. I'm sorry,' she repeated,” Crystal said. “I have it all committed to memory. I often relive it through horrible flashbacks. Sometimes, it just takes the ringing of a phone and I see the whole episode,” she explained.

“Anyway, that's when and how I first heard they were dead. For a moment it was like eavesdropping on someone else's life. I still didn't fully comprehend, Brooke. I listened attentively to every word. I heard her say, ‘Yes, she's with us. What do you want to do?' She listened, nodded and then she turned and looked at me as if he was telling her something about me that she never knew. Of course, she knew I had been adopted, so that
wasn't it,” Crystal said quickly. “I don't know what he said, but she looked at me and nodded. ‘I understand,' she said, ‘but what do you want to do in the interim, Stuart? Really?' she followed. ‘All right. I'll find out and take care of it,' she said. ‘I'm sorry.'

“Then she hung up and explained that my parents had been killed and my uncle wasn't coming to take me to his home. He had told her to call the Child Protection Services. Later that afternoon, they came for me and I was back in the system,” Crystal said.

“I attended the funeral,” she told me, “but after that, I never saw any of those relatives again.”

“I'm so sorry, Crystal.”

She shrugged.

“I was lucky in a way. My life, as hard as it is to imagine, would probably have been worse if I had gone to live with people who really didn't want me.

Caroline rose and brought the papers back to the desk.

“Why is it taking so long?” she asked the nurse, who just took the papers and turned to file them and enter information into a computer.

Caroline looked to us and we went to her side. The doctor finally stepped out of the emergency examination room. The nurse behind the desk gave him Caroline's paper work. He looked at it, nodded and then turned to Caroline.

“You are Mrs. Forbas?”

“Yes, how is he? Is he alive?” she asked quickly.

“He's stable now, Mrs. Forbas. He's on his way up to the cardiac care unit. We'll wait for the specialist to examine him and give us a full diagnosis. Who performed the CPR?”

“She did,” Caroline said, nodding at Crystal.

“You did real well, Miss,” he said. “There's no doubt in my mind you saved his life. You should be very proud of yourself. Where did you learn it?”

“Health class,” Crystal said.

He laughed at her matter-of-fact, modest tone.

“Well, you're proof of why students should pay attention. Tell your teacher.”

We watched them wheel George out of the examination room, the oxygen mask over his face. Caroline rushed to his side. She turned back as they headed for the elevator.

“Can you stay with the girls a little longer?” she asked us.

“Yes, of course,” I said.

We watched her disappear with her husband and the orderly in the elevator and then we sat with Raven and Butterfly and entertained Denise and little Sophie.

The rain began again. We didn't notice it until the wind started blowing it against the windows. The girls, tired from their emotional ordeal, had fallen asleep, Sophie, the little one, with her head in Raven's lap. We were all somewhat exhausted and groggy. Butterfly dozed on and off and Raven lay back with her eyes closed, her fingers clamped on her forehead. Only Crystal made productive use of the time catching up on past issues of
Time
magazine.

None of us took much note of the two policemen who stood by the nurse's desk talking softly, but when the elevator doors opened and Caroline appeared, the nurse nodded at her and the policemen approached her. They spoke for a moment and then they walked over to us.

“Thanks for waiting, girls, and taking care of Denise and Sophie. The nurse upstairs was kind enough to call the sheriff's department for me because I can't drive that R.V. and we have to get to a motel. Officer Donald will take you back to your car. I don't know how I can thank you. Can you give me your address,” she asked Crystal, “so I can send you something later?”

“There's no need for that,” Crystal replied quickly. “How is Mr. Forbas doing?”

“He's resting very comfortably. They think he'll be fine. Of course, his lifestyle is going to change. No more smoking for one thing.”

“I told Daddy to stop smoking,” Denise said. “We learned about it in school.”

“Yes dear,” she said stroking her daughter's face affectionately. “Well, now he's going to listen to you.”

“I'll get you to the motel,” one of the policemen said. “Dave?”

“Girls, come along with me,” the taller policeman said.

Raven shot me a very nervous look, but Crystal never batted an eyelash. We all said good-bye to the girls. Raven and Butterfly hugged Sophie, who was sad to see them go. Then, without any more comment, we followed the sheriff's deputy out of the emergency room to his patrol car.

“Three of you can get into the rear,” he said. “Don't be nervous about sitting behind a cage and having no handles on the doors. We usually put suspects back there,” he added with a smile.

Raven widened her eyes with anxiety. Crystal took Butterfly's hand and opened the door. I was the one left to sit in the front with the policeman.

“So you guys did a real good deed,” he said,
getting behind the wheel. “This is a nice thing to see. It restores my faith in young people. Most of the time, I have them in my car for a lot worse reasons.” He laughed, started the engine, and pulled out of the hospital parking lot. “You the driver?” he asked, nodding at me.

“Yes sir,” I said.

He made a turn and drove slowly.

“So you're all from New York?” he continued.

I turned and looked at Crystal. Had any of us said that? She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes into slits of suspicion.

“Yes,” I said cautiously.

“A long way from home, aren't you?” he asked.

“We're on our way to visit relatives,” I answered.

“A huh,” he said.

He made another turn and sped up. I couldn't be sure because I was so nervous and excited at the time, but it seemed to me he was going in a different direction from the direction in which we had come.

“When we got the call from the hospital, I was patrolling in the vicinity where you had left your vehicle. I saw your license plates,” he added, leaning toward me and then making another turn. “That's how I know you're all from New York.”

“Oh.” I smiled and looked back at Crystal, but she didn't seem relieved. She stared ahead, her face full of anticipation.

He made another turn, taking us past a more populated area. Soon we saw stores, gas stations, shops, and then he drove down a hill, leaving the community behind.

“Is this a shortcut or something?” I asked. “I know I didn't come this way.”

“Whenever we find a vehicle deserted on one of our highways, it's just procedure to run a make on the plates,” he explained softly. He flashed another smile in my direction.

“Oh,” Raven moaned. She sat back and stared out the window.

“You're not Gordon Tooey, are you?” he asked me after a moment.

“No,” I said, swallowing down a lump in my throat.

“And I bet nobody back there is either, huh?” he followed talking to them through the rearview mirror.