Chapter 24

Dinner was pretty busy, to the point where I was even put to work putting plates of finished food together and packing to-go containers for orders. I marveled again how Rosita managed to do all this by herself most days. Julie had only needed work some of the time and hadn’t wanted to work every night, so she only came in when Rosita really needed someone to cover for her or something big was happening. Every other night it was just Rosita doing what felt like too much work for me and her, let alone by herself.

The rush died off a little early and the rest of the night was pretty slow, except for Orville stopping in for dinner. It was strange being on the other side of the counter and he made a few jokes about Rosita trying to steal me away from the sheriff’s department. Since it was slow, we sat down with him and chatted while he ate. It turned out that since our dinner the previous weekend, Rosita and Sarah had already talked a few times, which was great, since having just one person as a social outlet isn’t usually great for anyone.

Orville was basically the last person we saw all night, so we had the entire place cleaned and ready to close as soon as the clock hit nine. We dropped her car off at her house, which wasn’t far from the restaurant, and then rode together in my cruiser to my parents’ house.

I’d called my mom earlier in the evening to let her know what was happening, and Mom had thought Rosita’s offer was a good idea. Tessa had woken up around one, and the two of them had talked through the afternoon. She said that Tessa was still really reserved, but she seemed like a sweet girl who’d gotten in over her head with a man who’d charmed her.

The downstairs lights were on when we got there. Mom answered the door and led us into the kitchen, where Tessa was sitting at the table. I peeked into the den and saw Dad lying in his chair asleep ... or at least pretending to be asleep, so he didn’t get involved.

“Hi, Tessa. How are you feeling?” I said, sitting at the table across from her.

She looked like hell. Her right eye was bruised and swollen shut and the area around her nose had turned a light purple shade, although the swelling was less than on her cheek and eye.

“I’m okay. Just ... tired,” she said.

She didn’t sound as meek as the night before, but she still spoke softly. Since she’d slept all day, there was a good chance she meant a lot more than being just physically tired, which was understandable.

“I know you talked to my mother a bit this afternoon, but we haven’t spoken since last night and I wanted to make sure you were settling in alright.”

“What happened to Lonnie?”

“He’s in jail. We transferred him up to Summersville.”

“Will he get out on bail?”

She was scared and I knew she wanted me to say no, that he was going to stay in jail, but the last thing this girl needed was someone else lying to her.

“Probably. I don’t know how high it will be or if he’ll be able to pay it, but yeah, he’ll almost certainly get bail.”

“So, he isn’t going to prison?”

“He’ll do time. I looked at his record, and there’s other stuff like this on it. I know a lot of times the attacker gets off because it’s a ‘he said, she said’ kind of thing, but I don’t think he’ll get off this time. Both the station attendant and I saw the attack, so he can’t claim it was something else. With his record, he’ll do time. I don’t know for how long, and it won’t be until after he goes to court, which could take a few months. Until then, the best thing you can do is stay away from him. Stay with people you know. It will make it harder for him to do something if you’re not alone.”

“I don’t really know anyone here,” she said.

“Sure you do,” Mom said, sitting down next to her and patting her hand. “You know me. You know Henry. And this is Henry’s girlfriend Rosita. They actually came to make you an offer.”

“An offer?” Tessa asked hesitantly, looking to Rosita and me.

“I run a restaurant on Oak Street, and until a week ago I had a girl who’d come in and help me. We’re pretty busy, and I’ve had to put Henry to work some nights, which isn’t great, ‘cause he’s terrible in the kitchen.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” Mom said.

“Hey, I do okay,” I said, mock offended.

“He told me about your situation and how you didn’t really have much in the way of resources or people to help you out, so I was thinking this might be the perfect match. I need help in the restaurant, and you’d be able to earn money and figure out what you want to do next. It would give you some options, and I know getting a job around here can be hard.”

“I don’t know. I don’t even know where I could stay,” Tessa said.

“You can stay here with us as long as you need to. Once you start working, we can help you find a place to stay if you want to be out on your own.”

“Mom knows everyone in town. I guarantee you she’ll find a place.”

“I haven’t ever worked in a restaurant before.”

“Do you know how to cook?”

“Yes. My mom taught me some, and I did all the cooking for Lonnie and me.”

“Then you’ll be miles better than Henry. Trust me, it’s not really all that hard.”

“You guys don’t have to do this...”

“We want to,” Rosita said. “Like I said, I really could use the help. So, if anything, you’ll be doing me a favor.”

“And I love the company. I don’t know if you’ve noticed yet today, but Donald isn’t the world’s best conversationalist.”

Tessa and my mom laughed. I actually know that Dad talked to Mom all the time about stuff, but with someone new in the house, Dad would have almost certainly clammed up. He grew up in a world where it wasn’t okay for men to show much in the way of emotions, so he was always a bit cold and standoffish when anyone but immediate family was around.

“I just ... you guys are all being so nice to me, and you don’t even know me.”

“Mom spent the day with you and has given you the thumbs up. That’s all we need to know.”

“Okay...” she started to say and then stopped as Dad appeared in the kitchen doorway.

We all looked up, since it was unexpected, but it was Mom who noticed something was wrong first.

“Donald?” she said, her voice concerned.

Dad looked terrible. He was sweating and his skin had gone almost ashen. He was leaning against the door frame and opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but instead gave two struggling breaths and collapsed.

“Donald!” Mom said, getting up to run to his side.

“Dad!” I yelled, running to the other side.

Mom gripped his hand and started saying his name over and over. I reached down and felt for a pulse. I took several tries to even find one, and when I did it was incredibly weak, seeming to come and go. He’d also stopped breathing, which meant he wasn’t getting enough blood.

“Rosita, go to my cruiser and get my medical bag and the defibrillator from the trunk,” I said as I tossed her my keys. I placed my hands above his chest and started CPR.

I was focused on my count, switching between chest compressions and breathing for him, to the point I didn’t even know that Rosita was back next to me.

“Henry,” she said, getting my attention.

“Do you know CPR?” I asked.

Rosita and Mom both shook their heads, but Tessa said, “I do.”

“Come take over for me for a minute,” I said, even as I continued doing chest compressions.

Tessa was smaller than me, but she clearly had trained on this more than once, since her compressions were really good. She used almost her entire body weight for each one, which was what someone her size would have to do to be effective on a man my dad’s size.

Seeing she had it in hand, I pulled the sticky pads off and placed them on each side of his chest. After attaching the paddles, I watched the small screen on the device as it powered up and waited for the screen to show a ready message.

“Okay, back off. No one touch him for a second,” I said when the small light next to the screen turned green.

I’d almost reflexively said ‘clear’ like you always see on TV, but Mom had been holding his hand, and I wanted to make sure no one else got shocked or anything when it went off.

Once everyone was away, I pushed a button and there was a small sound. I could see his chest move a bit, but it wasn’t the full-body jolt that they do on TV. Nothing happened, which was scary, since these were supposed to get the heart going on a normal rhythm again. I looked at the screen just as the light went green again. Pushing the button, I administered another shock.

This time, thankfully, something did happen. It wasn’t dramatic, but I could see Dad visibly take a gasp of air. He didn’t suddenly come awake, but when I checked I could feel a pulse. It was weak, but steady, which was something.

“Should we call an ambulance?” Rosita asked, standing behind Mom.

“No. This time of night, they’re going to be all the way in Summersville, and they’ll have to drive all the way back.”

“They could give him drugs or something though, right?”

“Yeah, but we can get there sooner than they can get to us, and at least then he’ll be at a hospital and won’t have to ride an hour back. Tessa, would you ride with me in the back of my cruiser? We’ll keep the defibrillator attached, so we can use it again if he needs another shock, but I want you back there with him just in case, so you can give him CPR if that thing runs out of battery.”

“Okay,” she said.

To her credit, she didn’t sound scared or meek like she had since the assault. If anything, she sounded clear-headed and focused.

“I’m going to run the lights on the cruiser the whole way and push hard. I can’t go too fast because of curves, and it’ll be a little dangerous, but I should be able to cut fifteen minutes or so off the travel time. Rosita, can you drive Mom? There isn’t room for all of us and if something happens, I’d prefer y’all to be following behind us.”

“Sure.”

“Good. Tessa, carry the defibrillator and keep it close enough that the leads don’t pull out,” I said as I reached down and scooped up Dad.

I hadn’t been around him much the last several weeks and he’d been wearing baggy clothes, so I hadn’t noticed he’d been losing weight until that moment. A year ago, I would have struggled to carry his full weight, and now he felt a hundred pounds lighter.

We hustled outside with Tessa right at my elbow, carrying the defibrillator in front of her. When we got to the car, I had her open the back door and slide it onto the floor of the cruiser while I slid Dad in. Thankfully our vehicles were good-sized SUVs instead of sedans like they issued in New York City or Tessa would have had serious trouble sitting with him while he was stretched out on the back seat. She buckled him in as best she could and kind of half crouched on the edge of the seat, one knee on the floorboard, looking down at the defibrillator. It didn’t look comfortable and was going to be hell on her legs, but she didn’t complain, her hand on Dad’s neck feeling his pulse and her eyes on the defibrillator screen to see if it indicated he needed another shock.

“Hold on,” I said so she could brace herself and pulled out of the driveway fast, tearing north on the county road.

Tessa was a trooper throughout the whole trip. Every few minutes I’d ask how he was doing, which had to get old fast, but she answered each time clearly and without complaint. She also had to hold on for dear life, gripping onto the back of the passenger seat and pressing against the ceiling, every time I took a curve fast enough to almost flip the SUV. I knew I was driving recklessly, but I also knew that with a heart attack, every minute counted. Twice during the drive, she had to send more shocks from the defibrillator to get his heart started again.

As we got near Summersville, I radioed the hospital to let them know I was coming in with a heart attack victim, that we’d driven in from Buxton, and that he’d needed multiple shocks to restart his heart. I waited until I could radio in because it would let me skip the normal phone lines, and calls on emergency frequencies got priority, which would help Dad jump to the front of the line. His being my father made this a little unethical, but I didn’t particularly care.

We had to slow down once we started hitting traffic, even though I had my lights and siren going the whole way, but we still made it in record time. It was just under forty minutes from the moment we pulled out of the driveway to when I screeched to a halt at the ambulance drop-off, finally cutting off the siren.