Chapter 1 #2
“That’s good. Just keep the oxygen on for a while.
It will ease any stress on your lungs. And it’s okay to cough.
That helps to bring up the particles you inhaled.
” She sat quietly while Kevin answered a million of Grant’s questions.
It seemed that once he knew that Willy was going to be okay, his natural curiosity went into overdrive.
Willy smiled as Kevin patiently spoke with him.
“Do you get hot in all that?” Grant asked.
“Yes, sometimes. But the gear keeps me from getting burned, and it keeps the water out.” Kevin sounded so interested. Grant tended to wear people out with his questions.
“Do you wear pants under there too?” Grant asked.
“I wear shorts,” Kevin answered as though he were sharing a secret. “Maybe after this is over and all of you are okay, you can come down to the fire station and I’ll show you everything.”
“Even the siren and the dog?” Grant said, clearly in a bit of awe.
“Dog?”
“In books, firehouses always have Dalmatians,” Willy supplied.
“We have a story about a fire dog.” Or at least they used to.
“And it’s one of his favorites.” He closed his eyes and tried not to let the darkness that threatened wash over him.
Willy wished his mind would clear, but it seemed determined to go in circles, and that wasn’t helping with anything.
They were all on their way to the hospital, and that meant that for the next few hours, the three of them would be taken care of.
Willy was a planner—he liked to try to schedule weeks and months in the future—but an accident like this reminded him just how easily everything could be taken away.
And when that happened, looking hours ahead seemed good enough.
“Just relax. We’re almost there,” the EMT told him, and Willy sighed and closed his eyes once more.
The burning in his lungs had already subsided, as had the constant need to cough.
April had fallen asleep in his arms, and Grant was talking a mile a minute with Kevin.
So at least for the moment, things were the best he could hope for.
Of course everything changed when they reached the ER.
It was loud and bright, and once they had Willy in a room, Grant decided that he wanted to be in the bed with Daddy, which made April fuss.
The nurse managed to get an IV into Willy’s arm, and he squeezed into the bed with Grant on one side and April on the other.
He had no room to move, but at least the kids were quiet… until they weren’t.
“How are you doing?” Kevin asked a little while later, standing in the doorway. “Gosh, are you squashed?”
“A little.” He was wiped out and only wanted to close his eyes for a while. The doctor had said that he wanted to run some tests, so they had been waiting.
“Here. Let me hold her,” Kevin said, gently lifting April into his arms before sitting in the chair next to the bed. He said soft things to her as he held her. April seemed content as she curled her hands around Kevin’s neck.
“You must have the magic touch, because she won’t let anyone but me hold her when she’s tired. At least not since we lost Mark. She was very much his little girl.” God, Willy would have loved for Mark to have seen how they’d grown.
“I guess I do. My sister and brother-in-law have twins about her age, and after they were born, I spent time with them, helping out. They boys always went to sleep so easy for me.”
Willy could see that. “I guess I should introduce myself since you’re holding my daughter. William Daugherty.”
“Kevin Messier,” the firefighter told him with a gentle smile.
“And you’re holding April, and this is Grant.” He shared the smile as the nurse came in and took some blood for testing.
“Your blood oxygen levels are looking good.” She listened to his chest. “And your lungs are clear, which is even better. The doctor ordered a few more tests, and then you’ll all be able to go home.”
Willy clamped his eyes closed. Tests could take hours, and they had already been waiting much of the night.
“They were caught in that fire tonight. There isn’t a home to go back to,” Kevin told her quietly.
“I contacted the Red Cross emergency number on their behalf, and they said that they would be sending someone over. Is there a way to let the front desk people know? It’s early enough that people should be starting to come in. ”
“Of course,” the nurse said. She left the room, and Willy relaxed a little.
The Red Cross wasn’t going to let him down, or at least he hoped not.
All he needed was a place to stay for a few days so he could get in touch with his insurance company and hopefully find a place that was immediately available. That was all he could hope for.
Kevin shifted April to his other shoulder, talking to her quietly as he did.
Then he pulled out his phone and made a call.
“Chase, I need a favor. Do you know any landlords in the area who might have a place available?” he asked.
“Yeah… for one of those families. A guy with two young kids.” He went quiet, and Willy appreciated the effort no matter how it turned out.
“Thanks. Is it too early to call? Cool. Text me the number.” He ended the call, and his phone dinged.
He made another call. “Ellen, hello. I was given your number by Chase at the fire station. He said you might have a place to rent out.” He listened.
“I’ll let you talk to Willy. Hold on.” Then Kevin handed him the phone, and Willy was grateful they had shifted him from a mask to a nasal canula for the oxygen.
“Hello. I’m William Daugherty. Our building over by the Giant was destroyed in a fire, and I need a place to live for me and my two kids. I’m a professor of economics at Dickinson.”
“Willy, it’s Ellen Thompson. We met last year at the arts benefit,” she explained.
Willy breathed a sigh of relief. “George and I were just finishing up cleaning and painting at the unit on South and West. It’s ground floor, with three bedrooms. I was just about to list it, but it’s yours if you want it. ”
“Oh, thank God,” he breathed. “I’m at the hospital with the kids, but they’re going to let us go soon. We have nothing but the clothes we’re wearing. Everything else apparently burned with the building.”
“George and I can rustle up a few beds and maybe a sofa and stuff. I’ll see what we have.
Why don’t we meet tomorrow afternoon and you can look the place over and we can take it from there?
” She sounded so upbeat that Willy felt hopeful for the first time since they’d almost…
well, he didn’t want to think about that.
“Thank you,” Willy said and handed Kevin back his phone. “She has a place for us.” He slowly sat up and breathed deeply, grateful he didn’t cough.
“It’s not a problem. You’ll need a place to stay for tonight, so if you want, you and the kids can come home with me. It will be for a day or two, but with the car show going on, every hotel is booked solid.”
“Are you sure? You don’t know us from Adam.” Willy thought he was going to cry. No one had been this kind to him since Mark passed away, and he wasn’t sure how to handle it.
“It’s no problem. These two need a place to sleep, and you can start to pick up the pieces in the morning.” Kevin gently patted Willy’s shoulder, and he sighed at the kindness of strangers. Maybe there was a way forward after all.