Chapter 8 #2
“Right.” Chelsey straightened. “Nobody stands up without help. Taylor, can you clear a path so we can get to people without slipping?”
“On it.” He liked this part of Chelsey he hadn’t met before. She was always confident, but this side of her showed up as a leader and director.
One of the girls moaned but didn’t get up. “I think I sprained my arm.”
“I think Wendy’s hurt, too.” Annie pointed to an area.
CHELSEY’S HEART DROPPED. In the middle of the room lay Wendy, flat on her back. All thoughts of safety fled. Her friend was hurt. She had to help her.
“Wendy!” Chelsey took a step inside and slipped, taking Taylor with her. He cradled her to his chest as he fell onto his back, air whooshing out of him.
“Are you hurt?” Taylor said as his mouth turned down in concern.
They were a breath’s width away from each other. Chelsey could see the familiar darker specks of blue around Taylor’s iris this close. “No. Are you?”
Taylor shook his head and helped her to a kneeling position. They both slid over to Wendy through a streak of squished strawberries. Chelsey took Wendy’s hand and stared at her; Wendy never sat still or quiet. Her chest rose and fell with each breath.
“I’ll stay with Wendy if you’ll check on the others?” Chelsey asked Taylor. He nodded and cautiously made his way to the first of Annie’s kids, who held her arm and cried.
“Everyone just stay where you are.” Taylor glanced over his shoulder at Janice. “Call 9-1-1.”
“What else can I do?” Janice’s chin wobbled as she dialed the emergency number. Volunteers were gathering around the windows to see what had happened.
Chelsey nodded at her. “Let everyone know they need to stay outside for now, ok? Let them know to be prepared for all hands on deck for clean up.”
Janice went outside and steered people away from the scene as she talked with dispatch.
Chelsey held Wendy’s right hand and alternated between wiping tears off her own face and asking Wendy to wake up.
Other than someone sniffling and Taylor quietly assuring people everything would be fine, the place was eerily quiet.
Taylor was the first one to break the quiet. “You three, go around to the side kitchen door and grab mops and buckets and meet me at the front. Let’s make a path for the EMTs.”
A few moments later the siren at the fire department sounded. Chelsey blew out a breath. “Help will be here soon, Wendy. Why don’t you wake up, so your son won’t worry about you?”
Volunteers clear a path to the injured with Taylor leading the way. Annie followed and sat next to her son. She cradled his head against her shoulder and whispered in his ear.
A couple of people held the doors open for the first responders. They took in the scene as they made their way down the path created for them. One stopped by Wendy and knelt to assess her needs. Others walked the perimeter of the area, disappeared into the kitchen or upstairs or outside.
“All clear up here.” One of the firemen leaned over the railing and studied the area below. Chelsey wondered what the view looked like from above and how bad it really was. “We do need everyone to vacate the place. We don’t want any more accidents.”
One of the firemen knelt on the other side of Wendy and took off his helmet. “Mom? What happened?”
“Gage.” Chelsey breathed a sigh of relief. Her grip tightened on Wendy’s hand. Would Wendy respond now her son was here?
“Chelsey? What’s going on?” Gage checked his mom’s pulse as he asked. He looked like his mom, with hair curling tight to the scalp and, on better days, a big smile. Right now, he looked a little pale.
“I’m not sure. I was outside. When we ran in, we found this mess.” Chelsey indicated the area with her other hand. “Your mom slipped and hit her head on the floor.”
Talking about the mess and accidents made Chelsey’s stomach clench and fresh tears started.
This event was heading closer and closer to a disaster that might shut it down even without the OSHA list. She couldn’t remember a time when so many things went wrong for one event.
They hardly ever went wrong for her mom.
Gage yelled over his shoulder and soon other geared-up people came running to his side. He gave them a rundown on his mom’s age and general health while another took her vitals.
“I think her wrist might be broken,” Gage said to the EMT putting a collar brace on Wendy.
“Gage?” Wendy’s eyelids fluttered open. She tried to lift her right hand to her son. She whimpered in pain and held it against her chest.
“I’m here, Mom. Dad said he’d meet us at the hospital.”
Chelsey relinquished Wendy’s hand so Gage could hold it while she was lifted onto a gurney.
Gage’s lip trembled when she cried out from the jostling. “You’re doing great, Mom.”
“What hospital are you taking her to?” Chelsey asked as she followed them.
“No, you don’t.” Wendy pointed a trembling finger at Chelsey. “You stay and keep this thing running.”
“But—”
Wendy made the EMTs stop. “Promise me.” There was fire in her stare.
“I promise.” Chelsey said the words more to placate Wendy and get her on the way to medical help.
Wendy squeezed Chelsey’s hand. “Honey, when life knocks you flat, it’s usually because something needs recalibrating. Even stars wobble before they find their true north.”
Chelsey sniffed a laugh as her eyes watered. “You’re doing space metaphors on the way to the ER?”
“You’ve got this, hon.” Wendy’s voice grew softer as they took her outside and to the waiting ambulance. “You always have.”
Chelsey’s mom wouldn’t quit, but had an event ever looked this bad three nights before? She looked around the wrecked room. She was overwhelmed with the thought of where to start to make this place presentable in such a short time frame.
The tablecloths Wendy had laid out were stained with red spots; the berries for the auction were either splattered on the stage, piano and stair rails, or gurgling out all over the floor.
But strawberries and cream didn’t matter.
They’d run to the grocery store and buy cookies for the auction if needed.
What mattered were her people and if they were okay.
Exhaustion settled heavy over Chelsey as she leaned against a wall that was relatively clean. So far, there were only two serious injuries, but that was two too many. Annie held her son’s hand as they wheeled him out to a waiting ambulance. The last couple of EMTs were working on Annie’s crew.
“Oh, my word.” Chelsey glanced up as Heather pulled her into a hug. “We just heard. Dan sent backup.” She waved a group of teenagers over to Taylor, who immediately put them to work.
“The first order of business for you is to get you outside for some fresh air.” She looped her arm through Chelsey’s and led her outside.
Chelsey stopped. “I can’t leave everyone to clean up while I breathe.”
Heather shook her head. “You can’t help anyone if you faint away, bonk your head and have to go to the hospital too.”
“Valid point.” Chelsey sat on the bench under the aspens and closed her eyes. This can’t be happening.
Heather opened a water bottle and placed it in Chelsey’s hand. “You can’t go back inside until you drink the water.”
She chugged half the bottle as Dan came around the corner with a group of people holding mops, buckets and rags. Tears filled her eyes when she realized most of them were downtown business owners.
This is what made a small town worth living in. People taking care of each other, watching over each other, stepping in to save the day. She swallowed the lump in her throat along with the last bite of her pizza.