Chapter Three #2
She was getting closer to what Annie had described over and over.
Sunbeams skipping off the trickling waters of a lazy creek as it rolls and circles stones in its path between massive roots of towering trees called cypresses that gravitated to the banks of rivers and lakes set amongst towering hillsides like blue gems. Annie always sounded like a writer when describing the land she loved.
Ally would often close her eyes and travel across the miles to the far-off landscapes of that distant place called Destiny’s River, Texas.
She would rather think of those more pleasant moments than the ones in her life before she met Annie and everything changed for her.
The time scale on her lifespan would come to be known in her mind as Before Annie and After Annie.
That was how she cataloged her memories.
Before Annie, she had been just one of thousands of runaways who ended up lost in the cement caverns of the city and never searched for.
Losing her mother at age thirteen, she was then dumped on a street corner by her third stepfather when she was sixteen and too much of a troublemaker, according to him when he opened the car door and told her to get out.
She learned soon enough to leave tears out of things.
They showed weakness. She had to be tough.
And resourceful. Many times, she wanted to just give up, but something inside her would not allow that.
And then one day, when the rain was pouring down and she was on a street corner trying to hand out the flyers she was getting ten dollars to distribute to passersby for a new pizza place, a woman had walked up and offered to give her twenty for the stack she had left.
Then she had offered to buy Ally something to eat in the café two doors down.
Ally had been hungry and cold and wet. The hot meal sounded good.
And that was how she met Annie Destino Pickett.
Annie and she visited for an hour, then two, while the rain cleared.
And then Annie handed Ally a card and told her about a job at a bakery four blocks away.
She could go there and apply for a job and use Annie as a reference.
She had nothing to lose, so she did. And she found herself employed.
Then she found out the identity of the owner.
It was Annie. Over the next few weeks, she was allowed to sleep in the back office of the business.
Then about three months later, Annie offered her a room in her house.
She had already observed how much Annie was respected by the neighborhood people who stopped in each day for homemade loaves of bread and pastries.
Ally took up the offer and that was how the pair of them became the first semblance of family that Ally had known in her life.
A real family that was built on trust and love.
She learned so much from Annie and the long talks they would share in the evenings.
Annie had saved her. And only lately had Ally begun to feel that perhaps she might have brought something to Annie’s life that she had searched for also.
But thoughts of that life and Annie now were laced with a fragile heartache.
All things magical and heartbreaking and a glint of unshed tears often ended the tour of Annie’s beloved memories.
And thus, Destiny’s River was the reason she had set off on a solo journey.
Now, Ally was seeing it for herself. Would there be magic or…
The next instant a flash of something she barely registered and a squeal of tires on pavement, mingled with a scream of shock that escaped from her throat as in slow motion the car left the roadway and became airborne as it topped the rise in the road.
One hand gripped the steering wheel and the other instinctively shot out to shield the dog beside her and then it all went black.
*
Mathew Parker watched the scene unfolding in slow motion.
Yet, it happened in a blinding split second of time.
One moment he opened his door to get out of his sheriff’s vehicle while telling his daughter to stay in the car.
But she moved faster than his words. He only got the scream of her name out before the squeal of brakes on pavement sounded as loud as a freight train in his brain.
Then he began to run to where his child stood clutching the runaway kitten, frozen in her arms in terror.
The child was a statue with bated breath.
All this registered in his brain as he made it to the other side of the pavement to wrap Jillie in his arms and try to shield them all from the loud crunching of metal on gravel, and then a deafening silence followed.
Moving on adrenaline-spiked instinct, Matt carried his daughter swiftly across to the SUV and tucked her, still clutching the kitten, in the back seat while his hand went to his radio, and he called for ambulance and more help.
Then he jumped into the front seat and put his lights on to bright flashing yellow as he quickly maneuvered the vehicle across the roadway to block both lanes.
He was out and leaning into the back seat again.
“I have a lot of work right now to see if the people in that car need help and you need to not move from this vehicle. Understand what I just said? Say yes, Jillie.”
First a nod and then a shaky voice responded: “Yes, Daddy. I’m sorry, Daddy.”
“Just stay put. I love you.” He dropped a swift kiss on her head and stepped back, shutting the door. The dad transformed into the official lawman with a job to do.
He went back across the road and was glad to see a pickup had pulled to a stop just a few yards down. He recognized the man as a rancher who lived a couple miles down the road. He could use him.
“Jason, if you would pull your vehicle across the top of the rise and until a patrol gets here? Shouldn’t be long. Help is on the way.”
“You got it, Matt,” he responded with a shout and wave.
His attention turned to the vehicle and to his surprise and somewhat relief, he noted it hadn’t rolled over but had slid down the steep side on the tall grass to land with its midsection lodged against two trees that seemed to have been placed there for this very situation.
Whatever it was, he was glad of it. He slipped and slid a bit down the steep side until he reached the car.
Glass had shattered due to the impact he assumed, so he was able to look inside and see there was one person, the driver presumably, a woman who was unconscious…
he hoped. He had to pull more than a few times to get the door open wide enough to allow him to reach her hand and feel for a pulse.
Relief and a thank you went upward, as she was still alive.
Her head looked like it had taken a good hit and probably part of the missing windshield might be responsible for the gash on her forehead that was bleeding quite a bit.
He knew from training and experience that head wounds always bled more and looked worse than they usually were, and he hoped this might be the case.
“Ma’am, are you okay? Can you hear me? Help is on the way.
Can you hear me? Just stay still and answer if you can,” he repeated and there was a faint flutter of eyelashes.
A soft moan escaped her lips. She seemed to be in distress as she woke.
He needed to keep her still until the ambulance arrived.
There was a faint siren in the distance, and he hoped it was the ambulance in the lead.
“It’s okay. Help is on the way. I’m not leaving until they get here.”
“Teddy…I want Teddy. Where is Teddy? Annie…is she okay? Got to get them both.” The words were hard to make out at first but were there others involved and not in the car?
“Who is Teddy? Who is Annie? Were they here in the car with you?”
“Yes! You must find them. Need them.” Her lashes rose a bit in a wince of pain, and he saw bright blue glints through them. She was pleading. “Please find them. I was supposed to take care of them. I didn’t see the child… Did I hit her? Oh no! Please help her…”
Matt laid a calming hand on hers and his was instantly gripped. “Help her…help them. Not me,” she repeated.
“Help is here, and they will all be helped. But the little girl is just fine. She is safe.”
“Thank God,” she breathed and caught her breath on a painful note.
“I’m going to move now and let the paramedics help you.”
Her hand gripped his tighter. “Find them please.”
“I promise I’ll find them for you. And I’ll be right beside you as we get all of you to the hospital.”
“Promise?” And there was a look in those blue eyes, now fully centered on him, that made any other word impossible to utter.
“I give you, my word.” Then she was in the hands of the paramedics and her hand lost his.
Mentally shaking himself, Matt backed out of the car and stood, his gaze scanning the area.
He called out two of the four deputies. “You and Bobby keep traffic under control,” he said to one of the closer deputies.
“Rich and Sandy, you search for a possible two others she mentioned…Teddy and Annie. Perhaps they were thrown from the car on impact when the glass shattered. Increase the search area.”
The paramedics stabilized her and then moved her onto a stretcher. “Sheriff,” one of them called out. “We can’t be sure of internal injuries, and with the road under repairs closer to town, we’re calling in the chopper.”
Matt nodded. “Bobby…you guys secure a landing spot and set out a smoke flare for their approach for wind gusts on the road.”
“We got it, Sheriff.” His team was good. And in moments like this, they did their jobs without hesitation.
“We have searched high and low,” Franny said, as she handed over a small purse.
“Her ID is in there…Ally Jones from New York City. Long way from home. And there is no sign of any person other than her. We’re taking the luggage and bags she has into the station for inspection. Maybe we’ll know more then.”
“Hey! I got Teddy over here,” one of the officers called out. Matt and Sandy ran to the area. There, they found Teddy.
“It’s a poor little dog,” Sandy said, bending down to speak softly to him. “Looks like a broken bone maybe but really scared. His collar has Teddy on it.”
“One mystery solved. Keep searching the area for anything or anyone else. Load the dog into the back of my vehicle and I’ll drop him over at Doc’s before I get to the hospital. You guys know what to do here.”
They nodded and Franny gently transported the dog to the SUV. He called after her, “And tell my daughter to keep her hands and that cat away from the dog.” Franny nodded.
The sound of blades beating air could be heard in the distance. He walked to the stretcher where the supine body of the woman looked even smaller under the white sheet. Her face was almost as pale. Matt’s hand rested on her lower arm.
Those blue eyes tried to focus better on him. There was a silent plea in them.
“We have Teddy. I’m going to take him myself to the vet…
who is really good. He may just have a broken leg, but Doc will fix him up.
Stop worrying for now about him. No sign of Annie yet.
But we’re still looking. You’re going to get a fast and smoother ride on board this shiny red helicopter landing in about two minutes.
They’re going to take good care of you. I won’t be far behind. See you at the hospital.”
Her hand found him on top of the sheet. “Please?”
Please what? He wasn’t sure what she was asking for reassurance on, but he knew he was going to keep whatever promise she needed.
“I promise all will be taken care of. And I will see you at the hospital. You’re in good hands.
” He stepped back and there was a strange sense of reluctance as his hand left hers.
It was odd. But things often were at the scene of such accidents.
At least that’s what his brain was trying to get him to believe.
Three minutes later, the craft was lifting upwards and away from the site.
Quiet settled. It was eerie and he didn’t care for that.
He had an injured dog to get help for, a scared child to calm down and reassure, and a wayward kitten who had put it all into motion.
Just another day for the sheriff of Brock County.