Chapter 3
JOSH
“Hey, Michael, I’m in New Orleans. Won’t be back until really late.”
“Everything okay?” my friend, and Fire Chief, asks.
“I’m fine. But I am at St. Michael’s,” I say, naming the biggest hospital in New Orleans. We know the entire ER staff here. “I came upon a car in a ditch and pulled the driver out. I’m here with her now.”
“Oh, shit. She okay?”
“She will be,” I say, taking a deep breath.
“Good to hear. Let me know if you need anything.”
“Thanks. I might need some time off.”
“Whatever you need.”
“Thank. I’ll fill you in lat—”
“Oh my God!”
I whirl toward the door to the room.
“Ma’am, I really need to inform the doc—” The nurse following the woman into the room is cut off by the rest of the people barreling into the room, all talking at once.
“Violet!”
“Oh my God, she’s unconscious?”
“Violet? Honey, can you hear me? Violet!”
“Ma’am, please don’t shake her!” the nurse says, alarmed.
“What are all these machines for?”
“She’s definitely unconscious!”
“Oh my God!”
“What did they tell you on the phone?”
“They just said she was in an accident and was here, and we needed to come!”
As the group fills the room, I step back, pressing against the wall across from Violet’s bed. “Uh, Michael, I’m gonna have to let you go.” I hang up without waiting for his response.
There’s a woman who appears to be in her fifties.
She’s got dark hair that’s pulled back into a messy ponytail at the base of her head.
She’s gripping the hand of a man whose brown hair curls around the collar of his shirt.
He’s wearing a jacket over his button-down shirt.
He’s studying the monitors above the bed and isn’t saying much.
There are two other older men with them.
One is short, round, and has a bushy white mustache that goes with his bushy white hair.
He’s also wearing bright pink cargo pants with a pink and white Hawaiian shirt, and pink boat shoes.
The other is taller, bald, and has a neatly trimmed goatee. He’s now demanding to see a doctor.
“Sir, I’ve paged the doctor. She’ll be here as soon as she can, but we really need to hold the noise down.”
“My granddaughter is lying here in a coma! We deserve some answers!” the bald man exclaims.
“Oh my God, do you think she’s in a coma?” the woman asks.
“I’m Dr. Thurman Lafitte,” the man in the Hawaiian shirt says. “Who is the attending physician?”
“You’re Violet’s physician?” Kristy, the nurse, asks.
“I’m retired now,” he says, “But I brought that baby girl into this world. I demand to know what’s happening.”
Kristy clearly isn’t sure what to do. I step forward. “I can maybe be of some help.”
Kristy seems to notice me for the first time. She looks relieved. “Oh, thank God, you’re still here.”
“Okay if I fill them in?”
She glances at the family, then back to me. “Sure.”
Typically, this would be the physician’s job, but I know exactly what’s going on with Violet. This family is obviously about to erupt, and honestly, keeping them calm and providing them with information is more critical at this moment than who gives it to them. I’ll keep it superficial.
“Are you a doctor?” the man, who called Violet his granddaughter asks.
“I’m not. I’m a paramedic. I’m actually the one who found Violet and brought her in.”
They all turn to face me at once.
“You’re the one who found her?” the woman, who I’m going to assume is Violet’s mother, asks.
The nurse, Kristy, jumps in then. “He came upon Violet’s car accident. Probably saved her life. If he hadn’t found her, who knows how long she would’ve been out there.”
The woman gasps and covers her chest with her hand. The man, more Violet’s mother’s age—possibly her father—, looks a little pale.
I shoot Kristy a look. She’s exaggerating. Violet would not have died. She was unconscious when I found her, but she was breathing and was not bleeding, externally or internally, from any injuries. She’d hit her head very hard, however.
Her mother steps towards me. “Thank God for you. Thank you so much for saving my daughter.”
“Just doing my job, ma’am,” I tell her. “But I’m sure it’s what anyone would’ve done if they discovered her car.”
“What happened?” Dr. Lafitte asks.
“That wasn’t entirely clear. There were skid marks on the pavement, and her car was in the ditch, upside down.
I’m going to assume she tried to swerve to avoid something.
There were no other vehicles or any animals, however.
She hit her head and was unconscious when I found her. She’s been unconscious since.”
The woman casts a worried glance toward Violet. “What’s happening? What’s wrong with her?”
“She’s stable. But I am going to say something that’s going to sound really scary, and I promise you it sounds worse than it is,” I tell them all.
They all nod their understanding.
“They have her in what’s called a medically induced coma.”
The mother and her grandfather gasp again.
“A coma?” her dad asks.
“Yes, but it’s been induced and is being monitored closely. They can bring her out of it at any time. They’re doing it to let her brain rest and give her a chance to heal. It will just be for a day or so.”
They all look at Dr. Lafitte for confirmation, and he nods.
“Nothing else is wrong?” her mother asks.
I shake my head. “Nothing broken, no internal injuries. She’s going to have a hell of a headache when she wakes up and will have to go through a concussion protocol. But she’s going to be okay.”
They all sag with relief almost as one.
“Thank God,” her mother says again.
The man pulls her into a hug. Dr. Lafitte puts his hand on Violet’s grandfather’s shoulder.
“What road was she on?” Dr. Lafitte asks.
“Um…I’m not sure the name of it,” I admit. “It’s a back road. I was on my way from Rebel to Autre.”
“Maybe she was going to New Orleans?” her mother guesses.
“She said she needed to get some things for Merry Mayhem,” I offer. I understand that not having details about an accident bothers people. It helps calm them when they have the whys and hows.
Her mom turns fully toward me. “I thought you said she’s been unconscious this whole time?”
“She has,” I confirm. “I was at Perks and Rec earlier tonight. We were talking about Merry Mayhem and…”
They’ve now all turned to face me, their faces full of interest.
Her mother’s eyes widen. “Wait, you’re him?”
My brows arch. I’m who?
“You live in Autre?” she asks.
I nod dumbly. “Yes. For a couple of years now.”
“I can’t believe she didn’t tell us that!” her mother says, but she’s smiling widely.
Dr. Lafitte says, “Of course. Now this makes sense. They were going to drop his car off in Autre on their way to New Orleans.” He steps forward and extends his hand. “Thank God you were right behind her.
I take his hand because what else am I supposed to do?
“I’m so sorry it didn’t even occur to us,” her mom says. “She’s told us nothing about you! Not even your name. But oh, my goodness, it's so nice to meet you.”
Who do they think...
“Wait,” her dad says. “You’re her new boyfriend?”
He’s connected the dots just a second before I do.
Oh.
They think I’m Chad.
Oh shit.
What do I say here?
But wait… Her mom said that Violet has told them nothing about the new guy.
So…I guess I could be the new boyfriend.
It’s not entirely true, but it’s also not entirely untrue either.
We did make a date earlier tonight.
I didn’t expect to find her upside down in a ditch on my way back to Autre, of course.
But I had stopped in Bad, a town between Autre and Rebel, to say hi to a few friends and kill some time.
I was just restless tonight and didn’t want to be back in Autre too early.
Somehow, Violet passed me on her way to, I assume, New Orleans.
I happened to come upon her car, but of course, I hadn’t known it was hers until I got out and was down in the ditch assessing the situation.
I would’ve stopped for anyone. It’s part of my training, and I’d also like to think it's part of my humanity.
But when I realized who she was, my heart almost stopped.
Still, it wasn’t until this moment that I realized that yes, I pulled my date for Christmas out of the ditch and was now meeting her family.
Well crap.
Do I keep up this story with her family?
Looking at the woman lying in the hospital bed, I know without a doubt she isn't going to be doing so much as getting up on a ladder to put a star on top of a tree for Christmas. She definitely isn’t going to participate in any obstacle courses, relay races, or anything else too festive.
Still, without her conscious and giving me cues here, I’m not sure what to do. I didn’t want to ruin this whole thing for her.
“Yep, I’m Josh, the guy who was coming to Rebel for Merry Mayhem with Violet,” I hear myself say. “I’m sorry we won’t get to do that.”
It’s fine. That’s not a lie. The competition would have been fun.
Her mother reaches out and grabs my arm. “Oh, you still have to spend the holiday with us.”
“Oh no, that’s not necessary.”
“Of course it is. That was your plan anyway. We insist. Besides, you'll want to be around to hear all the news about how she’s doing.”
I will be very curious about how Violet is doing over the next few days. And it would be a very dickhead thing to say that I don’t care.
“Definitely,” I say.
“And you’ll want to be there when she comes home,” her grandfather says.
That would be nice. It’s one thing I love about working in the small town now versus the city where I trained. In Autre, I do get to follow up on how people do after we intervene.
Besides, Violet seemed great. And I definitely want to know that she’s doing well. “I definitely want to see her after all of this,” I say.
“And we certainly want to get to know the person she’s been spending time with. We know she went to that wedding with you. We’d love to get to know you better.”
Yeah, I kind of stepped into this.
But I nod. Because you know what? I wanted a new plan for Christmas. I don’t want to sit around and have people feel sorry for me. I don’t want to do the same thing I’ve done for the past two years and be the twenty-seventh wheel at the Landry family celebration.
And hey, Violet and I had hit it off. It might be unusual to get to know the woman's family before I get to know her, but what the hell? If I want to keep seeing her after Merry Mayhem, having her family like me has to get me some brownie points, since I won’t be able to impress her with my obstacle course agility.
“Okay,” I finally say. “I’d love to join you.”
Her mother smiles broadly. “Wonderful. We’ll have dinner tomorrow night, and we’ll talk about the plans for the weekend.”
Dinner and plans for the holiday weekend sound wonderful.
“Thanks, I’m looking forward to it,” I tell them honestly.
“And you can meet Thea,” Violet’s father says.
“Thea?” I ask.
“Our other daughter,” the woman says. “Silly me, we haven’t even introduced ourselves. I’m Bebe, and this is my husband, Eli. Violet is our youngest daughter. We have two boys, and our oldest daughter is Thea. We also have a granddaughter, Ruth. Thea’s daughter.”
“It’s really nice to meet you all.”
“And I’m Bruce,” the tall man says. “I’m Violet’s grandpa. This is Brewser. Well, his real name is Thurman. Family friend,” he says of the good doctor.
“Nice to meet you, too,” I say.
“The whole town loves Violet very much. They’ll be so glad to meet you.
We’ve all been worried about her,” Bebe says.
Her eyes fill with tears. “This is so not how we expected to spend Christmas.” She glances back at her daughter.
“I am so grateful that she’s not seriously injured and that you were there for her.
” She reaches out and squeezes my arm again.
“While she might be in the hospital, we’ll look on the bright side. This whole thing brought you to us.”
Ouch. A little pang of guilt hits me.
But I’m not lying to them or tricking them.
Violet and I made a deal to spend the weekend together.
I was going to do Merry Mayhem with her.
And she had used the term boyfriend. Sure, the word ‘pretend’ had been in front of that, but I had still been prepared to play the part of crazy-about-her nice guy.
If that makes her family happy, then where’s the harm?
And who knows? Maybe at the end of all of this, we’ll take ‘pretend’ off the front of that.