A Stitch in Time Pt. 04

"Jill?" I yelled. "Are you okay?"

"Is he dead?" Jeanne's voice came from Jill's room.

"I hope not," I said ruefully as I stepped over him and looked into Jill's bedroom. The two girls were together, kneeling on the floor next to Jill's bed as far away from the door as they could get. Jeanne was in front, clutching a pair of scissors in front of her like a broadsword. Jill was behind her, holding onto her shoulders.

They saw me at the same time I saw them, and they both went white.

"Oh my God," Jeanne said quietly.

Behind her, Jill fainted and dropped softly to the carpeted floor.

By the time the cops arrived, some five minutes later, I had looked in a mirror and could see why the girls had been so alarmed. I must have had a dozen cuts on my face, although only one of them, on my left cheek, looked really serious. We ended up with three ambulances: one for Andy, one for Dave, and one for me. Liane rode with Dave, and, after we managed to wake her, Jill insisted on riding with me. Jeanne said she would bring our car once she called the bowling alley and told Dad what was going on.

She apparently made a number of other phone calls. When I emerged from the treatment room at the ER, my face bandaged and stitched by a very sympathetic lady doctor, eight heads popped up to look at me: Jeanne, Jill, Sammy, Cammie, Rabbit, Tommy, Marcia Burns, and another girl, about Jill and Marcia's age, whom I didn't know. I felt a twinge of disappointment that Tanya wasn't among them, but I quickly forgot about it when they all stood up and started asking me, all at the same time, if I was going to be okay.

"Hang on, hang on," I held up my hands. "I'm going to be fine. Jeanne, did you get hold of Dad and Tiffany?"

She nodded.

"They're in with Dave," she said. "He's going to need surgery."

"That goddamn fucker," I muttered.

"He's going to need the same surgery," Rabbit said.

I smiled. Served the asshole right.

"So what about your face?" Jeanne asked.

"Oh, you can't mar beauty like this," I joked.

"Asshole," Cammie smiled.

I smiled back at her.

"Seriously," I continued. "The doc said that most of these would just heal up in a week or two. The one on my cheek might leave a little bit of a scar."

Jill was looking a little pale again.

"But she said that it would actually make me more attractive," I held my head up in a fake pose that brought a wan smile back to Jill's face.

Cammie opened her mouth to talk but a voice from behind me beat her to the punch.

"No where to go but up in your case," Tanya said.

Cammie stifled a snort as I turned around. Tanya put a hand to my face and gently traced some of the bandages, her face showing the concern that her flippant remark had lacked.

"Actually, it will," she pronounced after an inspection. "Give you a little character. Not that you're not enough of a character already."

"I'm sorry to interrupt your Sabbath," I said.

She waved a hand to suggest it was nothing.

"Did you meet Rhonda?" she asked.

"We didn't have time yet," Jeanne chimed in. "Trick, this is Tanya's cousin Rhonda. My brother Trick."

"Charmed," I kissed the hand that she offered to me. "I understand we have a date to go to the movies tomorrow."

"With me," Tanya said acerbically as she noticed Rhonda's face brightening.

"Spoilsport," I turned to her. "So if she's been here, where have you been?"

"With your girlfriend," she said.

"My...?"

"Liane," she said.

"Former girlfriend," I pointed out.

"Yeah, I think you've lost her to Dave," Tanya smiled. "She told me that she had a crush on him in tenth grade."

I shook my head.

"Football players get all the..." I trailed off, suddenly realizing the effect that an insensitive statement like that might have on Jill.

"Pussy?" Sammy sang out. For a smart kid, he was none too bright. Jeanne gave him a fierce glare, and Jill started to leak tears.

"Hey, I need some time with my sister," I said as I put a protective arm around Jill. "Why don't you guys go find the snack bar?"

They all nodded and started to walk away.

"Honey, it wasn't your fault," I said to Jill as I brought her back to a seat. "You couldn't have known."

"I'm sorry," she fell into my chest, the tears pouring from her eyes.

"I know," I said. "But it wasn't your fault."

We silently hugged her for a few more minutes until I realized that there was a policeman lurking a few feet away, who evidently wanted to talk with us.

"Mr. Sterling?" he cleared his throat.

I looked up and raised an eyebrow.

"I need a statement from you," he explained.

I looked down at Jill and shrugged, as if to suggest that my time was not my own.

"I'll stay with her," Tanya said quietly. I hadn't noticed that she'd been sitting in a far corner of the waiting room. She took my place, her arm around Jill. The policeman took me to another private room, and I spent fifteen minutes relating the evening's events. When I returned, the whole crowd, including Liane, Dad and Tiffany, was in the waiting room. Dad opened his arms and, for the first time in a long time, drew me into a hug.

"Thanks," he finally choked out. "Let's go home."

"What about Dave?" I asked.

"They gave him a sedative. He'll be out all night. They want to wait until the swelling goes down before they operate. Probably on Monday."

I had a small prescription for my own sedatives, because the doctor said that the topical anesthetic would wear off and my face would start to sting. So I slept very well that night. And the next night, after I'd taken Tanya and Rhonda to the movies. And I slept well on Sunday night, after Jeanne had physically pulled me up to sit with her and Cammie in the front row, and after I had heard both girls whisper "and for Trick" during the prayer of intercession.

"Trick's fine," I whispered.

"Shut up," they both whispered back.