The Woman He Married (26 page)

“Trisha, can you come down here for a second and just hold this bandage?” Trisha and
Lydia
had been standing off to the side, arms crossed, watching.

“No—I’m not touching that man.” Trisha shook her head. Her tone sounded like Josie just asked her to do something disgusting. “I might catch something. You don’t know where that man’s been.”

“Put on some gloves.” Josie motioned over to the first-aid kit lying on the ground. “They’re in that red box.”

“What part of ‘
no
’ don’t you understand?” Trisha looked offended. “Why should
I
risk it? How do
you
know those gloves are giving you the protection you need?”

“I don’t. But if I don’t help, he could die.”

“That’s not my problem.”

* * * *

“Here, Jocelyn, I got it,” John said. Kneeling next to her, he pressed his gloved hand to the man’s head, allowing Josie to release hers.

“Thanks, I’m going to check on that lady. I’ll be right back,” she said.

Only a few feet away at the time, John had overheard the whole conversation. When Josie moved away, John looked up at Trisha. “What the hell is wrong with you?” he said, feeling as if he were speaking to a stranger.

Nostrils flaring and face flushed with embarrassment, she turned away from his disapproving eyes. He looked away as well. Suddenly, she was the most repulsive woman he’d ever seen.

Three more pops, and the whole front of the bus burst into flames, followed only seconds later by a blinding flash of light. The force of the explosion knocked everyone back. John and the others shielded their faces, watching helplessly as the engine exploded, shooting flames that reverberated through the entire bus. Metal, glass, and debris flew through the air.

Regaining his balance, John scanned the terrain to see if everyone was still all right. He looked around quickly when he realized he didn’t see Josie. A moment later the paramedic returned with his supplies, telling John he could release the pressure.

John got to his feet and yelled, “Jocelyn! Has anyone seen Jocelyn?” His voice was anxious, eyes straining to focus against the low light and smoke.

“The bus.”
The old woman who’d been calling to Josie just minutes before was pointing at the bus.
“My purse, my money, she back in bus.”

John moved over to her. “What are you saying? Jocelyn went back into the bus?”

“Bus, bus,” the woman kept repeating.

“No,” he whispered, gazing back at the inferno. John felt panic setting in, as he looked around again, and didn’t see her. “Andy,
Denton
, do you see Jocelyn?”

Everyone stopped what they were doing and started looking around. John could hear voices asking, “What’s going on?” Others saying, “Jocelyn’s missing; she went back into the bus.”

John’s breathing increased, moving deeper and faster, with every second that he searched the faces of the passengers and rescue workers, looking for his wife.

“Here! She’s over here!” Andy called out, kneeling next to something on the ground.

“Don’t move her.”
Denton
ran over, arriving at Josie’s side just before John.

Over
Denton
’s shoulder, John could see that Josie was lying face down and wasn’t moving. Her
hoodie
was torn from flying debris and splattered with blood.
Denton
knelt on the ground and checked her pulse before running his fingers down her vertebrae.

“She has a pulse, but it’s weak. Get a paramedic over here,
now
!”

“Is she going to be—” John dropped to his knees next to Josie. The sight of his wife’s motionless body covered in blood had choked off his air.

A paramedic rushed over and ordered John out of the way. “Let’s turn her over—you support her head,” he said, “real easy.” The medic and
Denton
slowly rolled Josie onto her back and the paramedic carefully applied a brace around her neck. Josie’s face was scratched and bloody, her palms were deeply scraped and bleeding. Beneath her chest, an old tattered purse was exposed now that they’d moved her. John picked it up and stared at the mangled handbag.

“Her pupils are responding, but her pulse is
thready
,” the paramedic told
Denton
. “She needs to get to the hospital, but all the ambulances are full,” he continued while pouring some saline over the wounds on her hands.

“We can drive her,” Patrick offered.

The others came over, encircling the scene, watching in worried anticipation as
Denton
and the medic worked on Josie’s limp body.

“Right.”
John hopped up. “Can I move her?”

“No!” snapped the paramedic. “She could have a spinal injury.”

John wanted a second opinion. “
Denton
?”

“The reflexes in her hands and feet are responding, but that could simply mean her spinal cord’s okay.
Doesn’t mean her column’s good.”
He shook his head, rubbing a hand over his face. “We shouldn’t move her without bracing her first.”

“We’ve already used the spinal boards,” said the paramedic.

John thought for a moment. He couldn’t just leave her out here waiting for another ambulance. Handing the woman’s purse over to Andy, he searched around for something to use to immobilize his wife. The paramedic eyed him,
then
said, “Pieces of wood, a car door—anything rigid and flat…flattish.” He began looking around, too.

Patrick worked it out. “The beach chairs!”

A few minutes later they’d contrived an arrangement of aluminum tubes and beach towels. Carefully Josie was dragged on to it and secured down.
Denton
and John hefted the makeshift stretcher and walked over to one of the jeeps. They arranged her on the back seat.

Patrick reached for the keys. “I’ll drive.”

“No!” John protested. He was desperate to get Josie to the hospital.

Amy blocked the driver’s side door. “John, don’t be ridiculous. Let Patrick drive. You’re in no condition.” She gave him a staid look. “
Let Patrick drive.
You keep an eye on Josie,” she persisted. “We’re not letting you drive. You’ll likely kill the both of you. Think about your kids, John.”

He hesitated at the thought of his children losing their mother and their father. Amy backed away. She nodded at Patrick.

Denton
called out, “Keep your speed down and be careful! It might only take one bump to paralyze her!” He rushed off to see about helping the other victims.

Twisted around to the back of the jeep, John kept a hand on his unconscious wife. His chest constricted, pressing on his aching heart. John choked back tears of regret—but not for long. And, as the tears finally began to stream down his smoke-soiled cheeks, he whispered, “Stay with me.” He could barely see her face in the darkness. “You can’t leave me Jocelyn, not now,” he quietly begged.

Chapter 10

Some hours later, Josie struggled to keep her eyes open as John wheeled her through the front doors of the resort and into the lobby. Outside, the first signs of dawn lightly flickered in the eastern sky. For Josie, most of last night was a blur, with only faint memories of arriving at the hospital, and John yelling for someone to help. Then, when she woke, he was there again, smiling down at her, the rims of his eyes red with tears.
What was it
I wanted to say to him?

The dinging of the elevator doors brought Josie back to a little more wakefulness, and she realized that she must have fallen asleep again. Looking up at John, wheeling her chair down the hall, she asked, “Did that lady get her purse back?”

“Yes, Jocelyn, she did,” he said with a sigh.

“Did I ask that already?” Josie’s eyes were getting heavy again.

“About a dozen times, and we got everyone out all right too,” he said, but Josie’s eyes had already closed again.

* * * *

Inside the room, John closed and locked the door. Then, rubbing his tired face, he regarded Josie, thankfully still in one piece, while his mind replayed the events of the night before. After they’d arrived at the small island hospital, and Josie was rushed into an examining area, they had to literally drag him out when he refused to leave her side.

The last time he had taken his eyes off her, she was blown out of a bus.

A little while later,
Denton
had arrived with the first batch of victims from the accident and disappeared through the swinging double doors to help out with the injured and to check on Josie’s status.

When Denton re-emerged, dressed now in blue scrubs, the long night apparent on his face, he had told them that Josie sustained a minor concussion, a couple of slightly cracked and bruised ribs, some deep abrasions on her palms, and minor cuts and bruises. No spinal damage but a little whiplash from the force of the explosion.

“Can I see her?” John had felt desperate to see for himself that she was all right, that he hadn’t lost her.

“Sure, but I gave her a pretty strong sedative that’ll likely knock her out for a while. She’s sleeping for now. We want to keep her a couple more hours for observation because of the concussion, but then you can take her back to the resort, as long as you keep a close eye on her.”

“So, she’s going to be okay?”

“As far as I can tell.”
Before heading back to his patients,
Denton
had put a hand on John’s shoulder and said, “You’re a lucky man. You take care of her. Hear me?”

* * * *

John took another look at Josie. Her feet and hands were dirty, her hair bloody and matted. With a sigh, he wheeled her chair into the bathroom. Then, seeing his own smoke-stained face and clothes in the mirror, he turned on the shower and undressed. After removing Josie’s hospital gown, he carefully slid his arms around her body, and then lifted her up to standing and into the shower.

Supporting his weak and extremely sleepy wife with one arm around her shoulders, John used the other to gently wash her body and hair the best he could. He shuddered when he felt the cuts on her scalp and back from the flying debris. As he moved his hands over her body, he recalled fond memories of a time when he and Josie used to take every opportunity to shower together. Now, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen her naked, or the last time he even wanted to.

To keep her close, John continued to hold Josie while he started on his own grimy self. With his head directly under the overhead water stream, rinsing shampoo out of his hair, he felt Josie nestle her cheek into his chest, while her arms
tightend
their weak grip around his waist. She mumbled quietly.

“What’s that, Jocelyn, did you say something?” John moved his head out from under the water and looked down at her.

“This is nice. We should do it more often,” Josie muttered absently, as if, she
were
talking in her sleep.

“We will,” John said, kissing the top of her head. “I promise…we will.” He planned to do a lot of things different from now on.