His heart cracked, sorrow sticking a fresh blade into his chest. Drew had hoped, even if it sounded morally wrong, that the impaired driver had injured himself and no one else. After all, it would have served them right, kind of like a stroke of instant karma. But the scene before Drew was both upsetting and aggravating. For one thing, the car was absolutely nowhere in sight, the driver having wasted no time in making sure to leave the scene, and why not? Why stick around to take responsibility for what they’d done or risk crossing paths with a cop? They probably didn’t even bother to look in their rearview mirror as they sped off.
Too bad.
They might have glimpsed the lives they changed.
Laying toward the far side of the road was a dog, its prone form giving little hope it survived being hit by the car. And at the poor creature’s side was a man kneeling in the slush, oblivious to the cold of the winter night. He cried, his sobs audible in the otherwise quiet city. Drew sucked in his bottom lip, biting down on it. Growing up he begged his parents every birthday and every Christmas for a dog. The answer was always the same, not yet, maybe next year. Eventually he came to understand they never planned to get him a dog and now, at thirty-two, he’d gotten so caught up in various other aspects of life he forgot about his boyhood wish.
Until that moment.
The scene was wrenching, the cries of the man he figured must be the dog’s owner, tugging at his heart and bringing forth tears in his own eyes. To hear such anguish…Drew wished there was a way he could whisk it away and make things okay. Here he was, convinced he was having a horrible holiday, just to have the universe present him with someone suffering much worse.
“Hey,” Drew spoke, his voice shaky. He stepped out into the street and started across.
The crying man looked up, clearly startled by his arrival, and for a moment just stared at him, eyes searching him. Tears left shimmering trails down the man’s cheeks, his skin kissed by the sun, and his features mysteriously dark. Their eyes met and Drew felt like he was tumbling forward, the ground having completely vanished from beneath his feet. The world of white he had enjoyed moments ago was now replaced with searing heat and the crackling laughter of flames.
The man sniffled, breaking eye contact, his gaze falling once again to the dog. “Why?” the sob bubbled out of him.
Drew shook his head, wondering what just happened. Had he suffered a mini stroke? Had an out of body experience? He tried to cling fast to what he saw as well as how it made him feel, hot and dirty and torn to pieces inside, but like a nightmare it was already fading away. So he focused on the man and the dog. Fingers curled into black fur, now lightly dusted with snow, and Drew saw what he suspected to be the subtle rise and fall of the dog’s ribs. Of course, it also might have been little more than wishful thinking on his part. He wanted the dog to be okay.
“Why?” cried the man again, this time leaning forward to rest his head against the dog. The sight was enough to bring Drew to his knees in the icy slop on the road, another piece of his heart breaking. “Why is there so much cruelty…Why does this happen…” The man whimpered and sniffled, distraught, and Drew couldn’t blame him. The man stroked the dog. “A love like this…” He shook his head, perhaps too choked up to finish the statement.
“Is…is he okay?” Drew asked, wondering if it might have been a stupid question.
His inquiry seemed to flip a switch in the man, who once again turned to him, this time with pleading etched into the lines on his face. It should have bothered Drew, the way this man’s tears appeared to glow with an inner light, for they were much too far away and at the wrong angle for them to be touched by a streetlight’s radiance, but the nagging thought passed quickly, effortlessly brushed aside by his desire to somehow make this all right.
“You can fix him, right? You can help make him better? Please.”
That one word, the utter sorrow in every syllable, caused Drew’s heart to shatter. All at once he was engulfed in grief, the kind that mirrored the end of a first love, the passing of a parent, and the loss of childhood innocence all wrapped up neatly in tear-stained paper.
“I can try.” It was the least he could say.
With hands shaking, Drew reached for the dog, brushing his fingers over the fur. He was definitely no expert on breeds, but to his eye the dog looked to be a black Labrador retriever. There was a distinct lack of collar and the Lab looked rough, like he might have lived in the streets. And in that instance Drew realized this man before him, this man awash with sadness, was crying for a dog that was not his, and Drew wondered, what kind of person did that?
The stray was still breathing, though perhaps barely. For lack of a better idea, Drew fished out his cell phone, certain it would take too long for help to arrive in time to get them to a vet. Besides, who did he call, a cab?
There came the unmistakable shush of a car heading in their direction. For a brief moment, long enough for panic to spike his heartrate, Drew feared it was the drunkard returned, circling back as some clarity helped him realize what he’d done.
But he was wrong. It was a cop car that slowed and then halted. The cop, a round-faced lady with crystal blue eyes, leaned out the window. “Is everything okay here?”
Drew shook his head. “No, this dog got hit by a car and he’s still alive.” As soon as the word’s left his mouth Drew regretted them. He should have phrased it differently, more sympathetically. What if she thought the best course of action was to shoot the Lab, thus putting it out of its misery? He didn’t think either himself or the heartbroken man would be able to stand it.
The officer put her squad car in park. “I have a blanket in the trunk. If you think we can move him without too much fuss I can get you guys to the emergency clinic. It’s only a few minutes from here.”
“Bless you,” Drew said, deciding she must be an angel. Now if only they could be granted a miracle.