I PUSHED AND PUSHED on the window. The cold wind blew right in my face when I finally got the window open enough to stick my head outside. I wasn’t seeing things. There was a person, all bundled up and leaning against the tree. I couldn’t tell who it was. But whoever it was knew my name and was calling me. It was kind of a hoarse whisper, sort of like the person couldn’t talk any louder or maybe didn’t want anybody else to hear. I still couldn’t tell who it was, so I asked, “Who’s there?”
“It’s me. Laramie.” Then she slumped to the ground.
I flew out of my room and took the stairs three at a time ’til I got to the bottom. Laramie. Laramie was here, and she was alive. I ran out the front door and knelt beside her. She was a puddle of coat and blanket underneath that elm tree. When I tried to wake her up, she opened her eyes and closed them again. I tried to pull her arm to get her up. She was limp like my rag doll. She wouldn’t wake up. She just didn’t have enough strength.
I ran in the house hollering for Daddy. “Get up, get up, Daddy. It’s Laramie. She’s here.”
“You having a bad dream, little peep?” Then he really woke up and saw I was shivering because I had been outside.
“It’s not a dream, Daddy. Laramie is outside in the front yard, but I can’t get her up.”
Daddy’s eyes widened, and he leaped off the couch. When we got to the front door, I pointed under the elm tree. Without even putting his shoes on, Daddy headed out the door. Moving fast was nothing new to Daddy. He was used to ambulances and emergencies and sirens, and I think his own siren was blaring inside.
In moments Daddy picked up that bundle, and had Laramie lying on the sofa before I could lock the door. “Go, Kate, go get all the blankets you can find, and don’t waste time doing it.” Daddy was checking her pulse as I reached the bottom of the stairs.
I grabbed the comforter on Daddy’s bed and the extra quilt in his closet. Daddy was talking to somebody on the phone when I got back downstairs. “Yeah, her pulse is slow but steady. I will.” He hung up.
“That was Uncle Luke. He’s on his way back home.” Daddy put his fingers back on Laramie’s neck and checked her pulse again. “Here, put the quilt down and help me.” Daddy lifted Laramie up and asked me to take off her coat. “Good, all her clothes are dry. That’s a sign she’s had shelter.”
Her lips were blue with cold, and her hair was bloody and matted to her head. “You want me to go run a hot tub of water?”
“No, it’s too dangerous to heat the body that fast. I want Luke to take a look at her first.”
Daddy kept calling Laramie’s name, and sometimes she would open her eyes and look at him, then close them again. I took off her shoes and socks so Daddy could look at her toes. He had already looked at her fingers. “No frostbite. That’s good,” Daddy said.
I sat right beside her and rubbed her arm while Daddy went to the truck to get his medical bag. He was checking Laramie’s temperature when Uncle Luke walked in with a police officer. “Kate, go to the kitchen and pour Laramie a glass of juice.”
Now how was Laramie supposed to drink juice if she was asleep? I think Daddy just wanted me to leave the room. As I opened the refrigerator and pulled out the pitcher of juice, I heard Daddy say to Uncle Luke and the officer, “She appears to have a mild case of hypothermia, and she’s dehydrated, plus she’s got a bad gash on her forehead. I think we’d better get her to the hospital. They’ll give her some fluids and check out that cut on her head.”
“I think you’re right,” Uncle Luke said. “Just take my truck. It’s warm, and it’ll be better than calling an ambulance this late. I’ll stay with the kids.”
The policeman said, “She’s in good hands, so I’ll head back to the station to make a report and call off the search.” I heard his footsteps cross the floor and the front door close behind him.
Daddy was putting on his shoes when I came back with the juice. “Thanks, honey, but I think we’d better take Laramie to the hospital now.” Daddy grabbed his coat and picked Laramie up off the sofa. Uncle Luke held the door, and Daddy and Laramie disappeared into the night.
Since Laramie was gone, I gave Uncle Luke the juice, and he smiled at me a little and drank it down. “Thanks, Kate. I needed that.” He laid a warm hand on my shoulder. “You must be someone Laramie trusts for her to have come here like that. I’m proud of you.”
“Is she going to be okay?” I asked.
“She’ll be fine. Your daddy wanted to be sure she had the very best care. Now, you’d better get back to bed. I just need a hot shower, and then I’m going to bed too.”
Uncle Luke headed for the bathroom, and the house was quiet again. I went to my room. It was freezing ’cause the window was still open. So I closed it, turned out the light, and climbed into bed. With the blanket pulled up tight under my chin, I prayed, “Thank You, God, for taking care of Laramie and for bringing Daddy and Uncle Luke home safe. Oh, and thank You, God, for keeping Laramie warm enough to stay alive. Amen.”
Then I remembered I hadn’t put a smiley-face on my calendar tonight. I didn’t think long about who smiled because of me today. Today deserved the biggest smile ever, because Laramie was safe. I got up, turned on the light, and drew a huge smiley face on a yellow dot, then put it on December 19. Less than a week ’til Christmas and I still didn’t know how to get a present to heaven, but Laramie was living proof God answered prayer. Maybe He would get Mama’s Christmas present to her too.
When I woke up Tuesday morning, I heard talking in the kitchen. Daddy was home, and Uncle Luke was cooking breakfast. Uncle Luke was a better cook than Daddy because he never had a wife to cook for him. After their parents got killed in a car wreck, Uncle Luke, who was just seventeen, had to cook because Daddy was doing everything else to take care of things.
I dressed and went downstairs. I stood in the den and listened for a minute because I knew Daddy would stop talking if I went in the kitchen. Then I wouldn’t know a thing.
“Guess the police chief was full of Christmas spirit because he brought Fields to the hospital last night for a supervised visit. Fields acted so grateful she had been found, and he kept telling her how everything was going to change. He told her that her mother was alive, and he hoped she would be coming home.”
“Where was she?” Uncle Luke asked.
“Staying with her sister in upstate New York. Apparently the marriage was on the rocks, and she left to clear her head and get some help with a drinking problem. She wrote to Laramie, but Fields never gave her the letters, for fear of losing his daughter too.”
“Unforgivable,” Uncle Luke muttered.
“Who knows why people do the crazy things they do?” Daddy said. “But Fields seems to have had a huge wake-up call. He couldn’t stop shaking my hand, telling me how grateful he was for taking care of his daughter.”
I walked loud across the wood floor to the kitchen so they’d hear me coming, and they wouldn’t think I was snooping around just to hear what they were saying.
After hugs and good mornings, Daddy made me a cup of hot chocolate and poured himself a cup of coffee. Then we sat down at the table while Uncle Luke sifted the flour. Daddy acted like I was a grown-up and just started talking. “Laramie’s doing well.” Then he started asking me all these questions about how I knew Laramie was outside last night.
“Well, I was in my room, but I wasn’t asleep good yet. She threw something at my window to get my attention.” I didn’t tell them I was sitting at my desk drawing. I didn’t figure that was important for them to know.
“Why did she come here of all places?” Daddy asked. “Were you especially nice to her at school?”
I shook my head. “Not really. But I have been talking to her more lately.” I didn’t say why—that Laramie was the only kid in my class who knew what it felt like to not have a mama.
Uncle Luke just kept cooking while we talked. Nothing smelled better than bacon frying in the morning.
“Why did Laramie run away?” I asked.
“Well, she told the sheriff that she got scared because she saw her daddy’s friends had drugs. And when she told her daddy to ask them to leave, they had a big argument. She was so scared and mad that she just ran away. Apparently she hid in a shed behind the school.”
“That must be the shed where the janitor keeps the bird food. She volunteers all the time to fill up the feeders.”
Daddy put his coffee cup down. “Thankfully she had mind enough to bring a snack and a bottle of water and a blanket with her. Said she planned to stay just long enough to get even with her dad and then go back home. But she was scared of how he’d react to her running away, so she came here instead.”
It didn’t sound like the whole story to me. “But if she just ran away, how did she get hurt?”
Daddy shook his head. “She said she ran into a tree limb in the dark.”
Uncle Luke pointed the fork he was using to turn the bacon straight at Daddy. “And do you believe her or do you think she’s covering for her dad?”
“I think she’s telling the truth. She had a pretty good gash on her head that could have been made by a limb. She said she slept a lot, so she may have even had a slight concussion from it, which is why she didn’t come to us sooner. Her dad has a pretty bad temper, but I don’t think he’d hurt her like that.”
I looked at Daddy. “I think she came here because one time I told her you were a paramedic, and she knew you could help her.”
“What happens now?” Uncle Luke asked, shooting a glance at me like he wasn’t sure the answer was one I would be allowed to hear.
Daddy sipped his coffee. “They’re keeping her at the hospital for a day or two because she has nowhere else to go. She certainly can’t go home by herself. The police are trying to find somebody to take care of her ’til they can get her daddy cleared or they can find her mama.”
Uncle Luke turned off the stove. “Why don’t we bring her here? We could all take care of her.”
Daddy nodded slowly. “Don and Susannah were cleared to become foster parents recently. Laramie just might be the perfect trial run for them. No diapers or middle-of-the-night feedings. And she knows Kate, so Kate can go over and keep her company.”
Uncle Luke said, “Good idea. A female touch may be what’s needed here.”
What with Aunt Susannah Hope’s hovering, and her disliking ruckuses, and having to breathe in a paper bag all the time, I wasn’t so sure she was ready for taking care of Laramie. And I knew Laramie was not ready for Aunt Susannah Hope. Laramie knew how to be nice, but as Granny would say, “She could be a handful.” I knew sass and bad words would never be at home at my aunt’s house. But I didn’t say anything.
All the talking about Laramie was done when Daddy went to get Chesler for breakfast. We had scrambled eggs and crispy bacon and real hash browns, not the kind that came out of the freezer looking like a deck of Skip-Bo cards dipped in grated potatoes.
After breakfast Daddy went up to take a shower and Chesler went to his room to dress. Uncle Luke started to collect the dishes, but I said, “Dishwashing’s my job, Uncle Luke, especially since you made real potatoes.”
I should have taken a good look at that kitchen before I volunteered, though. Pots and pans and spills and scraps of potatoes and eggshells were everywhere. I didn’t know you could mess up so many dishes just cooking breakfast for four people.
Uncle Luke helped me get things stacked up at the sink and took out the trash. Then he poured himself another cup of coffee and went to the den to read the newspaper, leaving me to do the dishes.
Mama left me a whole list about how to wash the dishes. Now when Daddy washed the dishes, he just grabbed whatever was closest to the sink and started washing, but I liked to do it the way Mama said, and I didn’t even have to look at the list anymore. With the sink full of hot water just covered in suds, I started with the juice glasses and the coffee cups. Mama said, “No greasy smudges if you wash them first.”
I was scraping egg off the plates when my friend the redbird lit in the cedar tree. She balanced herself on that limb and stretched her wings, soaking up the winter morning sunshine. Reminded me of Granny stretching and rubbing her arms in front of a warm fire. Then the redbird sat and chirped like she was talking to me. If I could chirp back, I’d tell her how pretty she was and how I wished I could touch her and how glad I was that Laramie was safe.