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Zoe
Zoe put the phone on speaker and then slowly spun around in her seat until she was on her knees, with her head cocked off to the side. She held the phone in front of Levi. “Someone wants to talk to you.”
“Levi!” his mother screamed, and Zoe hurried to turn the volume down.
“He’s right here, Mrs. Langford,” Zoe said softly. “I don’t think he can talk, but he’s conscious.”
“Levi, baby, I love you so much ...”
Zoe could hear a million tears in her voice. Maybe more than that.
“Thank you for hanging on, baby. I knew you would make it. You are so strong. I am so proud of you, and so, so excited to see you. Just keep hanging on, okay? Did you guys call an ambulance?” she asked, obviously talking to Zoe.
Zoe, who, seconds ago, had felt as if she were trampling on some private moment, quickly said. “Yes, they’re meeting us at the dump. That was the only close place we could think of. And I’m sure they will take him to the hospital. His ankle is definitely broken, and I think ...” Zoe wasn’t sure how to say what she was trying to say. She didn’t want to scare his mother any more.
“You think what?”
“I have no idea. It’s just, he’s okay. I know he’s going to be okay. I can tell, but there’s more wrong with him than the ankle. I think maybe he got too cold or too hungry or something.”
“Mum,” Levi whispered so quietly that Zoe almost missed it.
“He just said, ‘Mom’!”
The woman on the other end of the line sobbed.
“I’ll put the phone closer to his mouth.” Zoe moved the phone, but Levi didn’t say anything else, and then Derek was pulling over. Zoe looked out the window to see the closed gate of the dump. “We’re here, Levi. No more moving around until you’re in the ambulance moving around.”
He didn’t respond, and she looked at his chest to make sure it was still rising and falling.
It was. Slowly, but it was moving.
“I’ll be right there,” Mrs. Langford said.
“Actually, by the time you get here, we might have left. You might want to go straight to the hospital.”
“I’ll be right there. You hang on, Levi!”
Zoe heard her try to give the phone back to Esther, heard Esther tell her to take it, and then Mrs. Langford said, “Okay, I’m going to try to keep you on the line. But I’m coming. You just hang on, baby.”
“Let me give you a ride,” a male voice said. Gramma’s sweetie, Zoe thought.
Then her grandmother said. “Yes, I’ll come too.” And Zoe’s heart leapt at these words. Levi was definitely the center of attention here, but she’d had a long, hard night too, and she wanted her Gramma.
“Gramma, wait!” she cried.
“What?” Nora sounded panicked. “What is it?”
“No, no, Levi’s okay. But someone needs to go up ...” She looked at Derek. “What is the name of that stupid road?”
“Chitwood Road,” Derek provided.
She repeated the name. “A few miles up there, there’s an overgrown driveway. It’s pretty long, but at the end of it is Jason and Emma. Someone needs to go get them.” She listened while Mrs. Langford repeated this.
Then she heard her grandmother say, “You left them in the woods?”
“We had to,” she started to explain, but then she saw headlights. At first she thought it was the ambulance, but they were coming from the wrong direction, and there were no red lights or sirens. Whatever it was, it was big. The vehicle slid in alongside their tiny car.
It was an SUV.
“I don’t know whose it is, but it was at the church.” Derek sounded relieved. Maybe he’d been worried about getting caught behind the wheel.
Two doors flew open, and two people spilled out. And then two more. And two more came around from the other side. What was this, a clown car? She recognized Emma first, and breath rushed out of her. “Never mind. Someone found them.”
A man leaned on the car and smiled in at them. Zoe didn’t recognize him.
Derek rolled the window down. “Did I do something wrong, officer?”
Zoe didn’t know if he was making a joke or if he’d gotten his wires crossed.
“How’s he doing?” Emma asked through the window.
Zoe ducked down, trying to see out the window, trying to make sure Jason was with them.
“Jason’s here,” Emma said, and Zoe was glad it was dark, because her cheeks were red. Then Derek flung his door open, and they were bathed with a blinding light. She glanced at Levi, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“The ambulance is on its way,” Zoe told her.
Emma slid into the front seat, which, Zoe was pretty sure, wasn’t why Derek had vacated it.
“How did you get here?”
“Galen found us.”
“Who’s Galen?”
“The Mattawooptock pastor.”
“He just happened to be wandering around out there?”
Emma shrugged. “We were in his map.”
Zoe sighed and rested her head on the headrest. “Wow, so someone would have found him soon even if we didn’t.”
“We don’t know how long he had,” Emma said quietly. “I’m glad we found him when we did. And they might not have thought to look in the basement.” She folded her pink hands in her lap. “I think it all happened the way it was supposed to happen.”
Zoe had her doubts that Levi was ever supposed to go into that house or fall into that basement, but she didn’t want to argue with Emma.
Another car pulled into the small gravel area. Still not an ambulance.
A face she recognized to be a cop came into view. Somehow he determined that this mysterious Galen was the man in charge and offered his hand, introducing himself as Officer Carl Pettiford of the Carver Harbor PD. Then he bent down and looked in at Levi. Zoe was startled at how sad he looked. Shouldn’t he be thrilled? They’d found the missing kid!
