Every Wrong Reason(75)

I couldn’t help but smile. Mrs. Dunn thought the mailman was too loud.

I looked across the street as the basketball hit the rim of the hoop and bounced backward. It rolled off the end of the driveway and into the street. I watched in horror as the littlest girl ran for the ball just as a car came zooming down the street, way too fast for a neighborhood.

I threw my hands up to warn her to stop, but her older brother grabbed the back of her shirt just in time. I sucked in a gasping breath because my nightmare wasn’t over.

When I’d panicked about the little girl, I dropped the leash. Annie had raced into the street to get the ball. The car saw her, but couldn’t stop soon enough and my poor little Annie girl was caught under the tire.

I watched it all in a slow-motion nightmare. The car couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. I heard her pained yelp and leaped into motion. I followed her into the street, scooping her up in my arms as I sunk to my knees on the damp, cold pavement. She was filthy from our walk and soaking wet. Blood mingled with her wet, dirty fur, turning it a sickly brown color.

I sunk my fingers into her sticky coat, beyond terrified that she had died, that the monster in the car had killed her. Her little lungs trembled with the effort to breath. They shook in her small chest while her head rolled listlessly in my arms.

I ripped off her leash and the new collar Nick had bought her. I couldn’t figure out where she was bleeding from or what exactly was wrong with her. My mind spun and spun and spun and all I could do was panic. I was useless. Stupid. Completely hysterical. Nothing but terror and dread.

I could barely see her through my tears. I didn’t know what to do. I knew I needed to do something. I had to do something. But what? Not my Annie.

Please, not my Annie.

Please please please please.

I needed Nick. Oh, god. Nick would know what to do.

The driver got out of his murder machine and tried to talk to me, but I was too frantic to make sense of anything he said. Mrs. Dunn tried to intervene, but even she couldn’t translate my panic-stricken sobs.

Poor Annie just kept whimpering and twitching in my arms as I held her tightly to my chest.

I rocked her as gently as I could. I couldn’t let her die. The rational part of my brain told me to move, told me to get up and do something. But the fear of losing the one thing left that loved me so completely was too heavy. Too consuming.

“Kate, who can I call?” Mrs. Dunn’s voice slowly penetrated through my haze of panic. “Kate, we need to call someone.”

“Nick,” I gasped. “I need to call Nick.” I reached into the pocket of my coat with my clean hand and with shaking fingers I punched the right buttons.

I cooed to Annie as I waited for him to answer. Please pick up. Please, please, please pick up.

Finally, on the second try, he answered. “Hello?”

“Nick,” I cried. “It’s Annie!”

“Kate?” He sounded so confused, but I needed him to get this. Now.

“She’s been hit by a car,” I sobbed.

“Wait, what? Annie’s been hit by a car?”

“Yes!” My voice was a wretched sob from my chest. Annie winced again and my tears fell faster.

“Is she alive?”

“Barely.”

“Where are you?” His tone changed from fear to decision in a second. I closed my eyes against a fresh wave of tears. These ones were relief. I knew he would take charge. I knew he would know what to do.

“I’m in front of our house. It just happened. I don’t… I don’t know what to do.”

He cursed under his breath. “It’s five-thirty, it will take me forty-five minutes to get to you with traffic. Is there someone there that can drive you? I can meet you at the vet.”

I looked up at Mrs. Dunn. “Can you drive me to the veterinarian? It’s only ten minutes away. Nick can meet me there.”

“Of course, I can,” she said quickly. I noticed her exchanging information with the stranger, but I couldn’t even look at him.

He’d nearly killed Annie. I hated him. I didn’t care that it was an accident. I couldn’t stand the sight of him.

I knew I would eventually calm down, but I couldn’t right now. I needed to know she would be okay first.

“Mrs. Dunn’s going to take me,” I told Nick with a more level voice. But then it broke when I asked in a ragged whisper, “Promise you’ll come?”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can, Katie. I swear.”

“Thank you.”

“Go,” he ordered. “Get her some help.”

“Tell me it’s going to be okay,” I cried. “Tell me she’s going to be okay.”

His voice pitched low with sincerity and promise. “Kate, everything is going to be okay.”

I stood up and followed Mrs. Dunn because I believed him.

----

An hour later I had been banished to the vet waiting room and my tears had turned into sickening panic that crushed my insides and turned everything into mucky goo.

God, I was a mess.

But I could not lose Annie. I could not.

The vet hadn’t given me good news, but he hadn’t given bad either. I looked around the bright waiting room and blinked against the utter whiteness of it.

We had been coming here since we first got Annie. A buddy of Nick’s from his work told us about it. The Animal Doctor was run by a gray-haired man in his late sixties. Dr. Miller had the kind of smile that reminded me of a horse, all big teeth and long face. But he had always done a phenomenal job with our puppy. His daughter worked here too, the second-generation veterinarian that would presumably take over the practice. She soothed my frayed nerves when I couldn’t stop staring at her dad’s shaking hands.