“You’re driving Creed?” Margo asked.
The eighteen-year-old boy stood just a couple inches taller than Alik and, though she didn’t have time to ponder it right then, she immediately saw the resemblance between the two and wondered how she had missed it before now. In response to her question, Creed pulled the keys out of his front pocket and held them up.
Feeling remiss for not already having the opportunity to tell them what she had discovered about their DNA mapping, she heard her voice say, “Boys, I know now’s not the best time to talk. But when you get back, I need to tell you two something.”
“Uh-oh. Are we in trouble?” Alik teased.
“No! Never mind, I shouldn’t have mentioned it,” Margo ran her fingers through her hair.
“We’ll be right back, mom. Don’t worry; we’ll have time to talk,” he reassured her.
“Okay, on the count of three we’re going to bolt. No strategy except run fast, get in the car and drive,” Alik instructed. “You ready mom?” He asked her as she positioned herself at the window, handgun cocked and loaded.
“I love you,” she said affectionately.
Alik nodded, “Love you, too.”
“Ready, Creed? One-Two-Three!” The boys flung the door open and ran to the ambulance. They each yanked their car doors open, jumped in and within fifteen seconds were peeling-out back down the long gravel driveway to the main road.
“We made it! I didn’t hear gunfire, did you?” Alik asked.
“No, nothing. Makes me wonder…” Creed said, thinking.
“About Farrow?” Alik asked.
“Yeah, but we can talk about that after we get Meg started on her meds. Now, you wanna tell me where this hospital is?”
56 Meg’s Medicine
“Did the pharmacist give you a hard time?” Creed asked when Alik opened the door to the ambulance holding a brown paper bag full of the items Paulie had ordered.
“Nope, he just handed the bag to me and said, ‘Tell Paulie the gang has been asking about him and that he needs to stop by the hospital sometime for lunch.’”
“Dr. St. Paul is a popular guy,” Creed thought out loud.
“I’m not surprised,” Alik said while shuffling through the contents of the bag. “Good, her meds are here. I just wanted to be sure. Let’s get home.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Creed said even as he was pulling away from the curb. “I hope it’ll be just as smooth getting back into the house as it was getting out.”
“Me too.”
The drive back to Paulie’s house was nerve wracking. The sun had completely disappeared past the horizon so there was minimal light to help the boys follow the winding road. Now that the cloudburst had past, the night sky was clearly visible. The bluish-white moonlight and crisp, starlit diamonds in the sky only left the two feeling small and insignificant. Creed found himself counting the yellow road reflectors strategically placed down the center of their two-way road to calm his nerves.
“You sure you’re okay?” Alik had been watching Creed’s face tighten. A bead of sweat trickled down his temple causing Alik to feel this uncontrollable urge to scratch his sideburn sympathetically.
Startled from his count he almost blurted “seventy-two” but caught himself. “Sure. I’m fine; just worried about everything.”
“I mean,” Alik motioned to Creed’s side. “You’re bleeding a lot again. Do you feel okay?”
Creed glanced down at his side and shrugged. “Just a couple scratches. I’m not worried about me; it’s Meg that I’m thinking about.”
“She’s going to be okay once we start her on these meds,” Alik said confidently.
“How can you be so sure?”
“You don’t know Evan like I do. If he says this is the answer, then it is. I trust him completely, and so does mom. And if Meg could give her opinion right now, she would tell Evan to just hurry up and do whatever it is he thought he should do,” Alik said smiling at the thought. “Not a whole lot of patience in that girl.”
Creed’s face softened at the memory of the first night he met Meg outside the Kansas hospital. She looked beautiful in the moonlight—luminous skin framed by long dark curls that had a mind of their own. “Even from the small amount of time I got to spend with her, I had no doubt she was a handful. She’s a fighter and opinionated, and reacts to everything in—” Creed paused searching for the right word.
“Extremes?” Alik offered smiling at Creed’s interpretation of his sister.
“Yeah, that’s it.” Creed was glad for the darkness if only to hide the blush he felt on his face.
“You have feelings for her, don’t you?” Alik blurted.
Creed didn’t have a chance to answer before the world blew up.