She gave me a look that said she didn’t believe me about Ink being my friend. It wasn’t the time to discuss it, but I was happy that she was able to carry on a normal conversation.
“Ma’am, we need to get her to the hospital,” one of the paramedics said. “Would you like to ride with us?”
“Um,” I said. I wanted to go with her, but I didn’t want to leave my dad and Ariel.
“Go with her,” Ink said. “I’ll meet you there with your dad and Ariel.”
“Thank you,” I said and climbed into the ambulance with my mom.
8
INK
After the ambulance left with Presley and her mom, I jogged back to find Ariel and her grandfather rushing around to pack up their campsite so they could get to the hospital.
“Ink!” Ariel exclaimed when she saw me and ran over to hug me, which caught me off guard. “They said you were the one who found Nana. Thank you.”
Returning her hug, I gently patted her back. “I can’t take all the credit. I had a lot of help.”
Presley’s father walked over to us with his hand extended. “You got my daughter here and brought a search team with you. You can take all the credit you want,” he said and shook my hand.
“I was happy to help,” I said. “Would you like a ride to the hospital? I can bring you back here once we know what’s going on with your wife.”
“Yes,” he said, sounding relieved. “I wanted to get there as soon as possible, but I don’t like packing up and leaving in a rush.”
“No problem. We can leave whenever you’re ready.”
“I think we’re ready now,” he said.
“You might want to bring a change of clothes for your wife,” I suggested.
“Right,” he said and looked at his granddaughter. “Can you get something for Nana to wear? Something that will be easy to get over her leg. And grab her extra pair of hearing aids. They should be in the drawer beside the bed.”
“Sure. I’ll be right back,” Ariel said.
Eugene stepped closer to me and lowered his voice. “I give her things to do to keep her occupied so she doesn’t get caught up in worrying. Presley’s the same way. She’ll worry herself to death if she doesn’t have something to do.”
Before I could comment, Ariel exited the camper with a tote bag. “I have clothes and a few other things she might need.”
“Thank you, doodlebug. I’ll lock up, and we can go.”
I turned to show Ariel which vehicle we were taking and saw Dice, Daphne, and Diablo approaching. “We’re going to ride back with Phoenix unless you need us to stay.”
“Nah, we’re good,” I told him and reached out to pet Diablo’s head. “Thank you for your help. I’ll bring you extra treats when I get home.”
“You are single-handedly spoiling my dog,” Daphne teased.
“Not according to your dad,” I retorted.
She shook her head and laughed. “Let us know how Presley’s mom is doing.”
“I will. We’re heading to the hospital now.”
Once we were loaded up and ready to go, Ariel found the hospital's address and entered it into the GPS. Unfortunately, they were camping in a remote area, and it was going to take us over thirty minutes to get to the hospital.
When we arrived, they directed us to a room where we found Presley sitting by herself. She stood when she saw us. “They just took her for an X-ray of her leg. They also want to do a CT scan of her head, but that will be after the X-ray.”
“How’s she doing?” Eugene asked.
