“It’s not great,” Aly said, and I was grateful for her honesty. “Is it light where you are?”
“Yes, we’re outside.”
“Crack one of her eyelids open.”
Aly walked me through the steps of checking Stella’s pupils for responsiveness, and sounded relieved when I told her both of them contracted immediately and equally.
“Have you tried to wake her up at all?”
“No, I called you immediately.”
“Okay, next we’re going to try the shout-tap-shout method,” Aly said.
It involved shouting a person’s name, gently tapping them, and then shouting their name again. I was just gearing up to screamStella!straight into her face because how dare she scare me this badly, when she started to wake up on her own, letting out a groan.
“I think she’s coming to,” I said. “She’s rolling onto her side. That means she didn’t break her neck, right?”
“I mean, you’d need X-rays to be sure—”
“Aly.”
“She probably didn’t break her neck. But she still needs to go to the hospital to get checked out.”
Stella made another low sound and blinked her eyes open.
I carefully brushed her hair back from her face. “Hey, Sunshine.”
Aly sucked in a surprised breath.
“Was that a pet name?” Josh whispered.
The sound of a slap came over the line, and then shushing.
Great, I was on speakerphone, too.
“Tyler?” Stella rasped.
“Ask her questions,” Aly said. “Simple ones.”
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“NotSunshine,” Stella answered.
I grinned, taking her immediate snark as a good sign. “What month is it?”
“August.”
“Who am I?”
“A bastard.”
Josh choked back a laugh.
“I’m hanging up now,” I told Aly.
“Wait!” she said, before giving me a list of instructions on how to handle Stella and what to watch out for in case her condition deteriorated while we waited for the ambulance.
I asked her to text it to me, thanked her, and hung up.
