Page 3 of Two Favors Repaid

“Run, Emma!”

They hadn’t gone more than a few feet when Emma felt herself flying through the air again for the second time that day. This time, she landed hard, scraping her cheek against the ground. She heard the explosion and waited to feel its heat on her back, but instead a large figure landed on her.

“Stay down, Emma,” Rob whispered behind her with a pained gasp.

Emma opened her eyes to find Joe beside her, lying face down on the ground. He was still unconscious, his leathery face paler than she’d ever seen it. Around them, she saw fire and debris rain down, but Rob kept it from landing on either of them. She clenched her eyes shut. Finally, she felt the weight shift from her back.

“Emma? Are you okay?” Rob asked, pulling her up gently.

Emma nodded. She touched her head and found some leaves stuck in her curls. She felt the irrepressible urge to laugh.

“I thought I asked you to move back,” he said. His generous lips pressed into a thin line.

“Yeah, I saw you didn’t need my help at all,” she muttered under her breath.

“I didn’t say that,” Rob said. “I should have said thank you first.”

Rob leaned over to feel for Joe’s pulse.

“How is he?” Emma asked, scared to hear the answer.

“He’s alive,” he said, a small smile playing on his lips. “Now where is that ambulance?”

And his optimism is back again.

As if summoned by Rob’s voice, the ambulance appeared down Main Street. The driver and Rob loaded Joe quickly onto the stretcher. Emma stood there, holding the remains of her soaked handbag in her hand. She didn’t know quite what to do. A few people started milling around, but nobody approached her.

I probably look how I feel, like someone who just escaped with her life twice in the last ten minutes.

Finally, the ambulance drove away. Rob strode over.

“Is Joe going to be okay?” she asked.

“I hope so. He may have suffered a stroke behind the wheel and lost control of his truck. We’ll know more when the doctor sees him.”

“We should call his son,” she said. Everybody in town who had ears knew Old Joe’s son had become an English professor at a college on the west coast.

“Alma will call him. Come with me. I’ll drive you to the hospital,” he said.

“The hospital?” she asked, surprised. “I don’t need to go to the hospital.” If anything, he was the one who needed to go to the hospital. As well as the drying blood on his arm, there were now spots of blood on his shirt from where he’d gone through the car window.

“Just to get you checked out. Humor me, okay?” he asked, sounding hopeful.

She was about to argue with him then decided to go along with it.

“Okay. But I’m fine.”

“Good. Let’s get you to the hospital so Dr. Leroy can confirm that.”

“I’ll come with you, on one condition.”

“What condition?” he asked suspiciously.

“That you get yourself checked out as well, of course,” she said.

“But I’m—”

“Fine. Yes, I know. Me too.” She smiled brightly.