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Kevin, for God sake hurry."
    David reaches the top of the hill and can quicken his steps on the level field. His mother's screams have reached him . She is running to him, he yells to her, "She's alive, Mama , she's still alive."
    Lori's mother's hands can touch her now, she rubs the hair from Lori's face and looks into her eyes as she gently pulls the bloody shirt from her side and lifts the handkerchief from her skin. "Hurry, David, get her into the house," Ginger Pasko quickly says, then whispers, "Bab y , baby, it's Mama, Mama's here."
    The dogs are barking furiously, their howls shriek through the air, birds flutter for the sky. Jenny sits on the porch steps crying. The younger boys have come to her , they sit beside Jenny and begin to cry as they watch their big brother carry ing Lori up the steps and into the house. They saw the blood and their mother's tears.
    David lays his sister on his mother's bed, then gently take s her legs and eases them so that Lori la ys comfortably. Hi s mother shouts, "David, get that white pan from under the sink, get some water, and get some clean sheets, hurry '
    David runs from the room. It is quiet , and Ginger Pasko can hear her daughter's short, gasping breath. She leans over Lori and rubs the hair from her face, look s into her eyes, then quickly looks back at the bloody wound. She dabs the blood away with the already soaked handkerchief. She is thinking the wound does not look bad, but she has to get the bleeding stopped. Again she reaches for Lori's face and rubs her
    B I L L y I 33

    cheek, then whispers, "Baby, baby, Mama ' s here, you ' r e gonna be just fine, honey. . . ."
    Lori's eyes twitch, her lips are quivering, she's trying to talk, but can only gasp, "Mommy, it hurts . . . it hurts. . . ." Time is no friend, it has turned its back and will not help, will not move anything, will not slow things down that are moving. It will not stop the blood seeping from Lori's side, it will not bring Doctor Grey up the road. It will not be intim idated by the curses hissed at it, nor will it show mercy for Ginger Pasko's pleads that beg it to give, pray for it not to take. Where it has given hours, days, years, it will not yield moments. Where it has given moments so freely and with
    abundances, it now gives eternity.
    Lori is dead.
    Doctor Henry P. Grey hurries out of his car, grabs his black leather bag, wipes the sweat from the back of his ne c k , and rushes up the steps. He looks at the faces of the children sit ting on the porch as he hurries by them and into the hou se , then into the room where Ginger Pasko sits holding the limp body of her daughter in her arms. He sighs, then slows his steps towards her.
    "She's just sleepin, she's just asleep, she was tired," Gin ger Pasko whispers up to Doc Grey.
    "I know, Ginger, I know, I know," Doc Grey whispers, th e n gently says, "Let me take her now, Ginger. Let Doc Gre y ha v e Lori now. Let me see her, Ginger. Let m e take c ar e of h e r now. You go on out on the porch and see to them childr e n. I'll take care of Lori now." He takes Lori into hi s arms and g e ntl y lays her back down on the bed, then wait s u ntil her moth e r walks slowly out of the room, then clo s es the door.
    Sheriff Tom's dusty black Ford c om e s flying u p th e road , h e jumps out the car and runs up the porch, look s around al t h e
    34 I Albert French

    still faces, mumbles, "Doc Grey inside here?," then goes bar reling into the house. He taps on the closed door, whispers harshly, "Doc Grey, Sheriff Tom here," then goes into the room. He looks at the blood-covered bed, the lifeless face, then lowers his head and slowly shakes it back and forth. "My God, Henry, what done happened to this child here?"
    Doc Grey turns towards the sheriff, sighs, and lets his words drift out slowly. "By the time I got out here, she was gone. Don't think I could have done much anyway, from ihe looks of things. Someone shoved a blade right up between her ribs, just far enough