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upset granddaughter might make the situation worse. Then again,
Charlie might need help and who knew how long it might take for the EMTs to
arrive. He'd passed the fire station on his way into town so he knew it was
located on the other side of town.
    Pulling the keys
out of the ignition, Jake looked back at Jessica whose breathing remained
labored from her run. “You're welcome to stay and wait here. I'm going to see
if the doctor needs help.”
    Jessica shook
her head causing her light brown bangs to fall into her eyes. “I want to be
with him and my grandmother.”
    Jake could see
the worry and fear etched on her tear-stained face. He could understand her
desire to be with her family. After getting out himself, he pulled open her
door and helped her out of the SUV. Then he grabbed the first aid kit from the
trunk and he followed Jessica up to the house where a seven-foot ladder
remained propped against the house. On the ground lay an unmoving figure, his
white hair covered in blood and his left arm bent at an unnatural angle. Next
to him sat a weeping woman with a long gray braid and glasses.
    “He's breathing
but unconscious. His pulse is strong though,” Charlie said when they joined her.
“I need something for his head. He's got a nasty gash and is losing more blood
than I'm comfortable with. There is no question that his left arm is broken.”
    Jake handed her
the gauze pads from the kit, impressed at how calm and collected she remained
as she continued to do an assessment of the elderly man. She didn't appear
fazed at all by the situation unlike the two crying women kneeling next to the
man.
    “His neck looks
fine, but I don't want to move him. His skin feels cool. Is there an emergency
blanket in the kit?”
    A quick search
turned up the blanket the doctor wanted. Jake tore open the package and covered
the injured man with the metallic-colored blanket. “What else can I do?” He
felt useless standing there as she worked.
    Charlie didn't
say anything, she only nodded toward Jessica who had started to sob
uncontrollably the minute she saw the blood.
    Nodding to let
Charlie know he understood, he leaned down and placed a gentle hand on
Jessica’s shoulder. “We should move so we're not in the way.” Jake tugged
Jessica and her grandmother to their feet and led them past the driveway where
a Honda Accord sat squashed beneath a huge tree and towards the farmer's porch.
    “I've never seen
a car that flat before. Have you?” It was a stupid statement but his intent
wasn't to have an intelligent conversation. He meant to distract the women. In
the distance the wail of an ambulance siren could be heard and he feared its
arrival would only distress them even more. “I think you might need a new car.”
    Jake managed to
get Jessica and her grandmother into rocking chairs on the farmer's porch. His
ridiculous statement about the car earned him half a smile. “That tree had some
nerve falling on the car like that.” The sound of tires going over rocks told
him the ambulance had arrived.
    Jake kept up as
steady stream of chatter and used his body to block Jessica's view of her
grandfather as the EMTs secured him to a stretcher. It appeared as if he still
had not regained consciousness, and, by the way the responders had moved him
from the ground to the stretcher, he assumed they were worried about possible
neck and back injuries too. In a young person either of those injuries could be
difficult to heal from, but in a person his age they could be life altering.
    “I'm riding to
the hospital with them,” Charlie called over as they wheeled the stretcher
toward the ambulance.
    Jake almost
suggested that Jessica or her grandmother ride in the ambulance instead, but
changed his mind at the last minute. The women weren't exactly calm and they
might get in the way. Besides, an extra set of experienced hands might be
useful on the way to the hospital. “We'll meet you there.” If the tables were
reversed he'd want to be