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“Any idea how long she’ll be?”
“Just a few minutes. She works up at the post office.”
“Okay. I won’t be able to treat him until she gets here, but I can take a look and see what we have. Let’s get you settled in a room.”
Trent nodded at me and turned back to the boy. “Noah, Spencer here will take good care of you until your mom arrives.”
“We’ll be in room four unless you want to come with us,” I told him.
“Actually, I need to step out and call Eli. I left him with Noah’s friends back at the old shoe store.”
I acknowledged Eli’s comment with a nod and turned to Noah. “Let’s get you settled in a room and take a look and see how bad it is.”
“I don’t think it’s that bad,” Noah insisted as we walked to the treatment room. “I mean, it didn’t hit any arteries or anything. We just couldn’t get the bleeding to stop, and Trent was a little freaked out. It’s his fault anyway. We weren’t hurting anything until he showed up, and we tried to make a run for it.”
“I doubt Deputy Atwood sees it that way. Now hop up on the table, and let me take a look.” As soon as he was settled, I took his arm and carefully pulled back the cloth. “Ouch, that’s long and deep. It definitely needs stitches.” I put the cloth back in place. “We’ll get it all fixed up as soon as your mother gets here.”
He groaned and dropped his head back. “She’s going to kill me.” Based on his tone, I was pretty sure he was being dramatic. But still, I needed to make sure.
“Are you safe at home, Noah?”
He jerked his head up, and his eyes flew open. “What? Of course, I’m safe at home…no, no, I didn’t mean it like that. She’s not literally going to kill me. But she already told me once to stay out of those old buildings. She’ll probably ground me for all of spring break.”
“From the looks of it, she was right. Old buildings can be pretty dangerous.”
“It’s never been a problem before. We’ve been hanging out there since last summer. Trent just spooked us, and I was in a hurry to get out the window. Now we’ll probably have to find a new place to hang out.”
I didn’t know much about teenagers here in River Gorge, and I had no idea what was available, but I was sure there had to be something better than an abandoned building. I was going to ask him, but before I got a chance, his mother rushed in.
“Noah, I told you about hanging out in places where you don’t belong.”
He made a disgruntled, scoffing sound. “Well, it’s not like there’s any place around here where I do belong, now, is there?”
She sighed, and I watched as the anger visibly drained from her body, replaced with resignation and sympathy. It was easy to see she loved her son.
“I know. I wish things were different. But that doesn’t give you and your friends the right to trespass.”
“I’m going to step out and grab Tonya,” I said, and his mother looked at me like she just realized I was there.
“I’m sorry. I’m Melissa, Noah’s mother. I was so worried about him I didn’t even introduce myself.”
“It’s fine. I’m Spencer. Now, like I said, let me run and grab Tonya, and she can stitch this up for you.” I gave his mom a reassuring smile and went in search of Tonya.
On my way to find her, I bumped into Trent in the hallway.
“How is he?” Trent asked.
“He’s okay. Definitely needs stitches, though.”
Trent nodded. “I was on my way to see him. I just got off the phone with Mr. Simpson. He doesn’t want to press any charges for breaking and entering. Apparently, the window’s always getting broken so he couldn’t say if they broke it or not. He’s just glad everyone’s okay.”
“I’m glad. He seems like a good kid.”
“He is. They all are. I’m just gonna stick my head in and remind him he needs to stay out of empty buildings.”
I found Tonya coming out of another of the exam rooms.
She glanced at her watch and then back at me. “Weren’t you supposed to leave at three?”
