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Matilda and a Boat
“CallDani,Leviand your mother,” Zane said in a panic. “Spread the word. We have to find her quickly.”
JT pulled his phone out of his pocket and started dialing. “Everyone here knows Maggie. Someone has had to see her.”
Zane’s eyes landed on the large walk-in doors behind JT. He grabbed one and pulled it open. The refrigerator was packed with boxes, industrial size containers and rows of plastic covered cooking pans. He called out to JT as he entered, pushing things out of his way and looking behind boxes. “Check the other one!”
JT opened the other large door and a cold fog swept past his head. A sub-zero freezer. Just as he walked in Dani picked up. “What’s up, my brother from another mother?” Dani asked, clearly having had a few cocktails in between dances.
“Dani, listen. We’ve got to find Maggie. Shawna’s here,” JT said seriously. “We can’t find her.” Just as the words left his mouth, he saw a small, naked foot sticking out from behind a box. “Maggie! Oh, Jesus! Maggie!” he screamed and dropped the phone to the floor.
“Zane!” He yelled as he picked up his sister. She was lifeless in his arms. Her lips had a faint blue tinge. No! This couldn’t be happening.
Zane met him as he crossed the threshold back into the room. His eyes bulged from his head. “NO! NO! NO!” he cried, rushing toward them. He looked down into her pale face and saw the blue tinge to her lips and almost screamed. She was so still. Instinct kicked in and he placed two fingers on her neck, desperate to feel a spark of life. He stood with his head bowed and his eyes shut. Praying. Willing the beats to come. He tried to remember to breath himself. Wait. Was that a beat?
“Put her down over here, quickly!” he instructed. He pushed his panic back and tried to focus on what he had to do. He felt again. Yes, there was definitely a pulse. It was thready, but it was there. There was no movement of her chest, however. She wasn’t breathing.
Zane and JT’s cries had brought the catering staff from the other room. Zane pointed at Katie. “You! Call 911. Everyone else. Go get me blankets, coats, jackets. Anything you can find to warm her up.” Zane barked out orders like he had a room full of medical students. Everyone scrambled to obey. JT ran for the door to get Dani. He looked at JT, “And get me Dani! Now!”
Zane dropped to his knees and started rescue breathing. He almost choked when he first felt her normally warm and inviting lips so cold and stiff under his. Oh, God, please let her be okay. Please let it not be too late. He pulled control deep from within himself and fought to keep the doctor at the surface, pushing down the man. The man whose woman was lying on the floor not breathing. His world became laser focused on just getting her to take a breath. “C’mon, baby. Breathe for me,” he whispered between breaths.
He suddenly realized Dani and Levi were on their knees across from him. Her green eyes huge and glassy with tears. Levi's face was a stone mask. “Oh my God, Zane! What’s happened?” Dani cried.
“Freezer. Not breathing. Thready pulse.” Zane gave her the basics and went back to breathing for Maggie.
Dani wiped a hand across her cheek then turned to the people that were starting to file back in, their arms filled with a variety of coats, suit jackets and even a few tablecloths. Levi started wrapping them around their friend while she ran her hands up and down Maggie's cold arms and legs trying her best to increase her circulation any way she could. Just as they heard the ambulance siren wail outside, Maggie’s chest rose, and she took a gasping breath. Zane almost broke down in tears in relief.
He dropped his head close to her ear. “Maggie, love, can you wake up for me? Everything is going to be okay.” She didn’t answer him, and her eyes remained closed, but her teeth started to chatter. “Everything is going to be okay,” he kept repeating as he rubbed his hands across her body, as much to convince himself as to reassure her.
While never letting go of her hand, he gave the EMTs her status and history as they drew the gurney next to her. They quickly had her hooked up to oxygen and IVs and had her loaded on the stretcher ready to go to the hospital in minutes. Her eyes fluttered as they started for the door and her hand tightened almost imperceptibly in his.
“Zane?” she croaked hoarsely. He could see bruises that looked like fingers starting to bloom around her throat. Rage started bubbling up in his chest, but he worked to keep his tone even when he answered. “I’m right here, baby. I’ve got you. It’s all going to be okay now.”
Her brown eyes finally met his and it gutted him to see the panic in them. “Shawna. It was Shawna,” she said, swallowing hard, speech obviously coming painfully to her.
“We know, sweetheart. We know. Don’t worry about that now. You’re safe. I’ve got you.” He squeezed her hand tightly as he ran with the EMTs to the ambulance.
He let go just long enough to let her be loaded into the back and climbed in behind her. He found JT’s stricken face before the doors closed. Their eyes locked. “Find her,” he said, his voice cold as ice. JT just nodded.
“Where is she?” JT heard his mother cry in panic behind him. He turned and caught her up in his arms.
“They just loaded her in the ambulance,” he told her. “She came to before they left. I, I think she’s going to be okay. Zane went with her.”
Tricia Wade cried in his arms, wetting the front of his shirt with her tears. He could count on one hand the number of times he had seen his mother cry. She was always a lady but tough as nails besides. Now she was weeping in fear and relief.
“C’mon, Mrs. Wade,” Dani said soothingly, wrapping her arms around the woman’s shoulders and leading her away. “I’m headed to the hospital now. You come with me.”
“Oh, Dani! Thank you!" She looked around distraught.
Dani just smiled at her. “Everything is going to be okay. I promise.”
Mrs. Wade gave a tremulous smile through her tears at the praise and let herself be led off toward the parking lot. Dani gave a pointed look to Levi over her shoulder. He had come to stand next to JT. He nodded in silent communion. He clapped JT on the shoulder. “C’mon. We’ve got to find that crazy bitch. I called Chief Jimenez in Gladewater and he’s getting in touch with the Sheriff and Chief here as well, but we should look for her before they get here. She can’t have gotten too far.”
JT took a deep breath and nodded. “I rounded up a couple of guys and have them stationed at the doors,” Levi said as he started across the parking lot to the event space. After a few steps, however, he realized JT was not beside him. He turned and found the man facing the road where the ambulance had left. His hands were laced behind his head, in his hair. His knuckles turning white. He could see his back heaving. Suddenly, he stumbled to a nearby car and hunched over emptying his stomach on the pavement. He returned to his friend and put a hand to his back. JT shook him off and waved a hand behind him.
“She’s gonna be okay, man,” Levi said. “You saw her. She’s breathing and talking. I promise you, if Dani didn’t think it was going to be alright, no way she would have been as calm as she was when she left with your mama.”
JT rested his hands on his knees, breathing hard. “It’s my fault,” he rasped.
