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“Henry.”
Relief washed over me; we were finally getting somewhere. A big smile took hold of me.
“Henry! That’s such a cool name. Like King Henry, right?”
He nodded, still regarding me with skepticism, as if he weren’t sure whether he ought to be talking to me.
“You’re a stranger.”
The realization of what he’d said hit me like a sack of bricks upside the head. Of course,he was going to be hesitant talking to me—Iwasa stranger. Being wary of strangers was the first thing any parent worth his or her salt taught their little one.
“I know. But you can just call me Aubrey.” I grinned, maybe a little too much.
“Aubrey.”
I laughed. It was so damn cute.
“There you go! Said it like a pro. Now, Henry, I’ve got two things I want to make sure of. First is that you’re OK. Second is that we get you back to your mommy and daddy.”
He shook his head. “Uncles.”
“Your uncles?”
He nodded.
“Alright, I’m going to make sure you’re A-OK, then get you back with your uncles. First, let’s get you sitting up. Can you do that?”
“Yeah.” With a bit of effort, he was able to push himself up without any help from me. It was a good sign that whatever he’d done to his head hadn’t hurt him too badly.
“Awesome. Now, can I get a closer look at that?” I nodded toward his forehead.
“Um, OK.”
With that, I leaned in and peeked at the injury, yanking my red-and-white bandana out of my back pocket and gently wiping away the blood.
“Look at you, not even flinching a little bit. You’re a tough guy, you know that?”
My words managed to get a smile out of him. Henry sat patiently as I cleaned him up a bit. Once the blood was gone, I was able to get a good look at the wound. Relief washed over me as I realized that it was nothing more than a scuff, barely a surface injury. There was a chance he might’ve banged his head around a little from the fall, but so far, the evidence pointed in the direction that it was nothing more than the sort of war wound common to rambunctious kids.
“Can you stand up?” I asked.
To help guide him along, I rose to my feet and offered my hand. Once up, I took a quick look around to see that the snow was getting worse by the minute. The sky was the sort of deep gray that promised more white stuff to come.
“Uh-huh.” Without taking my hand, he pushed himself to his feet. I chuckled at his insistence on doing it all alone. Once he was up, I was even more relieved to see that he was able to stand steady.
“Nice job!” I said, bending over and giving him a little pat on the shoulder. “Nothing stops Henry.”
“Nope!” he affirmed with a big, toothy smile.
“Now, next step is figuring out where you need to go. This snow’s getting bad, so I’m thinking we can head back to my farm and wait there with my friend Aggie. What do you think?”
“I’m hungry.” He placed his hands on his tiny, round belly.
“You’re hungry? OK, I think I’ve got something here.” I reached into the little canvas pack that I always carried whenever I stepped out, unbuckled the front and stuck my hand inside, feeling around for the baggie of granola I’d put in there. Once I found it, I handed it over to Henry. “Here, this is good stuff. You like granola?”
“Does it have chocolate?” he asked, his big hazel eyes going wide at the possibility.
“Oh, you bet it does. There’s whiteanddark chocolate. And my roommate makes it herself, so it’s extra good.”
