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Miles had the dog take the bull clear to the middle of the pasture, rounding up several cows along with him, which was probably a smart idea since when Miles pulled the dog off, the bull stayed with the cows and the dog ran back.
Miles was already over beside Peter, kneeling down.
“I called an ambulance,” Norma Jean said breathlessly as she reached his side.
“Yeah. Good.” Miles didn’t say anything else, but he lifted his head, looked around, and gave a few more commands to the dog, who then rounded up the rest of the cows and took them back into the pasture field.
Meanwhile, Miles put several fingers on Peter’s neck. “There’s a pulse.”
“Thank God,” Norma Jean said fervently.
“I don’t want to move him, just in case he has some kind of back injury,” Miles said, and Norma Jean thought that was a good idea.
“I didn’t stay on long enough to ask how long it would be till they got here. I told him I had to go, because I wasn’t sure if there was something I needed to do or could help with.”
“Whoever left the gate open has done enough,” Miles said, and Norma Jean felt fear pulling tight in her stomach. She was the one who left the gate open.
But she hadn’t meant for anyone to get hurt. Would people believe her?
“I’m so glad you’re here. And your dog. That was amazing,” she said, kneeling down beside Peter and taking one of his hands, flinching because the position in which Peter lay looked so uncomfortable.
“A good dog is better than ten men,” Miles said, without taking his eyes off Peter.
His voice was deep and rough, and it somehow made Norma Jean feel a little better, even though he wasn’t trying to reassure her about anything.
“Do you think Peter’s going to die?” she said, feeling so guilty she could hardly stand it.
“No. I don’t. I didn’t see anything that caused me to think that he had a fatal injury. But he’ll have a big headache when he wakes up, and it looks to me like his leg is broken.” Miles sighed. “There might be some ribs as well, but I don’t know.” His voice trailed off, like he was trying to make Peter’s injuries sound like they weren’t quite as bad as what they were, in order for Norma Jean to not worry.
She appreciated that about him, but at the moment, all she could think of was how guilty she felt, and how she wished she could go back and do the last thirty minutes all over again.
No, she’d go back further. After all, she was selfish and mean, and sometimes she knew it, but she just didn’t care because it got her what she wanted.
She had never meant to hurt anyone. Not at all.
“When the ambulance comes, you’re going to have to ride with him, because I’m going to need to stay here. We have a load of calves in the trailer, and I can’t just let them sit there.”
“I have to be in the office because there’s at least four different people who are coming in to pick up a check today. Plus, I have cash for someone else who was supposed to stop in so Peter could pay for the minerals he got.”
Miles was already taking his phone out of his pocket. “I should have called his brother to begin with.”
He pushed a few buttons, held the phone to his ear, but pulled it back down without saying anything.
“It went straight to voicemail.” He sighed. “I hate to send him to the hospital by himself, but neither one of us can go.” His voice trailed off as a siren wailed in the distance.
“Thank you, Jesus,” Norma Jean said. She had been afraid that Peter would die before the ambulance could even get to him. She wanted to go to the hospital with him, but it was probably more important that she handle things that he couldn’t now. Especially since this was all her fault.
“Sally would go,” Norma Jean said before she really thought about it. She suspected that Sally liked Peter as much as Peter seemed to like Sally. Norma Jean had been sure that if she had been able to spend time with Peter, Peter would forget all about Sally and focus on her, but right now, she just wanted things to go well for Peter and to do the very best she could for him, and she couldn’t leave her job. He had people who were depending on him for their money, and she couldn’t let him down.
“Sounds like the ambulance is going to be here before she could get here. You can tell her to just meet him at the hospital.”
“Yeah. Maybe we can tell the first responders that she’ll be there.”
“They probably won’t let anyone but family in, not unless he asks for her.”
Norma Jean nodded. She wasn’t very familiar with the etiquette for emergency room visits, but she trusted what Miles said to be true.
“I’ll call her,” she said, dialing Sally’s number with trembling fingers.
