Page 4 of Wish For Me

“It wasn’t them,” she said. She seemed to find that hysterical and laughed even harder.

Relief sagged my shoulders, but only for a second. “Who was it?”

But she wasn’t listening. It didn’t matter right now who did this. She was hurt.

I pulled out my phone, concern pounding a hot pulse through my veins. What did delirium mean? “Is it your head?” I asked stupidly as I thumbed in the emergency numbers, panicking for a moment as my phone’s camera turned on.

“Sure!” she said, laughing harder. “My head!”

“Shit,” I said again, swiping at the screen. Finally, I got the keypad up.

The woman was curled on her side now, clutching herself and wheezing as she inhaled.

It was her lungs.

Then the woman laughed even harder.

No, definitely her head.

“Police, Fire, or Ambulance?” a hard female voice on the phone demanded.

Hearing someone new enter the chat, Floof exploded in a new round of barking, sending the woman into bigger peals of laughter.

I reached for Floof’s leash and missed, nearly dropping the phone.

“Hello? What is your emergency?”

“Uh…ambulance?” I said. “And maybe police? I don’t know what happened. I just found her on the ground.”

“Is she conscious?”

“Yes.”

“Any chest pain?”

I repeated the question to the woman on the ground.

“Chest pain?” The woman stopped laughing. Her eyes darted to my phone. “Hey, what are you—”

She sat up in a shot, wiping snow from her face.

“Sir!” the voice on the phone said. “Stay with me!”

“I’m trying, I—”

The woman’s eyes went wide and she grabbed the phone out of my hand.

“Hi! It’s me. The person he’s calling about—” She looked at me as if this was my fault. “I’m okay. Nobody hurt me, I just…fell down.”

Relief ran over me for the second time that night.

Then embarrassment. Had I really called 911 because a woman had slipped in the snow?

Floof barked. I gathered the dog in my arms, grateful for something to do. “Come here.” I stuffed Floof in my coat. I’d been carrying her like this on my way back to the car before she exploded out of my arms, disappearing into the haze of snow.

I stood up, brushing off my knees. Not that there was any point. There was snow clinging to every part of me. The weather had only gotten worse in the minutes since I’d stopped here.

The woman handed my phone back to me.

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