The Bridesmaid Wore Sneakers

by Cynthia Thomason

  The next moments were a blur. Wesley was dragged on the hard ground as he was pulled along at the whim of a thousand-pound animal. He tried to dig his boot heels into the dirt, but Titan obviously only found the obstacle a fuel to his natural temperament. He shook his large head and picked up speed.

  Liam raced across the paddock and made several unsuccessful grabs for the rope before his fingers finally wrapped around the cotton braid. He had to get Wesley free. Already the boy’s wrist was turning a sickening blue color. As Liam struggled to loosen the loop around Wesley’s wrist, the horse reared up in a threatening way, not once but repeatedly. Liam dodged the hooves that came dangerously close to his head. In the back of his mind, he thought he heard Jude’s voice coming from the stairs—panicked and scared.

  Running alongside the horse and boy, Liam finally managed to free Wesley’s hand. He lunged for Wesley as the boy lay on the ground. The horse went up on his hind legs again, and Liam bent over and pushed Wes toward the fence and safety. “Run, Wes!” he hollered. “Get out of here!”

  That was the last Liam knew as the hoof of a raging animal came crashing down against his temple. A white-hot pain slashed into his skull as he hit the winter ground hard and his world went black.

  * * *

  JUDE FLEW DOWN the stairs when she heard commotion outside. She landed on the ground just as Liam released her son from the rope. Wesley got to his feet, stumbled and took off toward her. A scream stayed in her throat as she was caught in the grip of the worst fear she’d ever known.

  She pulled Wesley under the lowest fence rail and dragged him a few feet from the paddock, then went back immediately to help Liam. But it was too late. She saw the powerful hoof connect with the side of his head and Liam crumple to the ground as if he were made of straw. She heard Wesley scream but couldn’t go back to him now. She darted between the fence rails and captured the rope dragging behind the horse, who circled the paddock with a dangerous fire in his eyes as he headed for his wounded target.

  It took all Jude’s strength and her loudest, most commanding voice to get the animal under control enough to send him into the barn. She slid the barn door closed and ran back to the paddock. Liam still hadn’t moved. And now Wesley was crying hysterically.

  “I killed Liam, Mommy,” he wailed. “I killed him.”

  Crouching beside Liam, Jude felt for a pulse in his neck. Thank God. The faint sign of life was there. But blood oozed from Liam’s temple and his ear, and his color had gone ashen.

  “Wes, get my cell phone. It’s on the coffee table.”

  The child didn’t move. His eyes were round with terror, and he was on his hands and knees crying as she’d never heard him cry in his life. “I killed him, Mama!”

  “No, you didn’t. He’s not dead. Can you hear me, Wes? You’ve got to run upstairs and get my cell phone. Go now!”

  He gasped, made it to his feet and ran up the stairs.

  “Dial 911,” Jude called when he came barreling down again. “Then hand me the phone.” She didn’t know what to do. She needed help. Should she be giving him mouth-to-mouth? Should she cover him? Was he going into shock? Should she raise his head? She wished her father were here, but he was at the hospital. She’d never felt so inadequate in her life. She wasn’t prepared for the magnitude of what she realized was a life-or-death situation.

  As calmly as she could, she related the details to the emergency operator. Good grief, she didn’t even have an address to give the woman. “Tell them to drive around back until they see the barn,” was all she could say. “And hurry.

  “Hang in there, Liam, help is on its way.” She kept talking to him, stroking his arm, interspersing prayers as the words came to her.

  “He’s not moving, Mama,” Wesley said.

  She’d almost forgotten about her son. He’d come into the paddock and sat on his knees a few feet away, his eyes transfixed on Liam. When Jude saw the streaks of tears down his face, she reached for him. “He’ll be okay, Wesley.”

  “It’s all my fault,” he said. “I’m sorry. I was just—”

  “Don’t talk about that now, honey,” she said, noticing for the first time the bruises coloring his wrist. “Do you hurt anywhere badly, Wes?”

  He looked at his wrist, which might very well be broken, sniffed again and said, “No.”

  How many times had she told him never to go near Titan? How many warnings? How many threats had she made in case he even thought about disobeying her? And for what? In the end, he was still a six-year-old child, angry and determined to find his way. She stared at her distraught son trying to remain brave and knew with shocking clarity he could have been killed today. Liam saved his life. She rested her cheek lightly against Liam’s chest, trying to find comfort in the weak rise and fall of his lungs. A moment later she realized her tears had soaked his shirt.

  At the first faint wail of a siren, Jude got to her feet. Supporting her trembling body against the fence, she waved her arms, bringing the ambulance closer.

  * * *

  THANK GOODNESS THE EMTs were skilled, calm and precise. Of course none of the three medics were in love with the victim. Through the blur in her brain, she recognized medical terms.

  Blood pressure dropping...

  Bring a collar...

  Need a back board...

  Not nearly soon enough for Jude, Liam was loaded into the ambulance for his ride to Cuyahoga Medical Center.

  “Will he be all right?” she asked one of the techs.

  “I can’t tell you that, ma’am,” he said. “But he’s in good hands now and we’ll be in constant contact with the ER doctors on the trip.”

  “I’m going to follow you,” she said. “My son has an injury to his wrist.”

  “Let me take a quick look at it,” the medic said. Wes winced when the fellow took his hand. “That should be x-rayed.” He confirmed what Jude had already suspected. “He’ll be okay in the car with you, but take it easy on the drive.” The EMT stared into her eyes. “You look a bit shaky to be driving.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  The ambulance left with cargo that had become as precious as life to Jude. How was it possible that after five years of denying herself true happiness, she could find herself in love again—when she’d sworn she’d never love another man? And now that man, the one who’d brought her out of her shadowy life, could die.

  She bundled Wesley into her truck, and they followed the ambulance down the drive to the main road. In moments, however, the ambulance was way ahead of them, sirens blaring, until the red taillights were only blinking red orbs in a wintry sky. Neither Jude nor Wesley spoke until Wes finally swallowed hard and said, “He’ll be okay, won’t he, Mom?”

  “I hope so, honey. For now we must believe that he will be.”

  “I hate that mean old horse!”

  Jude questioned whether this was the right time to discuss what had happened with her son, but he seemed to want to talk about it. “Wesley, baby, why did you take Titan from his stall? What were you thinking?”

  He hiccupped between almost every word, but she got the gist of what he tried to say. “I wanted to prove to you that I was big enough to make my own decisions. If I’d tamed Titan, you would have thought so, right?”

  She glanced over at him. “Oh, sweetheart, even if everything had gone well today, it takes more than one victory to make a man. It takes years and experience, and lots of learning. The right decision would have been to listen to me about that horse and never let him out.”

  His eyes welled with tears again in his grief-swollen face. “I think it’s time for us to find Titan a new home,” she said. “Somewhere on a bigger place maybe, where there are no children.”

  “But you want to keep Titan, don’t you, Mom? You wanted to make his life better.”

  “Yes, I thoug
ht I did, but now I realize I was wrong. Every day I kept Titan on this farm, I was taking a risk...” She stopped, recognizing the word she’d thought about and said so often in the last weeks. “You’re not the only one to blame, Wesley. I’m to blame, too, for keeping a dangerous animal around you.” She tried to smile, to take the guilt away from her son. “I never should have trusted that grumpy ol’ horse anywhere around the number-one guy in my life.”

  He gulped air. “So if Liam dies, we’re both to blame?”

  She understood he needed her to take some of the awesome responsibility from his shoulders and transfer it to hers. And she owed him that. “I suppose, but I don’t think he’s going to die.”

  “He can’t,” Wesley mumbled. “He’s the best friend I ever had.”

  Jude bit her lip. I know what you mean. He’s the best friend I ever had, too.

  * * *

  WHEN JUDE PULLED into the emergency entrance of the medical center, the ambulance that had brought Liam was empty, its large double doors gaping open in the back. She experienced a measure of calm knowing he was being treated. She parked as close to the entrance as possible and walked with Wesley into the emergency room. A triage nurse examined him quickly.

  “We heard you were coming in,” she said. “Let’s get a picture of that wrist.”

  “You’ll be okay with the nurse,” Jude said to Wesley. “I’m going to go upstairs and find Grandpa.”

  While Wesley went back to X-ray, Jude went to the third floor and her father’s office. He was just leaving surgery and met her in the hallway. His normally placid face became pinched with concern.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked. “You okay? Is it Wesley?”

  “He...he’s having an X-ray.”

  She dissolved into tears and Martin spoke to a nurse about sending the results of Wesley’s X-ray stat. Then he escorted Jude into his office and closed the doors. Somehow she managed to tell him the details of the most frightening experience of her life.

  “Wesley will be fine,” he assured her. “Annette at the desk will tell the nurses in X-ray to bring him up here when they’re finished.” He gave her a comforting stare. “What can I get you? Coffee?” He slid open his desk drawer. “Something from my emergency stash?”

  “No, I’m okay,” she said. “But Liam...”

  “I’ll find out what I can, honey, but in the meantime, we’ve got to call Lawrence and Alicia.”

  Liam’s parents! Jude sank farther into her chair. How would they take this news? “Yes, we should,” she said.

  “Let me do that. If you want to wait outside...”

  “Yes, I would.”

  Martin took her to a chair in the visitors’ lobby and returned to his office. A few minutes later, he came to find her. “They’re on the way to the hospital,” he said. “Understandably they’re quite shaken up.” He focused on a spot down the hall. “Look who’s here,” he said, his voice suddenly chipper.

  Wesley, his wrist wrapped in a bandage and his arm in a sling, hurried toward them. “Look what I got on my arm,” he said.

  “That’s dandy, Wes,” Martin said, and turned his attention to the nurse who’d brought Wes upstairs. “What’s the news?”

  “A sprain,” the young woman said. “But he needs to keep the arm immobile for a few days. He should be okay with doses of a children’s pain medication as needed.”

  Martin turned his attention back to Jude. “Why don’t I take you both home? Actually why don’t I take you to my house? I think that would be a good idea at least for tonight.”

  “I don’t want to leave,” Jude said.

  In a low voice, Martin assured her that leaving would be okay. “I doubt we’ll know anything about Liam tonight.”

  “Dad, I’d appreciate it if you’d take Wesley to your house, but I’m staying for a while.”

  “I want to stay, too,” Wesley said. “I want to know how Liam is, and I want to show him my sling.”

  “I understand, Wes,” Jude said. “But right now, I want you to go home with Grandpa. When the medicine they gave you wears off, your wrist will probably hurt. Grandpa’s the best one to take care of you if it does.”

  “Do I have to go?”

  “Yes, you do.”

  “Come on, sport,” Martin said. “I’ve got to get my coat from my office.” He stopped midway down the hall. “I’m thinking I might not be able to make it home without some ice cream. What do you say?”

  Within a minute they were gone, and Jude took the elevator down to Emergency. She stopped the first nurse she saw. “How is Liam Manning? He was brought in with a head injury.”

  “He’s having a CT scan,” the nurse said. “And a neurosurgeon will be seeing him next.”

  “A neurosurgeon? Why? Do they suspect a brain injury?”

  The nurse patted her arm. “It’s customary for head injuries. Don’t jump to conclusions.”

  “Could I speak with the doctor after he’s seen Liam?”

  “Are you immediate family?”

  “No, but I’m a very good friend. The accident happened at my house, and I’m quite worried about him.” The nurse didn’t seem inclined to grant Jude’s request, so she played the one card she had to persuade her. “I’m also Dr. Foster’s daughter, if that makes any difference.”

  The nurse smiled. “We all love Dr. Foster around here. Let me see what I can do.”

  A few minutes later, a doctor came into the waiting room, saw her sitting in a chair and came over. “Are you Martin’s daughter?” he asked.

  “Yes. How’s Liam?”

  The doctor held out his hand. “I’m Frank Baker, the staff neurosurgeon. I’ve just read Liam’s scan.”

  Jude shook his hand. “And?”

  “I wish I could say that he just had a simple concussion, but I’m afraid it’s more serious than that.”

  “He doesn’t have a concussion?”

  “Well, yes, he does, but his concussion is a grade three, the most severe possible. I would feel more confident about Liam’s recovery if that’s all we discovered.”

  “What do you mean? Hasn’t Liam regained consciousness?”

  “No, he hasn’t, and the scan showed a significant bleed in the brain, which could cause a clot between the brain and the skull. If that happens, we would have to operate to relieve the pressure.”

  Jude’s heart lurched in her chest. “A bleed. An operation on his brain? How dangerous would that be?”

  “Of course there is risk, but I’m hoping we don’t have to do surgery. Right now, even though Liam is still not awake, we have induced a coma to give the brain time to heal. Any sudden body movements could cause further injury to the affected area, so it’s essential we keep the patient immobile.”

  Jude could only nod. She didn’t trust her voice to form recognizable words.

  “If the swelling goes down, we’ll probably only need to keep him in the coma for a few days. Then we’ll give him the chance to wake up on his own.” The doctor frowned. “If he does, we’ll follow up with another CT scan with the hope of discovering the bleeding has stopped.”

  “Can...can I see him?” Jude asked.

  “Not right now. He’s being taken up to ICU where he can be properly monitored. As I explained, he wouldn’t know you were here anyway.”

  Commotion at the entrance to the ER caused the doctor and Jude to glance in that direction. Lawrence Manning strode through the doors, accompanied by a woman Jude assumed was his ex-wife. She’d only seen Alicia Manning one time, twenty years ago, but the qualities of this tall, striking woman were hard to forget. Wrapped in an ankle-length coat with the fur collar turned up around her neck, Alicia looked as if she could command the entire operation of the hospital. Still, Jude’s heart ached for her. Signs of stress were definitely etched on
her pale face.

  “Hi, Frank,” Lawrence said, walking immediately to the doctor. “Did they call you in to see Liam?”

  Dr. Baker explained the details he’d just related to Jude. With each retelling, both parents’ faces grew more concerned. Alicia took a tissue from her purse and wiped her eyes.

  “I’ve got to sit down, Larry,” she said. She turned toward the waiting room chairs, passed a quick glance in Jude’s direction and took a seat. If she recognized Jude, she didn’t say anything.

  Jude went over to her and put her hand on Alicia’s coat sleeve. “Mrs. Manning, I’m so sorry about what happened.”

  “You’re sorry? Why are you sorry? Who are you?”

  “We’ve met before,” Jude said. “I’m Martin Foster’s daughter.”

  Alicia’s eyes widened in what could only be horror. “The middle daughter? The one Liam took to the planetarium? That’s who you are?”

  “Yes, but...”

  Understanding dawned as a spark of fire in Alicia’s eyes. “Of course. This all makes sense now. He’s been seeing you, hasn’t he? It was your horse! You’re the reason my son is right now in a coma. We don’t know if he’ll live or die!”

  Jude felt her throat start to close. She coughed. “Mrs. Manning, we can’t think that way. We have to believe Liam will be okay.”

  “We? What do you mean we? You don’t even belong here. You don’t matter to Liam.”

  “I don’t think that’s true,” Jude said. “And anyway, Liam matters to me. He matters a lot.”

  “I told him not to get involved with you,” Alicia said. “I warned him about your antics, your brushes with the law. You have been a disgrace to your father for years and now you may have killed my son.”

  Jude blinked back burning tears. She wanted to run out, but that wasn’t her way, so she tried again. “It was an accident, Mrs. Manning.” Her voice began to tremble. She swallowed and continued. “Liam was coming to the rescue of my young son. Liam saved his life. He was a hero.”

  Alicia’s voice rose to an angry growl. “What good is a dead hero, Miss Foster? I’d rather have a live son than a dead hero. I would think you, of all people, would understand that.”