The Passenger by Jacqueline Druga (the giving tree read aloud TXT) 📗

first came to. He was out cold when he arrived. This way.” Doc Jenner led the way down to the treatment area.

It was a small emergency room. Only six rooms and they had him in the last one.

Russ stopped the doctor before they went into the treatment room. “How is he physically, Doc?”

“Well, he’s gonna be all kinds of shades of blue and purple, but surprisingly, other than a couple sutures to the face, nothing is broken. No fractures. No internal bleeding.”

“So, we don’t need to transfer him to another hospital?”

“Nope, we can handle his injuries.” Jenner winced when the man yelled again. “This … needs sedation.” He slid open the glass door to the treatment room, then the curtain.

The nurse Janey was behind a computer. “Oh,” she said with a smile. “Good. I’ll go get the sedative ready. All yours.” She pushed the rolling stand with the computer past Doc Jenner and Russ.

Russ stepped in. The young man in bed wasn’t what he expected. He expected someone bigger by the voice. He was not bigger than maybe five-nine, average built, his brown hair was a matted mess and his face had tiny scratches all over it.

The young man growled, trying to lift up but was restrained.

“You called the cops?” his voice squeaked. “You called the cops! Good! Good.” He looked at Russ. “You think you scare me? Huh? You don’t scare me.”

“I don’t expect I do scare you,” Russ said calmly. “What’s your name, son?”

The young man went silent, even stopped fighting the restraints.

“He’s not saying or he doesn’t know,” Doc Jenner said.

“Let me out of here! I’ll go with you, I swear.”

“Go where?” Russ asked.

“To find him.”

“Find who?”

“The man. There was a man in the car with me!” he screamed. “He’s gone.”

“You mean he died in the accident?” Russ asked.

“No, he’s gone!” The young man growled out with a scream.

“So, someone was with you?”

“Yes! I’ve been trying to tell them!”

“Can you tell me your name, son?” Russ asked again.

The young man twisted and turned and growled again.

Doc Jenner waved his finger at the young man. “I told you, keep doing that and you’ll feel it in the morning.”

Russ sighed out. “I don’t think I’m getting anything out of him tonight. Was there anything in his pockets? Any ID?”

Doc Jenner shook his head. “Nothing.”

“I’m heading up to the site now. State police are there. They may have found out who he is. We’ll check the plates.”

“Is Donnie up there?” Doc asked.

“I’m gonna guess he is, he works nights, and you know your son is always Johnny on the spot when there’s an accident, especially Broke Man’s Curve. Say …” he lowered his voice. “Do you think there was someone else in the car?”

“I couldn’t tell you.”

“We’ll look.”

“I’m here!” the man screamed. “I’m right here!”

Russ looked at him. “Well, I’m glad you told me that. Thank you.” He returned to Jenner. “Do me a favor. Get me a BAL.”

“We did.”

“And?”

Doc Jenner shook his head. “Barely traceable amount, like cough syrup level.”

“Do a drug panel.”

“We did that, too,” Doc Jenner replied. “Nothing. But … it was a fast track and urine, when Dale gets to the lab in the morning, he’ll run the blood we took. Get a better idea. But it’s not alcohol, I can say that with all assurance.”

Russ looked back at the patient then stepped out of the room with Doc Jenner. “He’s got to be on something.”

“You would think.”

“Head injury?” Russ asked.

“That’s our guess. We’ll know more when we get the blood work back. But now, no fracture of the skull, no brain bleeding. Accident like that, I’m sure he hit his head. We’ll do another scan in the morning,” Doc Jenner said. “Old Joe said he was thrown, but I didn’t see any signs of that.”

“Old Joe?” Russ questioned. “How would Old Joe know?”

“He’s the one that found him.”

Russ whined a little with a slight stomp of his foot. He knew what that meant. He had to talk to Old Joe. Nothing was wrong with him, Russ liked him and all, but Old Joe was long winded, and Russ just wanted to get to the scene of the accident.

“Told you,” Old Joe said, smugly when Russ approached him.

“Yes, you did. Now, you can tell me how you happened upon that boy in the middle of the night.”

“Well, Marge and I were at that new casino across the state line,” Joe said. “You know the one they built …”

“Yeah, yeah, go on.”

“Marge just loves that casino. Not that we won anything, but it was tough to get her off this one machine.”

“Joe, just tell me what happened.” Russ tried to keep his patience.

“We were coming back on Eighty West, and as we approached Broke Man’s curve, we saw a deer in the road. We slowed, always do on that curve, and sure enough, when we were halfway through that curve, there was that boy in the middle of the road praying.”

“Wait ... he was what?”

“Praying.”

“And you know this how?”

“He was there, middle of the road, on his knees, looking up.”

“Okay.”

“He was praying,” Joe said. “Because he saw us barreling his way, he didn’t have that deer in the headlights look, he wasn’t afraid.”

“That’s because he’s on something.”

Joe shook his head. “No. That’s because he was confident, he wasn’t going to die because Jesus was in the car with him.”

“Metaphorically like the song?” Russ asked.

“Nope. In the car,” Joe said. “He told us someone was in the car with him. A man.”

“And you assumed it was Jesus?” Russ asked.

“Yep. You don’t survive a crash like that if He isn’t in that car with you.”

With a thinking, ‘hmm’, Russ nodded. “You gotta point. But … I have to work on the assumption that maybe someone else was in that car with him. I’m headed up to the site, thanks for your help.” He took a few steps away and stopped. “However, just in case, once it gets to a decent hour, give Pastor Rick a call. See