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“Was Mr. Cartwright drinking tonight?” he asks, and I shake my head.
“No, he was drinking water all night,” I tell him, “because he was driving.
“How is he?” I ask, and he avoids looking at me. “Is he bad?” I ask, and someone calls his name.
The officer just looks at me and then the paramedic. “I’ll be back.” He walks away from me, and I look at the EMT.
“You need to go and help someone else because I’m not leaving,” I inform him. He nods and gets up to walk away from me.
I don’t know how long I sit here with my eyes on the pickup, willing Jennifer to pop up from the truck. I see the firefighters on the other side of the truck at the driver’s door. They stand around waiting for something, who or what I don’t know. I hear a car door slam and look up to see my father walking over to the yellow tape that has the area closed off. The police try to stop him. “I got a call from my son,” he says, looking over, and I sit up.
“Dad,” I call to him, and he runs over my way, followed by my grandfather, who is right behind him.
“Holy shit,” my father swears once he gets close enough to see the truck. “Charlie.” He gets on his knees. “You’re hurt.” He grabs my neck, squeezing it.
“Dad,” I start, putting my hands on his arms. “Dad, I need you to find Jennifer.”
“What are you talking about?” my grandfather asks, getting on the other side of me.
“No one knows where she is,” I tell them. “People are all around, I don’t know what they are doing, but no one is looking for her.”
I’m about to say something else when I look to the side and see a van get here. The two doors open, and they walk over to the police officers who are there. Another van follows the first. One of them approaches us, and my grandfather stands by my side.
“Good evening, I’m Lieutenant McCaffrey,” he introduces himself. He looks at my grandfather, then down at me.
“Please,” I plead, “my girlfriend is missing.”
He nods. “We have the K-9 unit coming in, and we’re also assembling a search party,” he informs us, looking at my father next. “It’s just we’ll see more when daylight hits.”
“Fuck that,” I say, trying to get up but wincing, “she could be hurt and need help.”
“Charlie,” my father assures me softly, “we’ll find her.”
“In the meantime,” Lieutenant McCaffrey says, “it’s best we get you to the hospital and get you taken care of.”
“I’m not going anywhere until they find her,” I grind between clenched teeth.
“Charlie.” My grandfather now gets down beside me. “I think you should go and get taken care of, and as soon as they fix you, you can come back here.”
“No,” I snap at him, “I’m not leaving.”
“You can’t do anything for her sitting here with your back against the tree,” he reasons. I hate that he’s right, but there’s no way I’m leaving her.
“I’ll stay,” he tells me. “I’ll stay here and search with them, and I promise you I won’t stop until we find her.”
“No one else I would trust more,” my father declares. “It won’t take us long,” he tries to persuade me, “to get your leg set and in a cast, and then you can come and help search.”
I look over at my grandfather. “Promise me.”
“I’ve never once let you down,” he speaks the truth, “and I won’t do it now. I promise I will not stop searching, and when you return, we can search together.”
I look at the two of them and then at the lieutenant. “Okay, I’ll go and get sorted.” The lump in my throat feels like a baseball. “But I’m coming back here.”
He nods. “Sounds good.” He waves over to the waiting EMT, who rushes over with a gurney.
They load me up into the ambulance, and my father gets in with me. They put the blood pressure machine on me. “What the fuck happened?” my father asks.
“We were driving, and he looked away for a second. The next thing I know, we were flying through the air.” I swallow. “I woke up and was upside down. I was stuck to the fucking dashboard.” My father puts his elbows on his knees and hangs his head. “Dad,” I call his name, and he looks up at me with tears in his eyes.
