“Answer it,” he said.
She shut her eyes and shook her head.
“Answer it!”
Abby was walking through tall trees toward a gravel road when she saw Huey toss the flat tire into the trunk of the white car. He slammed the lid and looked up at her, then grinned and waved like a little boy waving at a train. Abby raised her hand to wave back. She felt like she was raising it through water.
She had seen amazing things in the last few minutes. When it was time to leave the cabin, Huey had picked up Belle and her ice chest and led her out to the green pickup truck. But instead of getting in, he opened the lid over the motor and lifted out a big black thing he said was a battery. It didn’t look like any battery Abby had ever seen, but he carried it over to the white car sitting on the concrete blocks and set it on the ground. Then he opened the lid over the white car’s motor and put the battery inside. While he was doing that, Abby had to run into the trees and tee-tee. Ever since she woke up, she’d had to go a lot, and that meant her sugar was going up fast.
After Huey got the battery into the white car, he went around to the driver ’s door and tried to start the motor. It didn’t work at first, but he worked under the lid for a minute, and the car started, rattling and puffing smoke. He looked at Abby and laughed, then went back inside the cabin. She followed. In the kitchen, he took his cell phone from his pocket, turned it on, and set it on the counter. Then he lifted Abby like she was still a baby and carried her out to the porch steps.
The white car was still running, but it couldn’t go anywhere because it was sitting a foot off the ground. Huey walked to the back of the car, put his huge hands under the bumper, and started pulling on it. His face turned red, then purple. The porch steps shook under Abby’s behind when the back of the car tipped off the blocks and the tires hit the ground. Huey laughed like crazy. He helped Abby into the front seat, then put his hands on the steering wheel and drove right off the blocks in front.
The car lurched forward and stopped. Huey drove backward and forward, grinding the motor and jerking the wheel left and right until the car broke loose and started across the grass. Soon they were riding under big trees whose trunks were hardly far enough apart for the car to fit between them. Huey kept saying how “NaNa’s car” was going to save them, how smart Joey was, and how pretty soon they were going to hit a road.
Pretty soon they did. Two mossy ruts through the dirt. Then the ruts hit a gravel road, which got Huey laughing again until they had the flat. It didn’t boom the way flat tires did on TV. Something just started flopping and grinding on the right side of the car, and Huey pulled over. He told Abby it wouldn’t take long to change it, but it took long enough that she had to run into the trees to tee-tee again.
That was when she realized she was in trouble. Her head hurt and she felt really tired. She wanted to wipe herself with a leaf, but she was afraid of poison ivy, so she pulled up her panties and started back toward the car, her eyes on Huey as he tossed the flat tire into the trunk. He was grinning and waving. She tried to wave back, but her arm didn’t seem to work.
“What’s the matter?” Huey called.
She fell facedown on the dirt.
The next thing she saw was Huey’s face inches from hers, his eyes bugging behind his heavy black plastic glasses. He looked more scared than she was.
“My sugar’s too high,” she said, looking around. Huey must have carried her to the white car, because she was sitting in the front seat. “I need my shot.”
“The medicine in the ice chest?”
She nodded.
Huey got the small Igloo from the backseat and set it beside her. “Do you know how to do it?”
“I’ve seen Mom and Dad do it lots of times. But I’ve never done it. You suck some medicine up into the shot and then stick the needle in my tummy and push the plunger.”
Huey screwed his face up, as though the idea were unthinkable. “Does it hurt?”
“A little. But I could die without it.”
He shut his eyes and shook his head violently. “We better wait till we see your mama.”
“How long is that?”
“I don’t know.”
Abby rubbed her face where it felt itchy. “Will you give me the shot?”
Huey’s lips worked all around his front teeth. “I can’t. Can’t do that. I hate needles.”
“But I have to have it.”
“I can’t do it, Belle.”
Abby bit her lip and tried not to be scared. “Can you open the ice chest for me?”
Huey pressed the button on the side of the Igloo and opened it. Abby reached in and took out two bottles of insulin. She picked the bottles by the “N” and the “R” after “HUMULIN.”
“One of these works quick,” she told Huey. “And one works later. So you mix them up.”
She took a syringe from the ice chest and pulled off the cap, moving quickly so she wouldn’t have to think about it long. Huey’s face twisted at the sight of the needle, She drew a little clear fluid from each bottle into the syringe, making sure the medicine didn’t get above the “4.”
It was time to pull up her jumper, but she didn’t want to do it. At least twice every day, she sat still while her mother stuck her in the stomach, but the idea of doing it with her own hands made her feel like she had to throw up.
“What’s the matter?” Huey asked. “What next?”
“Can you do one thing for me?”
“What?”
Abby pulled her jumper over her right thigh and pinched up some skin and fat. “Pinch up some skin on my leg for me, like this.”
After some hesitation, Huey put out his hand and pinched up the skin. “Are you scared?” he asked.
She was. But her daddy had told her that while it was okay to be scared, it was better not to let other people see you were. “I’m almost six years old,” she said in the strongest voice she could. “I can do it.”
Huey’s eyes were wet. “You sure are brave.”
Abby wondered how a giant who could pick up a car could think she was brave, but he did. And that gave her the courage to stick the needle in. She pressed down the plunger, and by the time she felt the pain the needle was out again.
“You did it!” Huey cried.
“I did!” She laughed and leaned back in the seat, then reached up and hugged Huey. “Let’s go see my mom.”
He pulled back and looked at her, the awe in his face replaced by sadness.
“What’s the matter?” Abby asked.
“I’m never gonna see you again.” His bottom lip was shaking. “Your mama’s gonna take you away, and I’ll never see you.”
“Sure you will.” She patted his arm.
“No.” He shook his head. “It always happens. Any friend I ever make gets took away. Like my sister.”
Abby felt his sadness seeping into her. She picked up Belle and pushed the doll at his hand, but he wouldn’t take it.
“We’d better get going,” she said. “Mom’s waiting for me.”
“In a minute,” Huey said. “In a minute.”
“Take it!” Will shouted, shoving the Nokia at Cheryl. “Answer the damn phone!”
She crossed herself, then took the phone and hit SEND.
“Hello?… Yeah, I’ve got it…He’s right here… No, not that I saw. No cop cars…We’re on I-10. We turn on I-55 North, right?.. . Oh. Okay.” She cut her eyes at Will. “How come?… Oh God…Okay. Just a second.” She handed the phone to Will.
“Joe?” Will said.
“You just had to play hero, didn’t you?”
“Joe, I’m doing exactly what you told me to do. All I want is-”
“Don’t piss down my boot and tell me it’s raining. You called the FBI.”
