The Traveling Vampire Show

blow out. So then he lost control of the car and smacked into a tree.”

“Hard?” I asked.

“Hard enough,” Mom said. “You know how your father feels about seat belts.”

According to Dad, only sissies wore them. It seemed like a strange attitude for a chief of police, but he’d grown up in the Great Depression, fought in World War Two....

“How is he?” I asked.

“Well, he broke his left arm and cracked a few ribs. He also hit his head on the windshield hard enough to break it. The windshield, not his head.” She laughed, but it sounded a little tense. “You know how hard your father’s head is. Anyway, he apparently was knocked unconscious for a while. But then he came to and drove himself over to County General.”

“Why County General?” I asked.

“Well, he feels it’s better equipped, and he was almost as close to it as ...”

“Where was he?”

“Out on Route 3.”

On Route 3 and a dog ran out in front of his car?

A chill scurried up my back and the skin on the nape of my neck stiffened with goosebumps.

“Anyway,” Mom said, “he’s fine, but they’re going to keep him overnight.”

“What for?”

“Just as a precaution. Because of the head injury, mostly. They want to keep an eye on him till morning.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Anywhoooo, I thought I’d like to stay here at the hospital with him.”

“All night?” I asked.

“I don’t have to stay....”

“No, it’s fine.”

“If you’d rather not stay by yourself, I could come home.”

“No, you don’t have to do that.”

“Or I’m sure you could spend the night with Rusty or one of your brothers.”

“Danny’s out of town.”

“Well, Lee’s home. Or go over to Stu’s.”

“I’ll be okay here,” I said.

“That’s fine. You’re certainly old enough to stay by yourself. There’s ground beef in the fridge. You can make yourself a hamburger if you want. We were going to grill them on the barbecue tonight....” Her voice trembled and stopped and I knew she was weeping. After a while, she sniffed and said, “If you’d rather get take-out, there’s money in the drawer....”

“I’ll be fine,” I said. “Don’t worry about me. Tell Dad hi for me, okay?”

“I will, darling. Oh, he said I should let you know that he missed the dog.”

“He should’ve hit the dog and missed the tree,” I said.

I heard Mom laugh softly. “I’ll tell him that. And I’ll give him your love.”

“Thanks.”

“Anything else before we hang up?”

“Not that I can think of.”

“Okay then, honey. You can call us here if anything comes up.” She gave me the hospital’s phone number and Dad’s room number. Then she said, “I guess that’s about it for now.”

“Guess so.”

“Okay, we’ll see you in the morning.”

“See you then,” I said.

“Be good.”’

“I will.”

“Bye.”

“Bye,” I said, and hang up.

Chapter Twenty-nine

So he’s pretty much all right?” Slim asked when I turned around. Nodding, I realized she’d heard only my side of the conversation. I wasn’t sure what she knew and what she didn’t. So I explained, ”They’re keeping him overnight because he hit his head, but ... other than that, he broke his arm and cracked some ribs.”

“But his head’ll be all right?”

“They think so.”