Jay

Officer Medetcher reached into the duffle, pulled the case out, and removed the laptop.

 

“Here you go,” he said, “I’ll leave you to it and…”

Daisy came in toting a cardboard carrier with two medium sized to-go cups of cafeteria coffee and a small paper sack. 

“This is Officer Medetcher babe,” I said. “He showed up where I smacked into the tree I guess.”

“Hello Mrs. Thunder,” he said. “It’s nice to meet you here instead of a funeral. Truthfully, I didn’t hold out much hope for your husband but here he is, not even twenty four hours later, and looking like he was in a little fender bender, amazing.”

Daisy placed the coffee and bag on the wheeled bed tray and pushed it to me. I put the laptop on it and opened the bag. Three muffled beeps came from the duffle. It was my cell phone alert for low battery.

“Thank you for your service officer,” said Daisy, “and how nice of you to check in on my hubby.”

“Hey, get my phone from that gunny sack before it croaks will you please?” I asked. 

“Here you go,” said the officer handing it to me. “That phone, well, and some unidentified kid, helped save your life Mr.Thunder. I’m guessing the lad dialed 911 on your phone. I found it outside the car where you couldn’t have possibly reached it. The young boy flagged me down, led me to you, and disappeared.”

I quickly looked at recent calls just before the device went blank.

“Yes, here it is, the last call made was 911,” I said, “and…um, yah, I remember now. Wait a minute, dammit, it was the same kid who caused the accident in the first place.”

“You hit a large Black Bear Mr. Thunder,” said the officer. “What did the kid have to do with it? Can you recall?”

Daisy, her eyes sparking, took a coffee from the carrier and sat down. She sipped it while looking away sheepishly. It bugged me but I sat my suspicion aside to answer the man’s question.

“Damned straight, I can now. He ran across the highway in front me, chased by the bear I suppose. I swerved to miss him but nailed the critter. The impact blew my airbag and left me unprotected when I careened into the tree. He was carrying a…”

“…fishing pole and tackle box,” said the trooper. “Yes, that’s the boy I saw as well. And he vanished without a trace after leading me to you.”

Daisy cleared her throat. “The point, gentlemen, is Jay was there. Like others, he played a vital role in saving Migizi.”

 

Officer Medetcher looked at Daisy, as did I, with a look of surprise and curiosity. 

“You know the boy maam?” he asked.

“Yes, exactly, you know his name missy? I chimed in.

“Not exactly,” said Daisy. “I know the name, secondhand that is, after hearing a nurse speak of it. Now Big Bird, she said you mumbled it while they were stabilizing you, yes, while you were in the intensive care unit.”

“Don’t Big Bird me,” I replied. “I don’t know…the kid…oh man, hold on, yah. Kind of hard knowing truth from trauma-inspired perceptions after all I’ve been through but…yep, I asked the boy his name because he looked familiar. He came to the car, got my phone from the floor, and I told him how to call for help. Then, I asked him his name, him being a Native boy and all, and he said it was Jay, Jay…um…”

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