The Dangerous Kind & Other Stories Read Online Free PDF

over him. The rifle I’d left my brother lay across his chest. Dick and Rich whipped off their jackets as if they were two people sharing one brain. Dick took the gun. Jason whispered to them. They shook their heads in unison. Jason said something else I couldn’t hear. They nodded and Rich shouted for a doctor. When they stood up, they were frowning at me.
    John MacGillivray and his wife Susan, the fire department’s EMTs, pushed through with their equipment. Susan MacGillivray peppered Jason with questions. He spoke in a raspy voice. Jason must have been shouting a long time.
    “Pain down both arms,” Susan said to her husband, eyebrows raised.
    “It’s not so bad now,” Jason said. “Not near so bad. I was dying.”
    “Not hardly.” John MacGillivray fit a blood pressure cuff on Jason’s arm and called for the crowd to be quiet as he plugged his stethoscope to his ears.
    “And where was the pain?” Chief Rose asked, leaning in. Jason pointed to his chest and his gut. John MacGillivray, annoyed at the Chief’s interruption, asked him to get someone to bring up thermal blankets. The Chief retreated to bark into his walkie-talkie.
    I couldn’t look at my brother. I watched the fat silhouettes and long shadows cavorting among the trees instead. I listened. I waited for the accusations to fly at me with claws.
    Susan stood to deliver her rapid-fire assessment. “You’ll need some stitches in that forehead and we’ll get you X-rayed. You’ll sleep in Orono hospital tonight. The docs will make the diagnosis, but my money’s on gall stones.”
    “My heart?”
    MacGillivray shook his head and shrugged. “Lots of people think a gall bladder attack is a heart attack. You’re too young. If your heart was the bug, it would be just your left arm. You’re BP’s okay. We’ll check it out at Emerge, but what you describe? I wouldn’t worry so much. And cut back on fatty foods.”
    “Where’s Joey?” Jason asked. I thought he was staring in my direction, but the ring of white light had blinded him to my face. “Where’s my brother? Is he okay?”
    Rich and Dick pushed me forward. “Joey,” Jason smiled at me. “I thought you were dead. I must have passed out or fallen asleep or something,” he said. “I lost all track of time. I thought you must have hit your head on a rock running for help.”
    Chief Rose bulled his way back in. “How long were you up here, Jason?”
    Jason took a long time to answer. “How long since you left, Joey?”
    I shrugged. “No watch.” I pulled my sleeve back to show everyone.
    “Must have been no more than an hour before dark, you think?” Jason said, squinting at me.
    Volunteers arrived with a stretcher and blankets. Two burly volunteer firefighters I recognized from the gas station lifted Jason gently and tucked the blankets around him as if he was a little boy. Many hands strapped him in.
    “Joey! Joey! C’mere!”
    MacGillivray waved me in. “Make it quick, kid.” To Chief Rose he said, “Let’s get out of these woods. If not for the deer under him, hypothermia would have done him in before dawn. Another couple of hours…well, it’s a good thing he had the gun to signal us or we might have missed him.”
    Jason freed one arm, reached behind my neck and pulled me down, my ear an inch from his teeth. “We’ll hunt again,” he said. “Soon as I’m out, you and me, we’ll be out here again.”
    I pulled back. In the swaying lights, I saw his glassy eyes and his grin. I imagine I had that same grin on my face as I sat nearby in the moss.
    “As long as there are so many of you guys up here,” Jason shouted to the crowd, “bring my buck down for me, will ya?” A shrill laugh rose up from the crowd. Someone clapped and the rest joined in. They applauded my brother. The crazy drunk driver was now a hero to everyone. They congratulated themselves. As they carried the brave son away, he pumped a fist and gave his rescuers the thumbs-up to prompt another