Runaways (Orphans 5)

Crystal felt his wrist for a pulse and then turned

to me.

"Brooke, get up here and help me get him

prone," she ordered. I stepped up and the woman

stepped back. She hu ed her daughter Denise to her. It

simply amazed me how efficient and competent

Crystal could appear, even to complete strangers. George was a rather big man, probably at least

six feet one and easily more than two hundred pounds.

We struggled and I looked to Raven, who came in

quickly and helped. Among the three of us we were

able to slide him off the seat and lay him gently on his

back.

Crystal went to work immediately. Even Raven,

Butterfly and I were surprised and impressed. I never knew she was capable of performing CPR. She knelt by his side and placed her right hand on his forehead and her left under his chin. I gazed at his face. He was a good-looking man with some gray at his temples. Crystal glanced up at me with concern and then she listened for his breathing. Without hesitation, she pinched his nose and brought her mouth to his. She

gave two full breaths and I saw his chest rise. Butterfly moved closer to Raven, who put her

arm around her.

"Is he dead?" the woman whimpered. Crystal put her fingertips on his Adam's apple

and slid them into the groove next to his windpipe.

She felt for a pulse.

"Is he? Oh my God, George!"

Crystal gazed up at me again, looking more sad

than nervous now. I could see it in her eyes, which

had become reflections of mine and of Raven's and of

Butterfly's. We had all lost our fathers. None of us

wanted to witness this.

"I think he's in cardiac arrest," Crystal said. She opened his shirt and put her hands at the

center of his chest, one hand on top of the other. "We have to get him to a hospital emergency

room, quickly."

"I can't drive this thing," the woman moaned. "I

don't want to move him," Crystal said to me.