“Huh? Oh, yes. Fine,” he said, and lifted his fork.
When the phone rang, he leaped out of his seat and rushed into the kitchen, mumbling that he’d get it and I should relax. I sipped some coffee and tried the cake. It was delicious. Nothing Gerad made wasn’t, but I hated giving Lucille any credit. That was probably unfair to Gerad. It wasn’t his fault that he had been brought in to replace Mrs. Dobson.
Before Ethan returned, Cassie entered the dining room.
“Where were you?” I asked.
“I just couldn’t stand the pathetic way you were defending yourself when he confronted you with the pills, making it seem as if he were the aggrieved party. Poor Ethan, poor, poor Ethan, isn’t getting what he wants as quickly as he wants it. Christmas trees.”
She popped out of sight the moment Ethan came back from the kitchen. His face was pale.
“What’s wrong, Ethan?”
“I’ve got . . . we’ve got to leave immediately for the hospital,” he said.
“What? Why?”
He considered me a moment, looking as if he was afraid to say another thing, afraid of what it would do to me.
“Tell me.”
“We’ve got to go to the hospital. Get your coat. Your father and Lucille have been in a car accident.”
I turned to see Cassie in the corner.
She was smiling.
Accident
BY THE TIME we arrived at the hospital, Uncle Perry had already spoken with the doctors. He greeted us at the emergency-room entrance. He was distracted for a moment when he saw what I had done with my hair and what I was wearing, but he turned quickly to Ethan.
“Teddy’s left arm is broken just below the elbow. It’s already in a cast,” he said. “The left side of his face was badly bruised, and his earlobe needed stitches. The driver’s door and window were bashed on impact, but if you saw the car, you’d wonder how anyone lived.”
“What about Lucille?” Ethan asked.
“Don’t know the extent of her injuries yet. She wasn’t wearing her seat belt
, apparently.”
“Do we know exactly how this happened?” Ethan asked.
“I spoke with the traffic officer who was on the site. Apparently, a truck moved into Teddy’s lane around a curve and slammed into the driver’s side of his car, sending it careening over the edge of the road, where it turned over a few times before landing upright. Fortunately, the truck driver didn’t flee the scene. He called for help immediately.”
“Where’s Daddy?” I asked.
“He’s in one of the examination rooms in emergency, Sam.”
“Can we see him?”
“Yes,” he said. “He’s conscious. C’mon.”
Ethan reached for my hand, and we followed him through the lobby to a corridor. The emergency-room doctor and a nurse were standing in the hallway talking softly just outside the examination room. They turned as we approached, and Uncle Perry introduced us.
“This is Mr. Heaven-stone’s son-in-law, Ethan Hunter,” Uncle Perry said. “And this is his daughter, Semantha.”
“Dr. Morris,” the doctor said. “He’s resting comfortably now. X-rays show a slight concussion. His left arm was broken. We didn’t see any tear in his shoulder, but it’s taken a hard blow and twisting. Fortunately, he had his seat belt on and didn’t get thrown about during the rollover, or he would have had far worse injuries, maybe fatal.”
I glanced through the door and saw Daddy dressed in a hospital gown and lying on a gurney. I could see his eyes had already begun to turn black and blue.