While the dispatcher answered, Adeline slipped free and placed one tiny palm gently on the biker’s leather-covered shoulder.
“It’s okay.”
Kendra was giving their approximate location.
The dispatcher asked whether the man was breathing.
“Yes.”
“Is he conscious?”
“No.”
Adeline leaned closer.
“I found you.”
The biker’s eyelids moved.
Kendra froze.
“Sir?”
His lips parted.
No words.
The dispatcher instructed her not to move him unless immediate danger required it.
Kendra repeated this sharply to Adeline.
The little girl nodded.
Then touched the biker’s shoulder again.
“I won’t move you.”
His breathing changed.
For a moment his face seemed to relax.
Kendra looked at her daughter.
“What did you see from the car?”
Adeline did not answer.
She was watching the biker.
“Adeline?”
The girl whispered:
“Claire said he was alone too long.”
Kendra stopped breathing for a second.
“Who is Claire?”
Adeline’s eyes remained fixed on the man.
“The lady.”
“The lady you saw?”
A small nod.
“Where is she now?”
Adeline looked over the biker’s shoulder toward the trees.
Then higher.
Her brow furrowed.
“I don’t know.”
Kendra told herself children invented things constantly.
Adeline had imaginary princesses.
Invisible horses.
A dragon named Peanut who apparently lived inside the linen closet.
This should have felt ordinary.
It did not.
Nothing about the child’s tone felt like play.
The dispatcher told Kendra that emergency units were en route.
“Eight to twelve minutes.”
“Okay.”
“Do not leave him.”
“We won’t.”
Adeline looked up.
“His brothers are coming.”
Kendra covered the phone microphone.
“What?”
“His brothers.”
“He has brothers?”
“Lots.”
“How do you know?”
The child glanced toward the road.
“They heard her.”
Kendra stared.
The dispatcher asked whether something had changed.
“No.”
She forced herself back into the immediate situation.
“No, sorry. My daughter.”
The biker groaned.
Kendra leaned closer.
“Sir, help is coming.”
His hand moved weakly.
Adeline immediately reached down.
The huge rough hand closed around three of her tiny fingers.
Kendra nearly told her to pull away.
Then she saw his face.
The man seemed calmer.
So she let the child stay.
“Can you tell me your name?”
Nothing.
“Do you know where you are?”
His eyes opened slightly.
Gray-blue.
Unfocused.
They moved toward Adeline.
The little girl smiled.
“Hi.”
His lips moved.
Kendra leaned in.
“What did you say?”
The biker whispered something almost inaudible.
Adeline answered:
“I know.”
Kendra looked between them.
“What did he say?”
The child did not respond.
Sirens sounded far away.
Within minutes a sheriff’s cruiser appeared on the highway shoulder, followed by an ambulance.
Two paramedics and a county deputy came down the slope carrying equipment.
The deputy reached them first.
“What happened?”
Kendra stood.
“I don’t know. We found him like this.”
The deputy looked at Adeline.
“You were both in the vehicle?”
“Yes.”
Kendra pointed toward the road.