Authors: Laura Childs
Toni
nodded. “She did kind of put us off our feed this
last hour or so.”
“Time to regroup,”
said Suzanne.
“Reboot
the old hard drive,” suggested Toni. “Delete the
negativity.”
Petra
spread her arms wide, waggled her fingers, and
pulled each of them close to her.
“Bless us, Lord, and bring
us
peace, understanding, and tranquility.”
“Are we
good now?” Toni asked, though she was really
asking Suzanne.
Suzanne nodded. “Calm
as can be.”
Petra straightened up,
looking content. But when she
glanced out the window and saw how dark it was getting,
a tiny bit of worry
seemed to return. “The Mystery Tea ran
longer than we intended. It’s
going to be dark by the time
we
get everything cleaned up.”
“Let
Joey do it,” said Suzanne, glancing at her watch.
“He should be here in ten minutes or so.”
“You think?” said
Petra.
“Sure,” said Suzanne.
“Let’s ... why don’t we grab our
selves a nice hot pot of tea and a plate of leftover tea
sand
wiches and retreat to the
Knitting Nest?”
“Veg out,” said Toni,
liking the idea.
Petra hesitated for a
moment, then said, “Does Keemun
tea
work for everyone?”
Sprawled
in the Knitting Nest, the three women sipped tea and nibbled daintily at
Petra’s sandwiches.
“These
cheese and turkey spirals are my favorites,” said
Toni. “Any more left?”
“Probably two dozen,”
said Petra, “but you’ll have to fetch
them yourself ‘cause my feet are killing me.” She
slipped
off
her well-worn Crocs and wiggled her toes appreciatively against the faded
Oriental carpet. “Feels good,” she breathed.
“I’ll grab ‘em,” said
Toni. “No problem.”
“What’s
that?” asked Suzanne. She’d just noticed a
green-and-yellow-striped sweater
tucked into the knitting
basket
next to Petra.
“Oh
that,” said Petra, reaching down to pull it out. “Just
something I was working on for
Baxter.” She held up a dog
sweater with stegosaurus spikes running down the back. “I
call it a dogosaurus sweater.”
“Oh my
gosh, it’s absolutely adorable!” exclaimed Su
zanne. “Baxter’s going to love it!”
“Course now that you
have a second dog, I’ll have to
knit
one for him, too.”
“You, my
dear, are beyond thoughtful,” said Suzanne,
giving Petra a hug.
Toni was
back a few minutes later armed with more
sandwiches. “Joey’s here and
making fabulous progress,”
she told them. “Our boy is up to his elbows in soapsuds.”
“Wonderful,” said
Petra, snuggling back into her chair.
“When he’s
finished in the kitchen, I told him to gather
up all the decorations, too,”
said Toni. She took a bite of
sandwich, rolled her
eyes in appreciation, then added,
“Most of the stuff will work for the Halloween
party on Sunday, but we’re still gonna need a load of pumpkins.”
“For cooking and
carving,” agreed Petra. “And I was thinking of hollowing out some tiny pumpkins
to use as
soup bowls.”
“Cute,” said Toni.
Suzanne
let loose a sigh. “We’ll have to have Junior call
in his pumpkin patch marker, after all.”
“When
would you want to do a pumpkin run?” Toni
asked.
Suzanne
thought for a minute. “Maybe ... tomorrow
night?”
“Friday’s date night,”
protested Toni.
“My date
is Saturday night,” said Suzanne, somewhat
self-consciously.
“Then Friday night it
is,” said Toni.
“Your resolve
crumbled awfully fast,” Suzanne joked.
“You sure you don’t want to flip a coin?”
Toni gave a shrug. “Nah,
the only date I have this Friday
is with Brad Pitt. And he’s easy. I can pick him up any
time ... at the video store.”
“Good one,” said Petra. “Usually you two
are...”
She stopped, frowned, cocked her
head to one side, said,
“What’s that?”
“If Joey broke
another dish...” Toni threatened.
Suzanne
shook her head. “No, something else.” She’d
heard a noise, too.
‘Town
siren,” said Petra. They sat like statues, listening
to the rising wail.
“That’s it,” said
Suzanne, as the insistent noise contin
ued to build.
“Wonder what disaster’s
about to befall us now?” asked
Toni.
“Maybe a fire,” said
Petra. “Or...” This time she was
roused to her feet by the sudden, intense clanging of
the
church bells next door. “What
on earth!”
“It’s the
tintinnabulation of the bells!” Suzanne ex
claimed, borrowing a phrase from Poe.
“The what?” Toni
asked, confused.
“It’s something bad!”
said Petra. “I just know it! The siren’s still wailing and now the church bells
are ringing
like crazy!”
A sudden pounding on
the front door lent to the wild
cacophony!
“Say what?” Toni
screamed. But Suzanne had already
leapt to her feet and was through the doorway that
was
draped
with hand-knit shawls, hastening across the cafe.
“Wait for us!” yelled
Petra.
Suzanne fumbled with
the latch, then pulled open the
front door. She was expecting to find Sheriff Doogie,
warn
ing
them of some imminent firestorm or bizarre accident.
Instead she got Reverend Yoder,
from next door’s Journey’s
End Church. Tall and thin, clad in black jacket and
slacks,
he
looked like a vision of the grim reaper. Except his kindly
gray eyes and gentle
demeanor belied that.
“There’s been a
breakout!” Reverend Yoder gasped.
Suzanne
hesitated a split second, trying to wrap her
mind around this. “You mean at the
prison?”
Reverend Yoder bobbed
his head, looking grim.
A chill touched
Suzanne’s heart. It was everyone’s
worst nightmare finally come to pass. The Jasper
Creek Prison, that most of the town had opposed, held hundreds
of dangerous inmates.
And now some were on the loose!
Then Suzanne’s eyes
widened and she suddenly focused
on Reverend Yoder. Swaying unsteadily on his feet, he
let
loose
a raspy moan, then lifted a thin, trembling hand and
held it to his heart.
Petra, barefoot but
with her chef’s hat balanced atop her
head, caught up to Suzanne and said, “He doesn’t
look so
good,”
just as Joey came flying out of the kitchen.
“Oh man!” exclaimed
Joey, putting both hands on top of
his head and looking scared. “Is he okay?”
“Help me,” said
Suzanne. She wrapped an arm around
Reverend Yoder, while Petra got on the other
side. To
gether,
they led him, stumbling badly, to a chair.
“I...
you ladies need to...” Reverend Yoder muttered,
almost feverishly. Then he seemed
to forget where he was.
“I’ll get a glass of
water,” Toni volunteered.
Reverend
Yoder’s brows knit in pain as he pressed both
hands flat against his chest.
“It’s his heart,”
said Suzanne.
“Look at his skin
tone, he’s positively ashen,” exclaimed
Petra. “This is not good, not good at all!”
Suzanne
knelt down, pulled up the man’s sleeve, and
placed two fingers on his pulse.
It was weak and thready.
Reverend Yoder’s eyes
fluttered open.
“Reverend Yoder,” said
Suzanne. “Can you hear me?”
No response. “Reverend, I think you’re having a heart
attack.”
His eyes closed, but
he managed to nod his head.
“Is he gonna die?”
wailed Joey.
“Ambulance,”
Suzanne snapped to Toni. “Call 911.
Reverend Yoder has to get to an emergency room
immediately!” She knew the EMTs could administer lifesaving
oxygen and chest
compressions on the way to the hospital.
Toni sprang for the
counter and grabbed the phone. She punched in numbers, then waited. A few
seconds later, she
screamed, “Doggone! Nobody’s picking up!”
‘Try again!” Suzanne
ordered.
“Nobody’s
answering because of the prison breakout!”
said Petra, her eyes wide with fear.
“No answer!” Toni
screamed. “It’s like we’re com
pletely
cut off!”
“The circuits must be
overloaded,” said Suzanne. “Everybody calling at once, everybody in a blind
panic.”
“Then
we
have
to take the reverend to the hospital,” said
Petra. “No sense waiting for an
ambulance that might never
come!”
Grabbing
her keys off the back counter, Toni said, “I’ll back up my car. It’s the
fastest and most comfortable.”
“Joey,” said Suzanne, “get
Petra’s clogs from the Knit
ting
Nest, then come help us.”
Minutes later, the
three of them managed to half walk,
half carry Reverend Yoder out the door and over to
Toni’s car.
Though her fenders and wheel wells were rimmed with rust
and the chassis was
edging into beater territory, the engine was
tuned to perfection, thanks to
the fine hand of Junior Garret.
“Get him in the
backseat!” said Toni.
Suzanne and Petra
slid Reverend Yoder into the back
seat. Though his eyes fluttered open occasionally,
his respi
ration seemed to
have gotten worse.
“Everybody in!”
screamed Toni.
Petra
slid in next to Reverend Yoder, while Suzanne
jumped in to ride shotgun.
“What about me?”
yelled Joey.
“You lock up!”
Suzanne yelled back. “In fact, the smart
thing to do is just stay put!”
She turned to Toni, said, “Go.”
Jamming
the gas pedal to the floor, Toni fishtailed out of
the parking lot, tires
spinning and spitting gravel like crazy.
When she hit paved road, she
laid a few yards of rubber,
then
launched like a rocket
“Easy, easy,”
cautioned Suzanne. “Ease it down to mach
one. Don’t get us all killed!”
“I know what I’m
doing,” said Toni, pushing her ride
even faster. “I started drag racing when I was
fourteen.”
“You can’t get a
license until you’re sixteen,” Suzanne
chided.
“Who said I had a
license?” Toni replied, managing to
come to a quick halt at a stop sign, right before
a delivery
truck
whizzed through the intersection. Then she sped up
again and spun her car into a
tight turn, bumping down
River
Road.
“Not many cars on the
road,” said Suzanne, her eyes
casting about. Her voice was tense and terse.
“We’re not that far
from the prison,” said Petra. “Maybe
everybody’s hunkered in, worried to death.”
“You think Doogie is
out there rounding up escapees?” Toni asked, grinding gears and hunching over
her steering
wheel.
“I
fervently hope so,” said Suzanne.
“And just in case
somebody lunges out at us, don’t be polite and stop,
okay?”
“No stops, no problem,”
agreed Toni. She peered into the rearview mirror. “How’s he doing?” she asked
Petra.
“Sleeping, I think,”
said Petra.
“Or
comatose,” Suzanne murmured, “from lack of oxy
gen.”
“Oh dear,” fretted
Petra.
“You
think he’s always had a bum ticker?” asked
Toni.
Suzanne ignored Toni’s
remark. “Okay, the hospital’s
just ahead on your right. Go easy on the corner.”
“I got
it, I got it,” said Toni, slaloming into the turn and
tap-tap-tapping her brakes.
“Now up that ramp,”
Suzanne coached.