Faith (Rescue Me, A Contemporary Romance)

Happiness is being in Alaska. The cheery bumper sticker was the last thing Faith saw as
they slammed into the back of the silver Toyota Camry idling at the light in front of them.

“Holy shit, mom!”
Liam, her 15-year-old son, whispered gripping the wheel. Frightened and exhilarated, he looked around dazedly after the crash, attempting to recover his bearings.

“Are you alright?” She answered, a
nd just as quickly her pulse quickened at the thought of the baby she was carrying. She was only four months along, was everything okay?

S
lowly and painstakingly she extracted her arm from between his chest and the air bag and let her hands fly protectively to her barely noticeable baby bump. It had been pure animal instinct to throw her arm across his body at impact, but now, as she rubbed anxiously at the baby bump with her sore, bruised arm, she wished she’d let the seatbelt do its work without her help. Luckily, nothing felt different and her own seatbelt hadn’t seemed to hurt her or the baby, she surmised, relieved.

The old Honda Element didn’t come with modern protections like airbags, and she’d been upset about that when they’d bought the car, but maybe it was for the best. The seatbelts had done their work and airbags could be even more dangerous, she’d heard. Sometimes even break ribs or hurt precious cargo like an unborn baby. She rubbed the bump in her belly again for good measure.

Just the thought of something happening to this little one was enough to make her shiver in fear. Yes, she had a lot to be thankful for, airbags or not.

“I’m okay. I think I’m okay. Holy shit,” he repeated.

“Language Liam,” she said automatically.

Ahead of them she could see the driver’s door opening in the car they’d hit. Please lord, don’t let anyone be hurt, Faith breathed. She watched as a teenage girl
–seemingly unharmed--got out and stared at them in shock before turning to assess the damage to the back of her car.

“Stay here. I’m going to
go talk to her,” Faith ordered Liam as she wrestled to get her seatbelt off so she could get her insurance information out of the glove compartment.

The passenger door opened easily—a lucky thing, thought Faith, since she didn’t even want to guess at how much a totaled car might cost her and Mac.
Expensive car repairs were the last type of expense they needed right now when they were trying to save every cent for the new baby and Liam’s college education.

“I’m really sorry mom!” She heard Liam say as she climbed out the car. “I don’t know what happened. I must have mixed up the brake and the gas pedal.”

“I can’t talk about this with you right now Liam,” Faith told him as she stepped out, “I need to make sure she’s okay and give her our insurance information. We’ll discuss this later alright. The important thing is that everyone is okay.”

She saw him settle back into the driver
’s seat with a nod. She knew he was going to blame himself. He’d always been a very sensitive kid. Always the first to empathize with someone in pain and the first to take it on himself in some way. He was sweet, and Faith was proud of his good nature and sensitive demeanor, but she knew that Mac was hoping his son would grow out of it soon – toughen up before life made his sweet nature a handicap rather than an asset. He didn’t understand his gentle son, Faith knew, and she dreaded telling him about Liam’s latest adventure.

The important thing is that everyone is okay. She repeated it to herself to give her courage as she navigated the angry traffic swirling around them so she could approach the other car without further incident. It hadn’t helped tempers any that they had this fender bender at a busy intersection during rush hour when everyone was trying to get home and out of the cold Alaskan air.

“Are you okay?” Faith called to the girl. “We’re so sorry!”

“What the hell is the matter with you?” The girl yelled back in fury. “
Are you crazy?”

Faith recoiled from her explosive anger and instinctively put a hand over her baby bump.

“Calm down,” she yelled back. “I said we’re sorry. It was an accident. I have insurance. The important thing is that no one was hurt.” Why does no one else seem to think that health is the most important thing here, Faith thought?

“Fuck you!” the girl called back angrily.

“Hey!” Faith yelped in surprise. A quick look behind her at her car confirmed what she already knew. Liam could hear everything. His eyes were wide with shock and fear as he stared at his mom, his big blue eyes flicking quickly from her to the girl and back to her. He looked like he was going to try and get out, maybe try and help or something so Faith waved him back in anticipation of his intentions. The last thing she needed was Liam getting in the path of this angry girl.

Her hands up in front of her now, Faith slowly walked closer to the girl in
the manner most often used by people approaching a viscous animal. With every cell of her being she tried to convey kindness and good intentions. This girl was a freaking basket case. The last thing she needed was this situation to escalate.

“Okay,” she said in a soothing tone as she edged closer. The girl just stared at her with wild angry eyes. “I see you’re upset. You have every reason to be upset. It’s okay to be upset.” Should I really be repeating the word “upset” to this girl, Faith asked herself; probably not, but she wasn’t sure what else to do. She was a wife and mother, not a psychiatrist. Anyway, it seemed to be working. She hadn’t yelled back any obscenities in the last few seconds and actually hadn’t said anything at all. Faith took it as a good sign.

Reaching her side she slowly waved her insurance card in the air. “Here’s our insurance. I’m sure they’ll pay for everything. It’s not a problem at all. We’re so, so sorry.”

Silently the girl watched her, making no move to take the insurance
card out of her hand.

Cars zoomed past, some with a honk as if Faith or this girl wanted to be standing
outside in the freezing cold nightfall and just decided to have a powwow in the most inconvenient spot for all other drivers. Faith rolled her eyes at the insensitivity of other people. Never again would she ever even look sideways at an accident, she promised herself. If she could just get through this and get herself and Liam home to their warm fire and cozy kitchen, she would never ever even breathe a sigh of annoyance at being held up by some other accident in the future.

“Go ahead, you can take it,” Faith urged her – a little impatient now – what was wrong with this girl? “Just write down the insurance information. The phone number and my name and all that. You can give them a call in the morning. I’m going to call them
tonight,” she rushed to assure her. “But you should also give them a call tomorrow so you feel confident everything’s being taken care of. Is this your parent’s car? Let me give you my phone number so they can call me if they have questions. I really am so sorry about this.”

“My parents?” The girl asked confused.

“Are you okay?” Faith asked again. Either this girl was just a bizarre piece of work or she had sustained some kind of head injury in the accident. She didn’t appear hurt. She wasn’t bleeding or holding her head or arm like something was broken or sprained, but she was off somehow. There was just no other word for it. The girl was off.

“Why do you want to talk to my parents?” She demanded again when Faith said nothing.

“I don’t necessarily want to talk to your folks,” Faith explained. “I just want you to know that I’m available to talk to them if they’re anxious about our insurance paying for this, or if they need to know what happened or anything like that.”

“Yeah, okay.” She finally replied begrudgingly and took the insurance card Faith as stubbornly holding out. “Give me your number. My dad might want to talk to you.” Strangely she looked frightened as she said this, but Faith chalked it up to a typical teenager concern about being grounded, being blamed for the accident to the family car. Nothing more.

“No problem,” Faith reassured her. “Seriously, it’s no problem. Really don’t worry. I have a teenager myself so I know just what to say. He’s learning to drive. He got confused and accelerated when he should have braked and here we are.” She tried for a smile but got nothing but a blank stare.

“What’s your name?” Stick to the basics Faith, she told herself. With this girl, just get her name, give her your name and number and get out of here.

“Lila…umm, no wait, I mean Emily.” She said in a rush of words.

Faith looked at her suspiciously. What kind of person didn’t know her own name? The girl was obviously lying. “Lila?” She said with a tone that always discouraged lying when Liam was attempting to pull a fast one.

“No! Emily! Are you deaf? I said Emily, Emily, Emily.”

“Okay, okay,” Faith retreated half a step in defense, “Sorry. My mistake. Emily.” Whatever this crazy girl wanted to call herself was fine by her. She wasn’t her daughter and she wasn’t her problem. Get her name. Give her your name and information. Get you, Liam, and the baby out of here safely, she reminded herself again.

“My name is Faith. Here’s my phone number and my address in case you need it for your parents, for the insurance company, your mechanic…whoever.
I’m just going to go ahead and write it all down for you. You don’t need to do a thing. Just hang on a second…”

As quickly as she could she
wrote it all out on the back of store receipt she had in her pocket. Thankfully she always carried a pen with her. Her mama had always told her that a pen could save a lot of hassle in a hurry and she’d seen the truth in that several times over the years.