LITMIR.BIZ

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Mommy told me to buckle up. Only she didn’t buckle in Bearby like usual.”

      Panic surged Ben’s heart rate. “Bearby?” Dear God, don’t let there have been another child in this car who wandered off. Ben scanned the parking lot and started to scoot from the seat when scraps of tattered yarn thrust in his face.

      “Bearby’s my…well, it was supposed to be a baby but Mommy’s only learning how to sew. He looks lots like a bear and a little like a baby so I named him Bearby.” The girl suspended the toy in front of Ben’s face.

      “Ah. Got it.” He peeked around the bear-baby thing. “So, there weren’t other children in your car?”

      She shook her head and rubbed a frayed loop of Bearby’s worn string hair. One blink later a faraway expression embraced her features and she veered Bearby back in front of Ben’s nose. “He doesn’t like to be ignored.”

      “Oh. My bad.” Ben took Bearby’s paw-hand between his two fingers and shook gently. “Nice to meet you, Bearby. I’m Ben.” He raised his vision to the girl. “What’s your name?”

      “Not s’pose to tell ya since you’re strange. But if you asked Bearby, he’d say I was Reece North.”

      Ben reassessed the mother. Nothing had changed. She didn’t look worse, but she didn’t look better either. A prayer song worked its way into his mind. Giver of life… He whispered it over the woman. When he looked up, he caught the child watching him curiously.

      “What’s your mom’s name?”

      “Amelia Grace North, and you can recognize her because one of her eyes goes crooked and she hates that.”

      No idea what that meant. Lazy eye, maybe? But the child’s chatter seemed to keep her from fretting about her mother.

      “What happened after she forgot to buckle Bearby?”

      “She kept breathing long. You know, like you’re going off the diving board. She blinked fast and said she needed to drink and sit but she was in the seat. I tried to get her water. She yelled to get in the car. Mommy never yells, and I cried.”

      “I understand.” He leaned down and ran his hand around the floorboard. Bingo. He lifted the worn wallet and located Amelia’s ID. Pretty girl. Organ donor. Twenty-four. Two years younger than him. Must have dropped weight since this photo.

      Other than a North Carolina driver’s license, the wallet contained seven dollars in bills, pictures of what looked to be Reece, a few coins and a red construction paper heart engraved with “I love Mommy.” No credit or debit cards. No checkbook. No emergency contact list. Very odd.

      He faced Reece. “Then what happened?”

      The child rubbed her mother’s cheek with Bearby’s fluff. “She said sorry and we’d get some water at a drive-through. Then she started the car and took off. Her words turned silly and she went asleep when she was driving and we bumped the light.”

      “So, she fell asleep before she hit the pole?”

      “Yes, sir.” Her head bobbled up at a siren’s whine.

      In the distance, blinking red LED lights strobed through a row of white-dotted dogwood trees planted in the median on the far side of the mall.

      He rechecked Amelia’s vitals and returned his attention to Reece. “Was she feeling all right earlier today?”

      Reece sighed. “I think she was feeling kinda sad today. Grandma and Grandpa are nice to me but mean to Mommy. Yell, yell, yell. That’s all Grandpa does to her. We was living with them, and now we don’t live nowhere.”

      The whine of more approaching sirens widened the little girl’s eyes. “Blinkin’ panda cars! The cops are comin’ too?”

      Ben chuckled. “Seems that way. They’ll take care of your sick car while the ambulance crew takes care of your mom.” Maybe he should call a family member. “Where is your father?”

      “Who knows? He left my mom when I was in her belly.” She dropped her chin to her chest and scooted off his lap.

      Gripped with the inexplicable urge to tug her back, Ben resisted. He exited the car, whistled and flagged paramedics over. An echoing whistle sounded beside him.

      Arms shot above her head, Reece waved them in crisscross motions too, mimicking Ben’s stance. She watched him instead of the approaching responders. “Met my dad but a judge said he can’t be around me because he’s unfit. Took me to bars where he works and forgot me a few times when I was only a kid.”

      Ben stifled a laugh. Seemed to him the girl was still a kid, but in her mind she must not be. Gusts of compassion moved him. “I’m sorry to hear that. It’s his loss, you know?”

      Defiant chin tilted skyward, a scowl pinched her freckle-dotted face. “Don’t matter, ’cause we don’t need a man or anyone else around to help us.”

      Kid come up with that on her own? Or from something the mother said? Suddenly, uniformed men and women flocked to the scene.

      Stepping back, Ben studied Reece, the mother and then their sparse possessions in the seat. Thick emotion settled deep for this young unconscious woman and her daughter.

      Clearly they’d fallen on tough times as evidenced by the lone white, lumpy trash bag. Well-worn clothes, toys and holey socks sprigged out its top. A large, black lawn bag resided in the trunk. When he’d moved it aside to enter the vehicle, old pillows and thin blankets had spilled out.

      The economy car was clean inside save scattered crayons and coloring pages. High mileage. By the looks of that crinkled hood and inverted bumper, it’d have to go in for significant work. Repairs could cost more than the car’s worth.

      Police and EMTs buzzed around the car. Ben relayed information as they tended Amelia. Reece stayed on his heels. Her darting eyes and feet proved her skittish of everyone.

      Everyone except him.

      Stallings, a local officer who skydived at Refuge Drop Zone, listened to Ben’s report. He rifled through the wallet Ben provided. He clicked his police radio and recited data.

      “What are they doing to Mommy?” Drawn near to Ben’s side, Reece monitored the paramedics with distrust as they poked and prodded on Amelia, now flat on a stretcher.

      “Helping her.” Ben knelt to eye level. “Everyone needs a little help sometimes. It’s okay to need help, you know?”

      Her pert nose squished up at him. “Did you ever need help?” Her voice softened to thoughtful whispers, as though she longed to connect with someone who understood the plight of hard times.

      Ben studied her tiny, pearl-smooth hands cradled in his large, work-roughened ones and thought a moment. He honestly couldn’t recall a time in his adult life when he’d been in a situation to need help. Other than dangerous missions with his seven-man PJ team in which everyone’s survival depended on teamwork. His childhood had been a different story.

      He was sure the rest of life wouldn’t pass him by without thrusting him into the throes of need again.

      Knowing chitchat distracted her from the interventions being carried out on her mother, Ben smiled at Reece and tapped her arm. “When I was about your age, our house burned down. We lost everything except our lives.”

      She sucked in a breath. “Everything?”

      “Yep. Everything. And we needed lots of help. Even though we were new in town, the Christian churches helped us with food, shelter, clothing and even new toys for me and my brother.”

      Though Ben meant his words to sooth, a cynical scowl that made the girl look much older, pulled her eyebrows down below a curtain of thick bangs. “All’s I know’s when we needed help, everyone turned their back. Especially that guy who is supposed to be my dad and his no-good family and the church.”

      “I’m sorry. Not every

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