Hide and Seek

heard the breath rush out of his lungs, but that was the only sound

from him. I heard us running and that deep whoosh of breath and the

crying of gulls. And that was all. A strange, quiet chaos.

I went down beside him and put one arm behind his back to support him,

just under his shoulders.

"Relax. Relax."

He looked at me and his eyes were not quite focusing. I saw a small

scrape just below the hairline over his right eye. It would swell, but

it didn't look too bad. A slight welling up of blood moving slowly to

the surface. I looked into his hair for something worse. There was

nothing. I guessed he was just shaken. I was damned relieved.

Kim squatted down beside me. I saw her glance to the left of him a

little and then heard that intake of breath again. Her face contracted

squeamishly. I saw what she was looking at. His left arm was out at a

right angle from us, the wrist just sort of dangling. The ball of the

thumb was cut pretty badly. There was a steady flow of blood rolling

down off his wrist and a flap of skin maybe two inches long pulled back

toward the palm of his hand.

"Get me something. Something to press over it and stop the bleeding.

Hurry up."

His eyes looked better now, even though the color was still gone from

his face. I was pretty sure he'd be all right. He tried to talk to

me. The look on his face was one of pure amazement.

"She... she pushed me ..."

I glared up at her. She hadn't moved. The bright sunlight always made

her eyes go oddly transparent. Now it was like staring into two bright

cubes of ice.

"You want to tell me about it?"

"No."

"What the fuck is this about, Casey?"

Kim came running back with my T-shirt. I helped her wrap it around his

hand and showed her how to press it down.

"Hard," I told her. Then I looked back at Casey.

"I asked you something."

I saw her shoulder relax slightly. Her voice was low, contemptuous.

Scary.

"You can go to hell."