Hearts Afire
Terry Flanagan flashed a penlight in the young boy's eyes and then smiled reassuringly at the teenage sister who was riding with them in the rig on the trip to the hospital.
"You can hit the siren," she called through the narrow doorway to her partner. Jeff Erhart was driving the unit this run. They had an unspoken agreement that she'd administer care when the patient was a small child. With three young kids of his own, Jeff found a hurt child tough to face.
The sister's dark gaze focused on Terry. "Why did you tell him to start the siren? Is Juan worse? Tell me!"
"He's going to be fine, Manuela." She'd agreed to take the sister in the unit because she was the only family member who spoke English. "You have to stay calm, remember?" Naturally it was scary for Manuela to see her little brother immobilized on a backboard, an IV running into his arm.
The girl swallowed hard, nodding. With her dark hair pulled back in braids and her skin innocent of makeup, Manuela didn't look the sixteen years she claimed to be.
Possibly she was sixteen only because that was the minimum age for migrant farmworkers to be in the fields. The fertile farmlands and orchard ... read full excerpt from: Hearts Afire ebook
