McMillian's Matchmaker Read online

  “Get the custodian!” she called out to the other children as she continued to rain as many blows as possible on the dog’s head.

  The two children didn’t move but cried louder from atop the playscape.

  After one well-aimed strike, the dog backed away from Bradley, then crouched in front of her, its ears back and fangs bared.

  Her heart raced, both from her frantic run and from fear. She couldn’t remember what to do. She knew that when faced with a wild bear, a person was to make eye contact and wild movements, and then run. With a cougar, a person was to back away slowly and not to make eye contact as the cougar considered this an act of aggression.

  She didn’t know what to do with a mad dog. She only knew that dogs would chase and that she was not to run.

  The dog lunged. Automatically, Melissa raised her arms to protect her face. She gritted her teeth and saw stars when it latched onto her arm. The momentum and weight of it knocked her to the ground with a heavy thud and enough force to knock the wind out of her for a few seconds.

  As soon as she got her air back, Melissa screamed as loudly as she could while kicking the dog from her position lying on her back. Somehow, she had maintained her grip on her purse when the dog clamped onto her other arm, so she started swinging it wildly, hoping to make contact where it would count.

  The dog yelped and released her when her purse made contact with its face. She hit it again and continued to scream. Suddenly, it backed up and ran.

  She did her best to quell her own panic and ignore the pain in her arm. She scrambled to her feet and hurried toward Bradley, who was sitting on the ground, his back pressed to one of the support poles for the playscape, where he had been watching the dog since it released him and attacked her.

  Melissa crouched in front of him and tried to make her voice sound calm, even though she was screaming inside. “It’s gone, Bradley. Can you stand up for me?”

  Bradley jumped to his feet, threw his arms tightly around her, and cried so violently she could feel the spasms in his body as he gasped for air. She could tell he was trying to say something, but she couldn’t understand a word. The other two children jumped from the playscape and ran home crying, leaving her alone with the hysterical Bradley in the deserted school ground, in the rain.

  “Bradley, please let go so I can see you.”

  She touched his shoulders, squeezed them so he could feel her firm touch, and made him back away. Still holding one of his shoulders, she used her free hand to still first one arm, then the other. The sleeves of his light jacket were ripped to shreds. Bleeding and jagged cuts and puncture wounds all along his tiny forearms nearly caused her to throw up, but she forced herself to remain in control. Bradley needed medical attention, and he needed it fast.

  She glanced quickly toward the looming school building. The school nurse had already gone home. She thought about dialing 9-1-1 from the cell phone in her purse, but at this point she couldn’t remember if she’d charged the battery, nor did she know if it was in one piece after bashing the dog with it. She didn’t have time to waste if it didn’t work. Her next option was to force a sobbing injured child to run with her into the building if the custodian hadn’t already locked the main door, so she could call an ambulance from the principal’s office. It would be quicker to run and make the call without Bradley beside her, but she couldn’t make him wait outside while she ran inside alone.

  Once more, she looked at her car. The hospital was only a five-minute drive from the school. Whether she called with her cell phone from the parking lot, or if she made it inside the school without having to wait for the custodian, it would be longer to wait for an ambulance than to simply take him herself.

  She removed her jacket and wrapped it around Bradley, then escorted him as quickly as he could go without running to her car, and headed for the hospital. The entire time, in order to distract him, she talked about mundane school topics and the upcoming science fair. As she talked, Bradley changed from making the understandable cries of fear to the irregular and more worrisome cries of pain and shock.

  It was the longest five minutes of Melissa’s life.

  Upon arrival at the hospital, the admitting staff ushered them immediately out of the waiting room and into the emergency ward. His crying increased in pitch when she tried to go back to the admitting desk, so they instructed her to fill out the forms later, after Bradley had calmed down, and she could leave him in the care of a doctor or nurse for a few minutes.

  They sat together on the bed, with Bradley clutching her tightly. The only time he would release her was when a nurse wrapped gauze around both Bradley’s arms and her left arm as they waited for their turn to see an emergency doctor, since Bradley’s injuries were not life threatening.

  The hospital staff bustled around them, but Melissa felt cut off from the world. The general duty of filling out the forms would have allowed her a distraction to separate herself from the trauma and panic, but she couldn’t leave Bradley. Also, now that the situation was somewhat under control, the throbbing of her left arm was becoming more pronounced, making sitting still and trying to keep Bradley calm more difficult.

  More than anything, she had to contact Bradley’s family. However, away from the records of the school, she didn’t have access to emergency phone numbers.

  Since she couldn’t leave him alone in the ward, Melissa pulled her cell phone out of her purse, deciding now was a good time to see if it still worked. “Bradley, I want to phone home for you. What’s your phone number?”

  A nurse whose name badge read “Shirley” appeared in front of her. “I’m sorry—you can’t use your cell phone in the hospital, Ma’am.”

  “Sorry. I forgot. I have to call his family.”

  “There’s a phone in the waiting area.”

  As she looked through the doorway, Bradley’s grip around her waist tightened, and his crying worsened, answering her unspoken question of leaving him, even for a couple of minutes. “I think I’ll have to wait,” she said to the nurse, “but his family will be worried about him. Can you phone for me?”

  The nurse pulled out a pencil and paper, and smiled. “I can do that. What’s the name and number?”

  Melissa gently rubbed Bradley’s back. “Nurse Shirley is going to phone your uncle, Bradley. What’s his phone number?”

  Bradley sniffled, and his words came through gulps for air. “Uncle Josh is at work. I don’t know his phone number. I’m supposed to be at Darlene’s.”

  Melissa tried to smile nicely. This was a complication she had not considered. “Then let’s give Nurse Shirley Darlene’s number.”

  “I don’t know her number.”

  “Is there anyone at home, Bradley? Your older brother?”

  He sniffled again. “Tyler might be home. My number is 555-2318.”

  Nurse Shirley smiled at Bradley while she spoke to Melissa. “I think I have all the information I need. I’ll be right back.”

  Rather than let Bradley dwell on everything that happened, Melissa thought it best to keep him occupied on other things. As much as she was curious about his family situation, she spoke only about enjoyable school activities and topics. The entire time she talked with Bradley, which was a very one-sided conversation, she grew increasingly impatient waiting for the nurse to return with word from Bradley’s uncle.

  Ten minutes later, the nurse finally returned. “I did manage to contact his brother, who is only fifteen.” Nurse Shirley trailed her index finger down the paper. “He tried to phone the sitter, but there was no answer. He also tried to contact their uncle at work, but he wasn’t there, either, so he left a message. He gave us their pediatrician’s number who has confirmed no drug allergies.” She paused and handed Melissa a clipboard and pen. “Standard procedure is that as a school staff member you may authorize Bradley’s medical treatment based on the medical emergency consent form on file at the school. We’ve done everything we can to reach his uncle, so now we’ll have to wait until someone co
ntacts us. The doctor is ready to see you.”

  Melissa signed the form and handed it back to the nurse just as a young doctor with stylish wire-framed glasses and carrying a clipboard approached the bed. He pulled the curtain shut around them for some privacy as he examined Bradley’s wounds and gave him a mild sedative. Then, between the nurse and Melissa holding Bradley as best they could, the doctor cleaned the wounds, gave him a few stitches, and bandaged him up.

  Following that, he did the same to Melissa, making the situation worse because now she didn’t know how she was going to drive home with the drugs in her system.

  As soon as the last of the tape was applied to the bandaging around her arm, Bradley squirmed his way into her lap.

  The doctor stood with his pen poised above the form on the clipboard. “Have either you or the boy had a tetanus shot within the last ten years?”

  Melissa shook her head. “I haven’t, but I don’t know about Bradley.”

  “Do you know if the dog was up-to-date on its rabies and distemper vaccinations?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never seen the dog before. It just showed up in the school yard.”

  “Is there any way of locating the dog in the next day or two? I’d rather not assign the rabies treatment for both of you unless it’s absolutely necessary.” His unspoken message and knotted brows as he glanced at Bradley said all she needed to know about the treatment. She understood the treatment consisted of a painful series of shots, used only as a last resort.

  She opened her mouth to ask about a reasonable safety margin when a young man about her age dressed in greasy coveralls and filthy, beat-up work boots burst through the curtain.

  Two

  “Bradley!”

  Josh’s gut clenched at the sight of poor little Bradley’s tear-stained face and bandaged arms. The antiseptic smell of the hospital further turned his stomach.

  “Uncle Josh!” Bradley wailed, then launched himself out of a woman’s lap and into his chest. The boy threw his arms around Josh’s neck and began to sob.

  As Josh hugged Bradley tight, he glanced between the woman sitting on the hospital cot and the man in the white lab coat standing beside him. “How is he? What happened?”

  He listened to the doctor’s brief explanation of the extent of Bradley’s wounds and the number of stitches required, followed by an even briefer statement from the woman of how Bradley was attacked by a large stray dog.

  Josh held poor Bradley tighter and pressed Bradley’s head closer to his chest as the crying subsided to a ragged hiccuping. He couldn’t imagine the terror the poor kid had been through; it would have been scary enough for an adult. And if the attack itself wasn’t bad enough, he continued to listen as the doctor explained that unless they found the dog and were able to confirm that its vaccinations were up-to-date, especially considering the unprovoked nature of the attack, Bradley would have to go through a painful series of rabies treatments.

  The doctor went on to inform Josh that the pediatrician’s office had confirmed Bradley didn’t need a tetanus shot because he was up-to-date on all his childhood inoculations, and that Bradley would be fine as long as he was kept quiet and the wound kept clean. He told Josh to take Bradley to his own pediatrician in a week to get the stitches removed and for a final checkup.

  Numbly, Josh nodded. Taking care of the boys had been a novelty at first, and over the past month they’d developed a routine of what he could only call organized confusion. Most days it was all he could do to make it from one day to the next, but this was unlike anything he could have imagined.

  When the doctor left the bedside to tend to another patient, the nurse directed him to the counter where he could sign the necessary forms and pay the bill, which allowed Josh to concentrate more on the woman who was with them.

  “I guess you’ve figured out that I’m Josh McMillian, Bradley’s uncle. I want to thank you for taking care of Bradley. You said you’re his teacher, but I’m afraid I can’t remember your name.”

  She smiled hesitantly. “It’s Melissa Klassen.”

  Josh forced himself to smile. He didn’t know if it was appropriate to shake her hand at a time like this, but thankfully he didn’t have the option to do so with Bradley still clinging to him. As grateful as he was for her help and intervention, he didn’t want to shake her hand because then she would be able to feel him still trembling.

  When he called Tyler back, he’d been expecting to hear that they were again out of some food item. His only thought as he dialed home was annoyance that he would have to stop in at the store on his way home. Instead, Tyler’s voice had been filled with panic, and he’d barely been able to understand the jumbled account of Bradley being at the hospital after being attacked by a wild animal. The entire trip to the hospital Josh had pictured the scene of little Bradley struggling with a starving cougar or a crazed raccoon. Relief washed through him to know it was just a dog, in comparison to what it might have been, but with the possibility of rabies not ruled out, the situation remained grave.

  One thing for sure, he had not considered anything like this when he agreed to look after his nephews. Even after the worst of the situation was over, his stomach was still upset and his nerves unsteady. If this was how he felt when it was only his nephew, Josh wondered what it was like when something bad happened to one’s own child. He wasn’t sure he ever wanted to know.

  He turned to Bradley’s teacher. Although he’d been to both schools to fill out a stack of forms when the guardianship took effect, he hadn’t yet had the opportunity to meet any of the kids’ teachers.

  “I don’t know what to say. A simple thank-you doesn’t seem like enough. Please let me at least pay for the medical bill for your treatment. I’m really sorry that you were hurt too.”

  She shook her head, then smiled at him. “Don’t worry about it. Since this involved a student and it happened on school grounds, the school will pay for it.”

  Josh forced himself to smile. No matter who paid, he knew there would never be a way to pay her back sufficiently for what she’d done. Without anyone having said so in front of Bradley, he knew it was by the grace of God that the dog had only bitten Bradley’s arms, that it hadn’t mauled Bradley’s face, as often happened. He’d read in the papers about the horrible things that happened to a child in an unprovoked dog attack. The first thing Josh planned to do when he finally managed to get some quiet time at home was to fall onto his knees and praise God for sparing Bradley from a situation that could have been much worse.

  With Bradley still clinging to him, Josh did his best to sign the forms with one hand. Then, rather than writing a check, he handed over his credit card without looking at the total bill. He didn’t want to know the amount quite yet. The day had been enough of a shock without that.

  During the entire process, he could feel Bradley growing more and more limp in his arms, for which Josh was grateful. With the added incentive of whatever sedative they’d given Bradley going into full effect, Josh knew it would be good for Bradley to sleep off as much as he could, before the full effects of what happened hit him.

  Knowing that Bradley had been given a sedative made Josh wonder if Melissa had also been given something. He figured she would at least have been given a painkiller and some kind of local anesthetic for the stitches.

  He stepped closer while she filled out her own release forms. “I just thought of something. You obviously drove here, but are you okay to drive home? Do you need a ride or something?”

  The pen froze midword, and she turned her head to look up at him. “You’re right. They did tell me not to drive after taking that stuff they gave me. I guess I haven’t had time to really think about it, but I would have remembered as soon as I walked out the door. I suppose I do need a ride, but what am I going to do about my car? I don’t know how long they’d let me keep it here before I get a parking ticket.” She turned her other wrist to check the time, leaving the section of the form unfinished. “You don’t think they’d t
ow it away, do you?”

  “Tell you what. I’ll drive you home with your car. Then I’ll take a cab back here and pick up my van.” Inwardly, he cringed at his own suggestion. He hoped she lived fairly close, because the costs for this day, which also included missing time from his job, were continuing to add up quickly. With any luck, she lived on a major bus route that would make it easier and cheaper than a cab to get back to the hospital before too much time had expired. Of course, that meant putting more money in the meter so his van wouldn’t get towed away.

  She continued writing when the admitting clerk narrowed her eyes and glared at a clock on the wall. “That sounds like a good idea. Actually, I don’t live far from here. And don’t worry about a cab. By now my neighbors will be home. I’d bet that Dave from next door will be able to drive you back.” She paused from writing for long enough to grin upward at him again, doing something strange to Josh’s already upset stomach. “He owes me loads of favors and is always asking to return them. This will be something he can do for me.”

  Josh glanced up at the clock. Normally he wouldn’t have accepted such an outlandish offer, but he had so much to do this evening, he couldn’t afford to lose more time. “That would be great. But only if it’s no trouble for him. Or you. We’ve already been more than enough trouble for you today.”

  She smiled up at him. “Don’t worry about it. I think we’re free to go now.”

  Except for Melissa giving him directions, silence reigned for most of the drive to her home, confirming his suspicions that she was feeling sleepy from the medication, right along with Bradley. As soon as they arrived at her duplex and settled Bradley onto the couch, she phoned her neighbor, who was more than happy to give Josh a ride back to the hospital to retrieve his van.

  When he made it back to her home to pick up Bradley, the two of them were sitting on the couch watching cartoons and eating milk and cookies. Today he didn’t care that Bradley wouldn’t eat his supper. Seeing Bradley enjoying himself after experiencing such trauma, he almost wanted to join them, except he couldn’t because the rest of the family anxiously awaited their arrival back at their own home.