Chapitre 15: 15
Jack grabbed Jason by the collar before he could open the truck door and go charging over to the ambulance. He held the young man back until he finally had his attention.
'You're staying right here!'
'But Mom and Carly-!'
'Carly's standing right there, by the back of the ambulance. She doesn't look too shaken up, so I think it's a safe bet your mom's okay. Now- listen to me! You're not going charging out there! There's nothing you can do. Now, I'm going to get Carly and send her here, and I'm going to check and see how your mom is doing, and find out what's going on. Okay? But for now, the best thing you can do is keep it together and look after your sister and the girls. Think you can do that for me?'
Jason didn't answer, but seemed to sag.
Jack got out of the truck and was immediately stopped by a policeman and two firemen.
'That's my house next door,' he told them, 'and in situations like this, I'm responsible for my neighbours' kids. You see that girl there, by the ambulance? She'll be coming with me until we get things sorted out here. So you're going to have to let me through.'
The cop was not about to let him through, but one of the firemen lifted the yellow plastic tape for him and said, 'Come with me.'
Just as they were nearing the back of the ambulance, the fireman took Jack by the elbow and led him to one side. 'Look, we haven't told the kid yet, but we don't think her mom is going to make it. She's lucid, for now, but that's how it is with serious smoke inhalation- the calm before the storm. Conditions inside her lungs are such that only the early signs of failure are detectable, but once the damage sets in and really takes hold . . . well . . . I'm afraid there's nothing we can do.'
Stunned by this news, Jack ventured a look inside the ambulance. 'If it's as bad as you say, then why aren't you making every effort to get her to hospital as fast as possible?'
'It's more for the kid's sake,' the fireman confided in a low voice. 'I have to tell you, it doesn't matter what we do. The mother's probably not going to last till morning. Sure, we could go all out, making our best time, sirens blaring, lights flashing, but that won't help anything, and the kids won't get a final change to say goodbye.'
The shock of this left Jack speechless; at once, everything felt unreal. After several long moments, he found his voice. 'My God . . . what am I going to tell her kids . . .' The understanding look on the fireman's face stopped him.
The fireman placed a hand on his shoulder, made steady eye contact. 'Look, in my experience, the best thing with kids is to give it to them slow, let them figure out as much of it as possible on their own. You tell that kid her mom's dying, and all you'll do is send her into crisis-mode. Look, she's a smart kid- she'll know something's up. That'll buy a little time- help her to deal with the inevitable. Then, when the shock comes, at least she'll have a better chance of being able to handle it. And she won't be left with feelings of guilt, of having said something she didn't mean as her last words, or that she didn't say goodbye.'
Jack stood rooted to the spot in silence for several long moments, trying to get his head around the reality of the moment. Donna Whyte was dying, right there before him in the back of that ambulance. Carly seemed shaken up but otherwise unhurt, dressed only in t-shirt, runners and jeans, hugging herself for warmth in the cool night air. The fire was all but out, the Whyte house reduced to a burnt-out blackened shell.
When Carly finally noticed Jack, her tear-and-soot-stained visage suddenly became animate once more. She threw herself into his protective embrace and began bawling. She smelt strongly of smoke and tears.
'I couldn't wake her up! Her bed was on fire, and I couldn't make her wake up!'
Jack said nothing, but led her to the driver's side door of the truck and lifted her in beside the sleep-muzzied Yelina. Wiping briefly at her tears, he said, 'Just sit tight for now, okay. I've got to talk to Jason, and we've got to figure out what we're going to do.'
As he and Jason walked slowly over to the back of the ambulance, Jack struggled with what the fireman had told him, trying to decide how much or how little to tell him.
'Is my mom going to be okay?'
Jack almost lied, then . . . almost, toyed with the lie, but found himself unable to say it out loud. 'She's breathed in a lot of smoke,' Jack told him. 'Right now, they're getting her ready to take her to the hospital. They want you to talk to her before they go.'
When they got to the ambulance, Jack was surprised to find Donna awake and alert. Had the fireman's assessment been wrong? Was he overcompensating in order to make good news sound better?
But the looks on the ambulance attendants' faces told him the grim truth- that Donna Whyte was living on borrowed time.
'Hi, Mom.'
Donna's face was a ruin of soot and tears, her mortality laid bare for eyes to see that would. 'Oh, Jason . . . they said you weren't coming.' Her breathing was hoarse, laboured, shallow. For a long moment she stared at him with the desperation of a drowning swimmer. 'They'll be taking me to Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon. You'll be able to visit me there, maybe tomorrow morning, if Jack will drive you.'
'I'll look after everything,' Jack told her quietly. 'The kids'll be right here, next door.'
'Carl's going to be so angry with me,' she said very quietly, closing her eyes. 'He'll kill me when he sees what I've done.'
'Dad's in jail, Mom,' Jason said gently. 'He doesn't even have to know.'
'Nothing I ever did was good enough for him,' Donna said, from some private place that was slipping away. 'My whole life . . . just wasn't good enough . . . I'm sorry . . . I always wanted to do better for you kids . . . but where was I . . . where was I . . .?'
Her eyelids fluttered as she slipped into delirium. This seemed to act as the signal the ambulance attendants were waiting for.
'Mom-!' His eyes bleeding tears, seeing the truth but not wanting to believe it, Jason tried to take her hand . . . but the sight of her mutilated hands caused him to choke on his grief. 'Oh, Mom!'
'It's time to go,' the one working on Mrs Whyte said quietly to Jack.
He nodded, the doors were closed with a thud, and the ambulance was away, bearing the last flickering embers of Donna Whyte's soul away from the burnt-out remnants of her home.
In the dark, left by the absence of the ambulance's flashing lights, Jason's crumbling visage was as bleak as death. Jack knew as the boy looked at him that he saw the truth on his face. 'We won't see her at the hospital tomorrow morning, will we.' It was a statement. 'She's . . . she's dying, isn't she.'
Jack put his hand on the young man's shoulder, and swallowed. 'We'll see what happens. For now, I think you should think about Carly.'
Jason shook his head in sudden rage, and cried, 'Why couldn't this have happened to Carl? Why did it have to happen to Mom? She's never hurt anyone . . . not once in her life! As least-' he choked on a sob, 'at least he would have deserved it.'
'It was an accident,' Jack told him very quietly. 'Just a horrible accident. It could just as easily have happened while you kids were asleep, in bed. You could all have died from smoke inhalation without ever waking up.'
Jason took a look at the burnt-out ruin, from which only a wisp of smoked remained, and shook his head in disbelief. 'Our house is gone!'
'You have a home right next door,' Jack told him.
'We got no parents, now.'
'You've always had me, kid.'
'Do you always have to be so damned positive?' Jason shouted at him through his tears. With that, he lost his composure altogether, threw himself into the older man's arms, and wept.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone