The Reluctant Witness. Kathleen Tailer

peroxide and a first-aid kit and raced toward the back door where the car was parked, then stopped and took the water bottle the girl held out to her.

      “Chloe, I need your help. I’m going to bring the injured man back with me. Can you put some clean sheets on the couch? I’m also going to need your help bringing him into the house. He’s gonna be really heavy.”

      Chloe nodded, her expression solemn. “Are you sure he’s a nice man?” There was a measure of fear in her voice, so Casey stepped forward and carefully hugged her, trying to keep the majority of the blood from getting on the child as she did so.

      “I hope so, Chloe. He was attacked by some bad men and he really needs our help. But you’re right that we should be cautious around him. He’s wearing a shirt that says he works for the FBI, so that makes him dangerous. We’ll have to be very careful about how we talk around him. I have to go right now because every second counts if I want to help him, but we’ll talk a lot more about this when I get him settled. Okay?” Casey gave her a squeeze, then raced to the car and started driving back down the mountain. Was she making a huge mistake? What if the man discovered her past? Time would tell....

      TWO

      Jack had seen a princess. She had hovered over him for a few minutes and then disappeared, but he had definitely seen her. She looked exactly like the princess in the book his baby sister made him read to her over and over again when she was little. The funny thing was she wasn’t wearing a gown or a tiara. Instead, her dark brown hair had been pulled back in a ponytail, and she was wearing a simple sweatshirt and running pants. Still, she had definitely had the most amazing blue eyes he had ever seen, and was the perfect twin to the beautiful princess from the storybook.

      He wiped his eyes with his good hand, trying to get some of the blood away that was clouding his vision, but it seemed futile. The pain was so intense in so many places that he was still having trouble just staying conscious.

      “Hey, mister. You still hanging in there?” The soft melodious voice surprised him, and when he opened his eyes, his princess was back, smiling at him and tying towels around the makeshift bandages that covered the wounds on his leg and torso. “I told you I’d be back. I promised—and I never break a promise.”

      His mouth didn’t seem able to form words, so he just nodded, hoping she would understand. She moved his bad arm across his chest and somehow fashioned a sling around it that she tied to his neck. Then she put a washcloth against his head wound and secured it with an elastic bandage. Gently she wiped the blood out of his eyes with a small damp cloth, and he got a better look at her. She had a smile on her face that he assumed was for his benefit, but also a look of worry that she couldn’t quite hide. After she finished her ministrations, she leaned over him and gently cupped his face again. As severely injured as he was, he still found himself mesmerized by her eyes.

      “We have to move you now, and even though it’s going to hurt, I’m gonna need your help. You’re a big guy and I’m sure you’re more than I can carry alone. Can you help me?”

      Jack’s mind raced as his brain came back online. Okay. She wasn’t a princess after all, but she was helping him. He only remembered bits and pieces of what Stevens had said while standing over his body, but it was enough to know that he wasn’t safe staying where he was. Cooperating with this stranger was his only chance of survival. He nodded to her and grimaced as she moved him slowly into a sitting position. She braced herself under his good shoulder and he did all he could to help, yet it was still slow going as she got him to his feet and moved him toward the car parked only a few feet away. Eventually they were able to maneuver him into the back seat, though small beads of sweat popped out on his forehead from the effort.

      The next thing he knew, she was tugging at him again to help him get out of the car, and he realized that he must have blacked out during the journey. He looked around, searching for hospital attendants, but saw none. In fact, from what he could see, he was still in the woods near a small log cabin.

      “Are we...hospital?” he asked quietly, struggling to make a complete thought.

      “No, sorry. We’re at my cabin. The nearest hospital is about two and a half hours away, and I doubt you could survive the trip.”

      A small girl suddenly appeared behind the woman, and he noticed she had the same big blue eyes. She was a pretty child, with blond hair instead of brown, yet her expression was marred with worry. As the woman pulled him up out of the car, the girl tried to offer assistance as well but finally gave up and awkwardly ended up holding the door open for them instead.

      “Thanks, Chloe. You’re the best.” The woman’s voice was soft, yet still somewhat musical to Jack’s ears. That was the last coherent thought he could manage before once again falling into blackness.

      * * *

      “Whoa!” Casey said forcefully as the man lost consciousness again and leaned heavily against her. They were only a couple of feet from the couch, but there was no way she could maneuver him that far now that he wasn’t helping. He was just too heavy for her to manage. She awkwardly eased him to the floor as gently as she could and after a few minutes had him lying on his back only a few feet from the fireplace.

      “Chloe, honey, I’m going to spend some time cleaning up his wounds and checking out his injuries. Do you think you could build us a fire? We don’t want him to get too chilly.”

      “Okay, Aunt Casey.” The child looked him over from head to toe. “He really is big. Are you sure he isn’t going to hurt us?”

      Casey raised an eyebrow. She doubted the man would be a physical threat to anybody for quite a while, but the fact that he was an FBI agent was definitely disturbing. She sighed. It was more than disturbing. It was downright dangerous. Still, she couldn’t leave him out in the woods to die. Bringing him here had been her only option. Yet she knew the man’s presence signaled that her time left in the cabin was limited and she would soon have to find a new place to live. She didn’t want Chloe to worry about it, though. The child had been through enough.

      “He’s probably a very nice man, honey, but we won’t know for sure until he wakes up. For now let’s just be very careful about what we say around him, like I said before. He can’t know who we are or why we’re living here. Do you understand? No last names, no information about where we came from and no telling him about anything that happened in Florida, okay?”

      “Okay.” The child’s lip quivered and Casey pulled her close and gave her a hug. “I know this isn’t what we planned to do when we came up here, sweet pea, but life is precious. We can’t leave this man out in the woods to die because of our secrets. God wants us to always love our neighbors and help other people whenever we can, not just when it’s convenient.”

      “But what if he’s mean? What if he tries to hurt us?”

      Casey grimaced as Chloe’s words tore at her heart. No ten-year-old girl should have to live in fear, but her young niece had already lived a lifetime’s worth of trepidation. “He’s injured really badly, Chloe. He’s not going to be doing anything to anybody for a while. But once he starts getting better, if he tries to hurt you in any way, all you have to do is scream and I’ll come running to stop him. I’ll protect you. I promise.” She flicked the girl’s nose playfully. “Now run and get my doctor bag for me while I get some things I need out of the kitchen.”

      The girl darted away and Casey watched her go, then turned back to her patient. She hoped she had enough of the correct supplies to do what she needed to help this man under these primitive conditions. At least she had confidence in her training. She had completed four years of medical school and had been on her way to a residency program in the Atlanta area only five short months ago, but that life seemed like almost a dream at this point. Since then, her entire world had been upended. She had given up her future and everything else in her life all to make sure Chloe would be safe. The sacrifice had been worth it, and she would do it again in a heartbeat, but she couldn’t deny it felt good to be practicing medicine again. She’d loved learning to be a doctor and finding ways to help people get better.