Page 30 - Julie Thorley Nine Lives book

The Practical Samaritan
and an air of authority that people seem to be responding to. I’m vaguely aware that the blood she mentions must be mine, but it doesn’t worry me. She turns back to me.
‘Hello, I’m Ruth. Can you tell me your name?’
This time I’m able to speak: ‘Gary.’ The voice doesn’t sound like mine.
‘OK, Gary,’ she says. ‘Don’t worry. Help is on its way. In the meantime, I’m going to stay with you.’
She turns away again, and calls, ‘Anyone there got something we can cover him with?’
Someone must have come forward, because I hear a different woman say, ‘Here, use this. I don’t want it back.’ Ruth drapes something over me: a scarf or shawl, I think.
Now Ruth speaks to someone else I can’t see. ‘Can you stay a moment to be with the driver? She looks shaken and the police will want to talk to her.’
I hear a man say, ‘The ambulance is on its way. Be about 10 minutes.’ It all sounds frantic, but Ruth remains calm.
She turns to me. ‘Did you hear that? Help is coming, and I’m not going anywhere.’
She stares at me with intense brown eyes as though she is summing me up. I guess she is fty-ish, about my mum’s age. There are a few lines around her eyes, but she looks OK. She was probably quite attractive when she was younger. She has shoulder-length hair with ecks of blonde or grey in it. I can’t see what she’s wearing.
I wonder what she thinks as she looks at me. Does she see what I see when I gaze in the mirror? I’m 23 but look older. I’ve gone from lean through thin to scrawny. I’m dressed by Oxfam and need a shave and a haircut. In short, I’m a mess.
The world starts to go fuzzy around the edges, but Ruth’s business-like tone brings my focus back. ‘Gary, can you hear me? Don’t drift off. Let’s talk until the ambulance gets here. Do you want to tell me what happened?’
I cough to energise my voice. ‘What do you care?’
She says, ‘I’m just wondering why someone as young as
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