The Butterfly Song

Blinded by tears, I sprang to my feet without even fully knowing why, and ran to the spot where the girl lay on the grass, both of her hands clenching her side. I crouched low, hearing the shouts of a SWAT team as the sounds of sirens screeched in the distance. A few more shots broke through the air and people screamed. Somewhere a radio was still blaring a country tune. I bent low over the girl. Her eyes were glassy and her pretty face was splattered with blood.

“Hey, hey, wake up.” I patted her cheek and gave it a hard smack when the patting didn’t cut it anymore. “Come on, come on.” Her eyes focused and she looked up at me and smiled. I smiled back, trying to appear calm. But my heart was thumping like a battering ram inside my chest. “Hey, can you tell me your name?” I felt for a pulse and found that her heart was beating rapidly but faintly. Her wrist was tiny, and her tan skin shimmered with sweat. I pressed my hand against her wound, reaching instinctively for a forgotten bottle of water that lay on the grass.

She murmured her name faintly, still smiling. I thought maybe the smile should have freaked me out but it didn’t. I relaxed a bit, now that I was helping someone. Helping people always made me relax. I forgot her name as soon as she said it, but at least she was talking. The longer she talked, the longer she’d stay conscious, and alive.

“Well I’m going to help you until the medics get here ok?” She nodded shakily. I ripped off a corner of my Old Navy t and poured the water on it, smothering the bleeding with the coldish cloth.

I glanced back at her face and saw that her vision was fading away again. Her eyes were large and green and dilated. “Hey, try to stay awake, ok?” She nodded. I tore through my thoughts desperately trying to think of some way to keep her conscious. “Um, what’s your favorite movie?” I forced myself to lift her shirt a bit where the bullet had penetrated the skin. I tried not to throw up. At the pool where I was a life-guard the worst thing that had happened was a kid breaking his arm. Sure, you got trained for heavy duty stuff in a class, but no class can prepare you for the sight of a bucket of blood spilling out of a girl’s side. I gulped.

“Impossible to pick,” She said. I’d forgotten what I asked her. Oh, the movie thing.

“Well, top two then.”

“Probably Lord of the Rings and Casablanca.”

“Ah, so you’re a sucker for the classics.”

She laughed, but went breathless with the shock of pain. Her face, tanned and sprinkled with freckles, paled and the smiled fell away for the first time.

I grimaced and glanced around. Obviously something had changed. About a thousand police cars hovered in the distance, and people everywhere were on cell phones, crying and searching frantically. A crowd had gathered in a circle around me and the girl. They were watching nervously with anxious faces and wringing hands. Most seemed to be waiting for me to do something heroic. But as long as she stayed conscious, there wasn’t much I could do until the experts got there, other than try to stop the bleeding.

“Hey you, in the red polo shirt!” I shouted at this sweaty looking guy with glasses. He pointed at his chest and looked a little sick. “Yeah, you.  I turned back to her, checking over the bullet hole. It looked like a clean shot. In one side, out the other. “Go find a paramedic to come help me, ok?” He nodded and ran off.

“So what’s your dad do for a living?” I asked desperately as I cringed and stuck my thumb up against the hole. She gasped in pain, and her voice was shaky when she finally answered.

“He works for an insurance company.”

“And how old are you?”

“Eighteen.” She rasped, coughing.

“Ok, well…” I sought for ideas as I poured a sip of water into her parted lips. Her breathing was growing short and rapid. “What’s your favorite class in school?”

“Never mind that now,” She said, surprising me with that calm defiance. “What’s your name?”

“Todd,” I said, clearing my throat and added, “Arderton.”

“Will you promise me something, Todd?”

I nodded, as the sirens grew louder.