Chapter Twenty
Josh froze. Even though his mind told him to move, his body wouldn’t obey. Two hands grabbed his shoulders and shoved him away. Instinctively he rolled, just as he did when he bailed off his skateboard. As he tumbled, he heard a sickening thud, followed by two loud bangs and the explosive sound of shattering glass. The car tyres were still screeching. The noise was so loud that it hurt his ears and he covered them with his hands as he rolled.
Then all was quiet. He wondered if he was dead. Perhaps the car had run him over while he was down and he hadn’t felt it because he’d died. He lay there on the road with his eyes closed, too scared to open them, and took his hands away from his ears. He could hear the tick-tick sound of a hot engine, and a voice saying over and over, “Oh, shit! Oh, shit!”
Josh moved carefully. He was still breathing. He was able to think. His limbs moved when he commanded them. He was sore where he’d hit the road, but he was alive. He opened his eyes, turned over and looked at the car. It had travelled past him and he was now looking at the side door. He could see the driver inside, still clasping the wheel as Josh had seen him doing seconds earlier. He was staring straight ahead through a shattered windscreen and it was him that was swearing.
“Hayden,” Josh called as he got to his feet. He couldn’t see him. “Hayden!” he yelled again, wiping the gravel from the palms of his hands. People were starting to appear and they were all looking at the road in front of the car. Josh moved so that he could see what they were looking at.
He gasped. Hayden was lying in a crumbled heap in front of the bumper. Instantly Josh was kneeling beside Hayden, his hands hovering over him, not sure what to do.
“Don’t move him,” someone said.
“Do something!” he cried.
“Someone’s gone to the surf club,” a male voice said from behind. “Do you know him?”
“Yes, it’s Hayden. He’s my friend.”
“He pushed you out of the way.” The voice continued. “I saw it.”
“I was stupid,” Josh said. “I didn’t look. The car was going to hit me.”
“It hit him instead.” The man came to stand alongside him. “His head hit the windscreen,” he added.
“Is he going to die?” Josh looked desperately for signs of breathing, but he couldn’t see Hayden’s chest moving. There was blood on Hayden’s shirt and when he looked down at Hayden’s legs he saw that one was bent at an odd angle. Blood flowed into Hayden’s hair from a deep gash on his forehead.
Josh stood up. Panic was rising in his chest. He had to get away.
“His mother,” he said. “I have to get his mother.”
“Wait,” the man called, but Josh was gone.
He ran down the road, ignoring the ache in his head, the stiffness in his hip and the stinging in his grazed hands. The agent’s car was in his drive and he ran around it, making for the bach next door where he flew up the steps to the front door and pounded on the wood.
“Josh!” Penny said as she opened the door. “What’s the matter?”
“Hayden,” he panted. “He’s been hit … by a car.”
Josh remembered then that Hayden had described his mother as being as fragile as an ice cream cone. He’d been right. Before his eyes, she crumbled, waving her hand before her face as if to ward off the bad news then, before he could offer help, she stood up straight and visibly braced herself.
“Where?” she asked.
“By the library,” he gasped. “He pushed me … it should have hit me … he …” He realised that he was rambling and stopped.
“We’ll take the car,” she said as she turned and grabbed a set of keys from a shelf at the door. “Come on, show me where.”
He got in the passenger side, relieved that he wasn’t the one making the decisions. He tried to slow down his gasping breaths as they sped off down the road. He was beginning to feel light-headed. Maybe he should have let Hayden’s mother go by herself and gone back home to lie down, but he had to know how Hayden was. As they rounded the corner, he saw that a crowd had now gathered. Someone was directing traffic around the scene.
Penny pulled up and jumped out of the car, running towards the crowd, and Josh followed her as she made her way through.
“Oh, no!” she cried when she got to the front. “Hayden!” She crouched down beside him.
Hayden lay where he had fallen, with a blanket over him. Someone from First Response was at his head putting on a neck brace. A quad bike from the surf club was parked close by. The driver of the car was now out on the road and Chris was talking to him, but when Chris saw Josh he left the driver and came over to him. His expression was grim.
“You left the scene of an accident.”
“I went to get his mother.”
“You should leave that to the emergency services.”
“Is he going to be alright?” Josh asked.
“We won’t know how he is until they get him to the hospital. I’ve called for the rescue chopper. It should be here soon.”
“It’s all my fault,” Josh said.
“Witnesses say that you stepped in front in the car and that he pushed you out of the way. Is that true?”
“Yes. I just didn’t look. I think he tried to stop me.”
Josh felt hot tears running down his face. He started to shiver even though the day was not cold.
“I think you need looking at too,” Chris said.
“I’m alright.”
“No, you’re going into shock and you’re bleeding.”
Josh looked down at his arm. Blood was flowing from an open wound on his elbow. He hadn’t noticed it before.
“Go and sit on the grass.” Chris turned and took another blanket from the quad bike and draped it over Josh’s shoulders before leading him to the side of the road.
“I’ll send someone to fetch your father,” Chris said.
As Chris turned to talk into his radio, Josh heard a siren from the top of the hill – an ambulance, or police, or both? He drew the blanket closer around him. In spite of the summer heat, he felt very cold. Chris stayed close to him and Josh didn’t know if that was to comfort him or prevent him from running away again.
The rescue helicopter burst into view from over the hill and headed for a landing in the Domain.
At that point Josh closed his eyes and tried to convince himself that it was all a horrible dream.