Chapter 8

Novas hurried to catch the others, who had not waited for her to finish tending to the broken man. They were well ahead of her, but she seemed to be catching them. No, she wasn’t running faster, and also slowed, as she and the group ahead of her approached a crowd in the center of “town”, where the buildings along the street that begun at the entrance to their mission intersected with the buildings of the single cross street, the main road in the area.

The crowd had ringed something in the center of the crossroads, like a gunfight in the westerns Novas had seen as a child. She passed the leading nun and with a, “Come on,” muttered sideways, started pushing through the crowd. They parted immediately upon recognizing her, although she was bumped often and felt her seat being palmed at least once.

When, at last she entered the circle, the picture of a gunfight again caught her mind, only this gunfight had no winner. The two men faced each other and were head down on their stomachs. The difference was quick to notice. The black man lay in a pool of blood, probably his blood, and the Father did not. Maybe there was hope. No one stopped her as she moved forward and left the crowd.

She crossed herself and checked the black man’s pulse first, nothing. She gently rolled him over. He was as dead as the blood flow indicated, and missing some of his chest. She turned quickly away and checked Father MacClenny. He had a pulse, quick and shallow, but even. He wasn’t dead. She rolled him over and cradled him in her lap, checking his robes. No blood, nothing. He wasn’t even injured.

“Wake up,” she yelled, and smacked him across both cheeks, simultaneously.

He did, gasping for breath, and sputtering, “What happened?”

He squinted, trying to focus on whoever was holding him. “Sister Mary Sarah, what’s going on here?”

“From what I can tell, Father, he’s dead and you fainted. Are you done yet?”

“Am I done?”

“Fainting. Are you done fainting? Or, do you plan on doing some more?”

“Sister Mary Sarah. This is a very trying situation. Someone just up and shot that man. He was trying to sell…get me to buy…” The Father ran out of words.

“What? A women?” Novas almost smirked, despite the situation.

He shook his head.

“Drugs?”

He nodded.

“The man was trying to sell you drugs, and somebody shot him. You didn’t?”

“Sister Mary Sarah!”

“Just checking.” The smirk couldn’t help itself and came out. Novas chocked it back. “Can you stand?” She looked up for support, saw no one familiar, and shouted, “Sisters!”

First one, than the rest peeked though the crowd. None moved.

“Come and help Father MacClenny get back to the mission… NOW!”

They moved. “What are you going to do?” one asked, as she took Father MacClenny’s other arm and helped Novas pull him to his feet.

“I’m going to the hospital. Remember, we have a patient.”

“But, Father, MacClenny?”

“Is just fine. Aren’t you?” She patted one cheek, still red, and placed the hand she was holding on the shoulder of the nearest nun. “There… Go… Wait!”

She stuffed one hand inside his robe, to the gasps of the others, and came out with the money she expected to find there. “It’s not free, you know,” she said to no one in particular.

As she started toward the hospital, the crowd suddenly split, not to let her pass, but to keep free from the familiar pickup with the familiar man in the back behind the cab, holding a railing welded there with one hand, and a shotgun with the other, and barking orders. Tehpoe. The gun was still smoking. End of that mystery.

“Where you go, Missy?” he demanded.

“Hospital,” she flung back at him. “Your dentist has dysentery and three broken bones.”

“His right hand is good. I take care.”

“Whoopty doodle. He needs both hands and both feet to be a dentist. How many dentists have you seen practicing with one hand while lying on the ground?

“Whoopty doodle?” He actually looked perplexed. “What this mean?”

“It means I need to get to the hospital and you are in my way.”

Tehpoe broke into a smile. “Missy, you talk tough for missy lady. You gotta big ones,” and he rubbed his crotch. “You hop in. I take you.”

With that, he banged on the roof. The passenger side door opened immediately and a big man stepped out. He could have been the twin of the one on the ground. Novas stared at the dark interior, jacked up her courage, and climbed in.