A Christmas Futa Ch 6

Rubbing her stinging nose, Riley shoves the airbag out of her way and fumbles with her seatbelt.

“Whoa!” shouts the woman outside as Riley pushes her door open and dazedly climbs out.

A wiry brunette is in Riley’s face.

“Riley? You OK?”

“Huh? Stef?” Riley spots a blonde hurrying toward her from the car that just rear-ended her. That’s Stef’s wife, Jess. These are friends of her mother. Stef’s actually in the biker gang that owns the bar back there. “Bro.”

“Easy, Riley. I think you’re OK. What were you doing? You were just stopped at a curve,” Stef asks, troubled.

“Oh, shit.” Riley points at the lights in the gloom.

Stef looks. “Oh. Shit. OK, stay here. Baby, get the bag out of the back,” she says to Jess.

“I’m good,” Riley replies, focusing. Getting bopped in the face hurt, but it’s not like the airbag gave her a concussion. Did it? She hurries after Stef, who turns on the light on her phone and holds it high. There’s a car up there; someone’s run off the road.

“Ah, hell. It’s Roger,” Stef calls over her shoulder.

Riley doesn’t know who that is, but Gurlberg’s a small town. She joins Stef and helps her get the door open. This guy has hit a tree, but he’s not wrapped around it at least.

“Roj? How wasted are you? Scale of one to ten,” Stef is asking.

The man grunts.

“He’s fine,” Stef reports.

“Are we OK?” Jess calls from the road. Riley looks back to see her hustling toward them with a red bag.

“I think so,” Stef replies. “Roj, can you sit up for me? I want you to look at me.”

Riley leans against the car, relieved. At least nobody’s hurt.

There’s a cry from behind her. She and Stef turn to see Jess on her face in the weeds.

“Babe,” Stef says, alarmed. “You OK?”

Jess lifts her head, grimacing. “Um…” she says.

“Oh fuck,” Stef mutters. “Hang on, Roj.” She darts to her wife.

“Oh boy,” Riley says, taking Stef’s place at the open door. “Hey, buddy? You OK?”

“Merry Christmas,” the drunken man replies. Riley does know this guy; he taught her science in middle school. She didn’t do great in that class.

“Merry Christmas, Mr. Felding,” she replies.

It’s a cold, half-hour wait for the ambulance.

“We’re gonna need X-rays,” the EMT tells Stef, looking sympathetic.

“Whoo! ER on Christmas Eve, baby! See? You’re not the exciting one. I’m the exciting one,” Jess says to Stef as they put her in the ambulance. She puts on a big, fake smile and points two fingers at herself.

“The clumsy one?”

“I’m so graceful. Evil living swamp tree roots tripped me.”

“We watched this movie called Evil Dead last night,” Stef informs the EMT. “She’s been weird about it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the young man replies earnestly.

“Probably good,” Stef says tiredly. “It was scary and kind of rapey. Babe, can I follow? I don’t want to leave the car here.”

“You’re abandoning me!”

“Yeah, babe. I know. Your life is so hard. I’ll see you in a few.”

Jess blows her a kiss and the EMT shuts the door.

“Good to see you, Riley. You look great. Sorry about the car,” Stef says, clapping Riley on the shoulder.

Riley turns to see the Gurlberg police chief herself putting her former teacher in the back of her car.

“Not your fault,” she says dazedly. “I’m having a better night than he is, I guess.”

“That’s the spirit. Give your mom a kiss from me.”

“Sure,” Riley says.

“Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas.”

Riley trudges back to her poor car. There’s a nice dent in the back and the left taillight’s smashed. At least the cops already know about it. It’s drivable, although it makes a funny noise when she starts the engine.

Stef’s already pulling away.

Riley finishes pulling out the deflated airbag. She wads it up and awkwardly shoves it into the back of the car, then gazes sadly at the remains of her steering wheel. Her neck hurts just a little as she leans over to pick up the pastry box from the floor. As she sets it on the seat, she notices the crack in the windshield. How did the windshield get cracked by that?

She looks at her watch. An hour late with a box of crumbled cookies.

Riley leans on the wheel and closes her eyes.