Page 10 of Left Behind

If only she could take back her decisions.

The windshield wipers were worthless, but mesmerizing. And she kept remembering waking up this morning with nothing but Johnny’s welfare on her mind.

***

Bowling Green, Kentucky: Hours earlier

Carey helped her fiancé, Johnny Knight, into bed, gave him his pain pills, and sat beside him until he fell asleep. As soon as he was out, she grabbed her purse and phone and left the house to catch the city bus. She needed to go to a suburb of the city, where her brother, Billy Eggers, lived.

She got off the bus at her stop, then started walking to his house to ask for help. It never occurred to her that he might be gone until she was almost there, and then she began to panic. What if he wasn’t home? Then what was she going to do? But when she got closer and saw his car parked in the yard and saw him coming out of the front door, she started running.

Billy saw her, then stopped and raised a hand in greeting.

“Little sister! Are you lost?” he said as she ran into his arms.

“No. But I need help. I don’t get paid for another week, and Johnny’s out of pain meds. Can you loan me money to get them refilled?”

Billy was just a head taller than her, and both of them bordered on the edge of skinny as he put his arm around her.

“Bless your heart, sugar! Why didn’t you call me?”

She ducked her head. “I don’t know. I guess because I didn’t want to ask for money and then ask you to deliver it?”

He hugged her again. “Truck on the fritz again?”

She nodded.

“Come inside,” he said as they walked in together. “How much do you need?”

“The meds are almost a hundred dollars,” she said. “He’s getting better I think, but I can’t stand for him to suffer.”

Billy nodded. “Get yourself something cold to drink. I’ve got to open the safe.”

She headed for the kitchen and was drinking Pepsi from a can when he returned and handed her a wad of bills. “Here’s five hundred to tide you over.”

“Oh my God! Thank you, Billy! You’re the best,” Carey said.

He ruffled her blond curls. “At everything, and don’t you forget it,” he said. “Oh, and you don’t pay me back. This is a gift from me to you.”

Carey threw her arms around his neck. “Thank you. You’re the best brother ever.”

He grinned. “Yeah, I know. I can give you a ride back to the bus stop, but I can’t take you home. I’m heading the other way, and already late,” Billy said.

“It’s okay, and thanks,” Carey said. She stuffed the money in her purse and slung the strap over her shoulder.

But the sound of an approaching car shifted Billy’s mood as he glanced out the window.

“Shit.”

“What’s wrong?” Carey asked.

He handed her the keys to his car. “Get in the utility room. If you hear gunshots, go out the back door, take my car, and don’t look back.”

“No, Billy, how will you—”

“Just do it!” he said, and shoved her hard. “And hurry!”

She tightened her grip on the keys and bolted, closing the door to the utility room behind her, and then unlocking and opening the back door, just in case she needed to make a quick escape. Her heart was hammering as she hunkered down in a corner to listen.

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