Page 30 of The Problem with Falling
I moved toward her and kneeled so we were at eye level. “You’re not dying, Willow.”
“Yeah, no. I am. I checked my Apple Watch, and it says my heart rate stopped.”
I arched an eyebrow, lifted her arms, and glanced at her wrists. “Willow?”
“Yes?”
“You’re not wearing an Apple Watch.”
She nodded. “I know, silly. It’s right here.” She put down the cookie container and then picked up her watch, which was not on her body. “See? It says I don’t have a heart rate.”
“I think that’s because it has to be on your wrist.”
She parted her lips and narrowed her eyes. “No. That’s not how watches work. But don’t worry, I called the ambulance. They’ll bring me back to life. Is it hot in here? It’s so hot in here,” she said, grabbing a handful of her shirt and fanning it.
I didn’t respond to the heat commentary because I was more concerned with the other thing she said. “You didn’t really call…” Before I could finish, I heard sirens.
For fuck’s sake.
I should’ve stayed on the lake.
“Willow. You called the ambulance?” I asked, stunned.
She tossed her hands up in the air, baffled by my puzzled expression. “Well, yeah, Theo. I don’t have a heartbeat.”
I grumbled and cussed under my breath before taking her hands into mine and placing her hands against her chest. “You feel that, Willow?”
Her eyes widened. “Yes. What’s that?”
“Your heartbeat.”
“My heartbeat?” she questioned, surprised. “I have a heartbeat?”
I smiled even though I didn’t want to. “You have a heartbeat.”
Her eyes glassed over as if I’d told her the pathway to Narnia. “I have a heartbeat.”
Before I could reply, my doorbell rang. I told her to stay, but she was only half listening. She was much more interested in those new heartbeats she’d discovered.
As I reached the front door, I opened it to see Stacy and Ralph standing there with their bags of equipment from their ambulance truck. They graduated a few years before me and were both decent people. I just didn’t have much energy to deal with humans after a certain hour of the day. That hour being eight in the morning.
“Hey, Theo. We got a call about an issue,” Stacy said, checking her phone. “Something about missing heartbeats from the new girl in town.”
I raked my hand through my hair and shook my head. “There was a misunderstanding. Willow hung out with Matt Turner, and he gave her five brownies. And she ate all of them.”
Ralph’s eyes widened. “She atefiveof Matt’s brownies? How is she still standing?”
“I wouldn’t say standing, exactly,” I replied. “Come on in. I’ll show you to her so you can check her out and wrap this up.”
We walked toward the bathroom, and the second we stepped inside, we were staring at a sleeping Willow, covered in Doritos and cookie crumbs, with a chip resting between her lips.
Stacy and Ralph crossed their arms and stared in amazement.
“I remember my first Matt Turner brownie. I thought my legs were made of Jell-O,” Stacy said.
“I ate a twenty-piece bucket of chicken and dipped the wings in Kool-Aid,” Ralph replied. “All right. Since you seem all good here, we’ll head out. It’s been a busy night for you Langfords, huh?”
I arched an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
