A Gift to Remember (6 page)

‘Honestly, there was no way I could have avoided him. He just came out of nowhere and there are witnesses . . .’ She looked back in the direction of the bystanders who’d helped
earlier, but much to her distress, the jogger and the woman with the bag of groceries were now nowhere to be seen.

‘Can you give me your name, address and contact details, please?’ the cop asked. ‘We’ll be in touch if we need more information.’

As the police car finally moved off, time seemed to stand still. Darcy stood there, watching the ambulance doors shut and the vehicle pull away. What would happen now? Was she in big trouble?
How bad were the guy’s injuries? And when would he wake up, if at all?

Was it normal for someone to remain unconscious for more than a few minutes like that? Did he have permanent brain damage? Would he be in a coma for days, weeks, months – years even? What
view would the police take on the scenario? Would they consider the collision her fault and would be she charged with Grievous Bodily Harm or Dangerous Driving or some such?

Her stomach twisted in knots, Darcy turned and looked around dazedly for her bike. The gathering of onlookers had since entirely dispersed, minds firmly returning to work, shopping, the morning
run, or wherever their next appointments happened to be now that the drama was over.

Approaching the bike, she ran a cursory glance over it, wondering if she had damaged or bent the frame or the wheels while in the process of running down Aidan Harris.

Then she looked down to see a shopping bag she didn’t recognise leaning alongside it and immediately guessed that the woman with the bags who’d so kindly picked up the bike for her
must have accidentally left one behind. She was about to reach down to check if her suspicion was correct, when suddenly she heard a faint whine from her right.

Amongst all the mêlée, the Husky dog had been left behind. But of course he had: what ambulance would take a dog along to the hospital?

The poor thing stood beside a garbage can near Darcy’s bike, looking lost and frightened.

Though she liked dogs and had had one as a family pet when she was younger, Darcy wasn’t familiar with this wolflike breed. Approaching it cautiously, she remembered the protein bar she
always kept in her bag for emergencies. This certainly qualified as one, she thought as she slid the bar from one of the belted pockets on the side. It was peanut-butter crunch, her favourite, and
the minute the dog heard the wrapping crinkle he limped forward, front paw still entangled in the leather leash, licking his lips.

‘Here you go, fella,’ she said cheerfully, peeling back the shiny foil wrapper and breaking off a corner of the bar.

She set it down on the path just in front of him, backing away as much as the passing foot traffic would allow. After a beat, the Husky lurched forward and cleanly snatched it up. Darcy smiled,
breaking off similar-sized chunks and holding them out to him one by one.

When the bar was all gone the dog licked its grey and white chops thirstily, guilting Darcy into pulling out her purple water bottle, and emptying some into her hand. The dog, happier now, more
trusting, lapped it up, plus the six other handfuls she offered him. The pink sandpaper tongue was stiff and ticklish, and it took all of her willpower not to giggle each time it latched onto her
palm.

Eventually, she reached out a tentative hand towards his silken head, curling her fingers inwards in a non-threatening manner. As her hand grew closer he took a moment to sniff her skin. Then he
again licked the tips of her fingers, as if enjoying a ghostly taste of the food item that had been there previously. Seemingly satisfied, he relaxed his posture and allowed Darcy to place her hand
on top of his head, and caress his ears. Confident that the dog now trusted her, she reached down and picked up his lead.

‘There you go, boy, you’re a nice dog, aren’t you?’ The Husky was silent save for his panting, but his tongue lolled to one side of his mouth, and his ice-blue eyes
stayed fixed on her own.

She lowered herself to her haunches and put a hand under the dog’s bright white chin. A glimmer of light caught her eye and she noted a tag in the shape of a dog bone dangling from his
leather collar. She leaned closer to read the name etched on it:
Bailey
.

‘So, what now, Bailey?’ she asked, and the dog immediately responded to his name with an energetic wag of his tail. Then, much to Darcy’s surprise, he jumped up on his hind
legs, laying his big paws on her chest. He was so huge they were almost face to face and gulping nervously, she took a quick step backwards. ‘Whoa, down boy!’ she cried, and to his
credit, the Husky did exactly as she asked.

When all four paws were once again safely on the pavement, Darcy fiddled with the Husky’s lead. ‘What do I do now?’ she wondered out loud. ‘And more specifically, what do
I do with
you
?’

Darcy worked through the current situation in her mind. Yes, she had not only hit his owner Aidan Harris and knocked him unconscious, but she’d done it while the man was evidently out for
a morning walk with Bailey. And now said dog was here in front of her, probably wondering what
he
was supposed to do next.

She considered the complexity of her situation. She couldn’t very well bring the dog to work with her and – oh hell! Darcy gasped as it suddenly dawned on her where she was supposed
to be. She took out her phone to check the screen, and sure enough, there were more missed calls.

All from Joshua.

She dialled his number and waited anxiously for her workmate to pick up, picturing him in a complete panic.

‘Where in the living
hell
of all things holy are you?’ Joshua shrieked. ‘I’ve called you twenty times now, and no answer! I know it’s hard to hear your
phone ringing out on the street, but good God, Darcy, what is—’

‘Sixteen,’ Darcy said numbly.

‘What?’

‘You called me sixteen times. Just for the record.’

‘Whatever. It’s well past eleven – where on earth are you?’ he repeated.

‘Listen, Joshua, just calm down for a second, OK? I’m sorry, I know I’m late but there’s been an accident and—’

‘Oh my God, I
knew
this would happen eventually, I just knew.’

Darcy wished he would just let her tell the story without interruption.

‘No, actually,
I
hit someone, Joshua. On my bike.’ Tears sprang to her eyes as the shock and adrenaline gradually wore off and she was now able to properly assess the
enormity of the situation. ‘I’m fine, but I knocked the guy out cold and I don’t know if he’s going to be OK.’

Mercifully Joshua listened in stunned silence while she recounted the tale and the fact that right now, aside from being frantic about his condition, she was also trying to figure out how to
reunite the injured man with his dog.

‘It’s my fault he got hit and his dog got left behind,’ she said shakily. ‘I need to at least find a way of letting him know the dog is safe.’ And she very badly
needed to know if he – Aidan Harris – was out of danger too.

The best thing for her to do, of course, was to take Bailey to whatever hospital his injured owner had gone to, and take things from there. Otherwise, not knowing whether Aidan Harris was dead
or alive would eat her up.

‘You’re at West Fifty-Ninth Street?’ Joshua mused, when she outlined her intentions, ‘So I’m guessing they would have taken him to the ER at Roosevelt,’ he
said, reverting to paramedic mode. ‘Either that or St Luke’s, but Roosevelt’s closer.’

‘OK.’ He was right; Roosevelt was only a few blocks away.

‘Well, if you’re going there, get yourself seen to as well,’ her workmate advised, his voice soothing now. ‘Sounds like Dog Guy wasn’t the only one to take a knock.
But don’t rush off right away, take a breather first. Grab a coffee or something. And try not to panic.’

Darcy nodded. In truth, that sounded like heaven. She definitely needed to sit down somewhere for a little while at least.

‘And it goes without saying that you mustn’t worry about coming in to work today. I can cover things and Ashley’s due in after lunch anyway. Consider it a Joshua
buck.’

‘Thanks, Joshua.’ She sighed gratefully, knowing there was no way she’d be able to face work just then. ‘I’ll make it up to you, I swear.’

‘Don’t be silly – just make sure you’re OK. But if you even think about bringing some strange dog down here, all bucks will be revoked.’

She smiled. ‘I know – you’re not a dog person, I get it. I suppose I’ll just have to take him round the Emergency Room with me.’

‘The good workers in the ER aren’t exactly dog people either, sweetie – they’ve got the humans to think about. Tell you what though, instead of trying to strike it lucky
with the hospitals, let me make a call. I know a guy who still works at Roosevelt.’

Darcy brightened a little. ‘Do you think your friend would be able to tell me if the man I hit has come round and is OK?’

‘I can’t promise anything. It’s been a while since we’ve talked, and he could well have moved on since, but I can certainly try.’

‘I’d really appreciate anything you can do, Joshua, thanks.’

‘Like I said, go and sit down somewhere for the moment – preferably out of this cold. I’ll call my friend and see what I can wheedle out of him, if anything.’

Grateful for her workmate’s help, Darcy said goodbye to Joshua, while he promised he would call her back as soon as he knew anything.

Feeling a powerful headache coming on, she tugged on Bailey’s leash and wandered back towards her bike. As she did so, she again noticed the deli bag and wondered if she should just leave
it there beside the lamp post in case the lady came back for it.

But now, lifting it up, Darcy realised it didn’t contain deli or bakery products, but something much, much heavier. And looking inside, she saw a package, a gift box that had been
beautifully wrapped in thick green paper, and tied with a wide red grosgrain ribbon.

The bag itself, although a little wrinkled, also had an expensive look to it.

But where had it come from? Darcy wondered. Alongside her, Bailey panted and wagged his tail with such enthusiasm it was causing her to wonder if his owner might have been carrying it before he
got hit. And thinking about it now, she recalled – a snapshot of the man and his dog right before they connected flashing into her mind – there was indeed something on the end of his
arm – the same one in which he held the leash.

Darcy looked from the gift box back to Bailey, quickly understanding that she had more than one thing to return to Aidan Harris.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us
.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Still shaken in the aftermath of the accident, Darcy adjusted her bike and manoeuvred Bailey’s lead in such a way that she would be able to walk alongside him and the
bike, while at the same time keeping a hold on her belongings and Aidan Harris’s gift.

Taking Joshua’s advice, and with her bones aching and clothes still a little damp from the fall, she decided to take temporary refuge in a nearby café – one that hopefully
allowed dogs inside. Most of the places directly on West Fifty-Ninth were pretty swanky, so she made her way a block over to one of the more casual chains on Seventh, where she guessed she should
have no problems finding a table.

Locking her bike outside, she took Bailey’s leash in her still-trembling hand and entered hesitantly, breathing a sigh of relief when a smiling cashier called out in greeting.

‘Nice dog,’ the woman commented, as Darcy ordered a strong cup of English breakfast tea and a cranberry muffin for the sugar hit. The immortal words of C.S. Lewis: ‘
You
can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me
’ automatically popped into her brain. Never a truer saying, as far as Darcy was concerned, remembering how
curling up with a book and a mug of tea had always been a comforting ritual for her mother, and a tradition that Darcy had tried to hold onto from their time together. She only wished she had one
of her beloved books to help soothe her right now, but in her haste to leave the apartment this morning, she’d forgotten to put the copy of
Pride and Prejudice
back into her bag.

The café was full of Christmas shoppers as Darcy led Bailey towards a vacant table down the back.

He walked patiently alongside her, as if he was used to doing this kind of thing, and she wondered if perhaps he was some kind of assistance dog. She didn’t think that was common to this
particular breed though, and she also got the impression that the Husky was quite young, not much older than a pup. Well, if his owner did depend on him in this manner, she’d try her utmost
to have them back together very soon.

She fretted, going over the accident a dozen, a hundred dozen times in her head.

The light turning green, the sound of her brakes screeching, wheels spinning, the brisk air, the smell of fresh bread from a nearby bakery, the supposedly clear intersection and then, bam,
splat, crunch, Darcy’s messenger bag digging into her ribs and the man lying there, flat on his back. Out cold.

The image made her flinch but all she could see was him, Aidan Harris: his firm chest and broad shoulders under his maroon crewneck, eyes closed; his dark, silken hair lying on the ground.
Adding an extra sachet of sugar to her tea to help counter the shock, Darcy took a sip and eventually sat back, hoping that the weight of the morning’s drama would gradually subside, though
it was impossible to relax when she was still frantic to find out which hospital Aidan Harris had been taken to, and more importantly, whether he would survive.

Bailey sat on the floor beside her, again as if he was well used to waiting around in places like this, though he was showing an extraordinarily strong interest in her muffin. Feeling guilty,
she broke off a piece and fed it to him. ‘I’m sure you’re used to much classier places than this, though,’ Darcy murmured to him, given his owner’s expensive clothes
and shoes, as well as man and dog’s proximity to the surrounding neighbourhood.