Seeing Blind (Rough Draft)

Chapter Sixteen

"Avery! Avery! Darlin', I'm here. I'm here now." Her father ran to her, pulling her into a tight hug when he reached her.

"Daddy! Oh, Daddy Ambrose still isn't breathing!" She clung to him as her life depended on it.

"I know honey, I know but you need to keep applying CPR. Here." Her father moved Avery to the side and started giving Ambrose CPR again. "I called for an ambulance, they should be here soon." He leaned down and pressed his ear to Ambrose's chest. "There's a small beat. He's still alive, Avery, just barely."

Oh, thank God, she thought. She still couldn't breathe steadily--not until Ambrose woke up and she could see he was okay--but she wasn't hyperventilating any longer. Avery heard the sirens next and the paramedics running toward Ambrose and her father, they were asking him all types of questions that Avery only half-heard; everything around her was in slow motion.

They were putting Ambrose on a stretcher, examining him, asking him questions, and seeing if he'd respond; he wasn't. He wasn't moving.

Avery swallowed. Did he hit his head somewhere and Avery never noticed everything going on. She was trying to protect him by dragging him out of the pool, but did she? Did she actually do more damage than good?

She started shaking (or was she already shaking?) and couldn't look at the paramedics taking Ambrose away. There was no blanket over his face so he had to be alive, but how was he holding up? Barely? Avery thought she was hearing something about a hit, blood, back of the head, and water in his lungs.

Would he survive?

"Sweetheart, sweetheart, it's all right." Dad wrapped his arms around Avery, pulling her into his heaving chest. "They're going to get Ambrose his strength back and it'll all be all right again. I-I should call his father, let him know what happened and which hospital they're taking Ambrose to. Are you okay if I quickly make that call? I'll only be a couple of feet away."

Avery nodded, she thought anyway.

"Be right back sweetheart." Dad kissed the crown of her head and got up to make the call to Torrance Clenten.

Avery stared at the pool, realizing that she never hesitated to go near the water, or under it when Ambrose was pushed in. For the first time in three years, she didn't hesitate when it came to the water.

And Ambrose wasn't awake to congratulate her.

Suddenly, Avery felt like she couldn't breathe; her lungs closed up, she started sweating from her forehead, and she started hyperventilating again. She needed to leave, go somewhere where she could breathe.

She ran past everyone and the gates, no clear destination in mind; she only wanted to breathe again.

Pedestrians were lined up on the sidewalks and roads, trying to get past one another to see what was going on at the pool. Avery ran through them, bumping into bodies, getting dirty looks in return, hyperventilating the whole time. There were too many people...everywhere.

"Avery! Avery! What is it? Do you know who's hurt at the pool?" Tamar came into Avery's view, grabbing her forearms, stopping her.

Avery couldn't look her in the eyes; she tried to get out of her grip. She needed to breathe and she couldn't do that here, in the middle of the street. She didn't know where she could breathe again.

She tried telling this to Tamar but when she opened her mouth, she found that she couldn't get the words out.

"Take deep breaths and slowly tell me what's happening. You can do it," she coached.