Finding Jaime

Chapter 107

Pete's POV

My phone rang and I checked it. It was Jaime. Checking the time and seeing it was only eight, I thought maybe he just wanted to come home earlier than his curfew. That's fine.

"Hey Jaime. What's up?" I asked as I answered the phone.

There was a scuffling sound, some muffled voices and more scuffling.

"Just dump him there," I heard clearly. More scuffling, the sound of something falling on the ground and someone saying 'oof'. I heard some other noises, car doors slamming and then the sounds of car tires squealing. Which I could also hear outside the front gate.

I ran to the front door and wrenched it open. There was something laying at the foot of the driveway outside the gate. I ran down the driveway.

"Pete?" Meagan asked as she followed me outside. She'd seen my face as the call had gone on and had followed me to the front door.

The closer I got to the gate, the more I realized what - or rather who - was at the gate.

"Jaime!" I cried out. "Jaime!"

I opened the gate and ran through. Jaime was lying on his side on the ground. I ran over to him and stopped.

What was I looking at? It didn't look like Jaime. The body at the bottom of my driveway was a bloody mess.

"Jaime?" I asked. I saw his phone lying beside him and disconnected the call.

"Meagan!" I screamed. "Call 911!"

"Pete! What is it? What's happening? Who is that? Jaime?"

Meagan sank to the ground beside me. I was afraid to touch him. He was covered in blood. Bruises were blooming on his face. His eyes were swollen shut. He wasn't moving. His breathing was ragged.

"Meagan!" I cried. "Call an ambulance, please!"

"I am. I am," she said, tears on her face and her voice shaking.

"Jaime, hang in there, huh?  Can you hear me? Jaime?"

He didn't move. If he could open his eyes, he didn't.

I heard the sirens of the police and ambulance that were coming up our street.

"Jaime," I said. "We're going to get you all sorted out, okay?"

Paramedics surrounded my son. Police came and asked me questions. They took Jaime's phone. They took statements. They asked if we had cameras on our driveway, or if any of our neighbours did. They asked if we knew the kids Jaime had been out with. Did we know their names? Where they lived? If they went to school.  All I could tell them was that Frank and Justin supposedly went to Santa Monica High, that they must live in the catchment area for that school, and that I had dropped Jaime off at a place called 'Jose's'. I didn't know anything else about Frank or Justin, except that they had been instrumental in getting Jaime's friend Emmanuel killed only a couple of months ago.

The paramedics were still working on Jaime. He was still laying on the ground. I hadn't seen him move on his own.  They'd put a collar around his neck and had stabilized that.

"There's definite brain trauma," I heard one of the paramedics say. "We've got a blown pupil.  We have to get him out of here."

They were rushing.  They were frantic. My son wasn't doing well, and they wouldn't tell me anything. 

The police let me go with Jaime. The paramedics let me ride with him this time. Meagan said she would talk with the kids, and to keep her in the loop. The police said they'd be following us to the hospital and that they'd want to talk to Jaime when he regained consciousness.  I saw the look that passed between the paramedics as they loaded my son's unconscious form into the ambulance.  That look said to me that they didn't think Jaime was going to be waking up any time soon.