One Smile Please

Chapter Thirteen

One Smile Please

Chapter Thirteen:

The wind seemed to pick up as I walked away from the field. My thoughts were everywhere. I'd been walking for god knows how long when I realised, I actually had no idea where I was going. It wasn't like I could go back and ask Fraser where we were... or if he could give me directions... so I kept walking. Maybe I could haul a cab around here somewhere. I would've used the GPS on my phone, but I ran out of internet the other day so that wouldn't work...

Around ten minutes later I saw two people on the other side of the road, who were just standing next to a lamppost, well technically a woman my age, and a little girl. They might know where we were... I decided to go up to up to them and ask.

I tapped the woman lightly on the shoulder from behind making her jump twenty feet high, "You alright there??" I asked, slightly concerned. She looked fairly terrified.

"Y-yeah, yeah, I'm fine," I took a deep breath and let go of the little girl's hand. "You just startled me, that's all," she said with a laugh. I still wasn't convinced. She was sweating, and her breathing was rather vigorous. The way she had been clutching the little girl's hand -who looked around four years old- told me they were definitely related. She wasn't just a little startled, she was frightened. The woman had a bag slung over her shoulder and there was a small suitcase near the little girl. She was on the run.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah," Knowing she wasn't going to tell a complete stranger what the hell was happening in her life, I decided to drop the subject.

"Is she yours?" I asked, just genuinely curious. Plus the girl was quite cute. The woman nodded proudly. That's sweet. "She's gorgeous," I added smiling. "Anyways I just wanted to ask if you knew where this," I roughly pointed around us, "Is..."

The woman laughed again, people do that when they're nervous, or trying to hide something. They smile too much or laugh too much, I should know. "Yeah," she told me the area and after that quickly indicated me to the nearest taxi stand. If she knew this area, maybe she wasn't on the run...

"Thank you so much," I said gratefully, and then started heading the way she had indicated. From my peripheral vision I could see that the two of them were crossing the road. About ten seconds later, I heard the screeching of tyres and an ear splitting scream echo through the silent street. And then everything went eerily silent.

Dread filled me from head to toe. I gulped, fearing turning around. No, no, no, no, no. I twisted as fast as I could, and the scene was heart breaking. The little girl had been pushed to the side of the road and the woman I'd been talking to lay in the middle in a pool of her own blood. The car that had crashed into them was speeding off. What the fuck?!

I rushed to the little girl first, she was fine, and then I ran to the woman. "Hey, hey, stay with me." I shouted, then getting my phone out I dialled 999. "Shit, shit, shit." This cannot be happening. I told the person on the line as much as I could without panicking.

The little girl seemed to still be unconscious, but the mother in front of me had opened her eyes, probably from my spontaneous shouting. I breathed sigh of relief. "Thank god. Are you okay? Wait no that's a fucking stupid question!"

"Is-," she gasped. Oh my god, she's lost so much blood. "Is she okay?" I nodded. "Listen, please..." I felt like telling her to save her energy, "Please take care of Cece, she has no one else..."

"Hey no, you're going to survive this," she shook her head, and it looked so painful, a choked sob left me.

"Please, just promise me," I didn't know what to say, so I nodded. She didn't even know me, and she trusted me with her daughter. That's when the sirens started sounding in the distance.