Free Miss Julia to the Rescue by Ann B. Ross Page B

all my heart.”
    “There, there,” I murmured, slightly embarrassed by her display, but appreciative of it too. “Lloyd, if you’ve finished, I need you to come with me. While I pack, I want you to get on your computer and figure out how we should go, how long it will take and whatever else we’ll need.”
    “I can do that,” he said, getting to his feet. “Mama, I’ll be back in a little while.”
    As he and I started out the door, James came running out with a sack. “Here, Miss Julia. Here’s some bacon biscuits. You gonna be hungry ’fore long.”
    “Why, James, how thoughtful. Thank you so much. You watch over them now. I’m trusting you to do that.”
    He beamed, nodding his head. “They be safe with me, don’t you worry. But y’all be careful goin’ to whatever place you goin’ to.”
    When Lloyd and I got in the car to return to our house, he said wistfully, “I sure wish I could go. I’m awful worried about J.D.”
    “I know you are, sugar. And I’d take you if you didn’t have final exams and if we had room. But I’m planning to bring him home and he’ll need the whole backseat, most likely. I hope you can see that Etta Mae is the best one to go because she has experience with sick people.” I didn’t mention that she’d had no experience with shot people. Even so, she was the pick of the litter under these circumstances and better qualified than any of the rest of us.

    “Three-quarters of a tank,” I said as I pulled into our driveway and glanced at the gas gauge. “That’ll get us well on the way. Lloyd, you get on your computer and map out our route and I’ll throw some things in a suitcase.”
    We hurried inside and Lloyd immediately went upstairs to his room to start the search. “Mill Run, West Virginia?” he called to me as I trudged more slowly up the stairs.
    “That’s what Coleman said. I hope you can find it.”
    “It’ll be on MapQuest, and I’ll print out the directions as well as a map. And with the GPS in the car, you won’t get lost.”
    Going to my closet, I pulled out a medium-sized suitcase and began filling it with underclothes, gown, robe, slippers, comb, brush, toothbrush and toothpaste, and a jar of face cream. Then I stopped. I didn’t know what else to take, so I stood there for a few minutes considering the matter. What kind of weather would they have? It was early June, so not too cold, but they were north of us, so the nights might be cool. I put in a heavy cardigan. What kind of people lived there? Some small towns could be quite dressy, so I put in a Sunday suit. Then again, people in a small town up in the mountains would most likely dress in a casual manner, so I put in an everyday dress, wishing again that I’d invested in a tailored pantsuit.
    Then I pulled out a larger suitcase and repacked, knowing I was taking too much for a weekend trip, but wanting to be prepared for whatever we ran into.
    Money
. I would need some cash, and it was Saturday, when the banks were closed. Then I remembered my personal ATM cache and reached for a shoe box on the top shelf of the closet.
Speaking of being prepared,
I thought, smiling to myself as I drew out a wad of bills from the toe of a shoe I never wore, kept there just in case. In case of what, one might ask, and my answer would be: in case I need it, which I currently did.
    “Miss Julia?” Lloyd said, as he came into the room with a handful of papers. “Here you go. And look, it’s not such a long trip after all. MapQuest says it’s about three hundred and sixty miles from Abbotsville to Mill Run. I figure it’ll take you seven hours or so to get there. MapQuest says about six, but it doesn’t count rest stops. I expect you’ll be there before suppertime.”
    “That’s wonderful, Lloyd. I was afraid it’d be much farther. With Etta Mae and me taking turns driving, we’ll be in good shape. We could be back here tomorrow night. But,” I quickly added, “don’t worry if we aren’t.