Free Emma's Deliverance by Susan Vance

door and Becky didn’t get a chance to tell her.
    “ Move aside please,” said one of the paramedics rushing over to where Emma lay. Marie picked up the phone to call Marilyn who answered right away. Marie explained what had happened.
    “ Ask if they’re taking her to the hospital and which one,” Marilyn demanded. “Go find out if. . .never mind, I’m on my way.”
    By now there was a fire truck, an ambulance and two police cars parked in the street. The paramedics were working to stop the bleeding coming from Emma’s forehead and she was coming to.
    “ What’s going on? Why are you here?” Emma cried. She was terrified and she looked around to see who was there.
    “Stay calm, Miss,” one of the paramedics said trying to look at her forehead. “You had a fall and bumped your head. We’re taking you to the emergency room. Try and stay calm now. You have a cut on your forehead that’s going to need stitches. Just relax—we’ll take care of everything.”
    Marilyn and Teri arrived wit h Howard just minutes behind them.
    “ Emma,” Marilyn screamed looking at Becky. “What happened? Somebody needs to tell me what happened.”
    Marilyn was crying and her hands were shaking. Teri put her arm around her and walked her over to where Emma lay. Just the sight of Emma on the floor like that was enough to frighten anyone. Emma reached up to touch her forehead and felt the warm liquid with her hand. She looked at the blood on her hand and began to scream. The paramedics tried to calm her. Emma became hysterical. She was screaming and putting her hands over her eyes. Howard was now kneeling over Emma moving the paramedic aside. Emma ’s face was covered with blood mixed with tears. She had smeared it all over her face making it look much worse than it really was. The wound was open and still bleeding and Emma was quite a mess.
    “ Excuse me, Sir,” one of the paramedics said, “but we need to get this bleeding stopped. We’ll need to transport her to Clayton Regional Medical Center. She’s going to need stitches and most likely a sedative to calm her.”
    Marilyn pleaded, “Our daughter has a problem with the sight of blood, but we have never seen her like this. Please help her.”
    Emma was still screaming and then , suddenly, she stopped. She began shaking her head from side to side, whimpering softly over and over, “Please don’t hurt them. Please don’t hurt Mommy.” She continued to shake her head, then her eyes rolled upwards and she was very quiet. She simply stared outward and didn’t speak at all. Marilyn was crying and Teri was in disbelief. Howard said he wanted to pick Emma up off the floor and put her in a chair or just hold her, but the paramedic asked him again politely to step aside. They put Emma on a stretcher and rolled her out to the ambulance. Jason came running up to the ambulance looking to see if it was Emma inside.
    “ Emma? My God, what happened?” he asked looking around for someone to answer his question. All he could see was her bandaged forehead and blood in her hair. She never looked up at him and he was searching the crowd trying to find someone that could tell him what happened.
    Jason had heard the call come through on the scanner and even though this wasn ’t his call he knew it had to be Emma’s flower shop and rushed to get there as fast as he could.
    Marilyn climbed into the ambulance . A policeman shut the door and the ambulance drove away.
    Jason stood there not knowing who was who or what had just happened . Then he noticed Howard. “Sir, please, could you tell me what happened to the owner of this store? How badly was she hurt? I’m a friend of hers. My name is Jason Scott.”
    “ Hi, Jason, I’m Howard Jenkins, Emma’s father. She mentioned she had a date with you last night. I figured when I saw the fireman’s uniform it might be you. Everything’s okay. Emma fell and hit her head. She has a gash in her forehead and it appears she might have a