I still can’t describe it without feeling a chill.
It wasn’t just pain.
It was fear.
Pure, naked fear.
The kind that strips every polite layer off a person and leaves only the truth.
She looked like someone whose body had suddenly become a stranger.
I hit my brakes so hard the coffee in my cup splashed onto the console.
I pulled over to the shoulder, threw the car in park, and ran back.
“Ma’am?”
She turned toward me, but her eyes didn’t really focus.
“Are you okay?”
She tried to answer.
Nothing came out.
Her mouth moved, then she winced and pressed harder against her chest.
“Can you hear me?”
She nodded once.
Barely.
I was close enough then to see sweat on her upper lip.
Close enough to see that her skin had gone that awful gray color people get when something inside them is going terribly wrong.
