Down by the River Read Free

would be better for John and the emergency room personnel to see everything intact, provided he got here soon. She then spread her jacket over them both, covering as much of the shivering mother as she could.
    “I couldn’t find no sheet,” the man said to June’s back.
    She turned. “You have a son, sir. He looks healthy, but he has to be checked over at the hospital.”
    “We ain’t got extra money for no hospital,” he said, but he didn’t look her in the eye. He was digging in his baggy pants and pulled out a fold of bills. It wasn’t particularly thick, but as he peeled offtwo twenties, the stench of green marijuana, an unmistakable skunklike smell that clung to the hands and clothes and money of people who cut the plants for drying, filled the air.
    He tried to hand June forty dollars, and in so doing, looked her in the eye. His were dilated. Now she understood his lethargy, his poverty. Lots of different types grew dope in the backwoods. There were people who wanted the money involved and thought of marijuana as just another green plant. They might fill a spare room or section of garden with plants for extra cash. There were big-time growers and dealers who had camps as large as towns and fields as vast as a Midwest soy farmer, the kind of growers Jim had originally gone undercover to catch. And then there were deadheads like this one, an addict who grew pot for himself and what little cash he needed to get by on to grow a little more pot.
    “I don’t need your money,” June said. “I’m sure you qualify for assistance. And I sure don’t want any money that stinks of the plant. Put that away before you get into trouble. Has your wife been smoking?”
    “Naw, she don’t when she’s pregnant,” he said.
    “I don’t at all,” Erline insisted.
    “I seen her take a hit or two,” he said.
    “I’m only interested for medical reasons,” June stressed.
    Jim joined them. In his arms were the little girls, who were probably two and three years old. They both had blond stringy hair and were wearing cottonpants and T-shirts ill suited for the weather, and sandals on their bare feet. Jim had a fierce and unreadable expression on his face. The older of the little girls had a bright red spot on her cheek, as though she’d been slapped, and she struggled to keep back her tears.
    The man put his money away and started to reach out for the little girl. “Wouldn’t you like to see your son?” June urged, trying to distract him. She gently pulled on his arm, moving him to the back of the truck where his wife and child lay.
    Fortunately for everyone, John arrived in the ambulance and they were able to quickly load Erline and her baby into the back. June put the little girls into the front seat and told Jim, “I’m going to have to drive them so that John can attend to this patient. I’ll meet you in town a little later. Is that okay with you?”
    “Do I have a choice?”
    “Sure. You can park my truck and you and Sadie can come with us.”
    “What about him?” he asked, tilting his head toward the man with the stinky twenties.
    “I’m not too concerned about him. I’m concerned about them,” she said, tilting her head toward the ambulance.
    “Go on,” he said. “I’ll see you at the café. I’ll go take some of my medicine while you work.”
    She smiled, knowing her father and some of the locals would be waiting for him. “You’re a brave man.”
    He took off his jacket, the sleeves of which were soiled, and wrapped it around her shoulders. “Is this what life with you is going to be like?”
    “Well, not really. I don’t do this on my way to work every day.”
    “But it’s going to be bizarre, isn’t it?” he asked gravely.
    She stood on her toes and kissed him. “For a flexible guy like you, it should be a piece of cake.” Then she jogged to the driver’s side of the ambulance and jumped in. She pulled away with lights flashing.
    Jim looked at the father, who stood and stared,