The old man smiled faintly.
“Good.”
The ambulance entered from the far side of the alley six minutes later.
A fire department SUV followed.
Lumi vanished beneath a parked car the moment the doors opened.
Two paramedics approached.
Caleb explained everything.
The older paramedic crouched beside Samuel.
Glucose.
Blood pressure.
Pulse.
Questions.
The glucose reading came back low enough to explain the shaking and confusion, but not low enough to render him unconscious.
His blood pressure was also dangerously low when standing.
The paramedics gave him glucose and monitored him.
Emily arrived while they were working.
She nearly ran down the alley.
Early forties.
Brown coat.
Hair half pulled back as if she had left work without looking in a mirror.
“Dad.”
Samuel looked annoyed.
“I’m fine.”
Emily stopped in front of him.
“You are on the ground behind a garage.”
“He keeps saying that,” Caleb said.
Emily looked at him.
For one second she seemed ready to laugh or cry.
Instead, she said:
“Thank you.”
Samuel pointed toward the parked car.
“Thank the cat.”
Emily frowned.
“What?”
Caleb explained.
The cat.
The pant leg.
Following her.
Finding Samuel.
Emily stared beneath the parked car.
Two pale green eyes looked back.
“That cat found you?”
Samuel nodded.
“Apparently.”
The paramedic recommended transport to the hospital.
Samuel resisted.
Emily overruled him.
Caleb watched the argument like a tennis match.
“You’re going.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I have food on the ground.”
“I will buy more eggs.”
“I just bought those.”
“Dad.”
“Wasteful.”
Finally the paramedic said:
“Mr. Greene, if your blood pressure drops again while you’re home alone, your daughter is going to have a much worse afternoon than this one.”
That ended it.
Samuel sighed.
“Fine.”
As the paramedics helped him toward the stretcher, Lumi emerged from beneath the car.
Samuel stopped.
He bent slightly.
“Come here.”
Lumi approached.
She allowed him to touch her head once.
Samuel whispered something Caleb could not hear.
Then the paramedics took him away.
Emily remained.
She collected the groceries.
Caleb helped.
Most of the eggs were broken.
The bread had survived.
Emily looked toward the delivery van around the corner.
“You were working.”
“Still am.”
“How far behind are you?”
Caleb checked the scanner.
Thirty-one minutes.
He laughed without humor.
“Enough.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
She looked toward Lumi.
The cat was now washing one paw as if nothing unusual had happened.
Emily shook her head.
“I can’t believe that.”
Caleb could.
He was not sure why.
Maybe because Lumi had been so deliberate.
She had not merely wandered toward him.
She had held his pant leg.
Refused to let him leave.
He crouched.
“You knew.”
Lumi looked at him.
Emily smiled.
“She looks proud.”
“She looks like she wants me to deliver cat food.”
Lumi blinked.
Caleb stood.
“I should go.”
Emily nodded.
“Please give me your number.”
He hesitated.
“To let you know how Dad is.”
“Okay.”
They exchanged numbers.
Caleb returned to the van.
Lumi followed him as far as the bend.
Then stopped.
He looked back.
“You done with me?”
She sat.
Caleb smiled.
“Good.”
The rest of his route was terrible.
Traffic thickened.
One apartment building had a broken intercom.
A customer argued about a package that had not even been loaded onto Caleb’s van.
At 5:22, his supervisor called.
Caleb answered through the hands-free system.
“Ortiz.”
“You lost thirty-seven minutes at Hawthorne.”
“Emergency.”
“What emergency?”
“Older man collapsed in an alley.”
Silence.