Emily Mayfield, part 7: The Search

George gets up to go to the bathroom and sees that Alex’s bed is empty. Alex is not in the bathroom, and George knows that Alex has taken Moon. George screams and wakes up Robert, Suzanna, and Emily. Emily starts to cry because George doesn’t yell. Robert tries to understand what George is screaming about. Suzanna sees the empty bed and realizes that Alex has sneaked out and taken Moon. They go to the corral and Moon is not there. George is hysterical, and the depth of emotion from their “thinking” child shocks his parents.

Robert knows how George feels. He organizes his little army into a search unit. Suzanna, holding Emily by the hand, finds Alex. She immediately picks up Emily so that Emily is facing away from Alex. Suzanna calls out, “Robert, come to the sycamore.” Does she protect the small child in her arms from the possible death of the brother, or does she go to the older child? She stands and talks to Alex as though her every word is being heard. The words are heard by the small child who can only believe her brother is hurt. When Robert arrives with George, Suzanna takes Emily to the house where she can call the doctor and put Emily to bed.

For Emily, the nightmare is not over. She saw her brother, she saw the blood, she heard her mother. She is four and tries to understand. Emily heard her mother's conversation with the doctor. Emily believes Alex is dead and wants to keep her mother from knowing the truth. Emily will not stay in bed. Emily pats her mother to show she is loved. She says, “It’s okay, Mommy, everything is okay.” Suzanna takes Emily into her lap and rocks while she waits for this night to end.

The doctor calls an ambulance, and doctor and ambulance arrive at the same time. Suzanna wants to direct them to the tree, but stays at the house with her daughter. Robert and George have been waiting and talking to Alex, who has not responded. Robert is talking to keep himself from dealing with the possibilities. George thinks Alex is dead because from the first moment that he saw his brother, there was the joy of his being dead: the revenge. George has never seen Alex this still. Even in his sleep Alex was a mover, a wild dreamer.

The doctor comes and takes Alex’s pulse, and he says, “Thank God, he’s still alive.” Robert begins to sob with relief. George feels the guilt of having wished his brother dead, and the relief of it not being so. When the doctor saws off the branch so they can move Alex and the stub, George begins to retch and Robert must return to being a dad. He has George take care of Moon so he can return to his thinking mode.

Robert goes to the hospital in the ambulance and George begs to go, too. Suzanna packs up some food and a bag of toys for Emily and the two of them follow in the car. They wait for the doctor to tell them about Alex. He tells them that two specialists will have to be brought in, one to save the eye and the other to reconstruct. Alex is in the hospital three weeks.

(continued)