Here's Lily by Nancy Rue Page A

where someone else had already spread blankets. They made Dad lie on one, and Lily squatted down beside him. But one of the men took Lily gently by the shoulder and pushed her onto the other.
    â€œMy dad is hurt!” Lily cried.
    â€œSo are you, hon,” said the fireman. “I can hear the ambulance coming. They’ll take good care of both of you. Just lie still now.”
    â€œI’m not hurt!” Lily wailed. “It’s my dad who’s hurt!”
    But when two ambulances had screamed to a halt and a woman in a blue shirt leaned over her, Lily saw the look in her eyes, and she knew she was wrong. She was hurt. Why else would Miss Blue Shirt be barking out orders to someone behind her and taking Lily’s pulse and telling her everything was going to be all right when her eyes were sparking out that it most definitely wasn’t?
    â€œWhat hospital do you want to go to, sir?” someone asked.
    â€œBaptist Medical Center,” someone said in a frail voice.
    Why isn’t Dad answering? Lily thought. What happened?
    â€œDaddy?” she called out. Her own voice sounded whistle-shrill.
    â€œI’m right here, Lilliputian,” said that same weak voice.
    â€œWhat’s your name, sweetie?” asked Miss Blue Shirt.
    â€œLilianna. What about my dad?”
    â€œYour dad’s going to the hospital, and so are you. My name’s Patti, and I’ll be taking care of you.”
    â€œI want to go with my dad.”
    â€œHe’s going to need a lot of room in his ambulance, Lilianna. You and I will have our own private ride. How’s that?”
    â€œIs he all right?”
    â€œI’m all right, Lilliputian. You just do what they say. I’ll see you there.”
    Lily lifted her head to watch them lift Dad onto a gurney, but Patti put something over her nose and gently pushed Lily’s head back.
    â€œYou’ll get one of those too,” Patti said. “Why don’t you just relax and let me do all the work?”
    Lily didn’t have much choice. Once she was bundled up and put on a gurney and slid into the back of the ambulance like a casserole going into the oven, there wasn’t much she could do—except pray. And that she did, very, very hard.
    At first when they got to the hospital, a whole team of people crowded around Lily’s gurney as they rolled it into a room with curtains all around. But once Patti had shouted a bunch of numbers at them and several team members inspected her face and asked her if she knew where she was and what her name was, things calmed down. Lily thought crazily that she must have given them the right answers. She wasn’t sure how, because her head was spinning.
    â€œYou have a couple of burns, Lilianna, okay?” explained a doctor with almost no hair. “We’re going to give you something to help you relax, and then we’re going to take care of those burns. You’ll be fine, okay?”
    â€œWhat about my dad?”
    â€œI’ll send somebody to check on Dad, okay?”
    Then she felt a sting in her arm, and before too long her eyes got heavy. Her lips were heavy too when she said to the doctor, “Did you know you end every sentence with okay ?” After that, she went off into a sleep with no dreams at all.
    When Lily woke up, she knew her face was on fire again before she even opened her eyes. She flailed at the blanket and tried to sit up, but a sure, familiar arm stopped her.
    â€œWhoa, girl,” Mom said. “You’re about to hit the sidewalk running.”
    â€œThey’re burning again, Mom!” she said.
    â€œWhat is, Lil?”
    â€œMy cheeks!”
    There was the smallest of pauses before Mom said, “They’re not burning anymore. I know it hurts, but the fire’s out.”
    Mom finally came into focus, and Lily realized she was still in that room with the curtains, except the team of doctors and nurses had left, and there was