Page 5 of Roots and Sky

“Okay then, let’s get your meds and hit the road.”

She nods but doesn’t try to get up. “Yeah, that…mm. Uh, used to them…me…um, too.”

Hrn. She just flipped from charming and flirtatious to slurring her words over the course of a few seconds. Suddenly I feel like I’m standing in a field of red flags.

“Hey, Mac?”

“Yeah?” she mumbles, her chin to her chest as she drags her fingers through her hair.

“What’s my name?”

“Oh, it’s…um. You jusht shaid…”

“Mac, can you look up for me? Let me see your face?”

She responds as if in slow motion and…oh.

Oh no.

The left side of her face looks like melting candle wax and the pupil on her right side is dilated. No wonder she can hardly speak.

Pushing down the rising panic while firing up my rusty stroke protocols, I reach for her hands. “Can you grip my hands, Mac?”

Her eyes hold confusion, but she complies. Her right grip is nice and strong, but her left grip is weak.Fuck. My hands shake. I get emergency training every year, but it’s not like I use that shit.

Think, Kinley, think.Taking a deep breath, I grab my phone and square up.

“Mac, I think you’re having a brain event.”

Her assistant looks up. “What did you say? Why are you holding her wrist like that?” he asks as I take her pulse.

“This isn’t a migraine. She’s got facial paralysis and a blown pupil. We need to get her to a level-one trauma center,” I say, my voice shaking.

“No. She would hate—”

He stops mid-sentence, right about the time he sees her face.

“Oh God.” His eyes meet mine, and he’s as frightened as I am. “I’ll call the tour doc.”

“Good call,” I say, whiplashed by the speed at which this evening has taken a turn. “But she’s going to need a hospital.”

Mac shakes her head. “No hoshpitals. I’m fi…I’m fine. Tea. Sleep it off.”

Her assistant looks at me and nods. “Call it in.”

I’ve already got Shelly on speakerphone.

“Please state your address and the nature of your emergency.”

“Shelly, it’s Kinley. I’m at the amphitheater. I’ve got a female, thirty-eight, demonstrating signs of TIA, possible stroke.”

“Oh my God, is it Mackenzie Nash?”

“Shelly…”

“Sorry. You were saying?”

“I need a bus at the back entrance, and you’re gonna hafta call up Rifle. We need their helicopter as soon as they can get it here. Tell ’em to use the landing pad at the base of run two.”