Part 2
The ice dropped beneath Evan and split around his chest. Black water closed over his shoulders, so cold that his body forgot how to breathe.
The recovery strap snapped tight around his waist before the current could pull him beneath the remaining ice. He surfaced gasping, his face inches from the wolf’s. Her front legs struck his chest—not in attack, but in a blind attempt to climb anything solid.
“Easy,” he choked. “Easy.”
He shoved the cargo blanket beneath her ribs and fought to work the loose end of the strap around her upper body. Somewhere beyond the bank, an air horn blasted. A man shouted from the highway.
Evan locked both hands around the strap.
“Pull!” he yelled.
For one terrible second, the line cut sideways through the rotten ice.
Then it moved toward shore.
The wolf’s claws tore at the blanket as Evan tried to keep her head above water. Every time the men on the bank pulled, the strap tightened around his ribs and dragged both of them across another broken edge.
“Again!” someone shouted.
Evan kicked once, though he could no longer feel his legs. The wolf found enough strength to lunge forward. Her chest slid onto the ice, then her hips. Evan followed half a second later, scraping across the jagged surface on his stomach.
Two men in reflective work jackets lay flat near the bank. One held the strap while the other crawled backward, wrapping it around his forearm.
“Don’t stand!” the older man yelled. “Keep your weight down!”
The wolf reached solid snow first. She staggered, collapsed, then rose again with her legs spread wide beneath her.
Evan looked toward the trees on the far side. The pack had moved closer to the river, their shapes passing silently between the trunks. The rescued female stood motionless for several seconds, water running from her coat.
She turned her head toward Evan.
Then she crossed the bank in three unsteady bounds and disappeared among the pines.
The men hauled Evan the remaining distance. He remembered a heavy coat being wrapped around him and someone cutting the strap from his waist. He tried to ask whether the wolf had made it, but his jaw shook too violently to form the words.
His last clear image was Maggie’s drawing trembling behind the windshield of his truck.
When he woke, he was beneath heated blankets in a small regional hospital. A plastic tube rested beneath his nose, and an IV line ran from his hand. His chest hurt each time he inhaled.
A woman in navy scrubs stood beside the bed, writing on a chart. She had dark blond hair gathered in a loose knot and the calm, direct expression of someone who had no interest in being impressed by reckless men.
“You’re awake,” she said. “That’s useful.”
Evan tried to sit up.
She placed one hand against his shoulder. “Don’t.”
“My truck.”
“Is locked at the county highway garage. Your trailer is secure. The two utility workers who found you called the sheriff and helped move it off the shoulder.”
“The wolf?”
The nurse studied him for a moment. “According to the men who pulled you out, she walked into the woods.”
“She was pregnant.”
“I heard.”
Evan closed his eyes. “What day is it?”
“Thursday afternoon.”
His eyes opened again. “My daughter’s concert is tonight.”
“You inhaled river water, your body temperature was dangerously low, and your lungs are already showing signs of inflammation. You’re not driving to Ohio tonight.”
“I promised her.”
“I’m sure you did.”
There was no judgment in her voice, which somehow made the words harder to hear.
“My phone?”
She handed it to him from the drawer. “You have thirty-one missed calls. Start with whoever loves you most.”
Evan called Tom first. His father-in-law answered before the first ring completed.
“Evan?”
“I’m all right.”
Tom exhaled so sharply that Evan heard Linda begin crying in the background.
“The sheriff called us,” Tom said. “He said you went through river ice. What were you thinking?”
“There was an animal trapped.”
“Of course there was.”
Evan looked toward the window. Snowmelt ran in thin lines down the glass.
“How’s Maggie?”
A pause followed.
“She knows you’re hurt,” Tom said. “She knows you can’t come.”
“Put her on.”
Maggie’s voice sounded smaller than usual. “Hi, Dad.”
“Hey, bug.”
“Grandpa said you saved a wolf.”
“I think so.”
“Was she scared?”
“Yes.”
“Did she bite you?”
“No.”
Another pause.
“I’m glad she didn’t die,” Maggie said.
“Me too.”
“I still wanted you at my concert.”
Evan pressed the heel of his hand against his eyes. “I know.”
“I saved you a seat anyway. Grandpa said he’ll record my song.”
“I’m sorry, Maggie.”
“You didn’t fall in on purpose.”
“No.”
“But you’re coming home?”
“As soon as the doctor says I can.”
“Can you learn my song when you get here? The whole thing, not just the part I keep singing in the kitchen.”
“I’ll learn every word.”
After the call, Evan lay still while the monitor beside him counted his heartbeat. The nurse returned with medication and a cup of water.
“She sounds like a good kid,” she said.
“She is.”
“I’m Leah Parker.”
“Evan Mercer.”
“I know. Half the county knows. You’re the trucker who crawled onto bad ice after a wolf.”
“That makes me sound stupid.”
“You crawled onto bad ice after a wolf.”
He almost laughed, but the movement triggered a cough that folded him forward. Leah waited until he could breathe again, then adjusted the oxygen line without fuss.
“I had to help her,” he said.
“I didn’t say you didn’t.”
That night, his fever rose. By morning, the physician confirmed aspiration pneumonia and told him he would remain hospitalized for several days. Evan argued until the doctor asked whether he wanted to arrive home sick enough for Maggie to watch him return in an ambulance.
He stopped arguing after that.
Two days later, Leah entered his room carrying a folded newspaper. She placed it beside his breakfast tray.
“What’s this?”
“You said your daughter wants you home more.”
“She didn’t ask me to quit.”
“No. Kids usually learn to stop asking before adults notice.”
Evan looked at her.
Leah tapped the newspaper and walked toward the door.
A job posting had been circled in blue ink.
COMMERCIAL DRIVER AND FLEET TECHNICIAN. LOCAL ROUTES. HOME NIGHTLY…
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