The teen threw it down on the sidewalk, then wiped the remnants of blood from his hand onto Ian's jacket.
"Ew," he said. "I hope I don't get AIDS now."
Next, Dylan grabbed the knapsack that had fallen from Ian's hands and ripped it open, scattering school books all over the sidewalk. Someone cut the straps of the other knapsack from his back and opened it up.
"What do we have here?" one of them asked.
Ian's eyes were closed in pain, but he could hear the sickening sound of ripping fabric. He felt the dull thud of someone kicking him in the ribs.
"GET OFF HIM!"
Ian heard the shrill scream as blackness enveloped him.
With strength they didn't know they had, Kat and Lisa punched and bit the three large teens who were attacking Ian. Dylan and his friends looked up in complete shock and amazement when they saw who Ian's champions were.
They dropped the knife and scattered.
Kat was utterly shocked that Dylan would be involved in such an incident of violence. What had gotten in to him?
Ian lay, still as death, on the sidewalk. The blood from his scalp wound had spilled onto the sidewalk and was beginning to form a small pool. Long strips of cut parachute fluttered in the wind. Lisa gathered it up as best she could while Kat took a strip of it and stanched the wound on Ian's head. She was thankful to see that the thugs had not yet torn out his nose ring. Small comfort.
The knife lay on the ground, smudges of Ian's blood and a wisp of hair still visible on the blade. A clump of white hair was stuck to the sidewalk, looking like a stomped mouse. The sight made Kat want to vomit.
Lisa followed Kat's gaze. "We can't just leave that," she said. She rooted through her knapsack for her binder and then tore out a sheet of paper. Gingerly, she wrapped the knife up into it and then placed it in her own knapsack. Then she pulled the hank of hair from the sidewalk and wrapped it in a separate sheet of paper. Next she gathered up Ian's scattered school books and put them back into his other knapsack.
"When is your sister getting here?" asked Lisa. "Do you want to call her on my cell phone?"
"She'll be here any minute," said Kat, still holding the bit of fabric to Ian's wound and fighting back tears.
Genya had come upon the scene moments later, although to Lisa and Kat it had seemed like hours. As usual, Genya's calm efficiency was an asset. She had assessed the situation before even stopping the car. She pulled up right at the bus stop and set her emergency lights on flash then scrambled out of the car.
"We've got to take him to the hospital," cried Kat to her sister.
"Not so fast," said Genya. "We don't want to move him in case he has a neck injury. We've got to call an ambulance."
Lisa flipped open her cell phone and called 911. When the ambulance came, Lisa scrambled in beside Ian's stretcher, leaving Ian's two knapsacks behind. Kat picked them up and put them in the trunk of the car, and then she and her sister followed behind the ambulance.
Thankfully, Ian's injuries were superficial. He needed twelve stitches to his scalp, and his ribs were terribly bruised, but that was all. Kat phoned home to let them know why she and Genya would be late, and then she called Ian's house.
His mother answered the phone. Once Kat explained the situation, she could hear the clatter of a phone being dropped, and then she could hear the slam of a door.
Kat and Genya and Lisa were still waiting anxiously for Ian's stitching to be finished when his mother burst through the doors of Emergency fifteen minutes later. Mrs. Smith's expensively tailored jacket was buttoned awry and streaks of mascara stained her face. Her facade of polished perfection was gone. As her eyes darted urgently from Genya to Lisa and Kat, she asked, "Where is he?"
Kat pointed to the door of the room where Ian was being treated. Mrs. Smith didn't even knock. She pushed the door and rushed in.
As they waited, Genya looked at the two younger girls. "Did you recognize any of the guys who attacked Ian?"
Kat looked at Lisa, then back at her sister. "One of them was vaguely familiar. I think he's on some high school football team," she said evasively.
"By the looks of them, all of them were," said Lisa. "But they weren't from Cawthra, and they weren't from St. Paul's."
Kat nodded in agreement.
About a minute after that, Ian's father showed up. Kat noted that he had a look of angry determination on his face. Before doing anything else, Mr. Smith approached the reception desk and identified himself. The nurse apprised him of his son's condition and his shoulders immediately relaxed in relief. Instead of bursting into the treatment room as his wife had done, he sat down with the girls and waited.
"Tell me what happened," he said to them.
This was the first time Kat had seen Mr. Smith up close. She was struck by the physical similarity between him and Ian. Had Mr. Smith dyed his hair platinum, he would have looked identical to the Ian who showed up at the courtroom yesterday. They were both tall and lean with blond, almost feminine good looks. Mr. Smith had Ian's long tapered fingers, except these had only one adornment: a plain gold wedding band.
Kat told Mr. Smith about the scene they had happened upon. She didn't mention that they had found Ian's knife on the ground, nor did Lisa. They also didn't tell him that any of the kids looked familiar to them.
As they talked, the door to the treatment room opened and two figures emerged: Mrs. Smith, with her arm looped protectively around Ian's waist. In any other context, the image would have been absurd. Ian was more than a head taller than his mother, yet it was she who was supporting him. He had all of the energy of a rag doll and he leaned heavily on his mother, who no longer looked fragile or frantic.
One side of Ian's head had been shaven and the twelve black stitches were clearly visible. There were still traces of blood on his face and his iridescent shirt was splattered red. His leather pants were torn at the knees and his hands were scraped.
Ian's father jumped up from the chair and strode over to his son. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine," said Ian, not looking fine at all. "I'm just bruised."
"We've got to press charges," said his father. "Did you recognize any of the kids who did this to you?"
Ian looked at his father with angry frustration. Did his father really think that pressing charges would make this better?
"They must have been from out of town," lied Ian. "None of them looked remotely familiar."
Genya opened her mouth to say something, but Kat gave her sister a meaningful look. Genya remained silent.
"Let's get home so I can get cleaned up. I don't want to be late for the concert."
Ian's mother looked up at him in amazement. "You can't perform in your condition."
"Just watch me," said Ian.
He flashed a weak smile at Lisa, Kat and Genya then said, "Thanks guys. See you at the school, okay?"
Then he walked with slow determination out of the hospital, still supported by his mother.
CHAPTER 38
DANYLO WAS PACING with agitation by the time Kat and Genya came home from the hospital. "How is Ian?" he asked urgently as soon as Kat stepped through the door.
"Fine," replied Kat. "No broken bones, just stitches and bruises."
Danylo sighed with relief. "It is too bad about his concert, though," said Danylo. "Has he cancelled?"
"Believe it or not, he said he was still going to play tonight."
A smile of admiration formed on Danylo's lips. "Then we'll have to hurry up and have supper so we can get over to the school," he said.
Orysia and Danylo both decided to go to the concert with Kat. Genya, as usual, went over to a friend's house. When they got to Cawthra, it was still early so there were only a few cars in the parking lot. Kat recognized Ian's father's Mercedes and sighed with relief. She was afraid that he might have changed his mind and not come. She also saw Lisa getting out of her parents' SUV. Lisa was dressed in her usual black, but instead of a short leather skirt and ripped stockings, she was wearing black jeans and a black leather jacket. She wore a silver spiked leather dog collar around her neck and her nails were painted black. Surprisingly, she wasn't wearing her usual ghastly makeup. Kat figured it was a concession to her parents being with her. Kat called out to Lisa to get her attention, and Lisa and her parents walked over to the Baliuk car.