“What are you guys doing?” I asked them.
“Oh, we all happened to finish work at the same time, so we were waiting for you to get out.”
“I get it. Since we’re all together, let’s race each other home. The rotten egg has to clean the bathroom and make breakfast for a whole week,” I suggested.
“You’re on!”
I pedaled as hard as I could, and the wind gusted against my body; the day was becoming quite chilly. But I was focused on winning the race, and pedaling warmed me up. Soon I didn’t even notice the temperature. We finished a ride that usually took an hour in half that time.
“Yesss! I’m first!” I was having so much fun that I even pumped my fist and struck a pose. Behind me were Shachi, Penguin, and Bepo, in that order; Bepo was in last place.
“Ha ha ha. See? Leg strength isn’t everything when it comes to a bicycle race, Bepo,” I said. “You never seem to get any better at the balance part. When you ride a bike, you’re always wobbling back and forth. I’m always afraid you’re going to fall over.”
“I know. Sometimes I wonder why I can’t ride a bike the way you guys can. I think I need to go on a journey of self-discovery to figure out what’s wrong with me,” he responded glumly.
“Hey, stop being so gloomy! You still get depressed too easily, too!”
We got off our bikes and went into the house, trying our best to bolster Bepo’s spirits. By this time, Wolf was usually home. We were hungry and ready to eat.
“Hey, Junker! We’re back!” I called out but got no response.
Is he still out? I wondered. It seemed strange. The old man might seem to be a lackadaisical sort, but when he was on a set schedule, he almost never deviated from it. Was it possible he just got really absorbed in one of his inventions?
“What should we do?” Bepo asked. “Get started on dinner, maybe?”
“Let’s do that. We got some good fish today… Hey, Law, what’s that?” Penguin said, pointing.
“Huh?” When I looked out the window in that direction, I saw black smoke billowing up over the field. It seemed ominous.
“Let’s go check it out, guys!”
We rushed out the back door and sprinted for the field. We found what looked like an airplane crashed into the ground, belching smoke and flames—and lying next to it, covered in blood, Wolf’s body.
“Old man!” I shouted, rushing to Wolf’s side and doing a quick examination. He was unconscious and had lost a lot of blood; his breathing was shallow and his pulse was weak. He was in a very bad state.
Once a human has lost around 30 percent of their blood, their life is in imminent danger. And from what I could tell, Wolf had already lost nearly that much. Time was of the essence.
“I’ll carry the old man!” I shouted to the others. “Bepo, go and boil some water! Penguin, prep the operating table! Shachi, get out my surgical tools!”
“G-got it!” they called back.
✦ ✦ ✦
“The tools are ready, Law!” Shachi shouted to me. “They’re all sterilized!”
By the time I got Wolf into the house, the table was prepped in the middle of the living room. I managed to set the old man onto it and took my tools from Shachi.
“How bad is he?” asked Bepo with obvious concern.
I wished I could tell him it wasn’t as bad as we all thought, but that would have been a lie. The situation was very bad.