The Bear With No Name by Zoe Chant Page B

shot him is the monster. Ain’t you ever seen anyone turn into a bear before? You had a bear shifter as mayor of this town for thirty years!”
    And with that, fur rippled over her, and a bear stood in her place. She pointed to herself with both front paws, shrugged impatiently, and then shifted back. “See? Bear. Big fucking deal. You want to see that again?”
    She shifted one more time, and David finally got a better look at her. She had glossy black fur, a tan muzzle, and a cinnamon chevron across her chest, just his like his mother.
    His mother …
    The floodgates of memory opened, and he went under.

Chapter 14
    “I don’t care how many of you are bears!” Lauren shouted as David’s eyes rolled back in his head. “We need to get him some help!” She looked up to find some members of the stunned crowd rousing into action.
    Officer Brown walked calmly over to Mr. Valenti. He held out his hand and said, “I need to take that weapon, sir.”
    Valenti surrendered it without a word, looking as shaken and confused as anyone else.
    Meanwhile Officer Kennedy was racing to the town hall, to radio for the helicopter, she hoped.
    Lauren scanned the crowd frantically for Pete, hoping that he would know some way to help. The wadded shirt she held over the gun shot wound was beginning to soak through, and she felt blood seeping into her jeans but she couldn’t tell if it was from an exit wound or just spillover.
    “Please, please, please,” she chanted. With her free hand she caressed David’s face. It still felt warm, and she could feel his chest still rising and falling under her other hand. She clung to hope and tried to force herself to focus on what to do next.
    Hannah knelt down beside her and touched her shoulder. “Pete’s on his way with the ambulance; it’ll be just a minute,” she said.
    “Okay,” Lauren said. Then there was nothing else for her to do right now, so she counted David’s breaths, feeling the rhythm of them, trying to notice if they changed at all.
    Pete’s ambulance once again pulled onto Main Street, and soon he was right there at her side.
    “Okay, Lauren, there was just the one shot to his shoulder, right?” Pete asked as he took David’s pulse.
    When she nodded, he continued. “We’re going to roll him a little to the side, off your lap, and then lift him onto the gurney. Are you ready?”
    Pete and the two men who were helping him did exactly what he said. Lauren tried not to get in his way, but she felt such a terrible, empty ache when she was out of contact with David. She ended up standing at the foot of the gurney, resting her hand on his ankle.
    Pete put a monitor and oxygen mask on David and then bandaged his wound. And then he just stood there.
    “Isn’t there anything else you can do?” Lauren asked. “Why isn’t he awake yet? Will he be okay?”
    “Well, the bullet’s still in his shoulder and the bleeding is actually just moderate. His heartbeat and respiration are strong. I’m keeping an eye on his blood pressure and I’ll start some fluids if it drops too low, but it’s fine for now. He’s doing pretty well for a guy who just got shot. Honestly, I would have expected him to come to by now, but he did just have the head injury a couple days ago, so maybe that’s slowing him down…”
    Then Lauren noticed Fran pacing back and forth off to the side. “You,” Lauren said. “Did you know about this? Did you know he was a bear?” If Lauren couldn’t do anything else to save his life, maybe she could at least solve his mystery.
    “No!” the old woman said, wringing her hands together in worry. “I never even suspected! But now I wonder … he looks so much like my daughter. His bear does, I mean. He even smells like her. I think he might be someone that I’ve been searching for for years.”
    Lauren remembered the story that Ella had told her, and she looked down at David, awed by the thought that just maybe he was going to change someone else’s life