This is the story I made up on my drive home from fair last night.
She was driving home after a long
day of fair. She wasn’t prepared for the deer to run right into the front of
her car. It wasn’t there one second and then it was, just like deer tend to do.
It hit the front of her car and then flipped up. It’s head stayed logged in her
car by the lights, while it’s body came up and landed hard on her windshield. It
didn’t stay logged there very long as she was moving down the highway. The blow
didn’t even seem to kill it! It was thrashing about on her car and then it got
itself unlogged somehow and landed on the road. Not losing her cool about being
in a crash, and knowing her now stalled car wouldn’t be starting again anytime
soon, Jade quickly steered it to the side of the road before the momentum of
driving at 65 miles per hour came to a stop. Then she just sat in the car for a
minute, trying to think.
The deer she could see in her
rearview mirror. It was in the middle of the road thrashing about as car after
car slowed down to drive past it. Jade wished she should put on her blinkers to
warn people from farther away to be careful, but her car was dead. In fact, as
she looked at the front of her car, she noticed it was smoking. Then she
noticed the windshield. Jade couldn’t believe that she hadn’t noticed the
windshield before. There were only bits and pieces of it left, the deer had
broken it, the glass scattering everywhere. As Jade looked at the glass, she
realized something. There was no way that she hadn’t gotten injured in this
accident, and yet she didn’t feel hurt at all.
Bringing her arms up, she looked at
them closely. They were all cut up and bleeding. It didn’t look too bad. The
glasses that she wore she noticed were very scratched looking. With one of her
bleeding arms, she pulled down the visor to look at her face. It was also all
scratched up and cuts dotted it everywhere. It was almost unnoticeable as she
looked over her face because of the angle of the mirror, but not quite. Jade
saw the blood coming out of her neck, and a huge piece of the windshield still protruding
from her neck. Taking a sharp breath, she didn’t touch it. She knew better than
to mess with it, but she needed help. That was sure, she couldn’t take care of
that on her own.
What was she supposed to do in this
situation? Obviously she had to call the police, and she would need a ride
home, but which was she supposed to call first. Her mom was a nurse, so she
could tell her what to do about her neck, but then her mom would be all worried
about her. Her neck didn’t appear that badly. Then again, why would her mother
be worried about her? It wasn’t like her mom actually cared about her after
what happened the day before. Making up
her mind, Jade just called them in numerical order. Her mother’s phone number of
course was last because it was the one with the most numbers. Her eyes stayed
focused on her neck as she waited patiently for an answer.
“Hello,” Jade immediately said when
someone picked up on the other end. “I was just in a car crash with a deer.
Just me and the deer mind you, no other cars were involved other than
mine. My car is dead, I don’t think I
will be able to get it fixed easily with all the damage done to it.”
“Ma’am where are you?” the operator
interrupted Jade quickly.
“Oh I’m between the race track and
the dump on highway 461.” Jade stated. “So I know that you probably want to
know all that’s going down here. Let me just get on that. I wouldn’t have
called quite so quickly, I probably would’ve waited until I checked on the
deer, maybe tried to get it out of the middle of the road, but I am injured and
I don’t feel it. I mean, I can see my injuries and know that I should be
feeling them. I can move my arms, and my legs, which I suppose is a good thing.
There is glass everywhere because my windshield broke under the force of the deer’s
body slamming into it. I didn’t think anything could break the windshield of a
car. I mean they are so strong. Oh and my engine is smoking. I can see it
through the nonexistent window, though it is hard to see because of my glasses.
My glasses got all scratched up in the crash.”
“Ma’am,” the operator interrupted
again, “help is on the way, what I need to know right now is are you still in
the car?”
“Yes, of course I am. I don’t want
to move too much in case I injure myself some more. I mean I won’t be able to
tell if I hurt myself anymore because I can’t feel any of the pain,” Jade
started again. She was surprising herself with her need to talk. Normally Jade
was just one of those people that sat around letting others talk for her
because she was socially awkward. This time though, she felt like she should be
talking. She didn’t want to stop talking.
“What’s your name? and you need to
get out of the car and walk back to where the deer is. It’s okay, you won’t get
injured anymore than you already are. Just carefully unbuckle yourself and get
out.”
“My name is Jade Merco,” Jade
replied. “Are you sure you want me to get out of the car? It is probably
dangerous for me to go check on the deer.”
“Jade I need you to get as far away
from the car as possible right now. If your car is smoking like you say it is,
it could quite possibly exploded. We don’t want you near it if that happens, so
just go back toward the deer.”
“Okay,” Jade replied. She did as
the operator said, with a pause in her talking while she followed orders. As
she walked away from the car, she could feel herself dragging forward, like it
was hard to walk. She couldn’t figure out why she felt so sluggish though. “Wow
this is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I mean, sure I am really tired
after a hard days work, but I didn’t realize I was this tired. OH! I hear the
sirens.”
“Alright, I’m going to hang up now
then, I have to take other calls for people too. I hope that you are all right
Jade. Let the officers help you as much as they can.”
“I can’t believe they got here so
fast. They must not have been very far away,” Jade kept talking into her phone
as the line went dead. The sirens weren’t from a police car as she had
originally thought it would be from, but instead it was from an ambulance. The
ambulance pulled itself between her and the car and then the EMTs came hopping
out and hurried over to her. Jade kept walking towards the struggling deer
though. It was like she didn’t completely notice the EMT’s were there as she
walked.
“Jade Merco,” she heard her name
being spoken as a hand wrapped itself around her wrist. Jade looked warily over
at the EMT, before trying to pull away.
“I called the police, not the
EMT’s,” Jade stated and tried to keep walking towards the deer. “I have to
listen to the operator. I was told to go check on the deer.”
“The deer can wait for the police
to show up. We need to get you some help first Jade,” one of the EMT’s stated,
not letting Jade walk on.
“I have to check on the deer for
the operator!” Jade raised her voice slightly. Another EMT came into her vision
as she glared at the first.
“How about you come with me back to
the ambulance and Terri goes and checks on your deer?” the EMT suggested
quietly. Jade just stared blankly at him for a second and then panic hit her.
“Oh my god, I’m going to have to
get in the ambulance aren’t I? I can’t go anywhere in one of those. I can’t get
in one,” Jade whispered quickly, shaking her head back and forth quickly. The
EMT named Terri grabbed a hold of her face and held her head still.
“You don’t have to get in it right
now. We need you closer to the ambulance though for us to check you over and
patch you up. Just go with Lucian and he will patch you up bright as new. How
about you call someone close by to come hang out with you while you get patched
up,” Terri quickly advocated. Jade nodded in agreement and started to dial a
number without thinking much about it.
“Hello Galena!” Jade greeted when
one of her best friends from the race track answered her call. She didn’t
actually want to talk to Galena, but she wanted to talk to someone else that
she had left at the race track. She didn’t have his number though, so she was
hoping that Galena could help her out. It wasn’t that she was avoiding talking
to Galena or anything; she just didn’t want Galena to see her like this. Galena
was really not good in situations like these, so it was better to just tell her
once Jade was all cleaned up and all better. “Galena, before you ask why I am
calling, I was just wondering if Zakiya was around still. I need to talk to
him.”
“Sure, he actually just came back
here looking for you. He wanted to see if you wanted to go down to the race
track with him to watch the rest of the races since his girlfriend ditched him.”
Galena handed her cell phone over to Zakiya without further questions.
“Jade, why are you trying to get a
hold of me?” he asked almost immediately. He was surprised that she had even
wanted to talk to him in the first place after spending the day with his
girlfriend and him. He had picked on her the whole day they had been hanging
out to amuse his girlfriend.
“You can’t tell Galena why I called
you,” Jade quickly stated. “I think she jinxed it. Right before I left she told
me to drive safe and watch out for the deer. I swear the deer wasn’t there
until suddenly it was breaking my car’s windshield. Anyway, the EMTs have decided
that I need someone to hang out with me while I get patched up and I’m closer
to the race track than I am to home. Do you want to hang out with me?” Jade
asked.
“Um, sure I’ll go find him for
you,” Zakiya replied instead of answering her question. “Let me just get your
number from Galena and then I will go find him and have him call you.” Then he
hung up on her. Jade just stared at her phone.
“Hey! Ouch!” she suddenly squeaked,
turning her gaze to Lucian. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Sorry,” Lucian smiled. “I was told
you couldn’t feel pain, but I guess you are coming out of your shock now. You
are about to be in a lot of pain. Just so you know, we are going to have to
take you to the hospital to get that glass out of your neck. We can’t do it
ourselves.”
“I can’t go in an ambulance. I’ll
just get myself there,” Jade quickly replied as her phone started to ring. She
looked down and saw an unknown number trying to get a hold of her. To avoid
talking to Lucian, she answered the phone call. “Hello?”
“Hey Jade, Zakiya told me that I
had to call you. He wouldn’t leave me alone until I called you,” a familiar
voice said from the other end of the line.
“Cruzito!” Jade greeted warmly.
“Hi! I guess Zakiya is squeamish around blood. Cruzito you’re my new best
friend right?”
“I suppose I am, why?” he asked, a
smile twitching at his lips as she talked. Zakiya already told him that Jade
had been in a car crash and needed someone to talk to while she was patched up,
but he was curious on what she wanted form him still. She could have asked
Galena for his number instead of going through Zakiya to get to him. Now that
his suspicion of Zakiya not wanting to do whatever she had asked him had been
confirmed, he wanted to know what had been asked of him.
“Well, the EMTs told me that
someone should come hang out with me while they clean me up. Did Zakiya tell
you that a deer ran into my car as I was driving home? I can still see it
thrashing about. Though Terri, one of the EMTs, managed to drag it out of the
middle of the road. I think Terri probably should have just left the deer
alone. She could have gotten really hurt from it, but she moved it anyway. It
doesn’t look like she got hurt either.”
“Jade,” Cruzito gently interrupted
her. “I’ll come hang out with you on one condition.”
“Yay! What is it? I’ll do anything.
Terri and Lucian are being really mean. Well Lucian is, Terri isn’t exactly
over here yet. I’m sure once she gets over here she will be really mean to me
as well. They won’t let me go talk to the police officer that has just arrived.
I gave him permission to go through my car for my papers and license since I’m
also not allowed to go near my car. I mean, it isn’t smoking anymore, why can’t
I go near it?”
“Jade?” Cruzito interrupted again.
“I can’t tell you my condition if you don’t let me talk.” He knew that she
never talked this much, even though he had just met her this last week. He had
spent part of the day in the concessions stand with her alone, and knew that
she didn’t talk unless spoken to and even then it was hard to get her to talk.
“Oh right sorry, Lucian thinks I’m
just talking because I’m in shock or something. So what is your condition?”
“My condition is, I need to know
where you are,” Cruzito stated warmly.
“Oh yeah, forgot about that part.
Okay, all you have to do is get on the highway and drive towards the dump. You
know where the dump is right? You won’t be able to miss me. I’m sitting outside
the ambulance on the bumper of it. They keep trying to get me to go in it, but
I can’t go in one. That just isn’t right. Ambulances are for injured people,
and I’m not injured. I just have some minor cuts and bruises.”
“Jade,” Cruzito interrupted her yet
again. “Do you want me to stay on the phone with you while I drive or are you
going to be good for a few minutes?” He would prefer not to be on the phone and
driving, but he didn’t want to just hang up on Jade when she obviously was
distressed.
“I’ll
be fine, but hurry because Lucian is making me drink blood bags because I’ve
lost so much blood.” Jade replied. Lucian was giving her a glare when she was
considering Cruzito’s offer and knew that Lucian would give her a hard time if
she didn’t’ get off the phone soon. “I’ll see you in a bit!” Then she hung up
on him, hoping that he actually was going to come.
For the most part, Lucian had finished
cleaning her up, other than the glass chunk in her neck that he refused to do
anything about. He was dead set on taking her to the hospital for that one. She
had also lost a lot of blood, so he didn’t want to let her go home without
getting something in her. For some reason she was scared of getting in the
ambulance. He didn’t want to force her in if someone was close by that might be
able to talk her into getting in. He just hoped that this person would get here
fast so that he could hook Jade up to a blood bag. If he wasn’t going to take
her to the hospital for her neck, he would have given her something to eat, but
he was taking her whether she liked it or not as soon as her friend showed up.
They sat there for about 10 minutes
before a truck pulled up behind the dead deer.
That’s what Jade thought at least. The deer could very well have been
alive still, it just wasn’t thrashing about anymore. Terri had long since left
the deer and was in the ambulance doing something now. Jade figured that Terri
was in there washing her hands after touching the deer, she didn’t know for
sure though. When the truck stopped, Jade stood up wanting to go towards it.
The truck looked a lot warmer than the cold summer air was and she was ready to
go home.
Lucian held her back as Cruzito
walked towards them however, not wanting Jade to do anything that could bump
the glass farther into her neck. Jade just shot him a glare as she waited for
Cruzito to reach them. She watched as he looked her over, his eyes staying on
her neck on his approach.
“That doesn’t look like a little
cut or bruise,” he told her with a frown. Jade just shrugged, not replying. “So
you are done talking now that I’m here? Is that really how this is going to go
down Jade? I thought we were better friends that than,” he fake pouted, his
lips hinting at a smile.
“We only met this week,” Jade
pointed out. “How can we be better friends than that. I will give you the
benefit of the doubt on that one though, since we only met this week,” she
finally replied, putting a bit of a flirt into her response. “Can you do me a favor now that you are here?”
“What coming here wasn’t enough of
a favor?” he teased, stopping half a car’s length from her.
“No it wasn’t,” Jade smiled. “My
favor is that I need you to tell Lucian here that he can get this chunk of
glass out of my neck just fine without needing to take me to the hospital.” A
smile stayed trained on her face the whole time. She was starting to wish that
she had some painkillers though. The pain of her injuries was slowly starting
to wash over her and she was not enjoying it. She wasn’t going to let anyone
know how much pain was starting to come though. Cruzito could tell though. He
could see in her eyes the amount of pain that she was feeling as she tried to
stay strong and not cry.
“If Lucian says you need to go to
the hospital then you need to,” Cruzito replied easily, knowing that it was
true. EMTs know best in situations like these, even if she wanted to deny it.
“No, no, no,” Jade shook her head
rapidly, wincing slightly as she did so. Cruzito quickly placed his hands on
either side of her face, forcing her to stop moving her head. “I can’t go in that
thing. I can’t go in that thing,” she repeatedly stated, a fearful expression
on her face.
“Nothing is going to happen to you
in the ambulance. I’ll go with you okay?” Cruzito offered quietly when he had
her full attention. “I promise you will be perfectly safe in the ambulance.”
“Why should I trust you? I only met
you today!” Jade hissed at him, her panic still clearly visible. It had
slightly lessened at the thought of someone that she somewhat knew being there
if she was forced into the ambulance.
“You can trust me just like you
trust Lucian to fix you all up,” Cruzito assured her. “I’m not going to hurt
you or let the ambulance hurt you. So why don’t you get in while I go lock my
truck up and we will be on our way?”
“Don’t forget to tell your girlfriend
what you are doing then!” Jade called after him as he turned to walk back to
his car. He flipped her off over his shoulder, knowing just as well as she did
that his girlfriend was likely to skin him alive for ditching her to take Jade
to the hospital. Lucian followed Cruzito to his truck while Terri ushered Jade
into the ambulance. Jade put up a fight though and refused to get in still, so
Terri decided to wait until Cruzito came back.
“She says she’s only known you for
a day and yet she called you?” Lucian questions. Lucian and Cruzito actually
knew each other, since Lucian used to go to Cruzito’s school. Even though
Lucian was at least five years older than Cruzito, they still had been friends
back in school and still were somewhat friends.
“Yeah we worked the concessions
stand today at the race track together during the lunch rush before my
girlfriend dragged me off to watch the races,” Cruzito smirked. “Mel was not
pleased that I was working alone with Jade.”
“Well thanks for coming man, we
don’t want to force her into the ambulance when she is flat out refusing, in
case it injures her more, but she really does need to get to the hospital.
She’s lost a lot of blood and we aren’t sure how far in the glass is and how
much damage it has done. It’s better to take it out when we have all the
equipment we could possibly need.”
“Aye captain,” Cruzito rolled his
eyes. It totally wasn’t already obvious that he was needed here rather than
having his girlfriend hanging on his arm. He locked his truck and grabbed his
jacket from the passenger’s seat before they went back to the ambulance.
“She still won’t get in,” Terri
informed them upon their return and Cruzito turned his gaze to Jade’s panicked
face.
“Let’s go Jade, the sooner you get
in the sooner you can get out,” Cruzito commanded gently, taking her hand and
leading her towards the ambulance. Jade followed hesitantly, but let him take
her to it. It was when they reached it that they came to the problem. No matter
what he said, she just wouldn’t get in herself.
“I can’t go in there, I can’t go in
there, I can’t go in there,” Jade whispered over and over as Lucian and Terri
tried to reason with her. Cruzito just sat with his legs hanging out of the
ambulance as he held onto Jade’s hand. Finally he got annoyed with Terri and
Lucian’s persistent yammering at Jade to get in and he just pulled her closer
to him by her hand.
“Jade, look at him,” he ordered
quickly. “If you don’t get in this ambulance this second, I’m going to leave
you to do this on your own and don’t think for a minute that they will give up
on getting you in this ambulance. What do I have to do to get you in here? Why
are you so scared of it?”
“Please,” Jade begged, trying to
pull her hand away from him. “ I can’t go in there.”
“Why? Give me one good reason why
you can’t get in this ambulance,” Cruzito demanded, glaring at her. He was
annoyed with her insistence at not getting in.
“I can’t tell you,” Jade whispered
loud enough for him to hear, but not for Lucian and Terri to hear.
“If you don’t have a good reason
then you are going to get in right now,” he stated, still glaring at her. She
had tears in her eyes as she tried to reason with him. She didn’t tell him the
reason she couldn’t get in the ambulance was that last year she had been in
one. Yesterday she had been in one because her brother had been injured in a
freak accident. He had died in the ambulance. Sure she was hours away from
where this freak accident had happened and this wasn’t the same ambulance, but
she still couldn’t bring herself to get in an ambulance again.
Her parents had taken her to a car
show yesterday and were examining what an old ambulance had looked like. They
had tried to get her to look at it with her, but she wouldn’t even go near it
at first. Eventually she had gone to it, but it had taken such an effort and
made a huge scene in the parking lot that the security had asked that Jade be
removed from the car show. Her parents hadn’t taken kindly to being kicked out
of the car show, but they understood why Jade had been so scared. They were in
the process of finding a therapist to help her, but hadn’t found a good one
yet.
“I can’t tell you,” she sobbed
quietly. “I can’t go in there.”
“Have you told your parents what
happened yet?” Cruzito asked suddenly, trying to get her mind off what was
required of her.
“They won’t care. They are too busy
to care about anything to do with me right now. They hate me. They absolutely
hate me,” she managed to choke out, still being too quiet for Lucian or Terri
to hear her. As she spoke those words, her eyes closed, trying to hold in the
tears. Cruzito took the opportunity to stand up and pull her into the ambulance
with him. She didn’t even react right away.
“How
about I call them and tell them what has happened?” Cruzito gently offered her,
as Lucian and Terri jumped in and quietly closed the door. Terri climbed up to
the front and got in the driver’s seat while Lucian and Cruzito guided Jade to
lay down on the stretcher that was in the ambulance and secured her down. Then
Cruzito buckled himself into a seat and Lucian did the same. Terri turned the
lights and sirens on and they were off.
Jade’s
eyes flew open when she heard the sirens and she looked frantically around. She
started to struggle to move, when Cruzito took her hand in his, squeezing
tightly to get her attention. Her eyes shot to his in a frantic movement. He
couldn’t believe how much panic there was now in her eyes. He couldn’t even
tell that she was in a lot of pain anymore with the panic overcrowding
everything else. He was sure that Jade didn’t even feel her injuries at all
anymore because of her panic.
“Jade,
do you want me to call them for you and tell them to meet us at the hospital?”
Cruzito offered again. Jade just nodded in response, unable to say anything in
her panicked state. “Jade calm down, nothing is going to happen to you,” he
ordered in a gentle reassuring voice as he took her phone out of her hand. He
scrolled through her numbers until he came across her mom’s number and then he
called it.
When a grumpy voice answered with a
snappy “What!” Cruzito just raised his eye brows at Jade, who was still staring
at him. “Hello Mrs Merco,” he greeted. “ I am just calling to inform you that
your daughter is being taken to the nearest hospital right now after a car crash.”
“Please tell me she isn’t being
taken in an ambulance,” Mrs. Merco sighed. Cruzito could just imagine Jade’s
mom pinching the bridge of her nose as she said it.
“As a matter of fact she is,”
Cruzito replied. “It took a whole lot of convincing to get her to get in. Is
there a reason that you know of why she is a state of panic right now?”
“Of course there is you idiot! Her
brother died in one last year! She was the one that had ridden in the ambulance
with him when he died. Ever since then, she has been completely terrified of
ambulances. We didn’t realize until yesterday at an old car show how bad her
fear was though. She won’t be calm for hours now. I’m not sure how she will
react to going to the hospital either. I’m on my way there now. Who am I speaking
to by the way? You don’t sound like one of those damn EMTs.”
“I’m one of her friends from the
race track,” Cruzito replied with conviction.
“Okay, well just be warned that she
will probably not handle the hospital well at all. I think the ambulance will
be the worse of the two, but I’m not positive so be warned. I’m on my way,”
with that Mrs. Merco hung up, calling her husband as she grabbed her keys and
raced away from her house in a hurry to get to her daughter.
Cruzito looked down at Jade,
handing back her phone quietly. “You aren’t going to die in here Jade,” he
quietly stated. Jade’s eyes filled with tears when she realized what her mom
had told him. The tears quickly overflowed and started to run down her cheeks.
She was so scared of being in the ambulance right now, but she didn’t say
anything as she shook her head in denial of whatever her mother had said.
“Your
mom is on her way to the hospital. She says you’re more than likely to panic
there as well,” Cruzito may have been talking to Jade still, but he was saying
it more so for Lucian’s information than hers. “Is that true?”
Jade
took a minute before replying with a dead expression on her face. “I promise I
will not panic at the hospital as long as I get out of this thing I will not
panic.” Her voice getting quieter as she spoke until it was too quiet for
Lucian and Cruzito to hear. They just left it at that though because they had
arrived at the hospital by then.
“Well
it’s your lucky day then,” Cruzito smiled, “we have arrived at the hospital,
let’s get you out of here.” Jade was rushed out of the ambulance on the
stretcher even though she said she could walk just fine. She was rushed to the
emergency room and into a surgery room where the glass shard was removed and
they realized just how deep it had gone. It was lucky she had been taken to the
hospital, or there wouldn’t have been a chance for her to live. Now the
question was, would she survive the surgery or not.
