May I: Crash Pt I

The ride back over to the hospital was pretty quiet; the light reflecting over his face as he drove. At one point, he looked over at her. “Is there something on my face that you’re not telling me about?”

“No.” Gillian went to glancing back out the window, before changing her mind to stay quiet. “Platonic love, Cal?”

“It’s what you would have wanted me to say, isn’t it?”

“We both know that it isn’t true.”

“So now you’re admitting it—that we’re in love?”

“I didn’t say that I admitted it.” The light turned green and he stepped on the gas pedal to continue through the intersection, but as he was getting ready to say something else—there was a shattering of glass as the car landed on its side.

When Gillian woke up, she was a bit disoriented; just barely caught the outline of Cal’s body that was leaning in the driver’s seat. The darkened sky lit up, and was followed by a rather large crackling sound: lightning.

Gillian remembered that it was just the two of them. Sophie was safe in the hospital. So why was she hearing crying? And why did she felt the instinct to go see who it was?

“Cal?” Gillian hissed, her hand falling to the seat belt that was wedged between her and the ground.

“What?” Cal moaned, trying to sit upright. “I think I could have broken some ribs.” He touched his head, emitting a soft hiss in return. “And must have hit my head when we crashed.” Another crack of lightning, this time closer. “Can you move?”

“My seatbelt is stuck.” She tugged more insistently this time, but couldn’t break free.

“Is that crying?”

“I heard it earlier. I think it must be the other car.” In the corner of her eye, she caught a rather large piece of glass that was just out of reach. If she could get to it, she could use it to cut herself out. “There was another car that hit us when we were crossing through the intersection.”

“But the light was green.” Cal sounded a little surprised as he gripped at his own seatbelt. “What are you doing?”

“If I can reach this piece of glass, then maybe I can cut myself out.” She could feel her hand strain, almost over-extend as she fell just short of even touching the broken shard.

“Maybe I can get out of my seatbelt—”

“Who knows what injuries you have, let alone that it was your side that was hit.”

“Judging by how close that lightning is. . . I don’t think we have time to assess injuries right now.” He pressed, as he tugged on his seat belt, which was also happened to be jammed.

The wails increased, tenfold, which made her try even harder to reach that piece of glass. It was hard to make out the words that were being screamed over the lightning, thunder and wind that was picking up in the sky.

“MOOMMMYYY!!”

Her hands inched to the top of the glass, slowly she was able to grab onto it. With a satisfied groan, Gillian lifted the belt as far as she could from her body and started sawing at it with the glass.

“Any luck?”

“Not yet.” Another little break, Gillian was trying to saw a little faster now. “Think you can get out?” 

“I would, but my seatbelt is jammed.” He too was pulling on his belt, but a pain seared through his hand at the movement. It was possible that a broken wrist or arm could be added to his injuries.

“MOMMY. . . MOMMY, PLEASE WAKE UP!”

Another few minutes went by—another strike of lightning. Gillian had gotten most of the way through and was able to rip the belt to get free. Careful of all the broken glass on her side, she pushed some it aside and went over to Cal, who was looking at his hand.

“You okay?”

“Fine. I think I just hit my hand a little in the crash.” She looked like she didn’t quite believe him, but dismissed it when he added. “You’re going to have to break a window to get out of here.”

“I’m not going—”

“I’m not going anywhere. Go. I’ll get out. Hand me that piece of glass before you go.” He was pointing down to a good sized piece.

“I’m not leaving you here.”

“You can, and you will. If that were Sophie out there, you’d want to get her out as fast as possible.”

Picking up a good sized piece of glass, she warily placed it into his hand. “Don’t try to play the hero, Cal. I want you back alive.”

“You can count on that.”

Removing up one of the head rests; she found her purse and shattered the back window. When she crawled out, she saw a green jeep that was upright. There was a little girl in the backseat, probably only about five years old. She was petite; her black hair was pulled up into a ponytail. Besides a few cuts, she looked fairly unharmed.

Upon seeing Gillian emerged from the car, the little girl pounded on the window. Checking the door, Gillian found that she couldn’t get it open.

The little girl was terrified, and Gillian quickly checked the other door. No luck. Finally with a little prying, she got the passenger side door open. Gillian climbed in, checking the pulse of the woman sitting in the front seat, while trying to talk to the young girl.

“Hi. My name is Gillian…what’s yours?”   

“Elena.” The little girl peered from behind the seat. “Can you help my mommy?” 

“Your mommy was hurt pretty badly.” Her gaze went over to the car that Cal was probably still trapped in. She swallowed nervously, trying to keep it out of her voice. She hoped by now, that he had escaped, and that she could really use his help. Especially when she saw the oil pouring out, and a spark igniting. It wasn’t clear when the car would actually blow, but it was possibly that they were right in the line of fire.

Pulling her focus back, she tried her best at giving Elena a comforting smile. “Elena, I was hoping that you would help me.”

“How?”

“I need to get your mommy and you out of here, and over to the side. Do you think that you could climb up here and run over there?”

“Are you coming too?” Gillian felt an all familiar twinge that this wasn’t going to end well. From a first glance, she could see that her mom was pinned close to the dashboard, and her pulse was fading quickly. She just didn’t want Elena to see that her mother was dying right in front of her.

“I don’t like lightning.”

“I don’t either, actually.” Shifting, Gillian felt a stabbing pain in her leg. “Do you think you can climb up here?” 

The little girl backed away as if she were going to hide, but instead grabbed a red teddy bear and a blanket and started climbing over the console and slid down into her lap. She gazed at her mother, then back up at Gillian. 

“She’s going to die, isn’t she?” Her blue eyes begged her to be honest. Gillian couldn’t get the words out, except for a nod. Leaning forward, she took her mother’s pulse one last time. Nothing.

“I want to go.” But as she was about to open the door, Gillian stopped her just as Cal’s car erupted into flames.