Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 72561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
“Oh, my God,” I whispered.
The phone slipped from my hand, and I laid it down on the seat of the truck before shouldering open my door and hopping out.
I got the pants zipped, but not buttoned and started walking towards the chaos.
Somehow, I’d managed to grab a pair of gloves, and I slipped them over my hands.
There were hundreds of people, just like me, staring at the chaos.
I walked across the debris laden interstate, and into a nightmare.
I found Silas first, and went straight to him.
“What do you need me to do?” I asked quietly.
He looked up from the passenger van’s side window and shook his head. “I don’t know, Channing. Just do what you can. Talk to them. Find a car and talk to them.”
Which is what I did.
I went to the first car I found that didn’t already have a person at it, and walked slowly up to the window.
The car was in shreds. It was what I guessed to be a black mid-size SUV, but resembled something smaller, and much more deadly with the sharp, jagged pieces of metal and the gas leaking out on the asphalt.
The woman in the front seat was young, possibly sixteen or seventeen. She was staring around her with a dazed expression.
“Honey?” I called. “Do you know what happened to you?”
I didn’t know what to say, so that seemed like the logical starting point.
“N-no. Where’s my mom?” She asked softly.
The girl had a cut above her right eye, and her face was covered in a white film most likely from the air bag being deployed.
“Your mom’s not here, honey. Can you look at me?” I asked.
She turned her head, and I saw more blood curling around her ear and running down her neck.
Shrugging out of my sweatshirt, I moved through the broken driver’s side window and placed the sleeve of the sweatshirt on the girl’s wounded head.
I took stock of the girl’s body, and was happy to see that the only thing wrong with her seemed to be the wound at the back of her head.
“Can you tell me your name?”
“Judith,” she answered a little more coherently.
“Hi, Judith. I’m Channing. Do you go to school?” I asked her, trying to keep her talking.
“Yes,” she confirmed. “But I was on the way to visit my dad in Texas. My mom and I were having a road trip.”
I looked around the car, not seeing the mom anywhere, which made me worry that the girl hit her head harder than I’d thought.
We spoke for nearly an hour.
Emergency crews responded within minutes of my call, but there were just so many people to be seen, that it took time to get help to everybody.
At one point, a man wearing fire gear walked up, assessed the patient, and told me to continue what I was doing.
I did, and watched the hectic world around me.
I saw Loki pop up every now and then, as well as Silas and Cleo, but I didn’t see the two younger ones until much later in the day.
***
It was my screaming bladder that finally sent me away from the pandemonium.
Judith had been cut out of her car, and I’d stood by watching anxiously. I’d forged a bond with the sweet young woman over the past couple hours, and I felt an attachment to her that I couldn’t explain.
However, when my bladder decided that it wouldn’t hold any longer, I dashed towards the woods and walked until I could no longer see anyone or anything before relieving myself.
Then I went to the truck, grabbed a blanket out of the back, and waited, not sure what else to do.
I could see all of the men in my group, but they were all hard at work helping the crews make sense of the accident.
I shivered, still overwhelmed with the destruction.
Placing my hands on the hood of Loki’s truck, I hoisted myself up until I was sitting on it, and then leaned back against the windshield and surveyed the area.
“Ma’am?” A motherly voice said from behind me.
I jumped and sat up to find an older woman in jeans and a sweatshirt standing there, smiling fondly at me.
“Yes?” I asked.
“I’m Judith’s mother. I just wanted to say thank you for staying with her. You’re a very good woman,” she smiled sweetly.
I blinked, and then a beaming smile overtook my face.
“Oh, I’m so happy to see that you’re okay. Did you know that they sent Judith to the hospital already? I asked.
She nodded. “Yes, I did. I just wanted to thank you.”
“Oh,” I said, blushing slightly. “It wasn’t any big deal. I’d bet you would’ve done the same for me.”
She nodded sagely. “I would’ve. Please take care of that baby of yours. They truly change your life.”
I looked down at my body, wondering how she could tell. I mean, it was obvious to me that I was pregnant, but my own boyfriend couldn’t tell, so how was it that she did?
When I looked back up again, the woman was gone.
I leaned back against the windshield of the truck, and my eyes closed involuntarily.
When they opened once again, it was to find Loki rubbing my thigh gently and talking to me in soothing tones.
“Channing, baby? Are you ready to go?” Loki’s rough voice said from below me.
My eyes opened, and the first thing I saw was a dark night sky scattered with millions of stars.
Turning my head, I looked down at the man that I loved.
Yes, I said I loved. I knew I loved him.
After today, I realized how fast life could change. How, in one single second, everything could be cloudy, with no path in sight. Then a single moment in time could change my world, clear the cobwebs, and show me the route I needed to take.
“I love you,” I whispered.
He froze.
“What’d you say?” He rasped.
The light from the street lamp above our heads shone down, casting him in an eerie white light.
He looked beat. Utterly and thoroughly beat.
“I said, I love you,” I said louder.
He blinked, and then his face broke into a sad smile.