16 years of haunting memories
I saw it coming from the left. I knew it was going to hit us, but what could I do, I was in the back seat, on the passenger side. I knew the left windows were going to break and glass would go flying toward my eyes. I turned to my right and tucked my head down. It all happened so fast. I heard a loud bang, the loudest sound I ever heard. Then everything went black.
I remember opening my eyes and seeing blood everywhere, the backside of the front seats were splattered with blood. Then I looked down at myself, my white t-shirt was now red, my jeans soaked. “Are you OK?” said my brother. I tried to close my mouth and clench my teeth but something was wrong. “I think I broke my jaw” I said. Everything went black again.
Then I heard a voice, “Put this over you to for protection”. An emergency crew member placed a blanket over me as the others began to cut the car open to get me out. Back to sleep I went. What felt like seconds later I awoke again, this time I could not see a thing, everything was black. I knew I was in the back of an ambulance on the way to a hospital. I felt hands all over my body. “I can’t see!” I cried out. “Don’t worry, you’re going to be fine” said a warm voice. I reached up my left hand and begged, “Hold my hand, don’t let go!” Somebody put their hand in mine and I held on to it for dear life before I blacked out again.
The next time I woke up I was being wheeled in to the emergency room, I still couldn’t see, but I heard a nurse ask me, “Can you move your feet?”
“Why, do you want to dance?” I joked. At least my sense of humor wasn’t broken. She laughed. I moved my feet a little.
“Can you wiggle your fingers?” She asked next. I did.
“Why can’t I see?” I asked.
“Your eyes are full of blood, we will clean you up.” I heard from another person. Then I passed out again.Moments later I came to again. I heard my parent’s voices. I opened my eyes and could see. My father came to my side, I wanted to say how glad I was to see him but instead I threw up a stomach full of blood all over him. “We need to get him upstairs for a cat-scan” someone said. I closed my eyes and tried to relax, I knew that I had lost a lot of blood at that point and was feeling very weak. They pushed me down the hall, in to the elevator. Up we went.
In the cat-scan room they tried to lift me off the stretcher when I vomited blood again, all over the machine. That’s when I heard complaining from the people who were supposed to help me. “Oh great, now we have to clean up this mess before we can do anything here! Get him out of here!” My heart broke, what was more important, my life or your machine? That’s when I lost the will to hold on anymore and fell asleep again.
