Crash

A true story about a car accident I was in as a teenager.

Crash

            When I awoke there was a haze. My head was pounding. Liquid was running down my face. I tasted blood. It hurt at first to lift my head off the ground. My long, brown, wavy hair was wet and the night was dark enough so that I could see it well enough to know what it was. Running my fingers over my face I could tell there was a gash in my cheek. I could feel it running the length of my face from the bottom of my ear halfway to the side of my nose. I could feel the cut inside my mouth as well. The cut was all the way through my cheek. There was no panic for some reason. I suppose the haze kept that at bay. Instead there was only confusion. Who was I? What was I doing there? I turned around, pivoting on one foot. I felt something tap my leg and heard a metallic click. I looked down and saw a socket wrench pressed into my leg to the bone. I bent down and pulled it out. More confused than I had been before, I let the wrench fall to the ground.

When I stood straight up again my head throbbed and I squinted, wiping the warm liquid from my head and eyes. I was near a road. I could see the lights of the cars going by. There was a small hill to climb and if I did I would be beside the highway. From my left came a groan and I stumbled that way, I could feel that my sock was soaked in the same, warm, wet fluid from the hole in my leg but I felt no pain. I moved toward the sound and found a twisted wreck of a car. Its front end was wrapped around a tree no more than a foot or so thick. The front windshield was gone. As I walked around to the driver side I could see a familiar boy in the front seat. He was maybe sixteen or seventeen years old. His face was cut in several small places. As I stepped closer I could see the steering wheel had entered into his stomach. There was blood everywhere.          

Behind him another familiar boy sat unconscious, his hand and wrist contorted in an unnatural position but he was breathing. The groan came again and I made my way to the passenger side. The front seat had been shoved forward and a smaller boy about the same age as the others was in the floorboard of the front passenger seat. I reached forward and with both hands I pulled him from the car and laid him down on the ground. I wasn’t sure why I did it then.

I stood staring for what seemed like hours at the boy, then the car and back again. Finally my mental facilities began working. The gears in my head were bursting free of the rust set upon them and things began to start making sense. The haze was lifting. I knew where I was. I wasn’t far from my high school. I had left a school dance to go to a party with some friends. I wasn’t supposed to be there. I stumbled toward the road. As I neared the road I looked down at my leg and realized then that my hair, the front of my shirt, my arms and legs and even my face was covered in blood. There was so much blood that I should’ve been frightened but I wasn’t. The haze had not lifted quite that far yet.

            I had a friend whose father was an EMT. She didn’t live far. I could walk there. I took another step, then another, my muscles starting to delay their reaction to my mental commands. I was dizzy and felt like I might fall. How long had I been walking? When I looked over my shoulder I didn’t see the car anymore. Did I miss the turn? Horns honked as people passed by going way too fast. A loud squeal surprised me as a camaro came to a stop and backed up. The window rolled down and I looked down into it. It was another familiar face, “Chris? Are you okay? Get in!” I did as she said. I didn’t know who she was but I knew I didn’t have much choice and she seemed to know me well enough. I opened the passenger door and got into the front seat beside her. Putting my weight on my left arm I pulled the door shut with my right, my left arm slipped on the arm rest. Blood had gotten on the arm rest and the seat and I apologized.

The girl kept talking to me but I wasn’t sure what to say to her. I didn’t know what had happened or where I was. I didn’t know who she was. She drove us to our friend’s house. When we came to the door she knocked and I stood watching her, fascinated through the haze with all the excitement. The door opened and our friend stood staring at me, her mouth gaping. I returned the stare, remembering for some reason her name. It was Taminda. Her father rushed up to the door and guided me to a chair. The smell of spaghetti filled my nose and I smiled because of it. I suppose the vision of my ripped flesh smiling was too much for my friend and she left the room squealing wildly while she called 9-1-1 while trying not to vomit.

Time leapt again and I was lying in an ambulance. I felt restrained. I called out and my mother’s face came into view. She leaned over me from the left and told me she was there. Pain filled me, my whole head hurt, my back and legs hurt, even my neck was shooting with pain. I could hear myself groan. I asked what happened. My mother informed me of the accident and I considered her words. Fear never came then. It should have but it didn’t. An EMT began asking me questions and I answered as well as I could then I asked if I could have a cigarette. The EMT chuckled and shook her head. My mother said no. Her voice shocked me. My mother was here? I turned toward her and asked her what had happened and where I was. Again she informed me. The haze fell again. Images came and went. The haze only allowed me to see some. When I awoke again I was sitting in a tiny shower. I was looking down at the floor and I was wearing a very thin gown. I could hear my father’s voice talking. I could see blood clots and hair at my feet. He was washing all the blood from my hair. I asked him how long I had been there and he told me all night. He said I had been in an accident the night before on my way to a party I was not supposed to go to. He explained that all teenagers make mistakes and that he was just happy I was alive. I forgot so many times that night. I will never forget again.

Reviews

[Annabeth]

Wow...the girl in this story was you?

[Vilkata444]

It was me in the story but I am male.

[Annabeth]

It sounds like yo've been through a lot. Sorry *turns pink*

[Vilkata444]

No problem. I didn't really identify sex in the story. ;)

[Annabeth]

Okay.Again I'm sorry.:)