chapter 12

tragedy

CHAPTER 12

            We finally arrived in Greenville around three-thirty Saturday afternoon and found a parking spot at Vidant Medical Center and practically ran inside. Fall had really set in up here, but I didn’t even take the time to notice, I was too worried about getting to Madison. We stopped at the information desk and found that she was up on the third floor, ICU.

            I saw Hillary as soon as I stepped off the elevator. She ran to me and threw her arms around me, and started crying again.

            “She will be okay, Hil,” I said, trying to comfort her.

            “What happened?” Colt asked.

            We followed Hillary to the waiting room and sat down. She blew her nose and took a deep breath before she started speaking.

            “We were at a frat party at the Sigma Phi house, drinking and having a good time. Then, some dude Maddie has been crushing on all semester stopped paying her attention and started trying to hook up with some other b***h. Maddie lost her s**t and wanted to leave. I tried to get her to call a cab and we would come back and get her car this afternoon before we left to head home, but she wouldn’t have it. I took her keys and she got so mad at me, I had never seen her so angry in my life and she slapped the s**t out of me and yanked her keys out of my hand and took off. I ran out of the house trying to catch up to her, but she was hauling a*s and was already pulling down the street by the time I got out there. She sped away like a bat out of hell. I tried calling her, but she kept sending me to voicemail. I called a cab and headed back to our dorm and I saw blue lights up in front of us and then I saw Maddie’s car, completely totaled. I told the cabbie to stop, threw him some cash and got out. She hit another car head on going fifty miles an hour and flew through the windshield, she didn’t have her seatbelt on. I thought for sure she was gone when I saw her lying on the pavement; she looked so lifeless. The cops tried to hold me back, but I explained to her that I was her roommate and we grew up together and she didn’t have anyone else here, so they let me ride in the ambulance with her. I called her mom and dad on the way and told them what happened and they were here by six this morning. If she hadn’t been in such bad shape and had to come here, Maddie would have been going to jail on DUI charges. It’s all my fault, I should have fought harder to get her keys.” She started crying again.

            “Hil, it’s not your fault. I love Maddie to dea--to pieces, but she did this herself. SHE made the decision to get behind the wheel and try to drive, you had nothing to do with it,” I said, wrapping my arms around my friend, feeling my eyes fill up.

            “Harleigh’s right, Hillary,” Amanda Smith said, coming into the waiting room. “I love my girl, but she is stubborn, and when she gets an idea in her head, no one is going to stop her. I’m just glad you tried to stop her and caught up with her and was able to call us. You’re a good friend to her.”

            Madison’s mama was a beautiful woman, with curly red hair and ivory skin just like Maddie, but she looked older than her forty years that afternoon. It looked like she had been crying for hours.

            “Harleigh, I’m so glad you are here, I know it took you awhile,” Amanda said, giving me a hug.

            “I’m so sorry, Amanda.”

            “Thank you,” she said, releasing me. She turned to Colt. “Colt, thank you for coming, too, and for being with Harleigh right now. You’re a good man.”

            “I had no choice. Maddie is my friend, too, and there was no way I was letting Harleigh come up here alone,” Colt said, giving Amanda a hug.

            “Where is John?” I asked.

            “He went to get us a hotel room close by so we have somewhere to go and rest. He will be back in a little bit so I can go and get cleaned up and take a nap,” Amanda said. “Well, the doctor said the swelling is going down, and hopefully they will be able to Madison out of the coma tomorrow and see if there will be any permanent damage. She has two black eyes, three broken ribs, and her left arm and leg are broken, I guess she landed on them when she flew out the windshield. Even if there is no brain damage, it is going to be a long road to recovery, and we will be taking her home as soon as she is able to travel. I am so damn mad at her right now, I don’t know what to do, and part of me feels like s**t for being mad, considering her condition. I have preached and preached to her about drinking and driving.”

            “What about her DUI?” I asked.

            “Oh, she got one, but we are going to have it transferred to Wake County after her first court date, which is in a week. I will go and stand in for her and explain the circumstances,” Amanda said.

            “Damn,” I whispered, shaking my head. “You think they will go easy on her, considering?”

            “It’s doubtful. I already talked to the magistrate. She blood alcohol level was .18 and she was speeding and the other driver got hurt, too, though not as bad. I went and saw him a little bit ago. He isn’t going to press any further charges, he’s young and understands,” Amanda said.

            “That’s good,” Colt said. He hasn’t been saying too much, I think he is at a loss for words like me. “When can we see her?”

            “I’ll go talk to the nurse and tell them you traveled from Alabama to get here and see if they will let you both in together,” Amanda said, getting up to go to the nurse’s station.

            Amanda came back a few minutes later and told Colt and I we could go in and see Madison, but we only had a few minutes.

            Colt held my hand as we walked in Madison’s room and I lost it when I saw her. She was hooked up to about ten different machines, it looked like. Her eyes were purple and swollen shut and she had her left arm and leg in casts. Her head was wrapped in gauze and she looked nothing like the Maddie I have known all of my life. I sat down beside her bed and grabbed her hand, and started talking to her, even though I knew she couldn’t hear me.

            “Damn you, Maddie,” I said through my tears. “Please pull through this, I don’t know what I will do if I lose you.”

            I couldn’t say any more and I couldn’t sit there anymore, either. Colt practically carried me out of the room.

            “I’m taking her to a hotel,” Colt said when we got back to the waiting room.

            “Okay,” Amanda said. “I’ll call and let you know if there are any changes.”

            I couldn’t speak and I could hardly walk. If it weren’t for Colt, I would have collapsed in the floor. He helped me down to the Jeep and hooked me in the passenger seat and that’s the last thing I remember.