MIDNIGHT ON THE HIGHWAY

MIDNIGHT ON THE HIGHWAY

Driving home after work was never an enjoyment for me. The roads twisted and turned through the wooded hills, darkened by the lack of moonlight, making it almost impossible to see as a deep fog settled in. I slowed to a snail's pace and dimmed the headlights. On high beam, I was faced with a solid wall of fog. At least now I could see the road a little clearer.

Luckily there was never any traffic on the way home. I longed for the comfort and warmth of my bed as I tried hard to stay awake and alert. I was so tired! I rolled down the window for fresh air, needing to revive my senses. I heard, rather than saw, an oncoming car. I tried to pull over to the right as much as I could without going off the road. The car roared past and then came the sound of the crash. It was midnight, no other cars on the road to assist. It was up to me to stop to see if the occupants were all right and what I could do to help.

I grabbed my First Aid kit, thankful that I had one in the car, along with a flashlight. I ran the short distance to the crash site, and to my horror, saw that the car was teetering on the edge. A woman's scream pierced the night. Each movement in the car brought them closer to going over and into the lake. "Don't move!", I shouted and I heard a muffled cry, "Help me!"

I made it to the car and looked in the window. The woman was pinned and there was no way to get her out without help. Checking the car for other occupants, I saw a small child in the back seat, covered with a blanket and writhing in pain. "I was trying to get Jimmy to the hospital" she cried, "I think his appendix has burst!" Looking back at the boy, I saw that he was now quiet and his face had turned deathly white. If I didn't get them out, he would die.

I set the flashlight down and searched for rocks to trig the wheels of the car. I picked up several large rocks and carried them to the rear wheels, pushing them underneath. At least now there would be a slight chance that they would hold the car while I got them out. I don't remember breathing, just the gasping for air as the adrenalin kicked in. I went to the driver's side door, finding it stuck. I asked the woman if she could roll down the window, and I am sure she tried, but being pinned in didn't leave much chance for movement. . "Hold on!" I said, as I turned back to find another stone. "Turn your face away" I shouted, "I am going to try to break the window."

I was thankful for the emergency first aid and rescue training I had taken. Within minutes I had broken the glass and reached inside to try and open the door. My weight helped as I gave the door a tug. Then, to my horror, the car started a downward descent toward the lake below. I don't know how I did it, but I pulled back and pushed the car backward onto the road. For the moment, they were safer than I could have imagined. Where does the power come from, and how in a crisis can one woman accomplish the impossible?

I wrenched on the driver's side door again and amazingly, it opened with a screech of metal. I was able to get the woman's legs free and pull her out onto the road. She lay there sobbing, and I removed my jacket and covered her as best I could. The night was getting colder. I turned my attention to the small boy in the back seat and within minutes had him on the ground beside his mother.

He was not breathing! Without thinking, I started CPR. His mother wept openly, and kept saying "Help him, save him!" That was getting on my already frayed nerves, and I told her, sharply, to be quiet. I was wishing that someone else would come to help as I tried to breathe life back into the boy. Praying silently, in a desperate attempt to make him breathe on his own.

After several seconds, that seemed like hours, I could feel his heart beating, and his breathing returning to as normal as it could. With both of them now removed from the car and covered, I ran back to my car to get the emergency blanket and turn on my warning lights. As I turned to go back to them, their car rolled another inch or two closer to the edge. I watched as it went over, in slow motion, and ran back to the two lying on the ground. The woman appeared to be in shock and the boy, although still breathing, was close to death.

"I'm going to bring my car back down and try to get you two to the hospital" I told her, hoping she understood me as I looked into glazed eyes. It was then that I heard a truck in the distance. I started waving the flashlight and yelling at the top of my lungs. It rounded a corner and slowed (Thank God!), coming to a stop between my car and the two on the ground. "My God!" the man shouted, as he jumped down from the truck. "What can I do to help?" Together we were able to get them to my car and I gratefully felt the warmth of my heater coming on full blast. "Follow me down", the truck driver said, and I did a U-turn and headed back, following him closely.

We made our way down, through the fog and darkness, arriving at the hospital. He rushed inside to get the emergency room workers in gear. Soon the woman and her son were loaded on stretchers and whisked into the glistening white walls of the hospital. It was then that I started shaking and crying. The truck driver came to my side and put a burly arm around my shoulders. "It's okay, they will be all right now!" he said "What you did tonight was a miracle!"

We went inside the hospital to await the findings on the woman and her son. A work-worn hand passed me a steaming hot cup of black coffee. I reached for it with blood-soaked hands, torn from carrying rocks and smashing the car window. One of the emergency room nurses came over, cleaned and bandaged them. "I'm all right", I kept saying, through a new onslaught of tears.

Hours later, the on-call doctor and a surgeon came to see us. "The lady will be fine", they said. "She wasn't so badly injured, mostly scrapes and bruises where she was pinned in. She'll be in the hospital for a few days, and we have notified her family." No mention was made of the boy and they started to turn away.

"Wait a minute!" I cried. "What about the boy?" The surgeon came back and gave me a look that told me the answer before I heard his words. The boy had not made it. The appendix ruptured, and he was gone. I sank to the floor, the first time in my life that I had fainted.

"Strange thing, though", the surgeon said, "as we were preparing for emergency surgery, he kept saying something about an angel lifting him." The truck driver nodded.

From a distance, I looked down at the surgeon and the truck driver. "Too bad about the woman who was hit by their car. She didn't stand a chance." "I know" the truck driver said, "she was already gone when I saw the woman and her son sitting on the edge of the road below them. I got them loaded in the truck and drove them here." Shaking hands with the surgeon, he turned and left the hospital. The surgeon turned away, shaking his head. He noticed the bandages on the floor by the chair. "Strange", he thought, as he told the nurse about them. She shook her head, no memory of why they were there. I had ceased to exist in their minds.

I had never driven down the mountain, following the truck driver. The woman and her son had been lifted into the man's truck. My mind had been racing with the logical thoughts of a person who refused to know the truth. I had been there, I had saved them, and I had felt the warmth of the coffee in the waiting room and patiently watched as the nurse bandaged my hands. Or did I?

The fog swirled around me as I lay dying in the wreck. Blood-soaked and unable to move, I felt my life ebbing away. And yet - I could hear the screams coming from the car that had hit me. As I gathered the First Aid kit and flashlight and started out to the other car, I glanced back and looked in surprise at my crushed body inside. No time for that now - I have to help them.

Strange things do happen at midnight on the highway.

Countrymom
2/14/07