by T Gephart
“Yes, we are. And no dick sucking was involved. Some of us can get by on talent without resorting to man-whoring. Speaking of which, you still working your corner in St. Kilda?” I barely contained my grin. This was our usual spiel, back and forth with insults until it usually disintegrated into talking about someone’s mother.
After a few more friendly loaded exchanges we entered into the belly of the beast that was Revolver. The strobe lights disturbed the darkness of the mismatched décor while the heavy scent of sweat welcomed us. I loved it.
“Let’s head to the bar, you’re looking thirsty!” Mike enthused as we pushed past the crowd.
“Not for me mate, I’m driving. Besides, it’s going to be more fun watching you get loaded. You know our beer pisses all over yours.” I grinned as we made it to the bar.
“You aren’t going to get an argument from me there.” Mike agreed as we ordered a beer for him and a coke for me.
Ordinarily I’d have a beer or two knowing I’d be fine by the time I hit the wheel but I felt James’ caution weighing on me. The last thing I needed was to screw up this opportunity on account of a big night. No, this gig was too important and added to that was the responsibility I felt for Mike. I was going to need to stay sharp.
The night progressed as we predicted. We enjoyed a few drinks (I kept to the soft stuff), shot some pool and listened to the band. Throughout the course of the evening we received more than our fair share of female attention but nothing that caught our fancy. Mike got a few numbers but none that I saw him calling in the foreseeable future. Of course the fact he was James’ brother was kept well under wraps, most girls just assumed he was some random Yank on holiday and who were we to correct them?
As the DJ kicked on, the dancing continued but the crowd started to slowly thin. I gave a cursory glance at my watch thinking it was maybe midnight, but was floored when I saw that was it was already the early hours of the morning. FUCK! So much for an early night. Today was going to be brutal.
“Dude, we have got to bail. Breakfast is going to be in a few hours and James is going to hand us our asses.” I clapped Mike across the shoulder and showed him my watch. It was almost 4 a.m.
“SHIT, how did it get so late? I swear we’ve only been here for a few hours?” Mike stared at me in disbelief.
“Yeah well, we can dissect and extrapolate the “hows” later. Let’s make tracks.” I palmed my keys as I directed Mike to the door.
I’ll admit that while I was a little tired and while Mike had a slight buzz he was far from being drunk so I wasn’t overly worried about getting through the rest of the day. We just needed to push through. Once we got to the show tonight the atmosphere would carry us through. As long as we did that, we could crash later. Who knows, maybe if sound check wasn’t too long we could even sneak in an afternoon nap.
As we exited Revolver, sheets of rain greeted us. The road looked liquid as the fast moving water flowed down the street. Gutters struggled with the deluge as their mouths bubbled, unable to funnel the water fast enough. It seemed the night evaporating hadn’t been the only thing that had slipped our attention while we were in the club.
“Jesus, this is some kind of biblical style storm going on here!” Mike winced as the cold water hit our bodies. The crash of thunder put a nice big exclamation mark on his statement.
“The car’s not far.” I yelled over sound of the rain, “Guess it saves us on needing a shower.” I laughed as the water soaked through our clothes.
We looked like two drowned rats by the time we got to the CRV. I turned the ignition and cranked on the heat, the blast of hot air making us shiver.
“I can barely see the road.” I mumbled as I eased the car from the curb. Thankfully there were hardly any cars around as I negotiated back toward the city. Mike eased into his seat and played with the radio. The swishing wipers on the windscreen tried unsuccessfully to keep up with the pelting rain.
“So, did you see anything you liked out there tonight?” I glanced over at Mike as I kept the car at an even speed. There was no way I was pushing the limit tonight, not in this rain.
“Maybe? I just wasn’t feeling it tonight.” Mike yawned, stretching his arms above his head. “What about you?”
“Nah. You’re right. The vibe was off tonight. Band was good though, not a bad mix.” I released one of my hands from the wheel and rubbed my eyes.
“Dude! The light just turned red!” Mike cautioned as my eyes cleared.
“FUCK!” I cursed as I slammed on my breaks. BAD MOVE! I don’t know what was going through my head but hitting the breaks was the single worst thing I could have done. I still had enough road to slow and stop but some screwed up synapse told me to plant my foot on the break and it was too late.
I felt the car lunge as it lost contact with the road. Mike yelled but it seemed like it was off in the distance, in fact it was as if I could hear nothing but the rain against the metal of the car and the squeal of the breaks. The car spun sideways as it aquaplaned across the road. I helplessly tugged on the wheel and pumped the breaks but it only made it worse. It was as if we were moving in slow motion as the car slid laterally. I let go of the wheel, unable to regain control and braced for impact. I looked across helplessly at Mike and mouthed, “We’re going to hit!” I saw the panic in his eyes and my stomach knotted as we crossed the intersection, narrowly missing a Honda Civic. As we cleared the lights I breathed a sigh of relief when the impact didn’t come. Thank God, there were no cars travelling in the other direction.
“We’re going to be ok,” I yelled over the noise as I grabbed at the steering wheel. I looked over at Mike who was pale and shaking, that’s when I saw it - the light pole.
<
“Hello…are you ok?” a distant voice asked.
I couldn’t make myself focus as I floated into consciousness. The horn was blaring, the wipers still streaked across the windscreen and I could still hear the rain drumming against the car. A pungent smell overwhelmed my senses; it was like burnt plastic or rubber. I could taste the bitterness in the air. My face and chest felt like I had gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson. Intense pain travelled through my arm and I was covered in a fine dust or powder.
I tried to answer the voice but all I could manage was an inaudible mumble.
“Can you hear me?” the voice demanded. The direction of the voice had changed, it had moved further away. Behind me and to the side? I slowly regained my orientation. I was in the car. I had lost control. We had hit the pole. We? We… SHIT, Mike!!! The voice was talking to Mike!!!
“Mike, Mike… wake up dude… MIKE…WAKE UP!” I screamed as I looked over at his lifeless body. He wasn’t moving. Mike - wake up. WAKE UP. God damn it, I need you to wake the fuck up right now. I felt myself hyperventilate as I tried to will him awake. I wasn’t accepting the alternative. God please, don’t let me have killed him.
“Hey, it’s ok…calm down… Can you move at all?” she asked. She…the voice was a she.
I nodded, awkwardly unhooking my car seat. The angle sent me forward and I almost fell flat onto the road. As I grabbed onto the door panel to stop my tumble, pain shot through my left arm.
She had somehow twisted her body over the seat and was now sitting up front. Her head was pressed firmly on Mike’s chest. I knew what she was doing, but my brain couldn’t reconcile what I was seeing. He had to be breathing. He HAD to be.
Her grim look told me what I wasn’t ready to hear. Mike was in trouble.
“GRAB MY PHONE OUT OF THE CAR AND DIAL 000. TELL THEM WE NEED A MICA AMBULANCE, NOW!” she shouted as I clung to the door.
I blinked, unable to move, paralysed by shock.
“DO IT!” she yelled, snapping me back to realty as I looked over at the Honda Civic still idling at the intersection.
I sprinted across to the car and violently pulled open the door. My heart pounded as I grabbed at the iPhone casually lying on the passenger side seat. My fingers shook as I dialled triple zero. I was patched through to
an ambulance operator immediately and I gave her our location. “We need a MICA ambulance. He’s… he’s bad!” I panted as I ran back over Mike and the girl.
“Just stay calm. We are dispatching help now. Stay on the line with me,” the operator urged.
“Help me get him onto his back, he’s not breathing,” she commanded as she tried to move Mike out of the cabin of the car.
I shoved the phone into my mouth to free up my hands and helped her lift Mike onto the road. My own pain had to take a back seat while I helped do whatever I could do to save Mike. She laid him flat on his back and immediately started compressions. Her face showed no hesitation as she kept pumping on his chest.
“Hello… what’s going on?” The operator asked.
“He wasn’t breathing, she’s preforming CPR.” I explained as I watched on helplessly.
“Good, someone is there with you. Keep up the compressions. The ambulance isn’t far,” the dispatcher reassured.
A small but definite cough sprung from Mike’s throat as he started to breathe on his own. She stopped pumping his chest and listened, before rolling him into the recovery position on his side. He was breathing, but not out of the woods yet. I looked down at Mike’s slumped body and saw that he was bleeding, heavily. She ripped off her shirt and fashioned some kind of homemade bandage. I could only stare helplessly as she put pressure on his wound. It was like a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from.
“Are you ok? Are you hurt?” her voice had softened, it was less urgent now but I couldn’t peel my eyes from Mike.
“I don’t know, I think my arm is broken, I don’t know.” I mumbled as I paced nervously.
“What’s your name?” she asked me. I couldn’t stop moving. I couldn’t stand still. I felt like if I stopped I was going to be sick.
“Jackson.” I responded unable to manage anymore.
“It’s going to be okay Jackson, they are close.” She nodded in the direction of the faint sirens, the flashing lights coming into view.
The Ambulance pulled up beside us. The paramedics leapt from their vehicle and immediately attended to Mike. They put an oxygen mask over his face and moved a board underneath him. They were so fast. Their trained hands moved with purpose as they treated him but there was no movement coming from Mike. He was motionless, still, lifeless.
“Did you hit your head?” another paramedic asked me. I looked up and blinked unaware there had been anyone in front of me. “Your head?” he repeated. “Any blurring? Sensitivity to light? I’m just going to examine you, ok?” He moved in closer as he put his gloved hands across the back of my skull.
“Ughhhhh,” I winced as he hit a tender spot on my cranium. “I’m ok, I just need you to look after Mike.”
“What’s your name?” he asked as he shone a light into my eyes.
“Jackson. I’m fine. I’m fine.” I tried to reassure him. He needed to get over there in case they needed help with Mike.
“Listen Jackson, my name is Rob and your buddy Mike is in good hands with my partners over there. I promise you that he is being well looked after but we need to treat you as well. From the angle your arm is dangling I suspect a fracture but I’m more concerned about this lump at the back of your head.” He pressed tenderly around the base of my neck and back up to the tender area he’d touched before.
I watched as they moved Mike into the back of the ambulance. Tubes and wires were attached to his body. He still hadn’t moved.
“We’re going to move you too. Are you able to walk or do you need a stretcher?” Rob asked he removed his hands from my head.
“I can walk,” I assured him as he guided me to the waiting ambulance.
The back doors were open; the track lights of the ceiling stung my eyes as I was helped into the ambulance. One of the paramedics was injecting something into Mike’s IV and another gently eased me into the stretcher beside him.
“Is he alive?” I swallowed, praying like hell he was.
“Yes, his heartbeat is faint but present. We’re moving you both to the Alfred Hospital but I’m going to need you to lay back and relax. We’re going to do everything we can.” Rob tapped the door before closing it and I felt the engine start.
The siren came on. Its piercing swirl hurt my ears. I felt my stomach lunge and I was overwhelmed by the need to vomit but I choked it down. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on something other than the pain. Now that I was laying still it hurt even more. The vehicle rocked as we moved away from the wreck of my CRV. I replayed the last few minutes I remembered. I shouldn’t have hit the brake. My lids flung back open as I looked over at Mike. It was my fault. All of it was my fault. If that female motorist hadn’t been there, we’d still be stuck in the car. Mike… I gulped as the realty hit me. Mike had stopped breathing. She brought him back. She knew what to do and did it, even though I froze. There was no way I could have saved him. My brain churned with more images of the impact and my stomach rolled again. The pole. Black. I couldn’t actually remember the impact, just the terrorizing seconds before it happened.
The ride to hospital was short, but to me it was agonisingly long. Mike was taken first. His body was swallowed by a sea of activity and then he was gone. I was wheeled out next. The stretcher jolted as it made contact with the road and then through the emergency doors. Voices above me shouted things I didn’t understand and at this point I didn’t really care. A cannula and IV was inserted into my good arm, I didn’t even feel it. I tried to ask how Mike was but no one would answer other than telling me he was being cared for and was heading to surgery. A nurse fired a million questions at me - allergies, medical history, next of kin… My autopilot kicked in as I mumbled answers.
The girl… where was she? I didn’t even get a chance to thank her. “There was a girl,” I mumbled as they wheeled me in for a CT scan.
“Just relax Mr Rose, we need to see if you have any head trauma. Please hold still,” the nurse demanded as she stepped outside and allowed the technician to turn on the machine.
“I need… to find her…” The words fell from my mouth as the machine buzzed. I wanted a chance to say… say something. My eyes flickered as the machine moved up and down, my head pounded and my arm throbbed. I struggled to focus.
My arm was scanned after they had satisfactory pictures of my head. The same “hold still” routine was repeated. Once again the machine buzzed to life, its invisible field gobbling my arm. I just wanted it over.
“All done, Mr Rose. We’ll take you back now. We will get you some pain relief and set that arm,” the nurse soothed as she pushed me back into the emergency area.
My arm was stabilized and something was injected into the IV. I welcomed the numbness as it travelled through my body. “Mike?” I asked as a different nurse scribbled something on my chart.
“He’s still in surgery,” she responded, not looking up from her paperwork. “We’re going to move you as soon as the meds take effect and we’ll plaster the arm tomorrow. The splint will be ok for tonight. We’ll want to get another scan to make sure the bone is in the correct position.” The new nurse was clinical in her delivery.
“I understand you were asking about the female motorist?” she glanced up absently.
“Yes,” I struggled against the medication coursing through my veins. “Do you have her information? I need to thank her.”
“She’s here at hospital.” The nurse placed the paperwork back in its holder beside my bed. As she leaned in I read her name badge. Grace.
“I need to talk to her. Please will you get her for me?” I snapped back to alertness. She was here? She must have followed the ambulance. Who cared why she was here, all I knew was I needed to speak to her. “Please.” I tried to shuffle up the bed.
“Lay back and try and rest. I’ll see what I can do.” Grace adjusted the sheet covering my body before turning and walking away.
I shifted in the small metal hospital bed. I was still in pain. It had dulled because of the drugs I had been given, but ha
dn’t left entirely. My brain was still buzzing with activity. The replay of the accident was on a constant loop that I couldn’t stop and I needed to call James. I squeezed my eyes shut as the pounding in my head increased.
Nurse Grace pulled across the flimsy curtain that cordoned off my “bed” and ushered a tired looking brunette in. Her jacket gaped at the top and revealed the blood splatter on her chest. She had been sitting on the road in her bra, using her shirt to slow the blood from the gash in Mike’s leg. I hadn’t noticed before how beautiful she was. I guess I didn’t really have the opportunity to look until now. Of course the furthest thing from my mind right now was hitting on her. I just wanted to… Hell, I didn’t even know what I wanted to say.
“Hi,” I was able to muster, struggling to speak as my emotions welled in my throat.
“Hi, I’m Lexi… I don’t think we’ve properly met.” She gently touched my hand as she spoke.
“Lexi, what you did… you saved Mike’s life…” I swallowed hard unable to say anymore. She had already seen me at my worst but I didn’t want to cry like a freaking baby in front of her.
“Hey, it’s ok…” she gave me a weak smile, “Anyone would have done it. You’re both ok and that’s the main thing.” Lexi matched my gaze with her gentle light brown eyes. I wasn’t convinced that she was right about anyone doing what she did. I knew in my gut the reason Mike was still here was because it was Lexi on that road with us.
“Can I use your phone again… there is a call I need to make.” As hard as it was going to be, I needed to call James.
She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out her phone.
“Of course, here it is.” She handed me her iPhone, “Would you like me to step outside to give you a minute?”
“No! Please stay.” I needed her to stay. This was going to be hard enough to get through. As strange as it sounded, having her close would make it easier. “I just don’t want to be alone right now.”
She nodded and stayed by my side as I dialled James’ phone.
