by Jeff Moberg
***
When Mom came home from work that evening and saw the ring on my finger, she almost had a heart attack. I said, “Relax, Mom. We’re not getting married. It’s just a promise to always care about each other.” She gave me a suspicious, worried mom look, but didn’t argue about it anymore. I was glad I didn’t mention the L word to her—that could just be between Luke and I.
51
The Worst Day Ever
Spring passed quickly and smoothly. Things were good with school. Things were good at home. And things were good with Luke and I. I was extraordinarily happy. Spring break came and we all decided to spend a day cleaning and sprucing up the Diner for Dan and Dot. It was a beautiful, late March, Saturday morning when Mom and I pulled into the parking lot at the tree farm. We were going to load up a few things with Luke and his mom, and then head over to the Diner. After cleaning things up, we planned on having a cookout with Dan and Dot.
Mom said, “See you in a minute,” as she headed over to the office to help Luke’s mom load up the Scrambler. I was a little surprised that Luke wasn’t up and about already, but he had been sick last week, so I figured that maybe he was sleeping in this morning. I thought it would be fun to wake him up for once and tease him about not being an early bird like me; so I quickly texted him as I walked across the parking lot to the tiny red, white, and blue trailer:
Me: Wake up, sleepy head! Time to get up and go to work!
There was no response.
Oh well, I thought. I’ll just knock on the door to wake him up.
I took two more steps and suddenly, there was a loud bang that shook the ground around me and knocked me down. As I slowly got to my feet, I noticed that the front of the tiny red, white, and blue trailer was gone. Oh my God, I thought. The trailer just blew up and Luke is inside there! Without thinking, I rushed through the small door. The part of the trailer that was left was engulfed in flames—and Luke was in the very back. I took a deep breath and fought my way to Luke’s room. There was fire and smoke everywhere, and at first, I couldn’t see him. For a split second, I thought, Maybe he’s not in here, and I’m going to die looking for him.
Then I saw his leg sticking out from under his bed and desk. The force of the explosion must have knocked him out, and he was buried under the furniture in the corner of the tiny room. The fire was hotter than I could have ever imagined, and I started coughing and choking from the smoke. But I knew that I had to try and save Luke. I couldn’t have lived with myself if I hadn’t tried. With every last once of energy I had left, I grabbed his leg and pulled him out from under the bed and desk. Then I remembered the fireman’s carry that my dad had taught me years ago when he was trying to teach me how to wrestle. I ducked my head under Luke’s arm, lifted him on my back, and turned and plowed through the fire and smoke until we fell out of the small door to the outside.
Luke’s mom and my mom were running across the parking lot, screaming and yelling bloody murder. When they got to us, my left arm was actually on fire. Mom had taken off her jacket while she was running toward us, and she quickly wrapped it around my arm, putting out the flames. Luke was lying on the ground next to me. He wasn’t on fire—but he wasn’t breathing. Suddenly, Bob and Bob Jr. came out of nowhere. Bob picked Luke and carried him away from the burning trailer, and Bob Jr. moved the rest of us away also. Then there was another loud bang—louder than the one before—and the rest of the tiny red, white, and blue trailer was gone. There was nothing left of it.
Eugene came running out of the farmhouse to see if we were OK. My arm hurt and I was coughing a lot, but otherwise I thought I was OK. Bob was giving Luke CPR and mouth to mouth when the fire trucks and ambulance pulled into the parking lot. The paramedics worked on Luke and after a minute or so, we heard him start coughing. Thank God, I thought. At least he’s breathing. He’s not dead.
The paramedics quickly loaded Luke into the back of the ambulance, and left just as another ambulance, and two sheriff patrol cars pulled up. While the fireman worked on putting out the fire, the other paramedics looked at my arm. They cleaned it and wrapped it in bandages, and soon, Mom and I were following Luke and his mom to the hospital in the other ambulance. As we were pulling out of the tree farm parking lot, I noticed that was wasn’t anything left of the tiny red, white, and blue trailer that Luke and his mom had lived in for so long—and I wondered what would happen to them and where they would live.
Mom was white as a sheet. “What happened, honey?”
“I don’t know, Mom. I was walking toward the trailer to wake up Luke, and it just blew up. I went inside and carried him out.”
The paramedic put an IV in my good arm and smiled. What’s your name,” he asked.
“Norma. Norma L.”
“Well, Norma L, you’re a hero. You saved your friend’s life.”
52
Back to the Hospital
When we got to the hospital, I knew that I had burned my arm pretty badly. It hurt a lot, but I knew that was a good thing, because if it didn’t hurt, then that meant it was a third degree burn and there were no nerves left. The thing I didn’t realize was that the fire had singed and burned my hair, and there wasn’t much left of it. I also had slight burns on my ears and neck, but the doctor said they would heal up nicely.
I ended up being right about my arm. It had second-degree burns, and there would be some scarring, but it would heal up OK also. Luke was a different story. He had three broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a concussion from the fall he took when he was knocked out in the explosion. He also had some slight burns, and he was on a ventilator to help him breathe since he had suffered pretty sever smoke inhalation. He was in intensive care and his condition was listed as serious.
I was admitted to the hospital for overnight observation. The doctor told me I was very lucky, and that I could have easily died trying to save Luke. Then he smiled at my mom and said, “You should be very proud of your daughter. She’s a hero.” There was that word again.
My mom still looked white as a sheet. She just smiled weakly and nodded yes.
The next 24 hours was a whirlwind of activity. There was a never-ending parade of people coming through my room. First, the police talked to me, then the Fire Marshall, then the insurance investigator, then a local newspaper reporter named Jim, and finally, Steve Stephens from Fox 13 Television News. Everyone was saying that I was a hero—and that I had saved Luke’s life. I told them that I was just doing what anyone would do for their friend, and I also made sure to remind them about what Bob and Bob Jr. had done.
I had many, many, many visitors again. Friends and family members came from miles around. My dad came in several times to see how I was doing. I think he had a hard time not being my attending physician--but he did talk to my doctor and asked him about a million questions. I’m sure that doctors hated it when a patient’s parent was also a doctor. My Uncle Joe frowned at me and said, “Norma, Norma, Norma. What is it with you? First you get your nose busted… and now your going into fires and saving people. What in the world is your mother going to do with you?”
One of my grandmas paid for a hair stylist to come in and fix my hair, since it was choppy and uneven and most it had been singed off in the fire. I looked in the mirror when she was done. Hmm… I thought. It was super short now, and I definitely liked my long hair better… but at least I still had a cute nose! I laughed, knowing that Luke would have thought it was funny if I had said that to him. And the nice thing was that I knew he would still like me no matter what my hair looked like.
I fell asleep after lunch, and when I woke up, Kletch was standing quietly next to my bed. “Hey, Normy!” he said when he saw that I was awake.
I raised up my bed since he was so tall. “Hey Kletch. How are you?”
“I’m good. I like your new hair. It looks nice.”
“Thank you, Kletch. A lot of my hair was
burned off in the fire, so I had to get it cut.”
“That’s why I’m here. I came to say hi and see how you were doing.”
“I’m doing good, Kletch. Thanks for coming to visit.”
“I also came to see your match, but they wouldn’t let me see him today.”
I smiled as I remembered when he had said that Luke and I matched because of our red hair. “You’re right,” I said. “Luke and I have matching red hair.” I explained to him that Luke was in intensive care because he had a machine that was helping him breathe, but that he would be moved to a regular room soon, and we could all visit him then.
“I also have something for you Normy. Hold out your hand.”
I held out my hand, expecting to get a roll of lifesavers or some small, sweet gift from him.
He put the Medal of Honor in my hand. “This is yours now Normy.”
I was absolutely speechless for several seconds. Tears started to run down my face. “Oh, no, Kletch. This is yours. It was given to you by the president. You saved sixteen men. I could never take it from you. You earned it.” I tried to hand it back to him, but he just closed my fingers around it.
“You did what I did, Normy. It’s yours now. You earned it. You deserve it.” He leaned down and kissed me on the cheek. “I’m proud of you Normy.” He started to walk out of the room, but before he left, he turned and said, “You and Luke don’t match because of your hair… you match because of your good hearts. You’re both special.”
When Mom came back in, I was crying.
She saw the medal in my hand, and she started to cry, too.
53
The Best Day Ever
Two incredible things happened after I got out of the hospital. Actually, make that three. First, I was out of the hospital. I was feeling much better and the doctor said my arm would be fine. Secondly, Luke was transferred out of intensive care and into a regular room. And that meant that Kletch and me and about a bazillion other people could visit him until he was so sick of visitors that he would want to throw up. And thirdly, Eugene, yes the very same Eugene who owned the tree farm in Mosely, won the Super Mega Ultra Powerball jackpot. After taxes, he received a check for 317 million dollars.
