Page 86 of Eleanor & Grey
The deer did too.
I swore to God, it swerved.
I missed it.
It missed me.
A shout was heard.
My skin crawled.
Whose shout was that?
Was it Lorelai’s?
Karla’s?
Did my wife call out in fear?
No...
It was me, my voice.
Branches snapped as the car veered off the road into the dark woods. I twisted the wheel, slamming my foot against the brakes, but it didn’t work. The car kept moving until it crashed to a stop, straight into a tree.
Head-on collision.
Everything ached. Everything burned.
Smoke billowed from the engine. My head pounded, my vision blurred. I couldn’t think straight as acid rose up my throat. My body was chilled as the warm, salty taste of blood slid across my lips.
“Grey...” Her breathy voice spoke my way.
I turned to my right, and Nicole’s forehead laid on the exploded airbag.
“It’s OK, it’s OK.” I didn’t know why those were the words to leave my lips, but they were all that had come to mind. I tried my best to reach for her, but I was stuck. My seat belt was jammed into place, and I couldn’t move. I needed to get to her, to help her. I yanked, and yanked, hoping for it to budge, but nothing was working. “I got you, just wait,” I promised.
She shook her head. “No. The girls.”
I turned around, and Lorelai was screaming in her car seat, seemingly in more pain than her young body could handle. As I looked to her left, my heart leaped into my throat.
The side window was shattered, marks of red streaked across the broken glass, and Karla was nowhere to be seen.
Where is she? What happened? How can I get to her? How can I save her?
Karla?
Are you OK?
I need to know you’re OK.
Dammit, let me go!
I yanked the seat belt harder and harder, using all the force I could muster, and it finally released. I reached for Nicole, but she kept shaking her head. “The girls, the girls,” she cried, her voice pained with fear and aches of the unknown.
I slammed my body against the door, again and again. When it finally budged, I tried to hurry out of the car, but my legs gave out on me.
I forced myself to stand, and I checked on Lorelai. Even though she was crying, she seemed OK. Then I went to find her sister. I hurried through the blinding rain in search of my daughter. “Karla!” I called once, twice, a million times. There was no reply, nothing to beheard. The thoughts that raced through my head were unwelcome, and it took everything in me to keep from falling apart.
