Girl Down

“In this room all of my dreams become realities, and some of my realities become dreams.” Willy Wonka was the first to put my life into words. Unfortunately for me, the result was usually anything but a room that was fully edible.

I had just jogged through a long, sloping S-shaped curve when I felt the ground shaking underneath me. I stopped and clutched the trunk of a nearby elm, waiting for the rumbling to end. That was the biggest tremor I had ever felt. I kneeled down in the path, trying to calm my nerves.

“Help! She’s hurt! Oh, my God, help me!” The alarmed voice was behind me, but not too far. I turned to see Natalie kneeling over Sammi. 

I ran back to the small group that was gathering around the two girls. There were only six of us on the cross-country team and we generally tried to stay together as we ran. 

“Was that an earthquake?”

“I’m scared.”

“Did you guys feel that?”

Everyone was talking at once and it took a few seconds for me to calm them down and get their attention.

“What happened to Sammi?” I asked. 

“I think she broke her leg. She was trying to weave her way through those branches and got all caught up in the smaller limbs when the quake hit,” Natalie replied.

It was our first cross-country practice of the season. The route we would have normally taken through the woods behind the school was muddy from a recent rain so we had taken a less used path. At first the path looked fine, but as we got deeper into the woods, we realized it was covered in fallen branches from a recent storm. 

As the Captain of the team all of the girls looked at me for direction. Five pairs of frightened eyes looked my way.

“Sammi, can you stand at all?”

Sammi groaned as she shifted her weight and then yelped in pain.

“No, I think Natalie’s right. I think it’s broken.”

I tried to recall what I had learned in my tenth-grade health class. The first aid section had been my favorite part of the whole semester.

Squatting down I gingerly felt Sammi’s leg to see if there were any protruding bones or blood. Thankfully it seemed fine. Sammi had squealed in pain when I got near her ankle and I could feel it was starting to swell already.

“Does anybody have reception on their phones?”

A general murmur of “no” came back.

That wasn’t surprising. We lived out in the middle of nowhere and even on good days the phone reception was bad. 

I looked around and realized that we were about half way through the woods. It was at least a 10-minute run, regardless of which direction I took. Cutting through the woods wasn’t even an option unless I wanted to end up injured like poor Sammi. 

“Katie, take off your jacket and put it under Sammi’s head as a pillow. Natalie, make sure that she stays as still as possible and don’t remove her shoe, whatever you do.  We don’t want to mess something up. Jill, you were in health class with me; do you remember the signs of somebody going into shock?”

“I think so,” replied Jill. “High pulse, sweating, and, umm, some other things. Maybe something with blood pressure, but I can’t check that can I, Carrie?”

“You’re right. Also, confusion and breathing fast. You’re in charge of monitoring her. Amanda, help out as needed. All of you stay here and rest up so that you can help carry her out if we need to. I’m going to run back to the school and get Coach McIntyre.”

“Be safe,” said Jill. Amanda gave me a quick hug and whispered, “Hurry. She looks like she’s in a lot of pain.”

The humidity in the air seemed higher than usual, but maybe it was because I was running and struggling to breathe. I know I should have listened to my mom and practiced more in the off season, but, at the old age of 17 I thought I knew everything. I thought my body was unstoppable. Now I was struggling to make it back to the school in order to help my friend. 

The path was really littered with small branches now. My progress was slower than it should have been just because I had to keep picking my way through the branches. At one point a small tree had fallen across the path and I had to climb over it. 

Finally, I saw the school through the trees and knew I’d soon have help.

I rounded the last turn that broke through the tree line and skidded to a stop. Something was wrong. The roof of the covered sidewalk had collapsed and was lying in piles along the walk. It also looked like part of the gym roof had collapsed. That quake must have been worse than I thought it was. 

I looked around to see if I could spot Coach McIntyre. He normally waited for us in the shade by the gym door, but that had been blocked by the collapsed covered sidewalk. He surely wouldn’t have left us. I jogged over to the left side of the building so I could see the parking lot and saw his jeep. Well, at least that meant he was somewhere around. I started yelling for him as I circled the building. There was no sign of him. That’s when a horrible thought crossed my mind. What if he was under all of that rubble?

I slowly made my way back to the gym entrance. There, under the rubble, I could see part of a sweat pant covered leg and a tennis shoe. I don’t know why, but I was too scared to try digging in the rubble. 

I checked my phone. Still no bars. Sometimes I really hated living in this small town. 

I made my way around to the front doors of the school but didn’t really expect them to be unlocked.  I grabbed the metal handle and yanked with all my might.  I was right. It was locked solid. School wasn’t scheduled to start for another week and Coach had only unlocked the gym doors which were now blocked. If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all. Just like the song said.

My mom had dropped me off on her way to a hair appointment so I didn’t have a car here. I had never even thought to ask the other girls for their car keys. Who would have thought that Coach wouldn’t be around? Regardless, I decided to see if any of the cars were unlocked. Maybe one of the girls had left their keys under the front seat or on the sun visor. 

No luck.

I could jump start a car! I reached under the dashboard of one of the unlocked cars and felt for the wires. Just before I did anything stupid, I realized I didn’t know how to jump start a car. I had only seen it in the movies. Good job, Carrie!

I looked around and realized my only option was just to keep going and try to find somebody. There was no sense going back without help. I took a couple of deep breaths, did a couple of quad stretches on each leg, and jogged down the long school driveway. The blacktop was cracked in a couple of places, probably because of the earthquake, so I had to really watch my step. I may be a cross-country runner, but I’m not always the most graceful girl in the world.

At the end of the driveway I paused and weighed out my options. Town was to the right, but it was at least another two miles. The Patterson’s farm was to the left, but old Mr. Patterson creeped me out.  Creepy it was. 

A few long strides later and the Patterson’s corn field was on both sides of the road. The road sat lower than the field so it was impossible for me to see past the stalks until I hit the opening for their front yard. Like a typical farm, there was a graveyard of old work trucks and tractors back behind a dilapidated barn. A more modern barn sat closer to the farmhouse, along with two more trucks and a bright red Mini Cooper. That must belong to Ellie Patterson, home from college. 

I jogged down the long driveway to the front porch. I started to go up the steps when I realized how rickety the porch was and changed my mind. There was another door on the side of the house towards the back. I assumed it was probably their kitchen door, so I headed that way. 

This door looked like it was probably their main entrance, and while it was still in bad shape, it at least looked functional. I knocked softly at first, really hoping it wouldn’t be Mr. Patterson that answered the door. Not seeing any movement inside, I started knocking louder and louder until I was banging pretty hard on the door. Nobody answered. I tried the door to see if it was unlocked so I could borrow their phone, but I only met another dead end. Even out in the country people had started locking their doors.

I glanced around the driveway and side yard. There was no sign of life. The barn looked like it was all closed up. No doors were open. No sounds came from anywhere. In fact, I now realized that I wasn’t hearing any of the normal sounds of the country: birds, crickets, insects.

As part of the iGeneration I immediately came to the obvious conclusion: zombies or maybe a Chupacabra. 

Just then I heard a crash inside the barn. I really didn’t want to look, but I needed to find some help for Sammi. If nothing else, maybe there was a land line phone in there. 

Slowly I walked over to the barn door, constantly glancing over my shoulder. Something didn’t feel right. Step by step I inched to the door. Gradually I reached out my hand.

“Carrie! Carrie!”

Who was calling my name?

“Carrie!”

Confused, I jerked my head around.

“C’mon, Carrie. It’s time to wake up, hon.”

“Mom?”

Opening my eyes, I saw my mom opening up my curtains, letting in the morning sunshine.

“Time to wake up, sweetie. You have your first cross country practice today, remember? If you get dressed quickly, I’ll drop you off on my way to the hair dresser. Don’t forget to take along extra water.”

I sat up slowly and swung my feet over the edge of the bed. 

A dream? Was that all a dream?