© Copyright Ute Oettel 2006 - 2007

Scrubbashing (part 2)

Nick hardly realized the other cars on the highway, he breathed hard and gnawed at his lips:
"Do you wanna file for divorce?" It was more a statement than a question. Nick knew the answer.
At first it had been a wonderful time with Nicole, the daughter of a worker on a cattle station near Tarlington Creek. They had come together and fell in love more than eight years ago. Nick had been the pilot for the station´s owner and Nicole, an old friend of his childhood, had returned from the city to her hometown.
It followed a three-year-long romance before they married in 1998. They had been happy at first and also when their daughter was born it seemed as if their marriage had the fortune on its side. No, Nick corrected himself, they had always been too different. Was it really love which had connected them? Nick doubted and recalled the quarrels and fights which followed.
A divorce wouldn´t depress him, it was the best what they could do. Only Melanie, his
beloved daughter, would pay for her parents´ mistakes.

"Yes!" Nicole roused him out of his thoughts, put down her legs and fumbled for a bottle of water which was lying on the floor. "It´s the best. When we´re at home I´m gonna ring my lawyer!"
"And Melly?"
Nicole´s voice became low and for the first time at this day she smiled:
"I won´t take her away, you know it, Nick. Maybe I´ll move to Longreach. It´s not far away and you can see her if you wish!"
"Do you think she.....she´ll understand?"
With a deep breath she opened the bottle and sipped at it before she turned her head and looked at Nick. Here he saw the soft expression in her eyes again, the expression he once had loved:
"No, she adores you but I think she´ll come over it. She´s only four years old!"

Nick jerked of a sudden and pulled the steering wheel round. A small kangaroo had tried to cross the road but stopped when Nick´s Pick-up raced by.
"Ouch!" Nicole screamed when her head bounced at the side window, "Can´t you drive carefully?"
"I don´t wanna have kangaroo stew at my car!"
"Have you killed it?" Nicole jumped on the seat with her knees and looked through the window at the rear.
"No," Nick smiled, he knew that Nicole was an animal friend through and through,
"It has decided to stay. Sit down, Nicole. Please!" He grabbed for her waist and tired to pull her back, "You´ll be hurt once again when you don´t sit down and take the belt!"
"I wouldn´t be hurt when you´re not driving like mad!"
She gave in, glided back onto her seat but forgot to belt her up. Nicole leant back, saw the headlights of the on-coming traffic and listened to the silence around them.
"It´s still a long way home!" She murmured but avoided to look at her husband.
"Let´s try the best we can to finish this journey peacefully, O.K.?"
How he hated to quarrel, to argue and to discuss things which were not really interesting. They would part, they would start two new lives after they arrived at Tarlington Creek again. The chapter of their marriage life, of their family life was closed.

Their Pick-up was racing over the Victor Harbor Road into the darkness. Only forty kilometers still to go until the outskirts of the metropolis Adelaide would come into view. Only forty kilometers until their journey would end for today. Nick couldn´t foresee that it would only last minutes, only few minutes......

*

"Come to meeee....." Kevin sung and tapped with his hands upon the steering wheel,
"Come to meeee......!"
"Oh, my God, Kev." Mike laughed and gave the driver of the Nissan a punch, "Stop it. I feel sick!"
Carrie shook the head. She was so tired that it made her difficulties to understand
Kevin´s words which followed:
"I was the best at school in singing. You can believe me......!"
The grey dusk was creeping over the hills and forests around and took Carrie the ability to see clear. The headlights of the oncoming traffic - at that time of the day only now and then - were glaring; was there still a highway ahead?
"Kevin!" She murmured low and turned her head, "Reduce speed, please!"
"What?" Kevin´s eyes flashed in joy when he took the cigarette out of his mouth.
"Kevin!" Carrie´s voice changed suddenly into an angry and fearful undertone, "It´s too dark outside. Reduce speed, you´re too fast!"
"Nonsense, darling." He tried to read the display on the dashboard and bend forward,
"It´s only 120 km/h. My car can make more!"
"Kevin!" Carrie shouted against the music and spied out of the windscreen. The cones of the headlights were rushing over the asphalt, shaking and hopping while it seemed as if the car was lurching. Another pair of headlights approached, rushed by and disappeared in the darkness behind them.
"Oh, God, Kevin!" Carrie buried her face behind her hands and felt how a stream of tears were floating up to her eyes. This journey would end in a disaster, she suddenly knew, they would die. Kevin put his foot flat to the floor and cheered.
He was mad, Carrie, thought, he was really mad.....

At the same time when Carrie put off her hands again, she realized the small headlights in the distance, she saw them growing, she saw them so close. Something was wrong. She tried to grasp what it was, something was wrong.
"Kev......!" Mike shouted suddenly from behind, Franny screamed and tried to clasp her arms around her friend.
"Kev......you´re......!" Carrie´s eyes nearly popped out of the head as she lifted her arms upwards to shield her face against the coming crash.
>>You´re on the wrong side of the road<< She was about to tell him but it was too late. She saw the glaring light of the oncoming car, she heard the earsplitting noise of crashing and screeching metal and wasn´t able to do anything. It paralyzed her, it was like a dream, like a nightmare. Mike was screaming at her back, Franny only groaned before Carrie heard a further screeching of metal. Something hurt Carrie´s ribs, she coughed and felt how a hot pain was about to take her consciousness.
The Nissan, normally a big and solid built car, turned over, was thrown away like a child´s ball. Carrie felt the taste of blood in her mouth, her hands tried to find a hold in this rolling car, tried to find help but all in vane.
The metal of the door next to her was pressed against her shoulder, she panted and opened her eyes. A red veil of blood let the environment shimmer in unreality, she realized Kevinïs bloody face at her shoulder, she saw the dashboard of the Nissan, torn into pieces and it seemed for her as if she was still dreaming. Seconds before she had been in a car but this tangle of metal was no longer very similar to the Nissan of Kevin; the windscreen was shattered into pieces, covering Carrie like a blanket, the radio? It was off, killed by the crash and the others, her friends?
Silence!
The taste in Carrie´s mouth increased. Oh, God, she thought and felt how each breath stabbed into her lungs. She couldn´t move, the ruined door at her side had trapped her. Her hand glided over the seat, it was so silent her. The ground beneath her seemed to shake, seemed to drag her deep into a black hole.
With her last strength she moved and whimpered. Tears shot up to her eyes when the pains in her hips nearly killed her.
"Hello...." Carrie only whispered before she smelt smoke, which as creeping through the slits of the broken dashboard. No, was her thought when she began to tremble, to wriggle. No...... and her head fell
down on her breast while her blood-stained hand glided aside like paralyzed.

*

"Nick.....Nick, the car....!" The last words of Nicole were drowned out by the screeching noise of the breaks of their Pick-up. Nick hardly realized that he really tried to slam on the brakes - the car didn´t stop.
"By God, stop!" He murmured, dug his nails into the leather-made steering wheel and tried to press the brakes deeper to the floor. Sweat was running into his eyes when he was about to stop his car, to prevent a crash with this oncoming car, with these hastily approaching headlights. A big and loud crash dragged him off the steering wheel and let his head bounce against the window at the side. Nick groaned, shielded his face and felt how the safety belt cut deep into his flesh at his shoulder. The shattering of glass deafened him while something from the bottom - he was sure that it was the water bottle - hit his arm, crashed against the side window and burst at last.
A further screeching and the car suddenly stopped in it´s motion, bent to the side and tipped over sliding across the hard and dark asphalt of the highway. Only seconds later - for Nick it seemed as if hours had passed - the Pick-up stopped, was shaking to and fro before it came to a standstill at last.
His eyes burned. He touched his face and realized the dark red stream of warm blood, dripping from his temple. With a deep breath he absorbed the fresh air, floating in through the broken windscreen, and stretched his aching head back into the head restrain. His heart was beating in a hasty speed, his lungs were aching and a numb feeling at his shoulder let him groan.
It lasted further seconds before he came back to senses and opened his swollen eyes. Darkness around, no not really. Their own headlights were still glowing and lit up the dreadful scenery on front of him with horror. The other car which ran into them couldn´t really be seen although a street-lamp of the nearby intersection was strong enough to illuminate the scene of the accident. The other car was torn into two pieces whereby the rear of the car was somewhere lying on the other side of the road, hidden in darkness. The front side was close to Nick´s Pick-up and began to vanish in a still growing smoke from the engine.
Nick closed his eyes again to grasp if he was only dreaming - but he wasn´t. With trembling and bloody hands he fumbled for his safety belt, unlocked it and groaned as the fabric vanished from his injured shoulder. A stitch in his lungs - was he injured as well? Was Nicole.......
Nick jerked, breathed in panic and turned his head to the front passenger´s place where Nicole should be.
"Nicole?"
The seat, deserted and drenched by blood let him sway. He saw the blood at the crashed door, saw the broken windscreen and Nicole´s jacket which was still lying on the floor.
"Nicole!!" Nick shouted in panic, tried to open his door and cursed when it didn´t move. He ignored the pains in his body, rammed his shoulder against the warped metal again and again. He panted and moaned and felt how tears were coming up to his red eyes. Nicole, it echoed in his brain, this couldn´t be.
With a last vehement push the crashed door swung open and screeched when it fell down. Nick climbed out of his car and staggered before he found a hold. A dizzy spell nearly forced him down to the knees but he had to look for his wife. Nick stretched his aching body, wiped the blood from his face and nearly slipped down the low slope beside the highway.
The crickets were chirping - what an unreal scene, Nick thought as he trudged forward.
"Nicole?" His voice became low. Was he the only one here? He let his eyes wander around.
A few yards beside the other car he saw something lying in the grass; something which was nearly 1.70 meter tall and dressed in Jeans and a T-Shirt.
"Oh, my God," He whispered, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Nick kept walking around and exerted himself to forget what he saw. There was a second body in the grass, far away and nearly unable to see. Nick knew that these persons were dead, he was sure that they had used the back seats of the torn apart car and where hurled out of it to die somewhere beside the highway.The last meters let him linger. A low bush and among it the pale red colour of a T-shirt. Nicole had worn such T-shirt today, Nick knew and swallowed. A lump in his throat let him sway.
"Oh, my God," Nick groaned. His legs kept walking by themselves, he didn´t want to reach this place, this bush at the edge of the darkness. The nearer he came the more tears ran over his cheeks.
"Nicole!" How often had he said this word during the last minutes? Only this name? His heavy legs let him sway when he was standing there, bent over the body of his wife which was here in the darkness, only a shadow. He fell upon his knees, turned Nicole´s body to the back and trembled when he realized her dead and broken eyes.
"No, no!"
Nick´s hand held her blood stained face, tried to touch the pulse beat but all he felt was the beat of his own raging heart. It wasn´t Nicole´s heart, it was only his one - he had survived, why him?
It came into his mind of a sudden - the visions of the last hour. Hadn´t he said her to belt up? And why she hadn´t done it? Why, by God, he thought. Was it his fault? He should have urged her to belt up - he was the driver, it was his responsibility.
"No, Nicole, why why?" He shouted, pulled her motionless face up to his knees and caressed it. The deep cut at her temple and the stream of blood which was running out of her mouth, dripping into the sand to ooze away told Nick that it was too late for his wife. Her lifeless hand was stretched out as if she had grabbed for something before she died.
Nick took it, laid it into his hands and kissed the fingers. Sure, he and Nicole had decide to part but despite this woman in from of him was his wife, was the mother of his daughter. He had loved her, even when......
Nick suddenly jumped up; he shivered and trembled. What had happened? He felt how the tears from his eyes mixed up with the blood from his face. With heavy legs he staggered backwards, panted and wished to get rid from this vision. A stone beside his feet let him stumble and he fell.
"Oh God, why? What have I done??" He shouted and laid himself down on his back to watch the starry sky above him. "Why???"

Yards away on the highway a new pair of headlights approached, they stopped somewhere in the distance and seemed to sneak near to the scene of the accident. Nick wasn´t very interested in this car, they couldn´t help Nicole even when this driver could call the police and ambulance. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a shadow which lingered before the driver who had left his car seconds ago, rushed back. You don´t have to hurry up, mate, Nick thought, it´s too late. Without any interest in this driver Nick trudged to his feet again and approached Nicole with a shiver. She was still lying there, surrounded by pieces of the crashed car.Nick bowed down, lifted his wife up into his arms and carried her away - away from this scene, away from the darkness. With tears in his eyes he set off to reach the
highway, Nicole´s arm was swinging with each of his steps, as he suddenly thought of hearing a low groaning.
His glances went up to the late arrived driver who held a mobile phone in his hand, trying to convince the police at the other end of the line that this horrible accident had really happened. But the groaning reached Nick´s ears from the other side of the Pick-up. Already dazed and far away from reality he laid Nicole´s dead body into the warm and dry grass and closed his eyes. Was he mistaken? Was the night playing a nasty trick on him? He tried to locate from where he had heard it. Was it the opponent car which was smoking?
Without paying much attention to his aching back and throbbing head he headed for the front part of the Nissan. Nobody could have survived this accident in this car, he thought and was already about to turn when his attention was caught by a hand which hung out of the remains of the car´s door. Was it moving?
The pain and dizziness suddenly disappeared when Nick gathered all his strengths and ran to the Nissan. The hot smoke was so thick that he coughed and tried to wipe away the grey veil.
"Hey?" He called but didn´t get an answer. A dangerous hissing in the engine compartment let him jerk. Would the car caught fire?
Nick approached carefully and had to fight against a bad nausea. The driver was buried under a tangle of metal, only his hand was clung at something, frozen in a grotesque way. A red line had formed a stream out of this car ruins...
Nick turned to the front-seat passenger. It was a young woman, who was sitting there between the bent remains of the Nissan, her head bowed down. Her hand and face were stained with blood and she looked like dead but there was something more what Nick irritated. Did he see a low up and down of her body? Was she still breathing. As quick as Nick could be he bent down into the wreck, touched the woman´s neck and searched for the pulse beating.
"Yes, yes," He murmured," She´s alive!" Full of euphoria he pulled her back into the seat and turned her face to him. A deep cut from the forehead to the temple let Nick linger. How badly injured was she? The dark long hair was disheveled and stuck to her face.
"Hey? Do you hear me?"
Carrie´s head fell aside but she coughed low because of the sharp smoke which wrapped them in.
"Oh shit!" Nick rubbed his aching head and took a deep breath. When he wouldn´t get her out of this dangerous smelling smoke it might be that she would die. Nicole was dead because of his failure, he wouldn´t endure it to see another person dying - he had to do something.
A low murmuring from the highway above reached his ear. Two other cars had stopped. The drivers lingered, talked with each other and it looked like as if they didn´t know what to do. Nick wasn´t interested in this discussion forum, his attention was caught by this young woman who would die without his help.
Another coughing fit shook Carrie but it wasn´t strong enough to awake her out of her unconsciousness. Nick grabbed for the dented door and tried to open it. Only a screeching noise.
"Oh, come on, come on!" Nick hissed and laid all his power into this grip whereby his glances went to the engine of this car. Was there a flame? Nervously touched he kicked at the door, pulled at it again and made it at last that it gave way. With a loud crashing bang the door fell to the ground and glided down the slope.Carrie´s nearly lifeless body fell aside, only the safety belt held her back. Nick, with wet and blood-stained hands fumbled for the lock and cursed when it didn´t work at first. The smoke increased and let Nick caught. It was sharp and choking, maybe toxic.
"The ambulance is coming....!" A low voice from behind reached his ear.
"O.K., O.K.," He grunted, dragged at Carrie´s trembling body and pulled her out of the wreck, out of the reach of the smoke.
"Can you hear me??" Nick shook Carrie´s lifeless body which seemed to be dipped into blood from head to toe. But it only seemed so - Nick heard her coughing, saw that her breast nearly jumped upwards in cramps.
"Calm down, clam down!"
A shadow at Nick´s side knelt down as well. A shocked man, maybe the first driver who had called the police, held Nick´ s trembling arm and asked:
"Can I help you?"
"Look for the others." Nick answered confused while his eyes were fixed on Carrie. Her breath suddenly stopped short after a bad coughing fit had let her tremble.
"Breathe....breathe!" Nick grabbed Carrie´s shoulders and shook her but only a slight nosily breath slipped from her lungs. The smoke, it was the toxic smoke from the engine compartment. Not once again, Nick thought, stretched her head back and bowed down. He as a pilot knew how to make a mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, he had to do it, the kiss of life to rescue this unknown and also innocent woman. The man at Nick´s side took Carrie´s wrist and nodded:
"The pulse is still there!"
"O.K. Come on........come back!" Nick bent down again and again and pumped his breath into her lungs. Would this be enough to neutralizes the toxic smoke in her lungs? Would he be able to help her or would he see her dying? Seconds passed, maybe minutes.
"How´s she?" Nick asked the man and looked into the woman´s face. She was pale, very pale.
"The pulse is still there."
"But she don´t wanna breathe, damn!"
Nick´s lips touched Carrie´s mouth again. He could taste blood - was it his blood or hers? Was she going tto die at his side?Suddenly a bad coughing fit hit Carrie whereby it seemed as if she awoke - but her lifeless body sank back again. Nick listened intently to her breath before he leant back and rubbed the sweat from his face. The man beside him, now joined by a pale woman, smiled strained and nodded in relief:
"Oh God. She´s back!"
Nick only nodded and suddenly felt how his own pains returned to his grumbling body. The bad headache nearly pressed him down to the ground and stars appeared before his eyes. He leant back upon his arms and let the fresh breeze cool his face. He had failed to convince Nicole to belt up, he had failed to help Nicole but he had saved the life of this young woman. It doesn´t matter Nick that she had sat beside the driver who had caused this deadly accident, it hadn´t been her fault that this accident
happened as well as it hadn´t been Nicole´s fault.

*

Nick saw the lights of the ambulance and police as they arrived half an hour later. They rushed by, shouted orders and seemed to be nervous and shocked. A medic, in a cold and sterile white outfit with a case in his hands nearly fell down to his knees beside this unknown woman yards away and examined her in hectic. Minutes ago Nick had returned to his wife, had sat down beside her and avoided to catch a glance of her. His own hands were still bloodstained but the wound at his head had stopped bleeding, only the stitches at his chest let him jerk from time to time. An inner void had taken possession of him as he kept watching the scenery in front of him. It was like a movie, a terrible movie in which he had played a part.

There were the torn apart pieces of the other car, the back one could only be noticed at the edge to the darkness and the front part only yards away. The pillar of black and toxic smoke from the engine compartment had made room for a hot glowing fire which was hissing along the car licking at the seats and the plastic dashboard. A man from the fire brigade was about to extinguish it, to reduce the danger for the people around. A short glance at the bloody hand of the driver before he turned his attention
to the crackling flames again. There was no need to make an attempt to rescue this man.....
Nickïs own Pick-up could also be written-off. The bonnet was bent and crushed, the bull-bar was missing as well as the windscreen. Long and dark scratches told from contact with the asphalt, deep dents of a badly turn-over. A red streamlet at the side window showed everyone where Nickïs head had hit the glass.
In a radius of about 50 meters he realized crushed and broken metal, shattered glass and the outlines of the passengers, lying there in motionlessness. At first Nick had thought of three dead people from the other car but he was mistaken. Close beside the highway he noticed a further dark shadow, a body of a human being and he asked how many people had used this small car?
He didn´t feel the intention to walk to them. They were as dead as Nicole was, flung out of the car during the turnovers, during the fatal crash. Why they had to die? Why this Nissan had crossed the line and crashed into them? It wasn´t only the speed, Nick knew. He for himself loved to speed along the road, along the bush. Had the driver been drunken? Had he been distracted by his friends at the
back seats?Several other cars had stopped and a large amount of spectators were standing on the
highway, whispering and shaken and all among them the police cars, ambulances and the fire brigade.

Nick took a deep breath, let his trembling hand run over his face and shook his head. All these uniformed men, in white or dark blue, couldn´t do anything for these people. They had died long before the medics had come, long before he had left his own car to find Nicole and to rescue this woman.
The flickering lights of the ambulances and police cars dipped this scenery into an unreal light, into a dreadful one. Shadows grew and vanished beneath the trees and lit up the running around people in a bizarre way.The medic at the young woman´s side called for a stretcher, fixed an oxygen mask upon her face and used his little torch to look into her eyes. Nick didn´t know if she would survive but he hoped. Despite the blood at her mouth and the cramped expression in her face he remembered that she was a beautiful young woman, with long dark hair and charming features. Had been one of these dead persons her boy-friend? Where had she come from? From a party? And who was guilty? Who had caused this accident? This poor young man who was buried under tons of bent metal?
Nick frowned in pain. If he had urged Nicole to belt up she would have survived. Their own Pick-up was a sturdy car, high and solid, much more solid than this small Nissan. Nick roused out of his thoughts when suddenly the tinny sound from a walkie-talkie crackled at his left side.
"Are you O.K.?" A police man in his dark blue uniform squatted beside Nick and beckoned an ambulance man to him.
"I think so!" Nick answered low.
"Is the Pick-Up yours?"
Nick nodded.
"How many have been in there?" The police officer, with a pale touch in his face, was about to find out how many victims they had to expect. It was one of the most horrible accidents he had seen during the last years.The medic, which had suddenly appeared out of the darkness, took Nick´s wrist and let his nearly nosy eyes wander over his face and body.
"My......wife, here, and me!"
"Do you feel any pain?" The medic had taken over the conversation and only wasted a short glance at Nicole before he kept speaking with Nick:
"Please don´t move. We´ll take you to the hospital. Do you feel any pain?"
"I think...my ribs. That´s all!"
"It´s important to interrogate him!" The police officer turned to the medic, still unsure if he was doing right. "He´s the only one who´s.......he´s our only eye-witness!"
Somehow untouched by these words the medic, with a sterile looking dress and disposable gloves at his hands, examined Nick´s ribs and shook his head:
"No, not yet. This can wait. O.K.?"
The police officer nodded and trudged back to his feet again.
"Can you stand up?"
"Yeah!"
"O.K." The medic took Nick´s arm and helped him up to a swaying stand.
"What´s about my....wife!" These words only slipped from Nick´s mouth with
difficulties.
A short glance from the medic before he nodded:
"My colleagues will look after her. Is that O.K.?"
Nick stopped again, caught a fleeting glimpse of the woman from the other car which body could hardly be seen behind the medics and murmured:
"And what about her? I....I tried my best to get her out of the car and.....!"
With his helping arm around Nickïs waist the medic stopped and raised his eyebrow:
"It was you who helped her?"
"Yeah!"
"You´ve done your job well. Really, I think she'll survive. But now let´s look after your
injuries, O.K."
Nick trudged away, up to the highway and to one of the waiting ambulances. Suddenly he burst out laughing in bitterness - so many medical staff but so few casualties who still needed help.

The next minutes and hour seemed to pass in slow motion for Nick. He was brought into one of these blinking ambulances, examined by two other medics before the doors at the rear were closed. Orders were given to the driver before they returned to Nick who was lying there and tried to grasp what really had happened. The last what he heard before the ambulance left the scene of accident was the noise of an approaching helicopter. Nick knew that it was called to fly the severely injured woman into the hospital in Adelaide. Was her condition really so bad?
Nick´s thoughts slipped away when he tried to recall the last hour, the last minutes but
it seemed as if all this began to vanish behind a veil of haze.....

Chapter 2

Helen Duncan, Carrie´s mother took one of these sterile looking chairs and sat down next beside her daughter. The white coat, which the nurses had given her, let her feel frightened, let her feel a dreadful panic rising.
They - the police officers from a little town near Adelaide - had rang them yesterday evening to tell her that their daughter had had a bad accident. It was only a lucky chance that they knew her name, they had found her own driver´s license in her pocket.
Helen had nearly collapsed and wept the whole night long before she decided to fly from Taylor´s Crossing to Adelaide with the postal plane the next morning. Carrie´s father stayed at home, hoping that his wife would call him soon. She had driven to the hospital and had talked with the doctors before one of the nurses had led her into the intensive care unit where Carrie was lying. And now she was sitting here, in this dreary sterile room, watching her daughter who had been set into a coma by the doctors. She was in a stable condition but also her injuries were severe and tremendous. A small hairline crack at her hip, a twice broken leg, contusions, smoke poisoning and a severe concussion - the listing of her injuries let Helen shiver. What had the doctor said? She would survive and she was going to recover but this would last. Weeks, months maybe a whole year. She maybe had to visit a rehabilitation center later on to became the person she once had been.
Helen Duncan, always a composed woman, buried her eyes behind her hands and began to weep. All this was so terrible, so dreadful and bad.
Kevin, Carrie´s boyfriend, who had caused the accident after the police´s report, had died, Frances Lyle, 22 years old, Mike Henley, 24 years old and Douglas Garth, 23 years as well. How should Carrie cope with this truth? All her friends were dead, her hope for the future as well. And the other car?
Helen rubbed the tears from her eyes and felt a stitch in her heart. Kevin had also killed a young mother in an age of 28 and injured a 30-year-old man from Queensland.
"Oh, God." She murmured. They all had been so young.......
Why had Kevin raced through the night? Was he drunken? Helen knew about the speeding problem among the young people and she had always condemned and disliked the scrubbashing which was celebrated in the Outback and which Carrie had often joined. It was a fatal diversion, a very fatal one.....
Had Carrie paid for it at last?

Helen´s eyes wandered back to her daughter who was lying in the hospital bed, with closed eyes and a deep wound at her temple. Her eyes were bloodshot, her lips swollen. A thin tube in her nose helped her to breathe and the small line at the oscillograph was jumping up and down in regular curves.
"My dear, you´ll make it!" She whispered and remembered the last words of the doctor only minutes ago. A grateful expression glided over her face and she touched Carrie´s arm.
It was a miracle that her daughter had survived. She was told that the driver of the other car had rescued her, had dragged her out of the smoking and burning car and had given her back the life after a long mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Nick McKinley was his name, the man who had lost his wife at this accident, had rescued Carrie, had brought her back to life. Oh, how Helen was grateful for this fact and for the best she would have visit this man who was lying in this hospital as well but the doctors had denied it. Later, maybe later.....
She lifted Carrie´s hand which was connected with a drain tube up to her cheek and smiled.
"Carrie my dear. You´ll make your way, I know. I know it......"

*

It was one week later when Nick heaved himself up from the hospital bed and grabbed for his bag. The contusion at his ribs let him groan a little bit but despite this he was contented that he didn´t sustain severe injuries after the car accident. The cut at his head was healing and also the bruises began to vanish. They had told them that he could leave the hospital today, that he can go home - home!
Nick burst out laughing in bitterness and closed the bag before he walked to the window to watch the yard below. Where was his home?
Not only the dreadful car accident had taken him his home away but also the weeks before. Nicole was dead - maybe it was also his fault, these thoughts were still roaming through his brain - and with her his home in Tarlington Creek. But this was only the half truth. Their home, their life had been destroyed long ago, Nicole had suggested to divorce. So where was his home?
Nick, dressed in his Jeans, a T-shirt and an open shirt which he used as a jacket, rubbed his eyes and tried to recall the visions of the accident. During the first days here in hospital he had failed but now he saw the visions again. These crashed cars, these dead people, Nicole and this young Carrie Duncan.
A bad headache stroke him of a sudden. What he was going to do now? Flying back to Tarlington Creek with his brother and father who had told him to meet him today - and with Nicole.
Living the life he once had lived?
The sun was shining through the window and touched his face. The warmth was so agreeable that he closed his eyes and absorbed it. They say that the time would heal the wounds - but would it also wipe the visions out of his mind? That Nicole could have survived when he had forced her to use the safety
belt?

A noise at the door roused him out of his dreams. Nick turned his face and noticed a police officer who approached.
"G´Day!"
Nick nodded and took a seat at the table:
"Oh, yes, I forgot that the police wanted to interrogate me."
"Yeah." The officer said drawled, took off his hat and it seemed as if he felt rather uncomfortable.
"T´was a bad accident. And you know that you´re the only eye-witness until today!"
"What about the woman, about Miss Duncan?" Nick´s concern was honest and he felt deep in his heart a touch of panic rising.
"The doctors will awake her out of the coma in one week."
"O.K." Nick replied and watched how the police officer took the second chair and sat down. The pencil in his hand was moving when he asked:
"Do you remember how the accident happened?"
"Not really. T´was already dark and suddenly the headlights of the oncoming car were
in front of me. I.....I haven't any chance to prevent this crash!"
"We know this, Mr. McKinley. Have you seen anything else after the crash?"
Nick spied over the officer´s shoulder to recall the visions, but he shook his head.
"No, they were dead. Only Miss Duncan - your colleague has told me her name days
ago - was there!"
"And you saved her life!"
Nick shrugged his shoulders and gnawed at his lips:
"Saving a life? I haven´t saved a life!"
The police officer swallowed and knew of what Nick was talking. The wife of him had been flung out of the car and died at the scene - her neck was broken. He changed the direction of the topic and looked into Nick´s eyes:
"We´ve found out that the driver of the other car, Kevin McCann, had lost control over his Nissan. The blood-alcohol level was very high and the speedometer was fixed at nearly 120 km/h. Maybe it´s a relief for you to hear that you were never able to avoid the accident."
"Hm." Nick murmured.
"We will send you the report as soon as possible. I don´t know if action for damages.....!"
"All I wanna do is going home!"
"O.K.!"
The officer and Nick stood up and shook hands. But before the police man turned to leave to hospital room again, he stopped and took a deep breath:
"It could be that Miss Duncan wants to know who´s rescued her. Do you give us the allowance to tell her your name and address? If not, I´ll understand, often......!"
"No, no, it´s O.K. You can tell her my name and address!"
The officer nodded, put on his hat again and opened the door. Nick let himself sink down and leant his aching head upon his hands. Only two people had survived, people which didn´t know each other - what an irony!

Only one minute later the door was opened again and a young man, dressed in a blue T-shirt and dark and dusty Jeans followed the doctor.
"Hi, Nick. How are you goin´ ?" The young man tapped carefully at Nick´s shoulder and coaxed a smile out of his brother.
"Luke, you´re still here?" Nick´s brother had flown to Adelaide the day after the accident, escorting their father.
"Yeah, yeah," The sneering grin took possession of his sun-tanned face and the denuded teeth tried to cheer his brother up. "Dad´s in the hotel and he´s waiting for us. It......it´s hit him very hard, you know?"
Nick took his bag and looked at the doctor who was standing there and smiled:
"Mr. McKinley, I´m happy that you can leave the hospital so early. At least one good news. The car accident was bad enough." He handed him an envelope, "Give this to your family doctor - and take it easy during the next weeks!"
"All right, Doc!"
They walked to the door but as Luke opened it, Nick lingered and held the doctor´s arm.
"What about Carrie Duncan?"
"She´ll recover. It was her luck that you´ve dragged her out of the car, out of the smoke. I´m sure that she will be very grateful when she awakes!"
It was only a thought, a feeling in his heart which suddenly became materialized in his mind. Nick cast his eyes and asked:
"Can I see her?"
Astonishment flashed up in the doctor´s eyes. He knew that Nick rescued Carrie Duncan but he also knew that the boy-friend of exactly this woman had caused the death of Nick´s wife.
A stammering answer slipped from the doctor´s lips:
"Yes.......if....you like? But she´s still in a coma!"
"Please, it would help me, I think!"
The doctor shrugged his shoulders and pointed out to a door which warning sign told of entering the intensive care unit.
"Please follow me"
"Here, Luke," Nick threw his bag to his brother, "Just wait a little bit. O.K.? I have to see her!"
Nick realized the strange expression in Lukeïs eyes and he nearly laughed. What was wrong to see the woman whose life he had saved?

He got a white coat and followed the doctor through a long and antiseptic corridor. The glass-door on both side were made of frosted glass, the walls were painted in sterile white. Nick shivered as he become aware that this part of the hospital was the line between death and life. Here only a simple fact would decide if to live or die.
"She can´t hear you!" The doctor tried again to convince Nick to leave the hospital instead of visiting this badly injured woman.
"It´s O.K.!" You would never understand, Nick thought, as he stepped into the room where Carrie was lying. It seemed Nick of a sudden as if Carrie´s was the compensation for what he missed to do. Nicole had died and nothing could change it - but when Carrie survived Nick knew why hee hadn´t died as well - he was chosen to save this woman´s life.

Nick stopped at her bed and narrowed his eyes. Fractions of the accident vision returned and let him breathe deeply.
Carrie, embedded in this sterile white linen, seemed to be so lonely and small, so helpless with all the tubes and cables connecting her with a large amount of machines. Pulse and breathing were all right, but would she ever recover completely? Nick approached and couldn´t break loose from this view. It touched him to see her here so abandoned and a strange feeling in his heart took possession of him. When seeing her first in the darkness of the evening Nick hadn´t got any idea that this woman was so
attractive; then he had only helped her, had looked at her bloodstained face and felt her pulse at her throat. But here, lit up by the glaring light of the neon lights she was so different....
"Let her go. You´ve done your job well, Mr. McKinley!" The doctor´s voice hardly reached his ears nor his brain.
"And.....she´ll recover completely?"
"Yes, physically. But nobody can foresee if she´s gonna suffer from mental pains. However, four of her closed friends died at the scene of the accident" And the doctor wasn´t sure of a sudden if this man in front of him could also cope with this hard mental situation. These two young persons had survived one of the worst car accidents he had seen but would they really recover one day?

Nick thanked him and returned to the entrance hall where Luke was still waiting and
left the hospital to return to his life. A life which wasn´t the same since the day of the
car accident somewhere between Adelaide and Victor Harbor.

*


Part 3

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