Читать книгу Mama! Mama! Michelle?s On Fire - Mae Waupoose - Страница 8

Chapter 3

It was only a matter of minutes when I heard a siren. As I ran to the kitchen window to look out, I said, “That can’t be our ambulance already.” It was. I glanced at the kitchen clock. It had only been eight minutes since I called 911. By the time I reached the door, the EMTs were there with a stretcher. The two men went straight to Michelle. The driver pulled back the sheet, took one look, and said to his partner, “Let’s go.” In one swift movement, they had Michelle on the gurney and covered with a sheet and blanket. They were in the kitchen, headed for the back door, when Michelle said, “Mom, I want you to come with me.”

The driver said with a smile, “Okay, Mom. You come with us.”

Jim said, “I’ll be right behind you in the pickup.”

I grabbed my jacket and had to run to catch up. I barely had the passenger side door closed when we did a U-turn and sped down the thirty-foot driveway to the blacktop road. Even before we hit the road, the EMT in the back spoke, “I have her legs packed in ice.”

I didn’t have to ask why. I knew it would help lessen the pain and prevent swelling, which could cause worse problems later, and hopefully, prevent the burns from going deeper.

We hit the two-lane road with the siren screaming. If somebody had told me that the driver raised his landing gear, I would have been tempted to believe them. It felt like we were flying. I soon learned that the driver was very competent.

Except for the continuous wailing of the siren, we traveled in silence. For the first time since the accident, I had time to think about everything. I wondered what had gone wrong in the basement, but now was not the time to ask Michelle. I could ask Mary when we got back home.

Michelle had long black silky hair and big brown eyes. She was a very attractive girl. Now her face was covered with smoke and soot. It would be terrible if that pretty face was burned and permanently scarred. I could only hope for the best. At that point, I wasn’t even sure she would survive.

Then I realized she hadn’t cried once since the accident. I wondered if she was okay. Almost as if on cue, she spoke, “Mom?”

“I’m right here, Michelle.”

“When you get home, will you call Kelly and tell her I’m in the hospital?”

Kelly was one of her school friends. “That’s the first thing I’ll do. I promise.”

“Okay, Mom. Thanks.”

It was great to hear her voice. She sounded a little weak but alert. That was encouraging.

A few more miles down the road, the EMT in the back spoke to the driver. “I’m almost out of ice. I have a plastic bag back here. Do you think we should stop and fill it with snow?”

The driver answered, “No, I think we should keep going.”

“Okay.” We kept going.

Many thoughts raced through my mind. Would Jim be driving too fast, trying to keep up with us? I hoped not. He didn’t need a speeding ticket on top of everything else. With seven kids still at home, how would we ever pay the hospital bill?

Most of all, I’m worried about what would happen when we got to the hospital. With our big family, we had been at that hospital often. The routine was always the same. We were told to “Wait your turn to see the doctor.” Sometimes, that wait was quite lengthy. I could only hope the wait wouldn’t be too long this time. The dreaded moment finally arrived. As we backed into the ambulance entrance, I thought, N ow comes the wait.