Mary’s Christmas Gift Chapter 7
Story posted by Chris Cade | Short Christmas Stories on Oct 12, 2008 in Inspirational Christmas Stories (If known, the original author is listed below)
The truck rammed into the left front fender of Jill’s car, crumpling the metal like a sheet of notebook paper. Both airbags deployed, smacking the women back in their seats.
After the impact, the momentum pushed the car across the icy pavement and onto a snow-covered patch of lawn, where it half-turned and slammed sideways against a utility pole.
Mary blinked when the motion abruptly stopped. She sensed something warm on her forehead, put a finger to it and discovered that it was blood. She looked over at her friend.
As Jill tilted her head back, her broken eyeglasses fell off her face. Mary saw no cuts or wounds on her.
“Jill! Jill! Are you hurt?”
She answered groggily. “I don’t think so. No. My chest and my head hurt but I think it’s from the air bag. Are you okay?”
“I don’t…” Mary began, then paused. An odd expression came on her face.
“What’s wrong?”
“I…I think…my water just broke! Oh, Lord, I think I’m going into labor.”
Jill reached to her left. Mary heard a repeated mechanical crunching, but nothing happened. “My door!” Jill shouted. “It’s tight up against this pole. I can’t get it open. Try yours.”
Mary found the door handle and pulled it but nothing moved. She tried again and again. “It’s jammed shut. What are we going to do?”
Through the ice-crusted side windows and cracked windshield, Mary could see moving forms and colors. After a moment she realized they were people. With a gloved hand, she wiped at the fog on the inside of her passenger window, but saw that the outside of the pane was covered with ice. Something—a man’s gloved hand—wiped at it furiously. She heard more crunching but again nothing moved.
The crash had disabled the power windows. Neither she nor Jill could get their window down.
“Your door’s jammed shut,” the man shouted. “Can you open it from your
side?”
Mary tried once more. “No!” She yelled back. “It won’t work.”
She heard more noise, watched more shapes pass by the windshield, then heard a scratching sound. She looked to her right and saw someone using a plastic windshield scraper to clear the ice from her side window. Another face appeared, topped by an odd-shaped hat, then when the street light glinted from a badge,
Mary realized it was a police officer.
“Are either of you injured?” he shouted.
“No!” Jill returned. “But I can’t open my door either. We can’t get out.”
“I’m going into labor,” Mary screamed, and was shocked at the panic in her voice.
“Fire Rescue’s on the way,” the policeman told her. “They should be here in about five minutes.”
Mary began to feel contractions and wondered if she’d be able to wait. She had taken a strong punch from the airbag, and the shoulder belt had dug roughly into her chest.
“My baby,” she whimpered, “My baby.” Then she began to cry.
Jill clutched her arm. “Hold on, Mary. Please hold on. They’ll be here in a few minutes. Everything will be all right.”
Mary turned to her, hot tears dribbling down her cheeks.
“We need to pray,” Jill said firmly. She took Mary’s hand, squeezed it tightly, and closed her eyes. “God, we need your help, and we need it right now,” Jill demanded. “This girl is one of your own. Help us get out of here, please.”
Both women turned to Mary’s window at the sound of two men arguing. They recognized the first voice as that of the police officer.
“Sir, if you don’t move away from here, I’m going to arrest you for interfering with a police officer.”
“We need to get that door open,” the other voice shouted back.
“I’ve already tried it. It’s jammed shut. Fire Rescue should be here any minute with the Jaws of Life. We’ll use that tool to cut them out.”
“I can get that door open.”
“Sir, I’m forty years younger than you, and I can’t budge it. Now please get away from the car.”
Then the other man’s tone changed abruptly. Both Jill and Mary noticed it.
Suddenly he sounded much younger, decisive, commanding.
“Officer, you will step back and wait over there where I am pointing.”
“Yes, sir,” they heard the policeman say, almost mechanically.
A terrific grinding, scraping noise filled the air. Then the man ripped the crumpled door off the car and cast it aside as if it were a piece of cardboard! Mary and Jill, still holding hands, looked open-mouthed in amazement as icy rain flickered in on them. They heard the forceful voice again.
“Officer, you will kindly help these two ladies out of the vehicle now.”
“Yes, sir.”
Mary looked up, saw the face of the man who had torn the door off and was dumbfounded. It was the same elderly gentleman who had given her his seat on the train a few days ago. He smiled and said softly, “Everything will be all right now, Mary.” Then he left.
She turned to tell Jill, but swiveled back when she felt a tugging and easing of pressure on her. The policeman had cut her seat belt away with a knife. He took her by the arm, and another set of hands took her other arm. An Emergency
Medical Technician guided her toward a gurney. He helped her lie down, put straps across her, then another EMT helped load her into the ambulance. Jill walked up, got into the ambulance, holding onto one of the men’s arms, and sat besideMary.
“We’ll be at Central DuPage Hospital within two minutes,” the EMT told them.
They heard the siren as the ambulance pulled onto Main Street and headed north. The EMT began taking Mary’s vitals and radioed the information to the hospital’s emergency room.
“Is my baby going to be all right?” she asked.
“They have excellent doctors in this emergency room,” he answered calmly, evading her question. “They’ll do everything they can.”
“It’s going to be all right, Mary,” Jill said, holding her hand, “I just know it is.”
“For an amateur, you prayed pretty well back there,” Mary said.
Jill managed a nervous laugh. “Hey, it worked, didn’t it?”
Mary started to tell her about the old man when her face contorted in pain.
“Ohhh. Oh, it hurts…”
The EMT positioned himself by the end of the gurney and said, “Delivery has started.”
[Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7] [Chapter 8] [Chapter 9] [Chapter 10]
- Jack Zavada
©2006 by www.inspiration-for-singles.com
This a just a chapter of a free ebook entitled “Mary’s Christmas Gift” which can be downloaded from http://www.inspiration-for-singles.com/mary.html
Jack Zavada’s new ebook, Single and Sure, not only shows single people how to rescue themselves, but how to become a happier, more confident person in the process.
