Sheet Music - A Rock 'n' Roll Love Story

At a snail’s pace, he inched his car forward.  Then he saw the accident flares strewn across the other two lanes.  Fresh, thick rubber marks scarred the pavement and led his eyes toward the breakdown lane.  A few feet further, the smoldering wreckage of the car came into view.  The car itself was unrecognizable.  Every square inch of it was pulverized into a mass of compressed shards of metaclass="underline"   “How could anyone survive that?” Michael asked himself.

Michael’s eyes were transfixed on the eerie scene as emergency medical teams valiantly worked to free the occupants.  Then, to his horror, he read the vanity plate attached to the back of the wreck.  In big, bold letters it read: SAMMY.  The reality hit him hard.  He immediately steered his car out of the line of soldiering traffic and skidded to a stop beside a waiting ambulance.  Without even shutting off the ignition, he jumped from his car, only to be stopped by a police officer.

“I’m sorry sir, but you can’t leave your car there,” the officer said.

“I know that guy,” he shouted, adrenaline pumping through his veins.  “I know the owner of that car!”

Michael didn’t wait for a reply and forced his way through the crowd of rescue workers.  He was twenty feet from the smoldering car when he felt the bottom fall out of his stomach.  The bloodied body of Sammy was still slumped over the twisted steering wheel.  The driver side door was caved in to a point that Michael wondered what could be left of his friend.  Three firemen worked on the passenger side of the car with the Jaws of Life, cutting through the mangled roof as if removing the lid from a tin can.

“Why aren’t they getting him out of there?” Michael screamed.

A fireman to Michael’s right turned to face him.  “That guy is already gone.  They’re trying to get the girl out while she still has a chance.”

“Shit!  Annie!”

“Believe it or not, there’s a passenger in that mess.”

Michael raced around the side of the car as the EMT’s were preparing to remove her from the wreckage.

“Hey, get the hell out of the way, pal!”

“I know these people,” Michael screamed but no one seemed to want to listen.

Then he saw the blood-streaked face of Annie appear from the debris, as the EMT’s gently eased her onto a stretcher.  She was still wearing the same clothing from the night before.  What remained intact was torn, bloody and dirty.  The boot was missing from her right leg and the shin and ankle were grotesquely disfigured.  Her lifeless body lay still on the stretcher while the medical workers desperately tried to keep her breathing with chest compressions.

An anguished cry of pain rose from his toes, shook through his torso, then finally rocketed from his mouth.

“Annnnnnie!”

“You know her?” A police officer asked, frantically holding Michael out of the way.

“What the hell do you think I’ve been trying to tell you people?  I know both of them!”

“What’s your name?”

“Michael Wade.  Can I see her?”

“Sorry, Mr. Wade.  I can’t let you over there.  Were you a witness to the accident?”

“No!  Look, I need to see her,” Michael demanded, attempting to shove the officer aside.  The last thing he needed was a chatty police officer.

“Is she your wife?  Girlfriend?”

“No, yes - for Christ sakes, just let me be with her!”  With every ounce of fight he had, Michael pushed the officer back and darted around him.  From above, he heard the propellers of a helicopter slicing through the afternoon air.

“Is she ready for transport?” an EMT yelled to another rescue worker.  “We got Life Flight coming in now.  Ger her stabilized then MOVE!”

Michael’s face was white.  The voices around him blurred.  The emergency crews bounced about as if he were invisible.  Never before had he felt so helpless and inadequate.  Annie lay before him, not a trace of life left on her delicate face.  An EMT raced passed him with another medical bag and Michael grabbed his arm.

“Is she going to be all right?” he asked, his body frozen in fear, his skin bathed in a cold sweat.

“Sorry, it’s too early for me to tell.  Are you her husband?”

Michael opened his mouth to respond but nothing audible could be heard.

“Come on,” the EMT instructed.  “You can ride with us.”

Behind him the helicopter landed in the middle of the highway.  Traffic on both sides of the Mass Pike was halted.  Michael followed the stretcher and helped hoist Annie in through the cargo door.  Then he hopped in himself and took a seat beside her head.  The two-man medi-evac team worked simultaneously hooking Annie up to several different machines and running an intravenous line into her arm quicker than Michael had thought possible.  Never raising their heads, they exchanged medical information in a language Michael found alien.

“Yeah, this is Medi-Evac One.  Do you copy?” the medical technician rambled into a small telephone.

“Go ahead, we copy,” a voice came through on a connected speaker.

“We have a female patient in route.  Multiple injuries as follows: head trauma, compound fractures to the…”