Terrifying moments

We had to leave immediately.  That was all I could think after my two minute telephone conversation which just ended.  Phone still poised in my hand, I slowly pulled it away from my ear and pressed the off button on the screen.  The room began to spin around me and my eyesight blurred.  If I had been standing, I’m sure my legs would have become jelly and I would be wavering on the brink of falling down.  Bringing my left hand to my forehead, I began to stroke my temple in frustration and disbelief.

“What happened?  What’s going on?” my three dinner companions exclaimed simultaneously.  I looked into the faces of the three ladies whom I had been friends with for various lengths of time and saw genuine concern in their expressions.  My closest friend, seated to my right, reached out and cupped her hand over my right hand on the table in comfort.  “Tell us what’s wrong,” she urged.

“Oh my goodness!  That was the hospital!”  I shouted out urgently.  “They’ve been in a car accident!  The nurse got my phone number from the ICE on his phone and called to let me know they are in the emergency room.”  Having barely paused between words in my explanation, I was now breathless.  Not knowing what else to do or having a solid plan, I placed my palms on the table in front of me and pushed myself up out of the chair.  The others did the same and with our sudden intense commotion, it became apparent that we had drawn the attention of other diners around us in the restaurant.

“It’s okay,” one of my friends said in a quieter tone.  “You two take her in your car to the hospital.  I will pay the bill and follow behind in my car and meet you there.”  Nodding, they each linked one arm with mine and ushered me past all of the nosy patrons toward the front door.  Stepping out into the parking lot with the sun glaring down, I almost felt paralyzed in the differnce of atmosphere from the air conditioned restaurant to the humidity in the air.  This wasn’t helping me escape my nightmare-like feeling.  I just wanted to shake the bad feelings out of my head and snap out of it as if it were all some bad joke, but it wasn’t.

I don’t remember much of the short car ride to the hospital, only the faint sound of a recent tune playing over the side speakers as my two friends argued privately in the front seat about which was the fastest route to take and where the best place to park would be once there.

We arrived at the hospital and determinedly headed for the large sliding door entrance underneath the red and white sign which read “Emergency.”  I felt as if I were floating on a cloud; not in a good way, but like I was up in the sky millions of miles away looking down on my life as if it weren’t my own.  Upon finding out from the middle aged administrator behind the front desk where they were, I was escorted through the heavy swinging doors at the back of the large room and down a maze of hallways to the small room where they were.  “Hubby” was unconscious laying in a hospital gown but seemingly unharmed and “Lil Guy” appeared perfectly content in a young nurse’s nurturing arms in the corner of the room.  For the first time since receiving that ill fated phone call, I breathed a sigh of relief to know that while things could have been much worse and so many accidents end in tragedies, they were both going to be alright.

I may not remember much of the other details from that day except for the complete exhilaration of the delivery of a clean bill of health for all and being released to go home.  I had no idea where “Hubby’s” car was, how we were going to pay the medical bill or how we were going to get home but, at that point nothing else mattered.  They were both safe now.  And, that’s when we realized we were already home.

The prompt was to write a story, fiction or non-fiction, that began with “we had to leave immediately” and ended with “and then we realized we were already home.”  The middle section was left to my own interpretation and the word limit was supposed to be 600 words.  Well, after having difficulty deciding what to write about, I settled on an idea and it took off.  I ended up going over by about 1oo words but I felt that I told the story the way in which I wanted to.