FOR ALL TIME & ETERNITY

5. When The Bridge Falls Down

June 27, 1999

Jasmine was home with the kids.  She was playing with them in her and Michael's room.  Michael was away in Munich, Germany headlining two benefit concerts.  Jasmine's phone rang and she reached over from the bed and answered.

"Hello?"

"Jasmine!"

"Uh yes?  What's wrong?  Who is this?" she asked confused and a little scared at the panic in the stranger's voice.

"It's Karen."

"Oh, hey.  What's wrong?"

"Well. I thought I should let you know since no one else is going to call you that there's been an accident."

"What?  What happened?!" she yelled not even letting her finish.

"Michael's performance.  There was an accident, a mechanical problem with the bridge."

"What bridge?"  Jasmine never seen the performance so she didn't know what she was talking about.

"Michael sings on this bridge while performing the Earth Song and it divides in three pieces and the middle part is supposed to separate and fly up with him on it and-and-it went fine yesterday but today as soon as it went up, it...it exploded and came crashing down."

Jasmine was speechless.

"But he kept going!  I swear I thought he was dead! As soon as I saw it falling I instantly tried running to him but Security held me back before I could get to the stage.  He kept performing though and he-"

"Who's responsible for this!?" Jasmine yelled cutting her off.

"We're going to find out what happened.  He's in the hospital now though, well on his way.  He came backstage after the song and he was originally going to change for You Are Not Alone but he didn't this time.  It was obvious he was in a lot of pain but you know Michael. He said he was fine and went back out there. And then when he was done, he came back and passed out."

"Oh my God..."

"So they drove him to the hospital and I heard the freaking driver got lost on the way there while Michael is freaking half-conscious in the back."

"What!?"

"Thankfully the doctor is with him but I don't know if they got there yet."

"Please have him call me as soon as he can. Or someone!"

"I will, honey."

Jasmine hung up with Karen and was freaking out on the inside.  She wanted to go run to a plane and fly to Germany but she knew it wasn't possible.  She started crying.  She covered her face with her two hands.

"Mommy, Mommy," Jaslyn said trying to take Jasmine's hands off her face.  "What's wrong, Mommy?"

Jasmine looked at her daughter and smiled with tears rolling down her face.  "Nothing, baby."  She kissed Jaslyn and sat her down next to her.  Jasmine went in the bathroom and wiped her face.  She was just hoping Michael would be okay.  She hated that she was so far away from him and something like this just happened. 

She walked back in the room and walked out to get the nanny.  She asked if she could take the kids for a second.

After she got the room to herself she tried making a few phone calls.  She called Kenny Ortega, the man who helped create and produce the show.  She was yelling at him through the phone.  He knew she wasn't really yelling at him but she wanted to know what happened.