The Summer Contract

CHAPTER 10: Did you hear about the Porters?

RYDER

Nothing ever happens in Bluebell. We barely get robberies, let alone brutal car accidents that can be heard all around town.

I was laying on the floor when it happened, a shoe was getting rammed into my ribcage at extreme and brutal force.

Between Lea's crying and my phone pinging with notifications, I probably would have missed it all if it wasn't for the ambulance lights passing our house. The accident happened a block away, screaming and crying could be heard all around as my father and I arrived on the scene.

Everyone was so focused on the incident that no one noticed the blood coming from my nose or the way I was limping when I tried to walk. My parents were too stunned to stop me from leaving the house looking the way I was.

It was like I was a part of the accident, I looked so beaten up and bruised.

Two bodies were already zipped up in body bags when I finally made it to the front. The police were taping up the scene as an unmoving Billie-Ann got lifted into a stretcher.

The Porter's black SUV was upside and crushed by a supply truck that ended up smashed against a tree. It was apparently driven by an overworked Steve who closed his eyes for 3seconds.

Three seconds that turned the Porter's world upside down and left their children orphans.

"Did you hear about the Porters?"

That was all anyone could talk about the rest of the summer. The death of Dr Porter and his wife shook everyone to the core, no one saw it coming.

According to rumors, Dr Porter died on the spot unlike his wife who was heard screaming before finally passing. Glass cut his seatbelt in half and when the truck hit their car, it launched him through the windscreen and straight into the pavement—snapping his neck instantly.

To make matters worse, the glass that he broke with his body flew into his wife's neck, chest, forehead, and pelvic area. Hitting all the major veins and causing her to bleed out as she screamed for help for her daughter.

Billie-Ann was already unconscious when she was found. She didn't show any external injuries but it turns out she was bleeding internally, which was way worse.

Levi also heard her heart stopped during the ambulance ride to the hospital but they managed to revive her but it still didn't stop her coma. Her condition became so bad, she had to be flown by a helicopter to the city for emergency surgery.

None the less, the Porter's funeral had to proceed despite her comatose state. After the memorial, a dark cloud stayed in Bluebell and it seems we all forgot to smile.

I guess watching Augie, Billie-Ann's 12year old brother cry bloody murder as he watched his parent's coffins disappear broke something in us all, especially when it sank in, he might be losing his sister too.

I held Levi in my arms as he cried that night. After he fell asleep, I locked myself in his bathroom and did the same.

I can't describe a worse feeling than losing someone you love and we both love Billie-Ann Porter, even if he is not ready to admit it.

At church, all my father talks about is praying for her recovery but with the way her internal injuries were described, it seemed some people didn't believe she would ever wake up.

Those who did believe, could only talk about how she will be an orphan and sole caretaker of Augie (August).

Moral of the story: most people in Bluebell are nosy jerks.