Living Again

Part 3

"Jump!" David screamed at Angela as he wrenched her arm desperately trying to pull her away from the oncoming danger. But he wasn't quite fast enough. Angela was pulled from his grip as the car knocked her to the ground. It stopped a few metres away. David stared in disbelief at the woman he loved lying half under the vehicle. Then he was kneeling by her crying her name over and over "Angie, Angie sweetheart, can you hear me?" But she lay still.

People came running to the accident scene. The driver was helped from the damaged car. A couple of bystanders had run to a nearby phone box to call an ambulance, but David didn't see any of this. He was half holding Angela and crying her name. It seemed like hours before he was vaguely aware of sirens, and then an ambulance officer was gently asking him to move back so they could take a look at her. She was lifted onto a stretcher and carried to the waiting ambulance.

"Are you injured at all sir?" asked an ambulance man.

"No, just look after my fiancée, please," begged David.

"We'll take good care of her. You can ride in the ambulance with her."

At the hospital Angela was taken away for immediate attention by doctors. A nurse checked David over. He had no injuries. After an hour of anguished waiting a doctor came up to David looking grim. "She's suffered a number of broken bones and severe internal injuries. We're taking her to the operating theatre now. I'm sorry, but it will be touch and go. Are there any relatives you can call?"

He called Angela's mother who lived in Sydney. She said she would take the next flight and be there in a few hours. Then he waited and prayed.

The doctor returned two hours later. "We've done all we can. Her condition is critical. I have to be honest with you, her chances aren't good. We've moved her into intensive care. Would you like to sit with her. She's out to it and won't be able to talk."

David was shown into the intensive care ward. Angela lay in a bed looking pale and fragile, and was connected up to various machines monitoring her condition. He looked tenderly at her face. Despite everything she still looked beautiful. He gently held her hand trying to hold back the tears. The hospital staff were very good to him. A nurse brought him coffee and he was allowed to stay with Angela all night. A nurse checked her condition every ten minutes. She was just hanging on to life.

Then as dawn's first light was appearing through the windows, her eyes slowly opened. "David" she whispered.

"I'm here, darling, I'm here," David said gently, and called the doctor who checked her condition.

"Are you in any pain?" the doctor asked.

"No," she managed softly. "How bad is it?"

"It's not good, but keep fighting. You'll make it."

"I'm going to die, aren't I?"

"I'll give you something to make you sleep," said the doctor avoiding the question and he prepared a syringe.

"No, please wait. I need to talk to David."

"Just for a couple of minutes then. You're very weak. I'll be back in two minutes." He walked away leaving the two alone.

"I knew when I turned thirty one it was too good to be true," she whispered with some effort. "David, I have to tell you something. It's really important."

David listened, and when the doctor returned a few minutes later and administered the sedative to the drip, her eyes slowly closed. "I love you so much, David," were her last words. He kissed her gently, and was still holding her hand tightly ten minutes later when the monitors gave their dreaded warning sounds. The time of death was announced as five thirty am on March 27th 1987, the day after their third anniversary.

David was grief stricken. His friends and parents tried their best to comfort and console him. At first he couldn't go back to his unit where he and Angela had lived for two years. He stayed with his parents until after the funeral. Angela's mother had arrived later that morning and stayed for the funeral before returning to Sydney.

A week later David rang the doctor who had been with them in the intensive care ward. "Just before she died she said some strange things," he explained. Could she have been hallucinating or talking some fantasy under the effects of the drugs?"

"It's quite possible," answered the doctor. "She was still partly under the anaesthetic from the operation. What did she say?"

"Nothing important," replied David. The doctor wouldn't believe him anyway. What she had told him was totally bizarre.

A few days later went back to his unit, but the memories were too painful. He couldn't stay there, so he rented another one closer to his job. After three weeks, he returned to work, concentrating fully on his job and trying hard not to dwell on the events of the last three years. It was hard. He cried every day for months, but the passing of time made the grief a little easier to endure, and he vowed to try to move forward with his life and start living again.


This may seem like the finish of the story, but it isn't.
Please continue to Part 4 where we see what happens when David makes a shock discovery.
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