Her Fragile Heart

Chapter One

One 

    As I slept, the nightmare that haunted me formed in my comatose mind. I dreamt of two people lying on a couch… celebrating their three year anniversary… those two people so desperately in love. Those two people were Jimmy Potter and Kassie Hartford… KassieandJimmy… me and Jimmy.

“I love you,” He whispered.

     And that’s all it took. I couldn’t think, I couldn’t breathe, and I couldn’t see anything but him. My heart fluttered so very fast. It was three years today that he asked me out. “I love you too,” I breathed back.

Jimmy kissed me. “I swear after I get back in August I’ll have a ring waiting for you.”

I giggled, “Jimmy that’s insane! We’re only sophomores… juniors really. We can’t get married!”

“But I want you, forever. I don’t want anyone else… just you. I love you,” Jimmy said again.

“But… this is… this is marriage we’re talking about. Like… as in forever. And we have so much time left… what if you meet someone you love more than me?” the insecurity in my voice was strong.

“Kassie… Kassandra, my dear, there is no one that can make me feel the way you do.” Jimmy said fervently. His bright blue-green eyes twinkled with honesty.

“How can you be so sure?” I asked quietly.

“I trust my gut and my gut tells me that we are soul mates.”

“Okay… but just a promise ring and it doesn’t even have to be real. It can be plastic for all I care… just so long as you mean it.” I said.

“My love for you is not cheap and easily broken; I’m getting you a real ring.” Jimmy said.

I squealed with delight. Jimmy hopped up and picked me up off the couch in my living room. He spun me around holding me up in his strong arms. He kissed me over and over. He set me down and I hugged him and rested my head on his chest.

It seemed like minutes had past as we held each other, but it had been an hour. Jimmy’s phone buzzed in his pocket, “Hello?”

“Jimmy! Hey man, it’s Josh where are you at? Coach is mad gassed. You’re fifteen minutes late!” Josh hollered.

“What? Oh God… okay. I’ll be there right away.” Jimmy answered. Jimmy snapped his phone shut. “I’ve gotta go to football camp. I’m late for the bus… I love you, baby.”

“I love you too.” I said.

We kissed passionately. He ran for his gear bag and his bag of clothes and other necessities. I followed behind slowly. I met him at the door. “I will call you every night.”

“Okay.”

“And I’m only going to be gone for three months.”

“I know.”

“Everything’s gonna fine, Kass,” Jimmy said. That was his quote, ‘everything’s gonna be fine’.

“Alright.”

“I love you and I’ll miss you.”

“I love you too… and I’ll miss you more.”

Jimmy kissed me one last time. One last time…

The scene shifted and changed until it was late on an abnormally hot August night… the night before Jimmy was going to be home.

I watched the TV in horror. My mouth was agape. I was going to throw up. I watched as the paramedics worked to pull a new body from a yellow school bus. The reporter announced:

“A school bus, filled with football players from Silverton High, was returning from an option camp in Washington when it was struck head on by a gas carrying semi truck. The semi truck driver, Ed Norman, fell asleep at the wheel and ran a stop sign, plowing into the school bus; alcohol could have been a factor. So far there have been twenty injured, five badly burned, and two killed. They are still looking for two others that were on the bus at that time. This is Joshua Beckerman, just only burned, to tell us what happened.”

“I remember… we… well Coach was telling us what a good year we were going to have. He was telling us that our quarterback and my best friend, Jimmy Potter, was going to be unstoppable. Jimmy has a real talent, he’s really good. So… Coach was standing at the front of the bus and Jimmy went to go and help Coach motivate us… like a good team captain should. And just as Jimmy clapped Coach on the shoulder the… semi truck hit us… head on. Mr. Green… our bus driver didn’t… wasn’t paying attention.

“I saw Jimmy and Coach fly down the isle… bloody and on fire. Mr. Green was literally crushed up against the empty first seat… I knew he was dead. But then the… the truck must’ve swerved around and the gas container just crashed with the bus… and then before I knew it my arm was burning. My clothes… people… everyone was on fire. We tried to get out but the bus… it was flipped on its side. The only way to get out was through the back door or the windows… but they were on fire too. We managed to get out with help from the only other car on the road… and they called 911… but Mr. Green… the semi truck driver… I knew they were dead.”

“Thank you for your time Joshua.” The camera zoomed out of the reporter, Jean Fisher’s face and onto the bloody, flaming wreckage. I was crying hard and kept praying to God… please, please not Jimmy. Not Jimmy… over and over in my head. The paramedics pulled a body from the bus. My heart fluttered and then restarted. The hair was grey… bloody, but grey all the same. It was Coach Harrison… Coach Harrison… dead.

The camera zoomed onto Greg Harrison who was crying and yelling at the paramedics. He kept screaming at them, demanding them to save his father’s life… that was impossible. He was already dead.

The camera quickly zoomed onto the wreckage again. They must’ve found Jimmy. They zoomed in closer to the wreck. I watched. The paramedics pulled. I prayed. They pulled for the final time and…

My heart stopped.

It was the chestnut hair I loved.

NO!

It was Jimmy.

Bloody.

Scalded.

Dead.  

All I could do was stare. Everything went cold. My mind went completely blank. Finally, after what seemed like hours but only seconds in reality, I could think again. Everything went haywire. I screamed. “NO!” I screamed again, waking my mother.

She ran down the hallway and asked frantically, “Kassie, honey what’s-” but Jean cut her off.

“The last person, Jimmy Potter, has been pronounced dead at the scene, totaling the death count to four.” Jean said sadly….

I screamed and woke up, dripping with sweat and tears. My mother ran into my room, “Was it the dream?”

“Yes… it’s… I’m fine.” I said quietly.

My mother looked at me sadly with her chocolate brown eyes, knowing that I was lying.

It had been two years exactly since August 30, 2001.

Two years of depression.

Two years of therapy.

Two years of trying to heal.

Two fruitless years of healing.

Two years ago today I swore I’d never love again.

And so I never have.

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Kayyy so the guy on the side is what I picture Jimmy like, I just wanted to give you a visual. I'll post pictures of Kassie and her friends and a special friend ;) of her's soon...

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