Poor Choices

Chapter 2

It's extremely vague but I seem to remember seeing the horror in the old mans face. The shock that he had in his eyes. Everything was in slow-motion. Seeing the bright lights shining right at me. Screams and shouts from children are all I could hear. Car keys flying past my face. The box of tissues felt like a brick as it cascaded into my face. Seeing the horizon spin in front of me. I could feel myself lifting from my seat. And that's when it happened. Within a split second, not only my life, but many others were changed forever.

The impact was so strong the keys went into my collar bone and snapped it into 3 pieces. My neck was fractured from the whiplash. My whole body had jolted forward but everything inside had stopped. My brain suffered a major haemorrhage. The femoral artery in my left hip had burst and bled for 13 minutes. The doctors wondered how I'd survived that long.

"Mr Hawkes? You are at the International Alexandra Hospital in Manchester. You are being arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and third degree man slaughter. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence, if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand?"
As I opened my eyes I was laying in a reclined hospital bed with tubes hanging out of my mouth. An oxygen tube was threaded through my nostrils. I could hear all the doctors and nurses in the background rushing around trying to save as many parts of my body as they could. The blood flow to my legs was cut of when the artery had burst. Leaving them amputated. I tried looking around but my hands were tied to the bed. I had been handcuffed to the bars next to me. The police officer was showing his badge in my face. "What am I being arrested for!? Did you say murder?! Is everyone alright?! Please! Answer me!!!" The police officer walked away. I was too weak to lift my head. The doctor was telling me to calm down and to rest. How could I be calm when I'm in a hospital hanging onto the edge of life, far away from home and told I'm being arrested for killing people? I blacked out... The IV was dripping away. Putting morphing into my blood stream.

The next time I woke up was 18 weeks down the line. The doctor had a clipboard and a Parker pen. He had some notes out in front of me and was explaining what's happened.
"Mr Hawkes. This may be hard for you to hear, but, you have been through a major accident which has changed the way you will live your life forever. You've just woken up from an induced coma. You see, when you first came into theatre, we looked at the condition you were in we didn't think it was possible to save you. We tried to save your legs, hip down but it was too late. We have amputated them both and you may feel some ghost movements. This is where you may feel as if your legs are their. You could have an itch or a scratchy feeling but the leg is not actually ther..."
"What?" I burst out crying. "How did this happen?"
"Well, you were well over the limit and you started to drive home, well I presume you were going home. And you were going over 120 mph on a back lane country road. A school bus coming back from a school trip that night was passing by when you swerved out of control, and... went straight through the front half of the bus. When the paramedics arrived you were half through the windscreen."
"Oh my god" I cried in agony as I'd realised what id done. "Was anyone hurt?" I asked in despair. Really wishing the answer was no. There was a long pause before the doctor answered. "Please! Just tell me" I cried some more.
"There were 14 fatalities and 9 with severe injuries" the doctor struggled to say.
"What have I done!" I cried and weeped my heart out. "Where they all children?" I asked.
"The youngest was 4 and the oldest was 13. Including a 76 year old driver. They was only 6 minutes away from the school". The doctor was swallowing with struggle as he tried to say the facts. "Look Mr Hawkes, I'm not going to beat around the bush, I know this must be really hard for you to hear, but as you were under the influence of alcohol your looking at some hefty time in prison. 14 people were killed that day, and it wouldn't of happened if you just took a cab or walked home. Although you didn't intentionally want to kill those people you are being charged with manslaughter. Your court day is on August 27th. You will then be sentenced and allocated the prison you'll be staying at".
"This is really bad. What have I done? All those poor people, children. The families I have destroyed! Oh gosh, I'm going away for a really long time aren't I?"