Having A Place

Sara

I am finally make progress with Emma. To be honest, I thought she would get up and walk away from me as soon as she saw me, but she didn't. I'm so glad she agreed to run with me and we can finally have a decent conversation.

While we were running, I was asking Emma a little bit about herself so I could get to know her a little bit. From what she's told me, she's really into music. Her Dad taught her how to play guitar, she can play piano and she writes songs with her parents. We were running for a little while. We reached the highest point of the trail and there was a huge tree root sticking out of the ground. I don't think Emma saw it right away. She tried to avoid it, but ended up tripping over it anyways. She lost her balance and ended up going down the steep hill. She took a really hard fall. I thought for sure she was going into the river. It was not good. A huge rock and bush stopped her from going into the river. She hit it really hard and I started freaking out. I carefully made my way down the hill and was calling her name, but she wasn't responding. She was moving a little, but then she stopped, and that freaked me out even more. I made it down to her and she was unconscious.

"Emma, sweetie, are you okay? Can you hear me?" I asked when I reached her. She didn't respond. She was covered in cuts and scrapes. She had a large cut that was bleeding a lot. I put my hand over it to try to stop it. It also looked like she had a cut on the back of her head that was bleeding too. I pulled out my phone and called 911 and they were sending an ambulance and some firefighters to help. They told me not to move her incase if there was a spinal injury.

About twenty minutes later, the firefighters came down. They had a backboard and carefully lifted her onto it. They took her arm band with her phone and IPod in it and handed it to me. Then they strapped her down and took her to the ambulance. I dug out her phone to see if I can find Karen or Jimi's numbers. She has an IPhone so it had medical ID with emergency contacts on the lock screen. Karen's number was first so I called her. After two rings, she answered.

"Hello" she said.

"Hey Karen, its Sara" I started and was interrupted as soon as I said my name.

"What the hell are you doing with Emma's phone?" she asked angrily.

"I ran into Emma at the park while I was on my run and we she agreed to run the trail through the woods with me and she tripped over a huge tree root and fell down the hill. She hit her head and is unconscious and is bleeding really bad. I called an ambulance and they are taking her to the hospital right now" I said really fast and breathless.

"What?!" She asked again, this time worried.

"She got hurt and an ambulance is taking her to the hospital" I repeated.

"What hospital?" she asked.

"Southern Hills" I said.

"We'll be right there" she said and hung up the phone. I got in the ambulance and rode with Emma to the hospital. They were wrapping the cut on her arm and put an oxygen mask over her face. There wasn't a whole lot they could do for her until we got to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital and we were greeted by four doctors. The paramedics updated them on her condition. I told one of the doctors what had happened and then they took her into the trauma area and I went to the waiting room and waited for Karen and Jimi. I was freaking out so I called my boyfriend. I haven't told him about Emma yet so I'm a little worried about how he is going to react, but I need him. I pulled my phone out and dialed his number.

"Hey babe" he answered cheerfully.

"Luke, I have to tell you something" I said with tears in my voice.